Always Connected Model 3 Request

[eXntrc]

(I'm creating this thread per the recommendation of @Akikiki)

I really want to use apps like the My Tesla Alexa Skill and Wear for Tesla. Unfortunately, both fail most of the time due to communication errors reaching the car. The only way I can get apps like these to work is by connecting to the car with the phone app first to wake it up, which of course defeats the purpose.

The My Tesla author has confirmed that he is in fact already sending the 'wake' command. However, Alexa only gives so much time for the skill to complete before the skill is timed out and the Model 3 takes much longer than this to wake up. The same timeout problem exists for Android Wear, which wants to put the watch back into low power mode when the user hasn't interacted with the screen for some time.

Model S and Model X both offer a mode called "Always Connected", but as others have pointed out Always Connected is Missing on Model 3. I've read this is likely due to a different MCU configuration (single unit vs. multiple) and I'm aware that an "Always Connected" mode would increase vampire drain. But since I work from home and don't travel long distances each day, I'm OK with a little power draw in order to improve responsiveness for valuable skills and applications.

Is anyone else interested in Tesla bringing the Always Connected mode to the 3?

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

2nd'd.

 

[chronopc]

As much as I would like 3rd party apps to work, I imagine that if it did, phantom drain would be much worst.

 

[Daniel in SD]

As much as I would like 3rd party apps to work, I imagine that if it did, phantom drain would be much worst.

Phantom drain on my iPhone 7 is 1000x lower than my Model 3 and it is "always connected" by default. Crazy that the Model 3 has the same hardware and/or software problem as the Model S. Just sayin'

 

[chronopc]

Phantom drain on my iPhone 7 is 1000x lower than my Model 3 and it is "always connected" by default. Crazy that the Model 3 has the same hardware and/or software problem as the Model S. Just sayin'

Your IP7 doesn't drain 1% a day on stand by? The IP I have drains at least 5% just over night.

 

[zhu-]

Phantom drain on my iPhone 7 is 1000x lower than my Model 3 and it is "always connected" by default. Crazy that the Model 3 has the same hardware and/or software problem as the Model S. Just sayin'

A 1% drain on a Model 3 battery can charge an iPhone up to 1000 times. I also don't understand why the constant connection would use so much battery.

 

[chronopc]

A 1% drain on a Model 3 battery can charge an iPhone up to 1000 times. I also don't understand why the constant connection would use so much battery.

Anything that prevents the car from going into deep sleep mode would cause a drain.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Your IP7 doesn't drain 1% a day on stand by? The IP I have drains at least 5% just over night.

Seems like you've got the math about right. iPhone 7 battery is 7.45Wh so 5% is 0.375Wh * 2 = 0.75Wh per day. The Model 3 is 720Wh per day.
The Model 3 weighs 20,000 times as much as an iPhone so if you look at in terms of standby drain per pound it's actually 20x as good

 

[nvx1977]

i saw in another thread that the 50.6 firmware update has improved the in-app wake time. I just opened the app, and I didn't even see "waking up." after a brief "last updated" banner, it gave me access to everything. Which is the same behavior as my S. I'm going to test later to see if I can get it to say "waking up" which is typically the state that is slow.

Also, I've messed around with the APIs. The problem is that when you call the wake endpoint, it returns a success code BEFORE the car is actually awake. The success code is basically acknowledgement that tesla's servers has issued the wake command to the car. After that point, it's up to the developer to keep pinging the car (via the get car details endpoint) to see if it's actually awake. It's quite stupid.

 

[chronopc]

Seems like you've got the math about right. iPhone 7 battery is 7.45Wh so 5% is 0.375Wh * 2 = 0.75Wh per day. The Model 3 is 720Wh per day.
The Model 3 weighs 20,000 times as much as an iPhone so if you look at in terms of standby drain per pound it's actually 20x as good

 

[chronopc]

i saw in another thread that the 50.6 firmware update has improved the in-app wake time. I just opened the app, and I didn't even see "waking up." after a brief "last updated" banner, it gave me access to everything. Which is the same behavior as my S. I'm going to test later to see if I can get it to say "waking up" which is typically the state that is slow.

Also, I've messed around with the APIs. The problem is that when you call the wake endpoint, it returns a success code BEFORE the car is actually awake. The success code is basically acknowledgement that tesla's servers has issued the wake command to the car. After that point, it's up to the developer to keep pinging the car (via the get car details endpoint) to see if it's actually awake. It's quite stupid.

I try using EV Car with my google home and it doesn't not work. Because it's trying to pull the information as the car is waking up, so it always result in a connection issue. The only time I can get it to work is to go into the app and wake the car up first.

 

[nvx1977]

I try using EV Car with my google home and it doesn't not work. Because it's trying to pull the information as the car is waking up, so it always result in a connection issue. The only time I can get it to work is to go into the app and wake the car up first.

Not familiar with that app, but the dev can def improve it so that doesn't happen. The app just needs to wait long enough for the car to actually wake before querying it. The problem is, there's no way to tell when the car is actually awake because the car does not proactively report back to tesla its status. So the app has to wait some arbitrary amount and then try to access the car. If there's a connection error, suppress it from the user, wait some more, then try again.

This is exactly why I think even the official app takes forever to wake sometimes. It just misses the first connection attempt (car not done waking), so it times out and tries again x seconds later.

 

[dmurphy]

So here’s what I don’t get. There are millions and millions of vehicles running around with OnStar installed. The vast majority just have a simple 12V battery, and no issue with drain. I can’t imagine for a second that the LTE radio would be anything more than a rounding error as far as battery usage.

If I can remote start a Buick from halfway around the world in a few seconds .... I’d expect at least that from Tesla.

 

[Garlan Garner]

(I'm creating this thread per the recommendation of @Akikiki)

I really want to use apps like the My Tesla Alexa Skill and Wear for Tesla. Unfortunately, both fail most of the time due to communication errors reaching the car. The only way I can get apps like these to work is by connecting to the car with the phone app first to wake it up, which of course defeats the purpose.

The My Tesla author has confirmed that he is in fact already sending the 'wake' command. However, Alexa only gives so much time for the skill to complete before the skill is timed out and the Model 3 takes much longer than this to wake up. The same timeout problem exists for Android Wear, which wants to put the watch back into low power mode when the user hasn't interacted with the screen for some time.

Model S and Model X both offer a mode called "Always Connected", but as others have pointed out Always Connected is Missing on Model 3. I've read this is likely due to a different MCU configuration (single unit vs. multiple) and I'm aware that an "Always Connected" mode would increase vampire drain. But since I work from home and don't travel long distances each day, I'm OK with a little power draw in order to improve responsiveness for valuable skills and applications.

Is anyone else interested in Tesla bringing the Always Connected mode to the 3?

No....Too much vampire drain from 3rd party apps.

 

[chronopc]

So here’s what I don’t get. There are millions and millions of vehicles running around with OnStar installed. The vast majority just have a simple 12V battery, and no issue with drain. I can’t imagine for a second that the LTE radio would be anything more than a rounding error as far as battery usage.

If I can remote start a Buick from halfway around the world in a few seconds .... I’d expect at least that from Tesla.

The controls that I have on my notification works instantly. So I'm not sure why that is and when I go into the app it needs time to wake up?

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

So here’s what I don’t get. There are millions and millions of vehicles running around with OnStar installed. The vast majority just have a simple 12V battery, and no issue with drain. I can’t imagine for a second that the LTE radio would be anything more than a rounding error as far as battery usage.

If I can remote start a Buick from halfway around the world in a few seconds .... I’d expect at least that from Tesla.

I'm sorry to inform you that your logical reasoning on this matter is not wanted here.

 

[SMAlset]

Just updated my old iPhone to a XSMax and have been setting up today. I noticed this in settings and set to Always. Drove my Model 3 and didn’t have any issues connecting today. Not much of a test period but thought worth mentioning if you have an iPhone.

 

[MP3Mike]

Model S and Model X both offer a mode called "Always Connected", but as others have pointed out Always Connected is Missing on Model 3. I've read this is likely due to a different MCU configuration (single unit vs. multiple) and I'm aware that an "Always Connected" mode would increase vampire drain. But since I work from home and don't travel long distances each day, I'm OK with a little power draw in order to improve responsiveness for valuable skills and applications.

Is anyone else interested in Tesla bringing the Always Connected mode to the 3?

I thought the "Always Connected" option went away on the Model S&X when they moved to the MCU2 platform. So only older S&X cars, with an MCU1, have that option. Or am I recalling that wrong?

 

[eprosenx]

A 1% drain on a Model 3 battery can charge an iPhone up to 1000 times. I also don't understand why the constant connection would use so much battery.

Yeah, I think the architecture of the Model 3 systems (or the implementation) is just utter *sugar*.

The phone example is perfect. If we can carry around an iPhone that can instantly get a text message within a couple seconds and can last days on a tiny cell phone battery then we should expect a model 3 to be instantly reachable and not use much battery power.

I fear they did something really stupid here and made it so they have to run a very lower hungry computer in order to receive any message. So the only solution is to keep that computer powered down as much as possible to reduce vampire drain.

It drives me utterly insane having to launch the app, wait forever for it to connect, and then finally hit the button to engage climate control.

Even with their stupid architecture, they should let me hit a button in the app which sends a message to the Tesla servers to contact my car and turn on climate control. Even if turning it on took a couple minutes this would be fine as long as I did not have to wait around for the damned button to light up so I could press it. Horrible user experience.

Also, I have Alexa units which I rarely use, but damned, I would kill to be able to say “Alexa, warm up my car” while I get dressed in the morning. That is a killer app. (And no, I don’t want to deal with third parties to enable this)

 

[Garlan Garner]

Just updated my old iPhone to a XSMax and have been setting up today. I noticed this in settings and set to Always. Drove my Model 3 and didn’t have any issues connecting today. Not much of a test period but thought worth mentioning if you have an iPhone.

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That option is to let the app be able to access your geo location of your phone. It has nothing to do with commencing you phone with your car.