Tesla's in-car browser is now automatically full-screening HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Apple TV, Disney+, and Plex the same way it already does Netflix and YouTube — a sign Tesla may be preparing to officially add them to Tesla Theater.
Photo: Tava Kessler, via YouTube
Tesla appears to be laying the groundwork for a bigger Tesla Theater lineup. According to testing by Not a Tesla App, several major streaming services that aren't officially part of Tesla Theater — HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Apple TV, Disney+, and Plex — now automatically open in the same chromeless, full-screen browser window that Tesla already uses for Netflix and YouTube. The behavior was first spotted by a Tesla owner on X and independently confirmed across multiple services.
Tesla owners have long been able to stream video in the car's web browser while parked, but normally the browser's address bar and controls stay visible until a video is actually playing in full screen. What's new is that Tesla's browser now recognizes certain streaming sites the moment you navigate to them and immediately switches to a Tesla Theater-style full-screen window — before you've even started playing anything.
That's in addition to the services already built into Tesla Theater: Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok. Notably absent so far are services like Tubi, Crunchyroll, Discovery+, Sling TV, and YouTube TV — those still require workarounds, like using the YouTube redirect trick or manually full-screening the player once a video starts.
"Tesla isn't creating a native app for Netflix or any other service — Tesla Theater just loads the streaming service in a chromeless browser."
— Not a Tesla AppBecause Tesla Theater is really just a specially formatted web browser rather than a collection of native apps, adding a new service is technically trivial — Tesla could support a long list of streaming sites in minutes if it wanted to. That makes the real question less technical and more about deal-making: Tesla has historically been slow to expand Tesla Theater, which may come down to managing in-car bandwidth or negotiating agreements with streaming services before featuring them as official app tiles.
If Tesla does move these services into the official Tesla Theater menu, the bigger win would be for rear-seat passengers, who currently need a separate workaround to stream anything beyond what's already built in.
The bottom line: Nothing has officially shipped yet, but the plumbing is clearly there — Tesla's browser is already treating HBO Max, Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+, and Plex like Tesla Theater apps in every way except a home-screen icon. Whether that turns into an official rollout likely depends on Tesla's own priorities and any deals it strikes with those services.
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