3G connection and DAB/FM

[SimonP]

Hi folks, noob alert! I’ve had my 2017 model S 90d for a few months now and absolutely love it. However, I’m probably being a nimpty but am really struggling to get radio/TuneIn to work and, for example, cannot seem to get radio 5 live to work. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, do people hotspot connect their cars to their phones to improve the weak 3G signal from the car? I’m not sure if I need to do this or even if/how you know that your car is connected in order to collect any auto software updates?

Thanks for any advice offered!
Simon

 

[dannycamps]

Also, do people hotspot connect their cars to their phones to improve the weak 3G signal from the car? I’m not sure if I need to do this or even if/how you know that your car is connected in order to collect any auto software updates?

You can do this but each time you take the Model S out of park, it disconnects from the wifi and switches back over to the cell connection. When starting each drive, you would need to first enable the hotspot on your phone, put the car in drive, then connect to the hotspot on your phone. It works but it's a bit of an inconvenience.

I assume whatever cell provider the Model S connects to in the UK does not support 4G/LTE in your region?

 

[SimonP]

Hi, thanks for the response. I do get “LTE”, is that the same as 4G? The reason I ask is that response speed, for example loading an internet page, is really slow...

 

[EVRider-FL]

LTE isn‘t exactly the same as 4G (Google them if you’re interested), but I’ve never seen anything other than LTE in my car here in the US. The hotspot is cumbersome to use while driving and might be expensive depending on your phone’s data plan.

Does the car have access to WiFi when you park at home?

 

[dannycamps]

Hi, thanks for the response. I do get “LTE”, is that the same as 4G? The reason I ask is that response speed, for example loading an internet page, is really slow...

Technically LTE is faster than 4G but depends on how your carrier classifies it.

Regarding page loading speed, do you have the upgraded MCU2 unit in your car? A 2017 would have MCU1 (Nvidia chipset) which is pretty slow and suffers mightily while trying to load web pages (if it works at all). MCU2 (Intel chipset) is more capable and generally can load pages okay.

 

[EVRider-FL]

OP said 2017 S, so MCU1.