Featured Elon Musk’s big lie about Tesla is finally exposed

I usually park my Model Y with my motorcycle in front. Alway get a chuckle when the Tesla displays a motorcycle with a ghost rider on it!

 

Then there are those of us who do keep track of such spending, and reject subscriptions / seller annuities for most non-essentials.

 

Ok, I understand, and I'm still going to go off on a tangent. Sorry. So skip this one if you like:

Ironically, landline phones rarely need to be fixed. I remember still using old rotary phones that were decades old but still working back in the 1990's when some friends started getting their first cellphones. I've waited quite a while to get some cellphones fixed, but don't ever remember waiting to get a landline fixed.

But I digress. At any rate, I still feel that the value of OTA updates will depend a lot on the customer and how much the update actually does. I really don't care about updates on my phone (in fact I don't get any updates on my phone), and I would like to believe that I wouldn't really care about updates on my car. Although, admittedly, if the map were up-to-date and worked on the Avalon, I would use it.

Now if they could fix real car problems with OTA updates, that would be cool. But I can't think of any that wouldn't need a garage except maybe helping one out do their own work, like changing the tire presure sensor codes when one changes their winter tires. I just don't see that being a free update though either. So my question, is for someone like me, what would be the point of OTA updates? I guess I said it with map updates, but that's not a big help to me.

 

Not exactly OTA updates, but it is still the same mechanism, Tesla sends real-time updates on the status of charging station availability on your route including the number of stalls in use, out of service locations, etc.
When you arrive at a supercharger that has special amenities (24-hr locked restrooms or a lounge, for example) you get a cypher code to use to gain access.
If you get locked out of your car you can contact Tesla service and they can remotely unlock your car; they can diagnose errors...in real time while you are driving. You can also report a bug (via voice commands) while you are driving and diagnostic info including video is sent to Tesla so if you bring your car in for service they have all this info.

Edit: I almost forgot. The same mechanism allows the car to send notifications to your phone (anywhere in the world) such as the charging status, windows or trunk left open, sentry mode videos and more. You can also communicate back to the car to open or close windows, start/stop AC or heat, unlock/lock doors, honk the horn, pop open the trunk (for example to allow someone to get or leave a package), start the car for someone who lost a key.
And of course you can find your car's GPS location and see it on a map in case you lost it or it got stolen.

Mike

 

In addition to what @3PriusMike said, OTA allows for the OEM to make the vehicle better over time, handle issues, and lots of other cool stuff. As we move into EVs, vehicles are becoming more and more software-defined than hardware-defined, meaning the backend software controlling everything becomes more important.

In the case of Tesla, there have been updates to several of their vehicles that have tweaked the motor tuning to make it even more efficient, make the car faster, make the charging curve better, etc all without needing to visit a dealer. It can also allow the manufacturer to alter important software tools like the Route Planner as they get more fleet data about efficiency, charge curves, charger availability, environmental conditions, etc. . Or it can add cool features, like High Fidelity Park Assist got added to Teslas not too long ago that uses the vehicle's sensor suite to create a 3d map of your surroundings when at low speeds to assist with parking maneuvers (pics included).




If a company is serious about OTA and has it set up in such a way that it can update powertrain/control modules (like Tesla), you can go even further and do stuff like remote diagnostics. Have a powertrain error? It can be diagnosed remotely, have new software flashed, etc.

The main downside to this is that a lot of manufacturers have been using OTA as an excuse to deliver unfinished vehicles. For example: Tesla launched Cybertruck without like any of the off-road features available, poor suspension tuning, suboptimal steering tuning, among other issues. Or Volvo launching EX30 (and other vehicles) with missing features, and software so buggy it would constantly freeze and shut the car down. Or VW when they launched the ID.4 here in the US that didn't even have a route planner from what I remember. Or Rivian R1S ride quality and handling being almost dangerously bad at launch.

 

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And was one of the main downfall of Fisker.

 

Which is poor behavior learned from the computer industry.

 

I remember BlackBerry releasing their PayBook that needed to be tiered to a BlackBerry phone because it was unable to fetch email by itself at launch.

 

Interesting.

For comparison, I was actually excited when I got my 2013 Nissan Leaf SL. It had an app that let me do cool things like precondition the car and start or stop the charging.

Sadly, I had bought the car in November of 2016. After enjoying it for a little over a month, when January rolled around suddenly it stopped working. I read that AT&T had sunset their 2G service on January 1, 2017. However, you could get the 2G phone module replaced with a 3G module.

So I called my closest Nissan dealer and explained the problem I had and what I wanted done. I also said I wanted two more keys made. They even called me the day before to remind me about the appointment. I drove down there, over some 70 miles in poor weather, getting there with barely anything left in the battery, and they proceed to tell me that they can't work on my Leaf because they don't work on EV's.

I guess that's why I'm kind of down-in-the-mouth about the whole software update thing. I had a $15,000 car budget. With the way rent keeps going up, I've decided my next car will have to be $5,000 if I want to survive. If I get an old Tesla for $5,000 or even $15,000, I feel like chances are that it'll be so old all that over-the-air stuff will not be working. I also feel like I'll be left in a lurch as the closest Tesla repair shop is some 200 miles away. And I'd also like to be able to get my Tesla repaired locally, but with all this software defined stuff, which is all copyrighted, I don't see the chances of any company close buy going to be able to fix my Tesla, or other EV, or any car for that matter because it's not just EV's. I can't get anyone local to fix my Avalon radio for similar reasons.

 

I also had a 2015 Leaf, brought it to my dealer and got the free upgrade to 3G, no problems.

I don't think that would happen with Tesla.


Tesla also supports cell network or WiFi.

But I don't think this 2G/3G issue will happen again going forward. That's why they call 4G LTE...for long term evolution.
5G towers also handle 4G. 6G towers will also support 4G

I wouldn't ignore version 4 or 5 of something because you had an issue on version 1
Mike

 

Good points.

I guess as I get to know more Tesla and other EV owners I can be better prepared mentally what to expect and more at ease. I like EV's, but they are still a new technology and the internet seems polarized on them: they're either the best thing since slice bread, or the worst thing since the Holocaust.

 

The internet is not polarized. Most who own Tesla and other evs are happy.
The rest is petroleum backed propaganda and stock shorters.
And then there are the gullible who believe the media clickbait

 

When I got my Leaf there seemed to be a lot of people very happy with theirs. I didn't realize that the Nissan dealerships near me couldn't/wouldn't work on them, not even being able to get me a key fob made.

I also didn't realize how much the cold winter was going to hurt range. Yes, there was lots of information about the effect of cold, I knew there was an effect. But even using what seemed like very cautious range calculations from what seemed like reputable sources didn't work out. It just seemed to me that lots of people were in favor of a car that wasn't as good as they made it out to be. I don't want that to happen to me again.

 

All of Tesla's service manuals are available for free on their web site and many operations that would require a software to be used (looking at you, Toyota) can be done directly from the Service menu in the car itself. I'm still under warranty so I haven't looked at shops other than my SC but that's something I'll look into because their hourly rate is outrageous,

 

While it's nice that you have faith in your car provider, keep in mind that the analog cell phones (AMPS) went dead in 2008 and the 2G digital phones went dead in 2015. The 3G phones, modems and other toys dependent on the 3G network went away in 2022 (ish). Sprint shut down their WIMAX network in 2015, but they stopped adding towers to the network back around 2010. My EVO-3D cell phone was suddenly worthless since it could only talk on slower cell infrastructures.

And since we are talking EVs... There is no support from Tesla for the original Tesla Roadster. There is a single person in the Livermore area who refurbishes them for a fee.

And last but least: Toyota had an agreement with an outside supplier to provide remote access for the 2017 and newer cars. They cancelled the contract without having a replacement in place. It took quite a while to get a new version of the software with the capabilities of the older "Toyota Connect".

 

I was reading on bolt.org that you can’t get a volt replacement battery anymore.
If it is still under warranty, they have to buy it back

 

And if it's not, you're SOL?

 

Correct. The newest are 2017, so very few under warranty.
And no rebuilders like Prius

 

My old rotary phone was still working at the start of the Pandemic, 2020. Probably still would be if the phone company hadn't tried to kill off the associated DSL. It was a good backup for when power outages took out the cordless base station, though business phone menu trees now respond only to touch-tone, not pulse code.

"Anywhere in the world". Via Starlink? Or Iridium? But my phone doesn't connect to either system!

My RAV4 does most of those too, but only within cellular coverage areas. Out here, there are still many places without coverage, and in just six months, it has been to plenty of them. So if lost in the very best hiking or mountain biking zones, don't count on this to find you way back to the trailhead. Either you or the car -- or both -- may lack the necessary cell coverage.

Even the cloud-based NAV could not initiate a route when off-grid. I knew where I was going, just wanted a time estimate, but folks chaining together multiple trailheads or campgrounds could get skunked.

 

Oh wow! I thought they were supposed to have parts for at least 10 years so I looked it up and it looks like it's just folklore.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/car-culture/classics/ask-a-hemmings-editor-how-long-do-carmakers-have-to-provide-replacement-parts-for-older-cars/

I would sell it right away and buy something else if I had one since I already got burnt with 2013 Hyundai Tucson engine that broke in 2021 (and wasn't include in that class action, just started in 2014 for the Tucson) and I ended up scrapping the car when a used engine or a refurb bottom engine end would cost $8000 CND, which is what the car was still worth in working condition at that time.