HW3/MCU1 Dashcam Image Quality Question

[Padelford]

I'm a noob to the Dashcam feature under HW3, and I've noticed some apparent problems with recorded video quality. I've attached an example below. It exhibits hesitations and image break-ups. This is one of the worst examples - the distortion problems aren't this bad on all recorded video segments, but the hesitations frequently happen. I'm using a Sandisk High Endurance 256 GB microUSB card in a SmartQ USB adapter. The microUSB card was formatted in the vehicle.

Are these effects "normal"? If not, have I picked the wrong microUSB card or is there some other problem? Thanks!

 

[njhtran]

Are you able to playback in mcu1? From what I’ve read I have to take the memory card onto a pc to playback?

 

[Padelford]

I haven’t tried playback in the vehicle. I’m downloading video to my iMac for review & archiving.

 

[njhtran]

fwiw i looked through the videos i took last night and altho it seemed better than yours, just barely. i'm currently using a PNY usb3.0 256gb thumb drive

 

[Padelford]

fwiw i looked through the videos i took last night and altho it seemed better than yours, just barely. i'm currently using a PNY usb3.0 256gb thumb drive

The quality does vary from clip to clip. I could have picked one that had essentially no distortions and fewer hesitations.

 

[sealbeach100d]

I've noticed the most distortion from the front camera vs. the two side cameras (with MCU1, I don't get the rear camera video).
2017 S100D MCU1, HW3 (originally HW2.5).

 

[Padelford]

Thanks for your replies!

 

[rush6410]

I have the same issue. If someone has figured out how to eliminate the issues, it would be greatly appreciated. I have tried different formats; fat32, exFat. Different usb flash drives; up to 400mb/s transfer ratings. And, both front ports. No luck.

 

[hybridbear]

Is it just a consequence of having MCU1?

 

[Padelford]

I now have MCU2 installed, and the recorded video does not have the artifacts seen with MCU1.

 

[Tam]

Is it just a consequence of having MCU1?

Yes. It's a good assumption. Poor video with glitches, pixelations, slow MCU activities like browsing... means MCU1 can't cope with the amount of number crunching that HW3.0 is making a demand on it.

As @Padelford testified: Pay for MCU2.

 

[hybridbear]

I now have MCU2 installed, and the recorded video does not have the artifacts seen with MCU1.

Overall, what are your thoughts on MCU2? Is it worth the $2500 plus tax?

 

[Padelford]

Overall, what are your thoughts on MCU2? Is it worth the $2500 plus tax?

Sigh. If you can afford it & have already upgraded to HW3, yes. This really enables FULL self driving just like the currently sold vehicles. This should have been included in the price I paid for FSD.

If you have HW3 but can’t afford MCU2, replace the eMMC daughter card in your old MCU1. I had to do this because my MCU1 quit before I could get MCU2 installed. That costs about $500. The memory card replacement significantly improved MCU1 and made it more compatible with HW3. For example, after the card replacement, the vehicle could read speed limit signs with 2020.38 software.

If you don’t have HW3, I’d still recommend getting the new eMMC board in your MCU1. That will provide some faster performance and more reliability in the future.

 

[hybridbear]

Sigh. If you can afford it & have already upgraded to HW3, yes. This really enables FULL self driving just like the currently sold vehicles. This should have been included in the price I paid for FSD.

If you have HW3 but can’t afford MCU2, replace the eMMC daughter card in your old MCU1. I had to do this because my MCU1 quit before I could get MCU2 installed. That costs about $500. The memory card replacement significantly improved MCU1 and made it more compatible with HW3. For example, after the card replacement, the vehicle could read speed limit signs with 2020.38 software.

If you don’t have HW3, I’d still recommend getting the new eMMC board in your MCU1. That will provide some faster performance and more reliability in the future.

Well, right now our car is at the SC because it seems our eMMC died in MCU1. We are 5 weeks away from hitting 4 years for the factory warranty & 750 miles away from reaching 50k miles. I have been bringing the car in for our screen issues for about 6 months now but so far the SC has been refusing to do anything, blaming it on bugs in the code & saying that a future firmware update will fix the issues. But now that the center screen is mostly dead & only rarely boots up I sure hope they won’t refuse to repair our car this time. Although, considering they know how close we are to being out of warranty I could see them finding some shenanigans to temporarily get it working just long enough for our warranty to run out so Tesla won’t have to pay for the repair.

I believe that long term we will need MCU2 for FSD to work, so Tesla should be forced to install it at no cost to owners who have paid for FSD. I really want MCU2 for the improved performance, but I’m holding off on spending the money because I believe Tesla will be forced to provide it to fulfill the contract from when we purchased FSD. And my wife is not in favor of spending the $2500 on MCU2.

 

[Padelford]

I realized I may have omitted something in my last post. I got the eMMC card replacement under warranty, so it didn’t cost me $500.

 

[hybridbear]

I realized I may have omitted something in my last post. I got the eMMC card replacement under warranty, so it didn’t cost me $500.

Did Tesla fight to not replace your eMMC card? What symptoms did it take for Tesla to replace the eMMC in MCU1? We've been having screen issues, glitches, frequent reboots/crashes, and unresponsiveness for 6 months. Tesla has seen the issues both in photos/videos we've provided & in person, but so far they have said nothing is wrong with our MCU & that the issues will be fixed in a future firmware update... But I don't buy that, I believe it's eMMC failure.

 

[Padelford]

Did Tesla fight to not replace your eMMC card? What symptoms did it take for Tesla to replace the eMMC in MCU1? We've been having screen issues, glitches, frequent reboots/crashes, and unresponsiveness for 6 months. Tesla has seen the issues both in photos/videos we've provided & in person, but so far they have said nothing is wrong with our MCU & that the issues will be fixed in a future firmware update... But I don't buy that, I believe it's eMMC failure.

Mine died completely twice. The first time, the SC took three days to get it working again, but warned me the fix was temporarily. They should have ordered a new eMMC card at that point for me. The second time, the vehicle failed to allow me to drive it (vehicle wouldn’t power up with brake pedal) and I had it towed to the SC.

The whole MCU1 saga is a real example of how far Tesla customer service has fallen recently.

 

[hybridbear]

Mine died completely twice. The first time, the SC took three days to get it working again, but warned me the fix was temporarily. They should have ordered a new eMMC card at that point for me. The second time, the vehicle failed to allow me to drive it (vehicle wouldn’t power up with brake pedal) and I had it towed to the SC.

The whole MCU1 saga is a real example of how far Tesla customer service has fallen recently.

We had a lot of trouble getting our car to power up starting last Thursday. On Sunday we managed to get it to boot up so we drove it to the Service Center. On Wednesday they started working on it (we had a Tuesday 8:00 am appointment), and the finished yesterday. They replaced the daughter card. Performance is much better now! Hopefully it'll continue for a long time.