at TV for Tesla

Where the idea came from

It started with one sentence in Tesla's own documentation: audio started in the car's browser keeps playing after you minimise the browser, and you can control it from the Miniplayer. That sounds like a footnote and is actually the whole thing — it means a plain web page can be a radio that works on the move, not just a screen you stare at while parked.

Everything else grew around that one capability. If the sound stays, the stations deserve a proper list instead of a hunt through bookmarks. If you are sitting at a charger anyway, the app should know how long you have and suggest what fits. And since I drive between the UK and Poland, those two lists are completely different and should not be mixed together.

Competing launchers answer the question "how do I open a site full screen". That question is solved. The unsolved one is what to actually do with those 24 minutes.

How it works

Full screen, once per visit

The Tesla browser exposes no full-screen API. What it does have is a known quirk: a site opened through the YouTube redirect stays inside the Tesla Theater context, which is full screen. at TV pushes one address through that redirect — its own — and remembers the session for 8 hours. After that every tile opens directly, with no interstitial in between.

This is a workaround, not a feature, and it is treated as one: every catalogue entry carries a full-screen flag, every tile has a narrow ↗ strip that opens the same target in the normal browser, and if Tesla ever blocks the redirect, flipping the flag across the catalogue turns the app back into a plain launcher without touching a line of code.

Radio that survives the browser being minimised

The UK market has 20 stations, 17 of which play from this page — the sound comes out of at TV's own audio element, so it survives minimising the browser and shows up in the Miniplayer with the station name (Media Session API). The rest open the station's own player, because their streams are not publicly available — and the tile says so, instead of pretending everything behaves the same.

Every stream URL was checked before it entered the catalogue: it has to answer over HTTPS with a 200 and an audio content type. Plain-HTTP streams are rejected automatically, because the car browser blocks mixed content anyway. Some stations carry several edge-server addresses in the catalogue: when a stream dies mid-journey, at TV retries three times, moves to the next server in the pool, and only offers the station's site once every one of them has been tried — rather than leaving you with silence.

The charging break is the organising idea

You say how long you have — 10, 20, 30 or 45+ minutes — or you give it the battery level, the target and the charger power and it estimates the rest. Then it filters the catalogue by content length and shows what actually fits: short pieces for 10 minutes, everything for 45.

Two things are said out loud, because the alternative is lying. The estimate is rough — the real charging curve depends on battery temperature and state, and at TV reads no data from your car. And once you switch to Netflix, at TV is not running and cannot warn you; the timer keeps counting and is waiting when you come back.

One country at a time

The first screen asks where you drive. A driver at a UK Supercharger and a driver at a Polish one are two different people: different channels, different stations, different charging networks, different language. A mixed list where a British driver scrolls past TVP Info and a Polish one past Channel 5 serves neither.

The choice is remembered locally and one button in the top bar changes it. This page also has a full Polish version — which is not the same thing as the market switch, because language and catalogue are two separate decisions. You can drive in Poland and read in English.

What it does not do

It never asks for your Tesla account, reads no vehicle data, never proxies a login to any service, and keeps nothing on a server — favourites, history and the timer stay in your browser. The car dashboard loads no analytics and no third-party scripts at all, so there is no cookie banner to dismiss on a car screen either. Video is labelled "parked use only"; anything safe to listen to on the move is labelled separately.

The UK catalogue: 8 TV channels, 20 radio stations and 19 streaming services. Poland has its own 15 channels and 18 stations — the switch in the top bar brings them up when you drive there. Services Tesla already builds into Theater say so and sort last — pretending to add value where the car has a better route would be dishonest.

See what actually works in the Tesla browser

Independence and trademarks

at TV is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Tesla, Inc. "Tesla" and the model names are trademarks of Tesla, Inc.; every other name, station and service mentioned here belongs to its own owner and is named only to say what the link opens.

Are you a broadcaster?

Stations marked as playing in this app use their publicly reachable HTTPS streams; everything else opens the broadcaster's own player. If you would rather not appear here, or would rather we link to your player instead of playing your stream, write to dev@attv.uk. Switching a station to a launcher — or removing it altogether — is a one-line change and we make it within 24 hours. No argument, no forms.