2017.50.3.f3425a1 is out!

[Joe F]

BlueRocket, I do not understand the name that you gave the 2017.50.3 release, "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone".

One swipe of the wiper and the rain is back on the windshield. If Elon makes the rain go away with the Auto-sensing Wiper code, this a a great new feature.

Elon didn't make the rain go away. He just parted the water.

 

[arcus]

Elon didn't make the rain go away. He just parted the water.

or

Potato, potato

 

[lunitiks]

So, figure $10 a car saved( $5 sensor, $5 labor) , and what did it cost to develop let's call it 1M even between, development, (some form of QA), etc. So 1M cars to break even?

Full disclosure, I pulled all those numbers completely out of my back side pocket.

Since we’re pulling stuff from our back side pockets, I’ll speculate some more:

Ye ol’ ap1 sensor probably runs supplier firmware, throwing commands to the BCM for wiping, temperature, display brightness. With the total makeover of the mirror housing in AP2 - bigger, more air, more heat/moisture issues (?) - they figured they needed a new sensor for the tricam block. Makes little sense to Tesla to equip the cars with both AP1 sensor and custom HVAC sensor, so they ditched the Hella unit altogether. Rain sensing must be possible with vision, just like FSD... Well they were right, it seems. Looking fwd to read more about ppls experiences with this, esp. night time / low light conditions.

Could of course be patent issues too. Dunno

 

[ChrML]

BTW I'm not entirely convinced about the "cost saving" argument...

Tesla has in fact replaced the Hella sensor with a custom built, in-house PCB ("HVAC Sensor") that probably took quite some effort to make

Rain sensor with camera imaging is hard. But nowhere near ~$5M/year hard. Especially when the old sensor could do only one task, with the following tasks missing:
- Detect fog
- Detect snow
- Detect salt
- Detect other no visibility situation causing cameras to not see what they expect to see.

They have already promised FSD, and detecting bad visibility is a part of that effort. Had to be done anyway.

The only thing that didn't make sense is why not leave the old sensor until the camera was programmed. It would let owners living in rainy areas more happy, and they could use the old one across the fleet to verify the credibility of the new method for a few months. Before producing new cars without.

 

[Joe F]

Yes, I had a rather odd experience.
It said something like…starting software update for quite a while as I was sitting in the driver seat, All operations I n the car seemed unchanged - audio system still playing music etc. Then, the very moment that I exited the car and closed the door, the screen went black and the whole process started.
It was like it was waiting for me to exit the car before it was going to start.

Common wisdom is, unplug any UBS devices, start the install, get out, close and lock the doors, and walk away until you get the notification on your phone app that the install is complete. Do not go near the car with the fob while the S/W is installing.

After installing, depress and hold the brake, then hold down both scroll wheels on the steering wheel until you get the screen comes back indicating a reboot. I've never waited quite that long, and release the scroll wheels then the brake between 10-15 seconds. After the restart you can plug any USB devices back in.

 

[arcus]

The only thing that didn't make sense is why not leave the old sensor until the camera was programmed. It would let owners living in rainy areas more happy, and they could use the old one across the fleet to verify the credibility of the new method for a few months. Before producing new cars without.

One possible explanation would be not to keep up with the old when you start introducing new tech. Tesla has been rather consistent in that approach with their incremental updates/upgrades.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Not as much as this person did: 9XB 746 094-017 HELLA Rain Sensor | eBay

That price would certainly explain a willigness to move away from the part!

 

[Insight75]

This was the single most important update for me personally. Driving in the rain and having to constantly battle the speed of the wipers is completely annoying.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

The only thing that didn't make sense is why not leave the old sensor until the camera was programmed. It would let owners living in rainy areas more happy, and they could use the old one across the fleet to verify the credibility of the new method for a few months. Before producing new cars without.

Hubris seems a likely reason.

 

[conman]

Common wisdom is, unplug any UBS devices, start the install, get out, close and lock the doors, and walk away until you get the notification on your phone app that the install is complete. Do not go near the car with the fob while the S/W is installing.

After installing, depress and hold the brake, then hold down both scroll wheels on the steering wheel until you get the screen comes back indicating a reboot. I've never waited quite that long, and release the scroll wheels then the brake between 10-15 seconds. After the restart you can plug any USB devices back in.

I've gone in, pressed the update button without doing any magic incantations and it's always worked without breaking anything...

 

[mongo]

Yes, I had a rather odd experience.
It said something like…starting software update for quite a while as I was sitting in the driver seat, All operations I n the car seemed unchanged - audio system still playing music etc. Then, the very moment that I exited the car and closed the door, the screen went black and the whole process started.
It was like it was waiting for me to exit the car before it was going to start.

There are actions that need full system operation to perform such as registering the door handle pull and lowering the window on the frameless glass. If the door, window, or central control modules (or central if there are not remote nodes) are being updated, the normal functions may not work as intended (especially if one module is updated to a new communication message set, but another isn't). Much simpler to wait until the car is not expecting to do anything to avoid issues with available functionality.

 

[Daniellane]

This was the single most important update for me personally. Driving in the rain and having to constantly battle the speed of the wipers is completely annoying.

This is definitely the one I have been waiting for. With each update I hoped for this.

 

[Daniellane]

There are actions that need full system operation to perform such as registering the door handle pull and lowering the window on the frameless glass. If the door, window, or central control modules (or central if there are not remote nodes) are being updated, the normal functions may not work as intended (especially if one module is updated to a new communication message set, but another isn't). Much simpler to wait until the car is not expecting to do anything to avoid issues with available functionality.

My normal update procedure is to hit the install button 3 or 4 times to bypass the timer and wait for evedence that the installation is underway. Then I exit and wait for the app to notify me that it is done. Perhaps I should let the timer run and exit well before it starts. Of course this begs a few questions “Why does it allow you to bypass the timer? (Perhaps this is an undocumented feature intended for impatient Tesla personnel only)
Also, why isn’t there a message instructing me to exit the vehicle & close the door... if it is recommended or matters at all?

 

[mongo]

My normal update procedure is to hit the install button 3 or 4 times to bypass the timer and wait for evedence that the installation is underway. Then I exit and wait for the app to notify me that it is done. Perhaps I should let the timer run and exit well before it starts. Of course this begs a few questions “Why does it allow you to bypass the timer? (Perhaps this is an undocumented feature intended for impatient Tesla personnel only)
Also, why isn’t there a message instructing me to exit the vehicle & close the door... if it is recommended or matters at all?

An action they don't tell you about sounds like a diagnostic/ expert mode (see also Android developed mode). Techs are training in what to do/ not to do when performing service tasks.
With the normal timer, I'm guessing it would verify the car is not in use before starting (as reported in previous posts). This is also why you can set it to install late at night when the car is not needed.

 

[Daniellane]

Does 2017.50.3.f3425a1 disable the Santa mode?

Just tested it. Still works under 50.3

 

[Ken7]

As I read this thread, some of the response amaze me and I guess fall under the category of, 'you can never please everyone'. It just makes you shake your head.

Instead of, 'when are we getting rain-sensing wipers', we now get:

* Why didn't they do this sooner?
* Why didn't they use a dedicated rain sensor?
* Who needs rain-sensing wipers?
* Rain-sensing wipers never work the way I want them to (never mind that these are from posters that haven't even used the new feature)
* Elon is penny-pinching because he's using the NN to attain this feature rather than a dedicated sensor

It should also be noted that if you need to replace the windshield, it will be an easier, cheaper affair, as opposed to having a dedicated rain sensor.

 

[croman]

Rain sensing wiper works great (when I sprayed windshield to clean/test it). AP also seems better behaved as compared to 50.2. Only 1 27 mile commute in the books though. 50.2 on my first trip did fail more times than I cared to count but 50.3 has been pretty good (like .46).

 

[chillaban]

Rain sensing wiper works great (when I sprayed windshield to clean/test it). AP also seems better behaved as compared to 50.2. Only 1 27 mile commute in the books though. 50.2 on my first trip did fail more times than I cared to count but 50.3 has been pretty good (like .46).

It makes me wonder if they made an oopsie with .50.2 and are quietly correcting it now. For a first beta release of Autowiper, TeslaFi is showing a much bigger rollout than I would expect.

 

[croman]

It makes me wonder if they made an oopsie with .50.2 and are quietly correcting it now. For a first beta release of Autowiper, TeslaFi is showing a much bigger rollout than I would expect.

It has to be. 50.2 was rushed out to get the X-mas Easter Egg. 50.3 was probably the version that was supposed to be released with wipers but it got pushed, ironically, due to the holidays.

 

[chillaban]

It has to be. 50.2 was rushed out to get the X-mas Easter Egg. 50.3 was probably the version that was supposed to be released with wipers but it got pushed, ironically, due to the holidays.

I would agree! It sure feels like the Easter egg resulted in a rushed rollout schedule, which is one of many reasons most other large companies don’t play around with Easter eggs. But alas if they’re gonna correct it in a week or two over a holiday break, I’m willing to cut them a little slack. The little gifts are cute.