Vehicles Plan – Zero-UI Home Automation (2025)

Purpose

Provide convenient state visibility and mild automations for vehicles without making them mission-critical or draining batteries.

Desired Outcomes

• Read-only, resilient vehicle state surfaced locally
• No critical automations depend on vehicle APIs
• Minimal polling to avoid battery drain; tolerate failures quietly

Signals

• Primary: vehicle API state via local proxy (charge level, plugged status, location coarse, door/lock state if available)
• Secondary (cautious): schedule windows, home/away presence, energy capacity
• Never rely on vehicle API for real-time safety/security

Core Behaviors

• Charging: schedule/pause based on available capacity/energy windows; avoid rapid start/stop; prefer pre-set schedules
• Climate preconditioning: optional, operator-triggered or schedule-based; never block core home behavior
• Status surfacing: show state in Apple Home/operator portal; avoid notification spam

Notifications

• Default: none
• Optional operator-only: charge failed to start/finish within window; vehicle unplugged when scheduled to charge; rate-limited

Fail-Safes

• API failure/throttling → freeze state; no retries that drain battery; stay silent
• Internet outage → no vehicle actions; local systems continue
• No automation should be considered safety-critical

Rollout / Testing

1. Observe: collect vehicle state via proxy; no actions
2. Assist: suggest schedules/alerts to operator
3. Apply: enable gentle schedules with minimal polling; rate-limited alerts

Naming Examples (one job per automation)

• vehicles.tesla.schedule_charge_window
• vehicles.rivian.alert_charge_failed
• vehicles.state.publish_home