As most car companies follow the Tesla playbook by doubling down on giant touchscreens and flashy software, Slate is going in the complete opposite direction. The startup debuted its first vehicle on Thursday, and it has virtually no tech whatsoever. 

If Tesla makes something resembling the iPhone of cars, then Slate’s two-door pickup truck is more like a Nokia flip phone. 

It sports an index-card-sized display that shows basic info like your speed, and that’s about it. There’s no infotainment system or speakers, which also means no radio. The truck even lacks an internet connection, something that’s common in modern cars for things like remote access, map updates and media streaming. This all tracks with Slate’s goal of making a “back-to-basics” vehicle that costs less than $20,000 after federal EV incentives. That meant cutting nearly all the fat, save for stuff that doesn’t help the truck go or make it safer. 

Photo by: InsideEVs

Even so, as I learned from Slate reps at a preview event last week, the company devised a clever way of bringing some tech into its vehicle—and even enabling over-the-air software updates (OTAs). It’s probably in your pocket right now. 

“We didn’t want to force connectivity on everyone, and raise the price because of connectivity for everyone, when you don’t actually need it,” Christophe Charpentier, Slate’s head of mobile experience, told InsideEVs. “We can actually run the updates through the phone. We can actually provide you the location of chargers through the phone. And so, technically speaking, we actually don’t need connectivity.” 

Photo by: InsideEVs

The vehicle comes with a phone mount that connects a driver’s device to the truck. And, boom, that provides some basic infotainment functions plus the connection needed for software updates. Slate is developing an app to handle all of that. 

Pioneered by Tesla, OTA update capability allows automakers to freshen up their cars’ features over time and fix bugs that used to require a dealership visit. Here’s how that works in the Slate truck, per Charpentier.

Slate will identify a bug fix or improvement and post the relevant update to its cloud. Owners will get a notification that an update is available, and they’ll download it to their phones at their leisure. After that, they’ll plug their device into the truck to transmit the file. It may take something like 45 minutes for the software to fully install, but the phone only needs to stay plugged in for about the first minute. 

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Source: Slate

These OTAs won’t be as exciting as the fart sounds, video games and driver-assistance features you can download to a Tesla. Charpentier said they’ll be focused on bug fixes and minor improvements, rather than upgrades that meaningfully change the functionality of the vehicle. 

Slate’s app will also house some of the features you’d typically find in an infotainment system. I saw an early mock-up of it. 

The app is where owners will be able to search for charging stations, for example. Once they find one, the app will direct them to their preferred navigation app, whether that’s Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze. Charpentier explained that there aren’t plans for a route-planning function, given that the Slate truck is designed as more of an around-town vehicle. There’s also a big button that drivers can tap to get to their favorite music app. 

Photo by: InsideEVs

“We really are focusing on the things that we believe provide unique added value, but we want customers to bring their own digital life into the cabin,” he said. It’s a different approach from that of, say, General Motors, Rivian and Tesla. Those automakers don’t offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for their EVs and instead aim to lure customers into their own software ecosystems. 

“Cool,” you’re thinking, “but how am I going to listen to Spotify without a stereo?” Slate promises a vast marketplace of accessories that owners can buy to trick out their very basic trucks, like Bluetooth speakers. 

The company is also considering a connectivity accessory, Charpentier said, but that would be mainly targeted toward commercial customers who want to track their fleets or install updates remotely. 

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