Tesla software version 2025.20.6 user interface

Tesla Update 2025.20.6 Goes Wide: A Feature Breakdown and Bug Report

ByLiam Brown

You know that feeling when your phone updates overnight, promising cool new tricks but sometimes glitching in the morning? That’s exactly the double-edged sword Tesla owners experienced with software update 2025.20.6.

This major over-the-air (OTA) update, which began rolling out globally in late June 2025, brought a mix of useful new features, important security patches, and a handful of frustrating bugs that impacted a notable number of vehicles. It serves as a perfect case study in the modern reality of car ownership: your vehicle is now a software platform that evolves, for better and sometimes for worse, long after you drive it off the lot.

TL;DR

Tesla’s software update 2025.20.6 was a wide global release starting June 28, 2025, reaching a significant portion of the fleet. It introduced key features like Child Left-Behind Detection in Europe, a convenient door-handle charge cable release, and Supercharging Live Activity for iPhone users. However, its rollout was marred by several bugs, including backup camera failures, navigation map glitches, and a serious display issue affecting older Model S and X vehicles, prompting workarounds and service calls from owners.

Key Takeaways

  • More Than Just Security: While officially noted for “Security Improvements,” the update packed in several practical features, highlighting Tesla’s strategy of bundling enhancements.
  • A Serious Bug for Legacy Cars: A confirmed software issue caused the instrument cluster to go blank on some older Model S/X vehicles with “MCU1” hardware, which Tesla service acknowledged was due to a bad update.
  • Regional Feature Rollout: The important Child Left-Behind Detection feature was enabled only for European vehicles at this time, showing how Tesla tailors releases based on regional regulations.
  • Community-Powered Fixes: Faced with bugs, the Tesla owner community quickly collaborated online to diagnose problems and share step-by-step software reinstall procedures as workarounds.

What’s New in Update 2025.20.6? Beyond the Basics

Tesla’s official release notes can be famously brief, often mentioning only the headline items like “Security Improvements”. But as owners and trackers dug deeper, they uncovered a suite of meaningful upgrades that tweak the daily driving experience. This practice of hiding “Easter egg” features is common for Tesla, turning each update into a mini treasure hunt for owners.

Key Features and Convenience Upgrades

This update was far from sparse. Here are some of the standouts that reached owners worldwide:

  • Unlatching Charge Cable via Door Handle: A simple but brilliant quality-of-life fix. You can now stop charging and release the cable by pulling and holding the rear left door handle for three seconds (if the car is unlocked). No more fumbling with the touchscreen or a stuck button on the cable.
  • Supercharging Live Activity: For iPhone users (iOS 17.2+), your Supercharging session details now appear as a Live Activity on your lock screen and Dynamic Island, showing progress and time remaining without opening the app.
  • Forward Collision Warning Haptic Feedback: On Hardware 3 (HW3) vehicles, the forward collision warning now provides a vibration (haptic feedback) through the steering wheel in addition to visual and audible alerts, adding another sensory layer to safety.
  • Camera View Improvements: On newer HW4 vehicles, the backup camera gained a button to toggle between a narrow and a wider field of view, and the side camera feeds were also enlarged.
  • Myriad of Small Tweaks: Numerous undocumented improvements were found, including a warning for driving with an open trunk, a multi-delete function for dashcam clips, and an orange indicator dot that shows when the microphone is active.

The Headline Safety Feature: Child Left-Behind Detection

The most significant new feature was Child Left-Behind Detection, but with a major caveat: it was activated only for vehicles in Europe.

  • How It Works: The system uses the car’s existing cabin radar sensor to detect motion. If it senses an unattended child after the driver leaves, it will flash the lights, sound the horn, send alerts to the Tesla app, and even activate the climate control to protect the occupant. Tesla emphasizes that this data is processed locally in the car for privacy.
  • Why Europe First? This staggered release is likely due to differing regulatory environments and approval processes for such safety systems in North America versus Europe.

The Flip Side: Reported Bugs and Issues

Now here’s where things get interesting—and frustrating for some owners. The rapid, wide rollout of 2025.20.6 brought several software glitches to light. It’s a reminder that in the world of continuous software deployment, even your car can have a “buggy patch Tuesday.”

Widespread Glitches: Cameras and Navigation

The most commonly reported problems affected core visual systems:

  • Backup Camera Failures: Multiple owners of HW3-based vehicles reported their backup cameras failing or showing a black screen “80% of the time” after the update, which also prevented the use of Full Self-Driving (FSD).
  • Navigation Map Glitches: Some users, including a Model 3 Highland owner, reported large black patches or “blobs” obscuring parts of the navigation map on their center screen.

A Community Workaround: For the backup camera issue, the owner community found a potential fix: performing a “Reset Driver Assistance (DAS)” from the vehicle’s service mode menu, which resolved the problem for some.

A Critical Bug for Older Vehicles

The most severe issue affected a specific group: owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles (circa 2012-2015) equipped with the first-generation Media Control Unit (MCU1).

  • The Symptom: After installing the update, the digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel would remain black and unresponsive, sometimes preventing the car from shifting into gear.
  • The Cause & Response: Discussions on the Tesla Motors Club forum and corroborating reports from service centers confirmed this was a software bug in the update itself, not sudden hardware failure. Tesla service advisors acknowledged the problem and indicated a fix would come in a future update.
  • Community Solution: Through forum collaboration, owners documented a detailed workaround involving entering Service Mode and reinstalling only the Instrument Cluster (IC) software, which successfully restored functionality for many.

What This Means for Tesla Owners and the Auto Industry

This update is a microcosm of the entire software-defined vehicle revolution. The benefits are incredible—your car gains new abilities for free. But the risks are new too, as a problematic update can temporarily degrade the functionality of a major physical asset.

The proactive and collaborative response from the owner community, sharing fixes and service mode procedures online, has become an integral part of the Tesla ownership ecosystem. It also puts pressure on Tesla to maintain rigorous testing, especially for its older, still-supported vehicle platforms.

The best cars today aren’t just driven—they’re updated. But as this rollout shows, that process requires trust and resilience from both the manufacturer and the owner.

For now, if you own an older Model S or X, the community advice is clear: if you haven’t installed 2025.20.6 yet, you might consider waiting for the next incremental update that should contain the fix. For everyone else, the update brings worthwhile conveniences, but it’s wise to be prepared for the occasional bug.

This tension between groundbreaking innovation and real-world reliability is the central story of the modern car. As vehicles become more like computers on wheels, how companies manage these updates will become just as important as the features they contain.

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Car enthusiast reporting on new models, reviews, and auto news from around the world.

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