2019.12 - Updated browser, software on demand, new games and more

[David L]

Update failed last night, causing my car to lose AP. That's probably why they pulled the update.

 

[TT97]

Update failed last night, causing my car to lose AP. That's probably why they pulled the update.

They haven't pulled the update, rollout still going out quickly.

I had an update fail on me in March. AP didn't work initially but then starting working again a day later. Auto high beams stopped working so make sure you are not driving around on high beams on permanently.

I received a new update a few days later that installed fine.

 

[srharris22]

They haven't pulled the update, rollout still going out quickly.

I had an update fail on me in March. AP didn't work initially but then starting working again a day later. Auto high beams stopped working so make sure you are not driving around on high beams on permanently.

I received a new update a few days later that installed fine.

it does appear they have pulled the update, there are a good number of people (myself included) that got notification on our phones but by the time we got to our cars or the app, it had disappeared. This is different than an update not installing.
Seen a few reports on glitches as well once installed.

 

[David L]

They haven't pulled the update, rollout still going out quickly.

Thanks for the correction. From posts stating that their car had lost the option to update overnight, I'd mistakenly assumed that Tesla had pulled the update. After chatting with Tesla support, I can confirm that the update is still rolling out. Hopefully, another push will fix the no AP issue.

Edit: From the post that @srharris22 made at the same time, I'm not sure what to assume regarding this update. My car is currently attempting the update again after a manual push from Tesla, so fingers crossed that it'll work and restore AP.

 

[Fernand]

The solution to a lot of this chatter is to let the eager beaver get
to the head of the queue on demand. I suppose there are some
M3 owners for whom this is just a car. To many of us here it's real
life nerdventure. And there are times when an update is critical
to some, like when NOA went "no confirmation".

 

[turnem]

The solution to a lot of this chatter is to let the eager beaver get
to the head of the queue on demand. I suppose there are some
M3 owners for whom this is just a car. To many of us here it's real
life nerdventure. And there are times when an update is critical
to some, like when NOA went "no confirmation".

Yep, put me squarely in the nerdventure camp!! I'm still waiting on the no confirmation update. I just got 2019.12.1.1 this morning but still no option for "no confirmation" of lane changes while NOA is engaged.

 

[golfpilot]

My update worked last night. Everything seemed to work fine. I'm not really sure how to test the high speed performance thing. Car has never had problems holding 85mph down the freeway for the whole battery (areas where the speed limit is 75 or 80). lol. I don't think its aimed at Americans!

 

[israndy]

Is there a thread where people are discussing the software for 19.12.1? This thread seems to be just people complaining they didn't get it.

I had asked previously of people who had gotten the update if ALL Superchargers go to 150kW with the update and no one answered. I have since gotten the update and I can tell anyone interested that the map now shows which SuCs are 150kW, and some are still showing 120kW (and of course Urban SuCs show 72kW). Hope to test my cars charge speed this AM.

I tested most of my bookmarks and have not had issues with the new Chrome browser, in fact, it is MORE compatible with sites. Much speedier as expected, but I even had a situation where the browser froze and fixed itself. On the old Apple browser, it would freeze and the only thing you could do is the two thumb reboot. On the new Google browser, it did freeze but then the screen went black and a few seconds later all was back up and working. Scary, but nice. Never knew how long to wait when the old one froze before you knew it wasn't coming back.

However, on cellular, I have been unable to get any page to recognize where it is on the planet. I even checked the button that asked if I wanted to give location info to the page that was loading, nope.

Pages that failed included teslawinds.com, qtes.la/forecast, qtes.la/radar, plugshare.com, abetterrouteplanner.com, openchargemap.io, supercharge.info, chargepoint.com, chargerville.com

So basically ALL the apps I use in the browser are failing. I couldn't even make use of SpeedTest.Net, got a firewall issue.

Is anyone else having these issues?

-Randy

 

[David L]

My car is currently attempting the update again after a manual push from Tesla, so fingers crossed that it'll work and restore AP.

To my surprise, Tesla manually pushed 8.6.1 to my car (originally 8.5). I don't know if they pushed 8.6.1 because the failed update yesterday night was 12.1 or if the update yesterday night was originally 8.6.1. Thankfully, the update restored AP. I'd forgotten how tiring driving without AP was until I had to drive 50 miles at night yesterday without it!

 

[Glamisduner]

Bummer I'm still

Wow, Netflix still uses Silverlight? I thought they moved to HTML5 ages ago.

Yep silverlight, amazon prime too.

Still no update for me. Anyone know what the top speed is increased to on the P3D-?
Are they keeping it different from the P3D+ still? Maybe this is why I don't have an update yet?

 

[BrandonLive]

Well, I think part of the issue here might be that Tesla is distributing the software updates from a single location, which is their server infrastructure in California. Let's take a look at some educated assumptions:

1. A single location for the software sources, which is Tesla's server infrastructure. i.e. no Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used.
2. The reason for no CDN is twofold:

A. Each software bundle is generated individually for each car depending on that car's actual configuration and the existing software build that the car is currently running. No single software package can be built that applies to all cars unless the package was huge. I believe some of the guys who have been inside the car's computers have confirmed this.
B. For secure distribution, the software never leaves Tesla-owned server infrastructure, and is delivered via the VPN tunnel to each car.

3. Each software bundle download is roughly 500 MB.
4. I'm going to estimate 150,000 Model S, 50,000 Model X, and 150,000 Model 3 in the field, these numbers are probably off but I'm just looking for ballpark estimates here. So total 350,000 cars.
5. We'll assume that Tesla's server infrastructure has a 1 Gbps connection to the Internet and can utilize all of it.

How long would it take to distribute a 500 MB software bundle to every car over a 1 Gbps connection?

Total data: 500 MB * 350,000 cars = 175 TB.

Time required: 175 TB * 1000 * 8 / 1 Gbps = 1.4 million seconds / 3600 / 24 = 16.2 days.

This is a non-trivial amount of data. Tesla will need more infrastructure and more bandwidth going forward.

I think this is extremely unlikely. There’s no way they serve these updates from a single server behind a 1Gbps connection. Not in 2019.

It’s also highly unlikely that they have as many different variations of the update package as you suggest. They may have a few, but I suspect they strive to keep things simple as much as possible.

I believe they develop new features behind “feature flags” where the source code is present but turned off (or dropped entirely at compile time). The myriad different builds we see go to small random audiences each have different new feature flags enabled. This lets them A/B test (i.e. evaluate with a randomized control group) those changes in isolation, so that if they detect a regression, they know which change is to blame. This is a common practice for modern software development at scale. Once they have independently validated those features, they’ turn on the ones that are ready together in a new build, and roll that out. Even then it’s common to start small, measure the difference versus people still on the old build, and if things look good, hit the button to roll it out to everyone (minus hold out groups, ineligible/unsupported devices, or possibly devices with known compatibility issues which need to be rectified in a future update).

 

[Lostb0y]

You and me both. My SR+ received 12.1.1 this morning, and to my unexpected surprise, all the premium interior streaming functionalities (internet browser, streaming music, live traffic view, and satellite view) are all working. I wonder if they've yanked 12.1.1 to turn this back off in 12.1.2?

Interesting. Ill have to check when I get mine back from service. I saw that the car was updated to 12.1.1 this morning/

 

[Eno Deb]

Do location-aware web pages work for anyone with the new browser in 12.1.1? It seems applications such as Tesla Waze and A Better Routeplanner can no longer get the current location, which sucks bigtime.

 

[favo]

Wow, Netflix still uses Silverlight? I thought they moved to HTML5 ages ago.

Netflix can use HTML5 video also. Don't know if the Tesla browser has the right codecs, though. Also, they will probably keep video disabled for car in motion and when on cellular (so as not to pay for excessive bandwidth). At some point, they will enable video when on WiFi and provide WiFi at Superchargers (roughly per Elon tweet last August).

@elonmusk @Tesla Love the P3D! Any chance of getting video streaming (Netflix, YouTube) to watch while charging?

Version 10

 

[sperkin]

Since 12.1 and now 12.1.1, my EAP will crash and reboot twice a day. Anyone experiencing this? Want to check of its firmware or my car.

 

[hcdavis3]

My update worked last night. Everything seemed to work fine. I'm not really sure how to test the high speed performance thing. Car has never had problems holding 85mph down the freeway for the whole battery (areas where the speed limit is 75 or 80). lol. I don't think its aimed at Americans!

Well, I think part of the issue here might be that Tesla is distributing the software updates from a single location, which is their server infrastructure in California. Let's take a look at some educated assumptions:

1. A single location for the software sources, which is Tesla's server infrastructure. i.e. no Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used.
2. The reason for no CDN is twofold:

A. Each software bundle is generated individually for each car depending on that car's actual configuration and the existing software build that the car is currently running. No single software package can be built that applies to all cars unless the package was huge. I believe some of the guys who have been inside the car's computers have confirmed this.
B. For secure distribution, the software never leaves Tesla-owned server infrastructure, and is delivered via the VPN tunnel to each car.

3. Each software bundle download is roughly 500 MB.
4. I'm going to estimate 150,000 Model S, 50,000 Model X, and 150,000 Model 3 in the field, these numbers are probably off but I'm just looking for ballpark estimates here. So total 350,000 cars.
5. We'll assume that Tesla's server infrastructure has a 1 Gbps connection to the Internet and can utilize all of it.

How long would it take to distribute a 500 MB software bundle to every car over a 1 Gbps connection?

Total data: 500 MB * 350,000 cars = 175 TB.

Time required: 175 TB * 1000 * 8 / 1 Gbps = 1.4 million seconds / 3600 / 24 = 16.2 days.

This is a non-trivial amount of data. Tesla will need more infrastructure and more bandwidth going forward.

i agree with you about configuration specific updates. I got 12.1.1 a couple of days ago that had my update to FSD. If I’ve read some other posts correctly, people who had EAP who got this specific update ended up with TACC and other AP features broken. So now I’m really confused.
So far FSD and 12.1.1 seems to be working OK. Fingers crossed this good behavior continues for me.

 

[Wennfred]

Saw 103kw today at the Yermo Supercharger station this morning around 9am and then It tapered down quickly to like 72kw and so one, Battery was at 45%. Model 3 Standard Plus 240 mile limit.

Fred

 

[huangbong]

A. Each software bundle is generated individually for each car depending on that car's actual configuration and the existing software build that the car is currently running. No single software package can be built that applies to all cars unless the package was huge. I believe some of the guys who have been inside the car's computers have confirmed this.

If this was the case they would generate all the possible binaries (e.g. Model_3_2018.09_to_2018.12.1.pkg, Model_3_2015.05_to_2018.12.1.pkg, etc) across all inputs (previous versions x new version x car model) and put them in an object store like S3 and throw a CDN over that.

B. For secure distribution, the software never leaves Tesla-owned server infrastructure, and is delivered via the VPN tunnel to each car.

No need for this when they can use HTTPS and industry standard PKI for code signing.

There is no chance that they are pushing updates from a single 1Gbps application server, generating an OS image and buffering it through HTTP on the fly to the car, all over VPN, lol.

 

[favo]

Since 12.1 and now 12.1.1, my EAP will crash and reboot twice a day. Anyone experiencing this? Want to check of its firmware or my car.

What do you mean your EAP will crash? Are you talking about the center screen computer (MCU) crashing and rebooting (screen goes black and after ~20 secs you get Tesla logo and then normal screen)? Or do you mean that the AutoPilot computer (APE) is crashing while you are on EAP and that affects how it is driving? Those are two separate things entirely.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I think this is extremely unlikely. There’s no way they serve these updates from a single server behind a 1Gbps connection. Not in 2019.

It’s also highly unlikely that they have as many different variations of the update package as you suggest. They may have a few, but I suspect they strive to keep things simple as much as possible.

I believe they develop new features behind “feature flags” where the source code is present but turned off (or dropped entirely at compile time). The myriad different builds we see go to small random audiences each have different new feature flags enabled. This lets them A/B test (i.e. evaluate with a randomized control group) those changes in isolation, so that if they detect a regression, they know which change is to blame. This is a common practice for modern software development at scale. Once they have independently validated those features, they’ turn on the ones that are ready together in a new build, and roll that out. Even then it’s common to start small, measure the difference versus people still on the old build, and if things look good, hit the button to roll it out to everyone (minus hold out groups, ineligible/unsupported devices, or possibly devices with known compatibility issues which need to be rectified in a future update).

Please read my post carefully. Nowhere did I say it was a single server. I said a single set of infrastructure. I did not say a single connection. I computed for a total aggregate bandwidth of 1 Gbps.

The issue is not feature sets or vehicle trim levels which can be handled with software enable/disable flags as you've stated. The issue is the hardware in the car. There are over 60 separate and independent modules on the CAN bus that each need their own individual firmware. Once you factor in different versions of each module (e.g. body controller revision A vs. body controller revision B, each of which need different firmware), repairs to a vehicle that may force a module hardware revision updgrade, and retrofits (e.g. 3G -> LTE upgrade in Model S), you have literally thousands of possible hardware configurations out in the field.

The only manageble way to handle that is for the car to inventory it's exact modules and firmware, download a list of available updates from the server, decide what needs to be updated while resolving any dependencies, and then have the server build it an appropriate upgrade package. This is indeed basically exactly what Linux machines do with the yum or apt tools.