How on earth did you get the firmware/software update?
All cars have all of the firmware for everything. It's just a matter of configuring the car properly before deploying the firmware.
This was my plan from the start since now I can get my "classic" non-AP S done next, right WK057? We go way back, and we're the best of friends. Always getting along so well!
lol. I guess parts would be a grey area.
They're not really a retail product, per se. Most of the parts came from salvage cars, though, anyway. And I'm not doing any more retrofits... my back is still aching from doing this one.
<Little OT>
I guess you "win" anyway, since I reserved two Model 3. Admittedly, I feel Tesla has been improving in most aspects since the P85D fiasco. If they can hold up promises for the Model 3 then I'll have some faith restored. Otherwise I'll just get my $2k back.
I still don't like the new TMC... "Notable Members" is still 100% post count based, which is stupid. The 20 posts per page limitation is never going away, which is a huge downgrade. There are many other little things, and the rep loss is just icing on the going away cake. I'm still lurking, but I've admittedly been finding my Tesla news fix elsewhere most of the time and only really land here when someone links me. This will be my second post this month on TMC. Overall, I've just severely curtailed my TMC usage from up to a dozen posts per day down to a few per month. And I'm quite OK with that. I particularly like having 100% control over my content on my own little site, also.
</Little OT>
However, I didn't read anything in there that explains how the pre-AP car steers itself -- are there already actuators for steering in non-AP cars? Did I miss something? I re-scanned the posting and even searched for "steer" and only found the part about the levers.
The EPAS module (electric power assisted steering) is the same on all of the cars and is connected to the chassis CAN bus. The firmware allows the AP module to control steering via CAN.
wk057... You mentioned how difficult the rear bumper cover was to install/align correctly. Wonder if you can elaborate or if you have additional photos showing this part of the process. My classic car had a minor parking lot incident in its first week of life back in 2013 and the Tesla-certified shop that replaced the rear bumper never quite got the alignment right and are simply not as picky as I am. Thinking of making some adjustments myself.
I have a few more photos around, but probably not really helpful. It was a huge pain. Have to remove most of the underbody cover screws in the rear, and aligning it to my liking for the reinstall took me the better part of a few hours. You'll likely make things worse if you try to remove it again. I almost broke some clips on the mount in the process. Probably would break if I removed it again.
If it were me, I would swap cars with wife, at least for a month or two, just to make sure everything is safe. Not to say anything wk057 did is not safe, but just in case.
She has been driving my car for the past couple of weeks while I've been working on her car. I plan to keep it for a bit longer to be completely confident in the work, but everything is working perfectly. Not really anything to go wrong that would cause any major problems that would be a safety issue, IMO.
Unfortunately,
my car was damaged this week in an accident and will be going in for repairs soon. I'll be pretty much not driving the ICE loaner I'll end up with, so we'll be making heavy use of the P85 in the meantime.
They probably did at some point already but he said he doesnt want to work for a company like that. I dont blame him after everything they pulled. I think he serve the community best by doing these hack as oppose to working for tesla.
I don't really want to work for Tesla. I'd never have the freedom I have now if I did, for one. I doubt the pay would be enough. And I'm never moving to California. I had been informally offered positions by multiple contacts at Tesla, which I declined for the reasons stated. Some have suggested that I accept at least a temporary position there in an attempt to effect some positive change as possible, but I doubt that I'd have that kind of freedom or authority to actually do so.
Also, someone asked about the autopilot activation fee aspect of this on Reddit and I'll mention it here. I had thought a bit about it and considered a few aspects. One, my wife's car has the tech package, and this was all that was needed to get autopilot features at some point. Two, the bulk of the required hardware came from a couple of salvage vehicles (including the AP module itself) which both already had autopilot enabled. Plus, Tesla made a few bucks off of me on the parts I couldn't reasonably acquire from salvages. So, I think Tesla is still in the black on this one.
