Tesla just announced a major partnership with Apple

Electronic vehicle company Tesla is making it easier for Apple users to interact with their vehicles. It recently started introducing new Apple Shortcuts via a mobile app update.

This feature will allow Apple users to access vehicle and climate controls from the Shortcuts feature, such as starting preconditioning, locking and unlocking the vehicle, and enabling dog mode, which allows users to set an internal temperature for the car and moderate camera features to check in on their pups.

Users can access these functions with the tap of a widget button on their home screen or by utilizing Siri. Users can also set a charge limit and stop and start charging. In the past, Tesla users have been able to access some of these features using the Tesla app or third-party apps like Tessie. Now, users can integrate the functionality into their iPhone shortcuts for better ease of use.

Although this feature is handy for Apple users, there are some limitations that will need to be improved. To trigger the shortcuts automation via Siri, users must memorize and repeat the instruction they want Siri to perform verbatim.

However, Shortcuts provides easy access to link chain instructions with the click of a single button. For example, users can program their Shortcuts to lock the vehicle and close the windows.

In addition, users can enable the Automations feature with shortcuts, which creates Shortcuts for when certain conditions are met, such as at a certain time of day or when the vehicle is at a certain location.

This Apple feature has other practical uses for non-Tesla users, too, such as automatically turning on the Low Power Mode when the phone reaches a critical battery level.

The Shortcuts feature will increase the paired functionality between Tesla and Apple. Plus, it will be especially useful for folks who forget to lock their car after arriving home or need to pop the trunk of the car with their hands full of groceries.