Tesla Scheduled Departure: Set It Up and Get It Right

The short answer

Tesla Scheduled Departure lets you pick the time you want to leave. The car works backward from that time, so the cabin feels comfortable, the battery is warm, and charging wraps up right before you go (Tesla Summer Driving Tips). Newer Tesla manuals call it Scheduled Precondition and Charge, under Controls > Schedule on the touchscreen or Schedule in the Tesla app (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).

What does Tesla Scheduled Departure do?

Scheduled Departure bundles two jobs into one daily routine.

• Preconditioning. You set a time, and the car calculates when to start so the cabin climate and the battery are ready by then. Tesla says a warm battery performs better, and a preconditioned cabin and battery use less energy once you start driving. In cars with a heat pump, heat stored in the battery can help warm the cabin on the road (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).
• Charging on a schedule. You choose when charging starts and stops, which lets you charge during off-peak hours (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Climate). Tesla recommends setting the charge to end at your departure time even if your utility has no off-peak rates. A battery that finishes charging hours early cools back down to the outside temperature, and the car spends energy warming it up again (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).

Skip the scheduled precondition, and the car only warms the battery before charging when the battery is too cold to charge. It leaves the cabin alone (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).

Two limits worth knowing: Superchargers and other fast chargers ignore your charging schedule, and a schedule with Repeat Weekly switched off runs once, then disables itself until you turn it back on (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).

How do you set up Scheduled Departure in the car?

The current Model 3 and Model Y manuals list the same steps (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule):

1. Tap Controls > Schedule. You can also reach Schedule from the climate controls screen or the Charging window.
2. Pick a location: Current Location (you need to be parked), Home or Work. Home and Work only appear if you've saved them.
3. Tap Precondition to set the time and how often you want the car ready.
4. Tap Charge to set start and stop times and frequency, if you want scheduled charging too.
5. Tap Create.

The car saves a separate schedule for each location, and a Current Location schedule only applies when you return to roughly the same spot. Older software put Scheduled Departure inside the Charging menu (Tesla Summer Driving Tips), so your screens may look different depending on your model and software version.

How do you set it up in the Tesla app?

Schedule in the app needs Tesla app version 4.34.5 or higher (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule). Tesla's support steps run like this (Tesla Winter Driving Tips):

1. Open the Tesla app and tap Schedule.
2. Pick the location.
3. Tap the icon in the upper right corner.
4. Choose the time, days and frequency.
5. Tap Create.

Plug in overnight if you can. Preconditioning on wall power gets the cabin to your temperature without drawing on the battery, so you keep your full range (Tesla Summer Driving Tips). Unplugged, scheduled preconditioning still runs as long as the car isn't in Low Power Mode (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule).

Scheduled Departure vs starting climate from the app, Shortcuts or Apple Watch

A schedule handles the predictable mornings. Manual starts handle everything else.

| Method | When it starts | Good for | |---|---|---| | Scheduled Departure | Automatically, timed to finish by your set departure | A fixed commute, with battery warming and charging in one plan | | Tesla app | When you tap the fan icon or open Climate | Irregular trips; Tesla says app climate shuts off after two hours | | Apple Watch | When you tap Climate in the Tesla watch app | Starting climate from your wrist on the way out | | Siri or Shortcuts | When you speak or an automation fires | Hands-free starts and custom routines |

A few details from Tesla:

• App: tap the fan icon on the home screen or open Climate to set a temperature (Tesla Summer Driving Tips). Climate started from the app turns off after two hours (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Climate).
• Apple Watch: the Tesla watch app can turn on climate control, show charge level, open the frunk and charge port, and work as a key. It needs Tesla app 4.39.5 or later, vehicle software 2024.44.25 or later, and watchOS 11 or later (Tesla Apple Watch Support).
• Siri and Shortcuts: our guide to Tesla Cabin Overheat Protection covers the Shortcuts actions in the Tesla app.

What temperature does Scheduled Departure use?

Tesla says Scheduled Departure delivers "your desired cabin temperature" (Tesla Summer Driving Tips). The manual's schedule steps ask for a location, a time, days and frequency, with no separate temperature field listed (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Schedule). So check the cabin temperature on the climate screen before you lean on the schedule.

For Tesla AC and heat, leave climate on Auto. Auto adjusts heating, air conditioning, air distribution and fan speed to hold the cabin at your selected temperature (Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual, Climate). Tesla recommends Auto for the best experience in winter too (Tesla Winter Driving Tips).

Why one fixed cabin temperature can feel wrong

A schedule repeats the same number every morning. The morning itself changes.

• Cold, gray mornings. Cold seats, a cold wheel and a cold windshield pull heat from you, so a setting that felt fine last week can feel chilly for the first few minutes.
• Sunny mornings. Direct sun heats the cabin and its surfaces well past the outside air. In an Arizona study of parked cars, cabins in the sun averaged about 118°F (47.6°C) after an hour, while shaded cabins averaged about 103°F (39.5°C). Sun-parked dashboards reached about 156°F (68.9°C) (Vanos 2018). The study measured hot summer days. Morning sun runs weaker, yet it still warms a car parked in the open.
• Garage vs driveway. A car parked outside overnight has colder (or hotter) seats and glass than one from a garage, so the same setpoint can feel different.
• You. A morning run or a heavy coat changes what feels right.

So the number that feels perfect in January can feel stuffy in May. Nudge the setpoint with the seasons, and let seat heaters (or ventilated seats, if your car has them) cover the first few minutes. For more on why the same reading can feel so different, see why the perfect temperature changes and our guide to feels-like temperature.

Just Right, an iPhone app from this site, picks a cabin temperature from the weather, sun and time of day and starts your Tesla's climate from a widget or Shortcut. Just Right is not affiliated with Tesla, Inc.

The bottom line

• Use Scheduled Departure (or Scheduled Precondition and Charge on newer software) for any trip you take at the same time most days.
• Set the charge to end near departure, and plug in so preconditioning runs on wall power.
• Check the cabin temperature on the climate screen before you rely on the schedule.
• Start climate from the app, Apple Watch or a Shortcut for the trips a schedule can't predict, and expect the right number to shift with sun, season and how you feel that morning.
• Never leave a child or pet alone in a car, with or without climate running. If you see one alone in a hot car, call 911.