Autopilot on imported US cars

[Sheryar_Siraj]

Hi,

Just wanted to know if anyone with an imported model S received the autopilot update in their country and does it work for them. I'm planning on importing a p85d to Dubai and it would be helpful to know if it works.

Sher

 

[Cyclone]

Hi,

Just wanted to know if anyone with an imported model S received the autopilot update in their country and does it work for them. I'm planning on importing a p85d to Dubai and it would be helpful to know if it works.

Sher

I am no expert in these matters and wouldn't know for sure, but I would be surprised if such a car (as long as it can get on the internet) is not treated like any other car from the originating country. So, if this a US-spec car w/ a US VIN, I would suspect it would get the update at some point alongside other US cars. The same would be said if the car is UK-spec and has a UK identifier. The key difference is where earmarked the car for. If Tesla earmarks the car for the UK and you import it to Dubai, I can't imagine Tesla is tracking that and would treat the car any differently. But, as I said, I have no real insight into this. Good luck!

 

[Sheryar_Siraj]

That's what I thought as well. It would be treated as any other us spec car receiving the same updates etc. Just trying to figure out if the navigation and autopilot would work as well.

 

[green1]

That's what I thought as well. It would be treated as any other us spec car receiving the same updates etc. Just trying to figure out if the navigation and autopilot would work as well.

You may have issues with lack of cellular coverage as the car isn't expecting to be there (solvable with a cellular wifi hotspot and service plan), You'll have major issues trying to get service work done (solvable with enough money to ship the car back for service...)
Auto-pilot also reads things like speed limit signs, these are different in different parts of the world, not sure if there's one database that can read all, or if the cars are region specific (not a big deal as it only displays the speed, doesn't automatically adapt to it)
Maps will likely work as it is google maps (assuming you have an internet connection) Navigation may not as it is separate from mapping (it's onboard the car) and may not cover the part of the world.

 

[Cyclone]

Navigation may not as it is separate from mapping (it's onboard the car) and may not cover the part of the world.

Now that I can totally see. Given that this is stored in the car (for the left side of the instrument cluster nav, not the 17" nav), I could see Tesla "optimizing" it so that NA-spec cars only have maps for locations these cars could be driven to. While you can get a US-car shipped across the pond, you couldn't drive it to the UK and thus, I can see European and UK maps, etc. not being included. That said, one would hope they are actually downloadable by the car and the car would "phone home" for the map data once its on wifi for maps of the area the GPS resolves to. But again, if Tesla is doing such optimization, then that means someone had to think of this scenario and there it becomes iffy.