Nikola

Nikola is a python application for monitoring and managing a Tesla connected automobile from an Amazon Alexa natural language device

Authors: Michael Kolowich, Andrew Payne; Additional contributions: Wayne Kozun October/November, 2016

Requires:

• teslajson.py by Greg Glockner (on GitHub);
• flask_ask by John Wheeler (on GitHub);
• geocoder by Denis Carriere (on GitHub)

Notes

The Python program application.py contains the intent handlers required to accept an Alexa Intent, query and post to the Tesla API for a specific car, and return a text response to be spoken on Alexa devices such as the Echo and Dot.

The Alexa skill we designed has not been published because we have not (yet) deployed a public server and a way to handle credentials for multiple cars. We have, however, included two files -- intents.txt and utterances.txt -- that would allow an Alexa intent to be deployed easily by anyone who sets up an Amazon developer account.

The following need to be entered as Environment Variables because they contain private information:

• TESLA_USER: Tesla.com username for the Tesla automobile to be monitored and managed;
• TESLA_PASSWORD: Tesla.com password;
• APP_ID: App ID for the Alexa app that you create;
• USE_TOKEN: Set to YES if you want to use a provided OAUTH token instead of Tesla.com username and password;
• TESLA_TOKEN: Active OAUTH token for the Tesla automobile to be monitored and managd.

The function DataDump() creates a file named tesladata.txt, which contains a complete dump of the data provided by the Tesla API. An example of this file is provided in this repository. (Note: location and vehicle name data is deleted for privacy reasons.)

Deploying the Nikola Skill using Cloud9

I have written up a procedure on how to deploy the Nikola skill on a personal instance of the Amazon developer console and a free server instance on Cloud9. Included are instructions on how to provision a free Cloud9 account and the steps to take in order to get the application/skill up and running. You will find this in the file: how-to-cloud9.txt. Please note that free instances of Cloud9 terminate after two hours; paid accounts will run indefinitely.

Key Files in this repository

Here are the most important files and what they do:

• application.py is the main Python program to handle the incoming Alexa intents, query the Tesla API, issue commands through the API, formulate and return responses to be spoken by an Alexa device;
• teslajson.py is the third-party application, written by Greg Glockner, that actually handles the communications to and from the Tesla through the API;
• intents.txt is the most current schema of intents, in JSON format, that defines the inquiries and commands that Alexa can pass to Nikola. This can be copied and pasted into the "Intent Schema" section of the "Interaction Model" tab for a Nikola Skill that can be defined and managed in the Amazon Developer Console.
• utterances is a list of "Sample Utterances" that Alexa uses to decide which intent to send to the application. Like the Intent Schema, this can be copied and pasted into the "Sample Utterances" section of the Interaction Model for an Alexa Skill;
• tesladata.txt is, for reference purposes, a dump of API data from a Tesla Model X running v8.0 of the Tesla firmware as of November, 2016. This list may be generated for any Tesla automobile at any time by invoking the "DataDump" intent by saying: "Alexa, ask Nikola to dump my car's data to a file."

Credits

Much credit goes to Tim Dorr for documenting the Tesla JSON API. Also to Greg Glockner for his teslajson.py approach to unlocking that API's power.

Disclaimer

This software is provided as-is. This software is not supported by or endorsed by Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors does not publicly support the underlying JSON API, so this software may stop working at any time. The author makes no guarantee to release an updated version to fix any incompatibilities.