Tesla infotainment system upgradeable from MCU1 to MCU2

[scaesare]

... I hope it can hang on long enough for MCU2 upgrades to be an option, but I doubt this option will happen this year and I expect I will have a more serious failure long before the upgrade is available.

Has this failed completely yet? If no, I strongly suggest you get the flash replaced NOW if you plan on doing this yourself/third-party. Otherwise getting the car-specific data you need off the old chips is in jeopardy.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Too many customers will be left unhappy if what you say is correct!

What's there to be unhappy about? You bought/own an older car. Tesla never promised to upgrade anyone to newer technology. You want an MCU2 that badly, buy a different car.

If you have an iPhone 6, but want the new iPhone 11 Super Max Pro Plus, you don't upgrade your iPhone 6, you just buy a new phone!

I hope you are wrong..

I don't think my source is wrong.

 

[Cirrus MS100D]

I don’t disagree with the “they want you to buy a new car” theory, but given the “better for the environment” nature of the cars, company, and likely a good portion of their customers, allowing the car to be upgraded over time seems like a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly thing to do when you can price it accordingly.

Let people who want to upgrade from a 60 to a 100 pack do it. Let people upgrade from MCU1 to MCU2. Let people upgrade to the Raven suspension. If the price sucks and some say, “meh, at that cost I’d rather buy a new car...” so be it, but for others, maybe it’s worth it.

If they price the MCU1 > MCU2 upgrade at $7000, wouldn’t that cover their cost and then some? Would people pay that? I don’t know, but when there ISN’T an option, it’s an academic discussion.

 

[viper2ko]

As I mentioned in another thread, I've changed my stance on the MCU2 upgrade. I've since been informed by a very good source that not only is an MCU1->MCU2 upgrade possible, but Tesla has built an internal upgrade kit to do it. But they won't release it or do any upgrades. They would just rather you buy a new car.

Or what @BigD0g just said.

Under what circumstances have they done the retrofit? I've heard about a few rare instances where it was performed.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I'm not aware of any actual retrofits being done.

Any claims to such have been unsupported with facts.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I don’t disagree with the “they want you to buy a new car” theory, but given the “better for the environment” nature of the cars, company, and likely a good portion of their customers, allowing the car to be upgraded over time seems like a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly thing to do when you can price it accordingly.

That all might be true if Tesla were a private company, but there's this thing called Wall Street that keeps their feet to the fire to sell as many new cars as possible, and unfortunately, with zero regards to the environment.

And as a shareholder, I'd rather Tesla sell as many cars as possible. Even if they price battery or MCU retrofits to be profitable, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the margin on a new car.

 

[am_dmd]

What's there to be unhappy about? You bought/own an older car. Tesla never promised to upgrade anyone to newer technology. You want an MCU2 that badly, buy a different car.

If you have an iPhone 6, but want the new iPhone 11 Super Max Pro Plus, you don't upgrade your iPhone 6, you just buy a new phone!



I don't think my source is wrong.

I have no experience with iphone 6 but my iphone se works great even after all these updates. I don't care if they don't give me Netflix or games but fix the damn browser. When I bought the car browser (one of several other things broken) worked unlike it is now. So your Apple analogy does not justify what Tesla is doing.

 

[emmz0r]

I don’t disagree with the “they want you to buy a new car” theory, but given the “better for the environment” nature of the cars, company, and likely a good portion of their customers, allowing the car to be upgraded over time seems like a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly thing to do when you can price it accordingly.

I have thought about this. But on the other hand, it results in cheaper 2nd hand Teslas that are available to a greater part of the population, thus increasing the share of EVs. It's not like they are dumped in the scrapheap.

But yes it's annoying.

 

[anthonyj]

As I mentioned in another thread, I've changed my stance on the MCU2 upgrade. I've since been informed by a very good source that not only is an MCU1->MCU2 upgrade possible, but Tesla has built an internal upgrade kit to do it. But they won't release it or do any upgrades. They would just rather you buy a new car.

Or what @BigD0g just said.

Upgrades are coming in Q4. Confirmed with service manager today. Price unknown

 

[ucmndd]

I don’t disagree with the “they want you to buy a new car” theory, but given the “better for the environment” nature of the cars, company, and likely a good portion of their customers, allowing the car to be upgraded over time seems like a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly thing to do when you can price it accordingly.

Let people who want to upgrade from a 60 to a 100 pack do it. Let people upgrade from MCU1 to MCU2. Let people upgrade to the Raven suspension. If the price sucks and some say, “meh, at that cost I’d rather buy a new car...” so be it, but for others, maybe it’s worth it.

If they price the MCU1 > MCU2 upgrade at $7000, wouldn’t that cover their cost and then some? Would people pay that? I don’t know, but when there ISN’T an option, it’s an academic discussion.

The environmental angle is a nice thought. Unfortunately it’s incompatible with their current business model, which incentivizes new production at all cost - live and die by quarterly deliveries.

There are practical issues with upgrades too. You can’t just replace a 60 battery with a 100. The suspension is different. When Tesla performed a handful of 90->100 upgrades for performance owners they had to replace the SEATS for crash certification purposes.

MCU upgrade isn’t gonna happen. Selling one new car vs. doing 20 MCU upgrades isn’t even a close choice right now.

 

[ucmndd]

Upgrades are coming in Q4. Confirmed with service manager today. Price unknown

It’s adorable that people still think service managers know what they’re talking about.

 

[ucmndd]

Under what circumstances have they done the retrofit? I've heard about a few rare instances where it was performed.

Nobody has ever documented a case.

 

[viper2ko]

Nobody has ever documented a case.

I thought verygreen or wk07 confirmed that it was done. I might be misremembering

 

[HankLloydRight]

MCU upgrade isn’t gonna happen. Selling one new car vs. doing 20 MCU upgrades isn’t even a close choice right now.

Not only that, but the service centers are already jammed with necessary service and warranty repairs.. the MCU2 retrofit likely takes several hours and takes away from fixing peoples' more serious issues, even if it can be done via mobile service vans. It seems like the MCU1->MCU2 retrofit is such a low priority compared to everything else they need to do.

I believe verygreen said there was MCU code that supported/indicated a retrofit was possible. And Tesla probably did at least one retrofit internally (maybe more), but as far as I know, at this point in time, we haven't seen a Tesla sanctioned MCU2 retrofit "in the wild".

 

[HankLloydRight]

Upgrades are coming in Q4. Confirmed with service manager today. Price unknown

It’s adorable that people still think service managers know what they’re talking about.

I have found that service managers will tell you absolutely anything you want to hear, knowing they have absolutely zero culpability if they're wrong.

I've had service managers tell me bold faced lies, untruths, and completely made-up stuff all the time, but in the interest of getting my car serviced promptly and maintaining a good relationship with my service center, I generally don't say anything and let it slide.

 

[BigD0g]

I don't think my source is wrong.

I have a source as well, and I have heard the same as you.

 

[cduzz]

It is in tesla's best interest to offer an upgrade for several reasons

1. simplify supply chain -- one spare part to replace failed MCU1 or MCU2
2. simplify software -- abandon all changes to MCU1 and say 'if you want xyz feature upgrade MCU otherwise you're legacy"
3. customer good will -- companies like mercedes or lexus support their cars for an extremely long time; the support is expensive but high quality and that customer support also supports the brand equity
4. tesla likely has side-deals going to claim revenue from those captive seats; expanding MCU penetration increases the footprint of that valuable captive market. "We have *this many* people with more money than brains; you can market to them now!"

 

[boonedocks]

It is in tesla's best interest to offer an upgrade for several reasons

1. simplify supply chain -- one spare part to replace failed MCU1 or MCU2
2. simplify software -- abandon all changes to MCU1 and say 'if you want xyz feature upgrade MCU otherwise you're legacy"
3. customer good will -- companies like mercedes or lexus support their cars for an extremely long time; the support is expensive but high quality and that customer support also supports the brand equity
4. tesla likely has side-deals going to claim revenue from those captive seats; expanding MCU penetration increases the footprint of that valuable captive market. "We have *this many* people with more money than brains; you can market to them now!"

5. Don't prove Elon and his misplaced erratic Tweets as yet another lie!!!

 

[viper2ko]

I wish I could trade the FSD money I paid for MCU2

 

[timewasted]

I wish I could trade the FSD money I paid for MCU2

But if you did that, you would lose out on the following list of full self driving features: