2 Questions: forcing Version 10? Sentry mode visualization on screen?

[Luso7]

QUESTION 1. Got my model 3 two days ago. Tried all the steps—- advanced mode for update. Constantly on WiFi when parked in the garage (3/4 bars), requested software update in service appointment

nothing is pushing this update to my car or phone. How long do new buyers typically have to wait to get this pushed? Website chat told me to take a hike, service center told me they “can’t” update the software (I’m confident that’s a lie)

there must be some way to get ahead of this. I’m missing out on a ton of functionality and this software has been out for 6 weeks. It’s driving me crazy. Any tips or tricks or anecdotal stories on people who bought the car recently and got the update pushed to their car?

QUESTION 2: I formatted a micro SD cars for dash cam and sentry mode. Whenever I turn on sentry mode and leave the car, the screen goes black. I see videos where people who have their car parked in sentry mode, there is a huge visualization of a blinking red light on their screen. I WANT THIS to come up when I leave the car to deter any potential vandals. I’ve noticed already on the very few trips I’ve made people in parking lots stop, stare, and touch. I want that huge red light to scare people away. I don’t see anything in the settings. What am I doing wrong that Keeps that from showing up?

thanks in advance !

 

[Luso7]

From what I read, the red might visualization only comes up once someone has gone near or touched the car

is there some way to have it displayed permanently?

 

[Cronn]

QUESTION 1. Got my model 3 two days ago. Tried all the steps—- advanced mode for update. Constantly on WiFi when parked in the garage (3/4 bars), requested software update in service appointment

nothing is pushing this update to my car or phone. How long do new buyers typically have to wait to get this pushed? Website chat told me to take a hike, service center told me they “can’t” update the software (I’m confident that’s a lie)

there must be some way to get ahead of this. I’m missing out on a ton of functionality and this software has been out for 6 weeks. It’s driving me crazy. Any tips or tricks or anecdotal stories on people who bought the car recently and got the update pushed to their car?

QUESTION 2: I formatted a micro SD cars for dash cam and sentry mode. Whenever I turn on sentry mode and leave the car, the screen goes black. I see videos where people who have their car parked in sentry mode, there is a huge visualization of a blinking red light on their screen. I WANT THIS to come up when I leave the car to deter any potential vandals. I’ve noticed already on the very few trips I’ve made people in parking lots stop, stare, and touch. I want that huge red light to scare people away. I don’t see anything in the settings. What am I doing wrong that Keeps that from showing up?

thanks in advance !

I just picked my car and there were two others being picked up that day after me. Both of them had v10 and mine had v9. They also told me they could update it but that it should auto update within a week. Someone else on here got his update 3 days after he took delivery.

 

[jjrandorin]

You are not "forcing" the update OP. Your car will only update when tesla assigns the update to your car. It could be a few days, it could be a few weeks. You have zero control over it, and there is literally nothing (zip / nada) you can do to make it download any faster, given the steps you have already taken.

It is NOT going to update like a phone. All cars do not get all updates, so you will read about update versions you dont get till either much later, or a different version entirely.

 

[Kevy Baby]

I’m missing out on a ton of functionality...

No, you've got complete functionality. You're missing out on a couple of new features. Just enjoy driving the car and know that you probably haven't learned a lot of features that your Tesla has to offer.

Mine was on a couple of month old SW version when I got it and didn't get the latest (at the time) until about 6 weeks out. I didn't get V10 until a couple of weeks after it rolled out.

 

[Uncle Paul]

I want, I want, I want. It does not work that way.

You get what Tesla wants to give you when they want to give it.

You are not the center of the Tesla universe.

 

[HankLloydRight]

there is a huge visualization of a blinking red light on their screen

That’s how you describe it?

I cry for our youth.

 

[Luso7]

That’s how you describe it?

I cry for our youth.

I’m in my 30s buying a 55k car. There is a deterrence factor in having that conspicuous light show up. Why are you judging me and insulting me?

As for the update, yes, I understand that’s how they work. Hence why I am asking if there is a way around it. And also was checking if they are lying about the service center, which someone seems to confirm my suspicion

I didn’t expect to just get made fun of for asking innocent questions. Geez

 

[RecognitionD]

The blinking red light is actually a copy of the computer HAL9000 from the film 2001 Space Odyssey.
You won’t see it appear on the screen because you are the owner and person with the connected phone key. It won’t activate because you’re not a potential intruder. Try activating Sentry mode and leaving your connected phone out of range, then approach your car. You should see the familiar HAL eye.
When you’ve seen people looking inside and touching, it’s probably because they’ve seen the red eye and are reading what it says!

With regards to forcing V10, I only just got the update after having my M3 since the start of September. I contacted Tesla a few weeks ago and they confirmed I should of received the update but it never showed up. So they investigated a bit further and a few weeks later I have it.
If Tesla say there’s nothing wrong with your update process then as everyone else has said, all you can do is wait.

 

[Luso7]

The blinking red light is actually a copy of the computer HAL9000 from the film 2001 Space Odyssey.
You won’t see it appear on the screen because you are the owner and person with the connected phone key. It won’t activate because you’re not a potential intruder. Try activating Sentry mode and leaving your connected phone out of range, then approach your car. You should see the familiar HAL eye.
When you’ve seen people looking inside and touching, it’s probably because they’ve seen the red eye and are reading what it says!

With regards to forcing V10, I only just got the update after having my M3 since the start of September. I contacted Tesla a few weeks ago and they confirmed I should of received the update but it never showed up. So they investigated a bit further and a few weeks later I have it.
If Tesla say there’s nothing wrong with your update process then as everyone else has said, all you can do is wait.

thanks for the explanation!

 

[HankLloydRight]

There is a deterrence factor in having that conspicuous light show up. Why are you judging me and insulting me?

The "blinking red light" is only the most iconic Sci-Fi image from the 20th century.

HAL 9000 - Wikipedia

 

[Cronn]

@Luso7 I guess for now we can enjoy the better efficiency on the older version. haha

 

[jjrandorin]

OP, sorry I didnt really read the "point 2" you made above. As mentioned, the Hal 9000 eyeball does not stay on the screen permanently. It only comes up when someone triggers sentry mode as a deterrent. If you want to see it, park in your driveway, turn on sentry mode, take your phone in the house, away from your car. go back out to the car, walk up to the driver or passenger side, then try opening one of the doors while you are looking at the screen.

Also, the service center is not "lying" to you about getting the update. They get asked that question constantly. You have to be on wifi to get updates (unless they are security updates), so many times when someone says " I want my update!!!" they tell them to make sure they are on wifi, and they can come put the car on the service center wifi.

That only helps if they dont have wifi at home.

Your car will tell you when it has an update available. It will be in the app and / or on the software update section on the screen in your car. Before it says that, there is zero you can do to "force / push or otherwise expedite" the update.

As i mentioned, its not like a phone. You dont go get it, they give it to you, whenever they (the tesla mothership) has your car in the queue. There is zero you can do to speed this up. Stressing about it is just going to give you additional stress. I get it, one reason people buy these cars is, many have a love of tech, and want "new".

Until tesla changes course, and allows updates like apple / google etc, nothing you can do. I actually dont expect them to allow people to update like phones, because of they like to release the updates and gauge operability before pushing wider. They want control of the process, and letting users all mass download means they lose control of that process.

TL ; DR .. you just have to wait, like everyone else.

 

[Kevy Baby]

Also, for people like me for whom we can't get WiFi to our car*, you can just wait until your phone tells you have an update then turn on the hotspot on your phone and connect the car WiFi that way. Every single update on my car has be done this way.

*I've spent more time and money than I should have including an every possible positioning of my mesh base and satellite and wireline extenders. Turns out using my cell hotspot is just fine.

 

[Kevy Baby]

As mentioned, the Hal 9000 eyeball does not stay on the screen permanently. It only comes up when someone triggers sentry mode as a deterrent. If you want to see it, park in your driveway, turn on sentry mode, take your phone in the house, away from your car. go back out to the car, walk up to the driver or passenger side, then try opening one of the doors while you are looking at the screen.

Second new thing I've learned about my car this week.

 

[HankLloydRight]

My car is never on wifi, and I still get firmware updates. Maybe not every single release, but I do get the important ones.

 

[jjrandorin]

My car is never on wifi, and I still get firmware updates. Maybe not every single release, but I do get the important ones.

My understanding is, you would get firmware updates denoted as "critical" if you are never one wifi. You have been around a lot longer than I have, though so have much more knowledge around this than I do. One thing I am not sure of is, do model S, X and 3 perform exactly the same in this regard (software updates)?

I believe (for example) some model S owners are still on software / firmware version 8, where I doubt any model 3 users are.

 

[Luso7]

That’s funny. I’ve seen 2001 A Space Odyssey a few times and I never connected that that is HAL

now I know how sentry mode works - thanks

I’ve had my car on WiFi with strong signal for
Several days. The whole “people just turn on their hotspot and suddenly it prompts an update” can’t be the universal rule. 3/4 bars and I’ve never gotten prompted

and I’ve just heard anecdotal stories from friends and online stories that there is some way the service people can trigger someone else in corporate to push an update to your car. Of course they have to have that ability. How would they do it for testing otherwise? There has to be a way. One of the service choices on the app is solely and specifically to get a software update. Why else would they have that?

 

[jjrandorin]

That’s funny. I’ve seen 2001 A Space Odyssey a few times and I never connected that that is HAL

now I know how sentry mode works - thanks

I’ve had my car on WiFi with strong signal for
Several days. The whole “people just turn on their hotspot and suddenly it prompts an update” can’t be the universal rule. 3/4 bars and I’ve never gotten prompted

and I’ve just heard anecdotal stories from friends and online stories that there is some way the service people can trigger someone else in corporate to push an update to your car. Of course they have to have that ability. How would they do it for testing otherwise? There has to be a way. One of the service choices on the app is solely and specifically to get a software update. Why else would they have that?

You are not going to be able to get them to trigger this update unless it has been assigned to your car and didnt download for some reason. Of course service people can trigger it, because one of the first things they will do if you have some software issue is re trigger your software update. They will NOT do it "because I dont have the latest update". Maybe not what you want to hear, but you need to let that go, there is litterally NOTHING you can do to speed this up, other than wait.

"back in my day" (lol) they didnt even have anything on the screen that would tell you that the car was ready to download an update. At least NOW, when the car is ready to download the update, you will get a message to "connect to wifi to download update" message. Thats fairly new. We used to just have to guess.

Trust me when I tell you, there is NOTHING you can do to speed this up. You can keep searching for things to do, but as long as you:

1. Have your car on wifi at home
2. Turn on advanced setting in updates signifying you want them "faster"

Thats it., nothing else you can do. People downloading them on hotspots etc are doing so AFTER they get the message that the update is ready to download.

On the hal9000, thats the homage that tesla is paying with sentry mode. Take a look at a link for screenshots with hal9000 in them:

HAL 9000

Like I said, I get it, you want the update. Most people do. There isnt anything you can do to speed it up. After a while, I learned to just "roll with it" and wait for the updates, because as I said, other than having wifi available, and turning on advanced updates, there is nothing you can do to trigger it sooner.

In my case, I am supposed to have access to updates faster because I earned that as a referral bonus... yet I get them the same time as everyone else. You get used to it after a while.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I believe (for example) some model S owners are still on software / firmware version 8, where I doubt any model 3 users are.

The only way MS owners are still on V8 (and likely V9) is if they've blocked or disabled Wifi and their 3G/LTE radio in the car. Tesla has been actively sending forced upgrades on people who aren't upgrading their cars on their own. See: Tesla forced an update of my P85D to 2019.16.2 Tesla changed their VPN software requiring all cars to be upgraded to the new platform. I was actively avoiding V10 for the longest time due to the completely farked up UI (covered in other threads), until I had no choice and I woke up one day to a forced update.