22 months after purchase, Notified of HW3 upgrade

[Johnstac]

There are a lot of things I love about my car, all of which most of you can attest to. I have only a very short list of complaints but Tesla communication/rumors has to be near the top. I remember when I bought my Model 3 in the latter part of 2018, there was a rumor (by Elon) that FSD would be instituted by the end of the year. I was skeptical but also near the end of that same year, Tesla offered the FSD upgrade for $2k. The promotion only lasted about 1 week, maybe two. I wasn't sure exactly when FSD would become a reality but felt like investing 2k was worthwhile, especially if it was sooner and not later. This was almost two years ago and despite my emails and phone calls I was notified that the HW3 was not yet available. This past week I got a text from Tesla that the upgrade was available and wanted to schedule the work. My point is, shouldn't there be some official way to find out the status of upgrades we've paid for years in advance? Now two years into owning this car, I'm not sure how much value FSD will be to me. Especially if I want to upgrade to a new vehicle. Just my .02

 

[smatthew]

You haven't been missing HW3 for two years. People are still being upgraded to HW3.
If you decide to upgrade to a new vehicle, FSD will increase the selling price of your current vehicle.

 

[Bet TSLA]

Now two years into owning this car, I'm not sure how much value FSD will be to me.

Prior to this past month or so, FSD provided you with nothing. Now that it is starting to be useful, they are making sure that everybody with FSD is upgraded to HW3. Of course, you don't need to take the free upgrade if you don't want to.

The universal complaint is that Tesla is taking longer than expected to implement any meaningful FSD features. It's too bad. But everybody's in the same boat, whether they got HW3 upon delivery, got a free upgrade, or have yet to get their free upgrade.

 

[sduck]

That time period when the FSD upgrade was on sale for 2K was in March of 2019. So it's only been a little over a year. And you could have gotten the hardware aspect of the upgrade some time ago, if you had been paying attention. They started the HW3 upgrades late in 2019 IIRC, and if you requested one along with some other service item quite often you would get one. This was discussed at length in these forums and others. The official line from Tesla was that "We'll let you know when your upgrade is here" but in reality it was always faster to contact them about it.

 

[focher]

That time period when the FSD upgrade was on sale for 2K was in March of 2019. So it's only been a little over a year.

Exactly. I can tell you a more accurate timeline, because my situation is almost exactly the same.

1. Bought 3P in September 2018 with EAP.
2. Bought the FSD upgrade in March 2019 when it was $2k.
3. Got the HW 3.0 upgrade in April 2020 after requesting it three times.

And what was the "loss"? I didn't see the traffic lights for about 4-5 weeks.

 

[Knightshade]

They started the HW3 upgrades late in 2019 IIRC, and if you requested one along with some other service item quite often you would get one.

Well, some folks could... my SC has been repeatedly cancelling appointments to have this done since early March due to lack of hardware.

When I spoke to a mobile tech on Friday (doing the charge pin SB at my house) he said Tesla apparently shipped them a bunch of HW2.5 computers they had no use for for some reason and they're still waiting to get restocked on HW3- no ETA.... (mind you it's at least the 4th different excuse I've been given for the repeated delays- none of the stories matched any previous story).

They make great cars- they're pretty incompetent at logistics though.

I don't even mind not having the pretty meh stoplight feature right now- it's the repeated lying about reason and lack of ETA I'm not a fan of. Like- if they'd told me back on March 4th "Sorry, we won't have the parts for this till July 15th" or something I'd have been fine, no problem at all.

But every time they give me a (different) BS excuse and say they'll have it in a month so reschedule... a month goes by- different BS excuse, try again in a month... (and each time they waited till night before appointment to cancel it and give me a new BS excuse).... Monday should be failure #4 I expect based on what Mobile tech told me.

 

[woodguyatl]

That time period when the FSD upgrade was on sale for 2K was in March of 2019. So it's only been a little over a year. And you could have gotten the hardware aspect of the upgrade some time ago, if you had been paying attention. They started the HW3 upgrades late in 2019 IIRC, and if you requested one along with some other service item quite often you would get one. This was discussed at length in these forums and others. The official line from Tesla was that "We'll let you know when your upgrade is here" but in reality it was always faster to contact them about it.

I'm not so sure about that. I have requested it 3 or 4 times for my 9/18 build. Two of those times were during other service. Most recently during a replacement of an HVAC blower in February. In every case I have been told they are rolling them out and "don't call us, we'll call you."

I think in reality they do not have a system and are assigning them randomly and it depends on which service manager gets the request. Has anybody deduced what algorithm Tesla is using to roll out H3?

 

[mc2002tii]

I agree with the others—the FSD computer is definitely not available for the asking. I’ve tried and been rejected, and from other comments the NE US has been out of them for a while.

Any sort of timeframe or position on the backlog would really go a long way to managing expectations.

 

[JMEhrhart]

I totally agree, this was a fiasco and a complete customer relationship fail in my opinion. My update only took 19 months from delivery and also entailed multiple calls and many posts on SM in the meanwhile. I have no idea why there was no transparent process, nor why the priority was set so low for some of the earliest (and presumably most ardent) supporters. Tesla is in a very unique position in the industry - the only car company with a direct relationship with the owners - and so far they have failed to use that to demonstrate the same loyalty to their customers that the customers have shown to them.

 

[SammichLover]

My point is, shouldn't there be some official way to find out the status of upgrades we've paid for years in advance?

I think you underestimate the volume of requests Tesla would had to handle (and to some extent still would have to handle) for just this, overestimate their logistic capacity vs everything else they've got on the go, and discount how little "are we there yet" improves how much sooner you get the part (if not makes it take longer).