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App marries Google Glass to Tesla

Developer who once used a Google product to fight a speeding ticket inserts Google into the electric automaker's Model S car.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
Tesla's all-electric Model S sedan. Josh Miller/CNET

Google Glass may not have as much porn as it once did, but an app developer is fulfilling another techie fantasy.

How about using the wearable computer to start charging your Tesla Model S, the electric automaker's sports sedan?

Developer Sahas Katta, known for a Microsoft fracas over a Windows Phone challenge, has created an app marrying Google glass with the vehicle, according to a post of his on a Tesla forum.

Katta says the app, called GLASSTESLA, can:

  • View vehicle charging status or start or stop charging via Glass
  • Open the charge port without having to get back into the car
  • Locate the car on a map and get directions to it
  • Honk the Model S horns or flash the headlights
  • See whether doors, trunks, or sunroof are open or closed
  • Lock or unlock your car and control the sunroof remotely
  • Relay the car's interior and exterior temperatures, and enable "auto climate" to either cool or heat your vehicle with single tap

Most of the functions are meant for a stationary Model S. Its functions are limited with the car is being driven, since Tesla crimps some controls then, but Katta says a few commands like venting the sunroof may work.

Google's products have come in handy for Katta on the road before. He once contested a speeding ticket thanks to Google My Tracks on his cell phone.