Canadian Perspective: Questions from Newbie

[wayner]

I am going for a test drive of a Model S on Monday here in Toronto and I have some questions about the UI, some from a Canadian perspective.

I believe the car uses a 3G/LTE connection to connect to the internet, etc. Do you bring your own SIM card and data plan or is that covered by Tesla?
What carrier do they use - is it still Rogers? Can you merge this into your other Rogers plan(s) that you may have?
Do they support LTE or only 3G?
Does the car have to be connected to the 3G/LTE network to remotely turn it on, control climate, etc? I guess this often doesn't work in underground parking garages?
Since the car connects to the internet does it act as a Wifi Hotspot?
What audio source options are available? Sirius/XM? What about Spotify and streaming audio services?
How does iPod/iPhone integration work?
Does the car have email/SMS notifications? If so can it read these to you?

thanks in advance...

 

[bonnie]

Moderator note: Moved to Canada regional forum, since the OP is asking for information specific to Canadian customers.

 

[RAM_Eh]

I am going for a test drive of a Model S on Monday here in Toronto and I have some questions about the UI, some from a Canadian perspective.

I believe the car uses a 3G/LTE connection to connect to the internet, etc. Do you bring your own SIM card and data plan or is that covered by Tesla?
What carrier do they use - is it still Rogers? Can you merge this into your other Rogers plan(s) that you may have?
Do they support LTE or only 3G?
Does the car have to be connected to the 3G/LTE network to remotely turn it on, control climate, etc? I guess this often doesn't work in underground parking garages?
Since the car connects to the internet does it act as a Wifi Hotspot?
What audio source options are available? Sirius/XM? What about Spotify and streaming audio services?
How does iPod/iPhone integration work?
Does the car have email/SMS notifications? If so can it read these to you?

thanks in advance...

1- the car has its own 3g connection. I have had my car for 9+ months and I do not pay for it. The sales contract states I would have to pay after 3 months.
2-unknown, they say it can connect to any network using gsm
3- 3G at the moment
4 - Yes it must see a 3G or wifi connection to be able to communicate with a smart phone app
5- does not act as a hotspot
6- Sirius xm and one Tuned in, that you must pay for. Comes with Slacker radio free. Sirius xm only available with the premium audio
7- iphone work very well...restate the question. Ipod work well too.
8 - no email capability. car will sms you with charging problems and notifications if it is setup to do so. Will not read it to you....yet.

 

[Doug_G]

Tesla announced a while back that they would provide free 3G service for four years (despite what it says in the sales contract). The SIM card is built in.

Tesla uses AT&T and the accounts are actually roaming in Canada - defaults to Rogers.

3G, not LTE (so far).

The car must be connected to 3G or WiFi in order to remote control it.

Although Tesla used to talk about making it a hotspot, they've never turned that on and given the free data plans I suspect they never will. The car can connect to a WiFi hotspot though.

Slacker comes free with the 3G. TuneIn and Sirius XM is available if you buy a subscription.

iPhone/iPod works well. I don't use it much. You can also use a USB memory stick. Some people complain about the music navigation.

Certain notifications will appear in the App. You can also use the VisibleTesla application (search on this forum to find it), and it does all kinds of email notifications. You can set it to email if your car exceeds a certain speed, for example.

 

[mknox]

Slacker comes free with the 3G. TuneIn and Sirius XM is available if you buy a subscription.

Slacker has, I believe, 3 subscription levels: Free, Basic and Premium. Tesla seems to have struck some sort of deal with Slacker and offers something with features between Basic and Premium for Tesla owners and provides this at no charge. You can pay for a Premium subscription and use your own credentials to log into the service from the car. As an example, the version of Slacker that Tesla provides will not let you select and play whole albums, but you can do this with a Premium subscription.

Tunein has a free level of service that works great in the Tesla. You can manage your stations, favorites etc. on their web site and these settings are reflected in the car's interface.

Tesla uses XM in their cars. Yes, SiriusXM is one company now, but they still maintain the two technologies in case you're interested. I flipped my XM subscription over from my last car, but let it expire. With Tunein and Slacker, you will have no need of XM.

 

[wayner]

Thanks everyone - I didn't notice that this thread had been moved and I couldn't find it. I went for my test drive yesterday and I ordered my P85D today.

Regarding iPod integration - does it read in your database and give you a nice UI to play songs, including album art, etc?

For SiriusXM does it store the channels by number or name? My Lexus stores by number and I hate this - for example preset 6 is Channel 20. I wish it would call this E Street Radio rather than Channel 20. Can you use other audio services through the web browser or does Tesla block this as it uses too much data. One reason to keep SiriusXM for some people is the sports channels.

Can the 3G roam over from Rogers to Bell/Telus? In some parts of Canada, like the Western half of Cape Breton Island, there is no Rogers service. Will you still be connected?

 

[techMology]

Tesla uses AT&T and the accounts are actually roaming in Canada - defaults to Rogers.

3G, not LTE (so far).

Tesla uses the AT&T Drive connected car platform in Canada and the US. While in Canada, Rogers is the preferred network the car will roam with first, followed by Bell/TELUS, and any of the smaller regional carriers AT&T has a roaming agreement with (Dryden Wireless, for example... if you can make it up there), Sasktel in Saskatchewan. Here's their list:

ATT (Canadian Roaming Carriers)

This means that our cars have much better coverage in Canada than they do in the US (as they don't fall-back to T-Mobile down there, for example, although AT&T generally has broader coverage).

The hardware in the car is UMTS modem only, with no LTE (unless that has changed recently). You'll never get true 4G LTE via a software upgrade, unfortunately. Most likely, the hardware upgrade to the car would require some antenna changes too, so I'm not hopeful we will see LTE as a hardware revision anytime soon either.

 

[mknox]

Regarding iPod integration - does it read in your database and give you a nice UI to play songs, including album art, etc?

Nope. There is no iPod integration. All the USB connection will do is charge your device. The only option is to stream via Bluetooth and control it from the iPod/iPhone directly. It is actually kinda surprising since just about every other car on the market has iPod integration, but not the Model S.

 

[m1ker]

Nope. There is no iPod integration. All the USB connection will do is charge your device. The only option is to stream via Bluetooth and control it from the iPod/iPhone directly. It is actually kinda surprising since just about every other car on the market has iPod integration, but not the Model S.

I think I prefer the bluetooth method. In our Nissan the interface they I plemented to control your iPhone music and playlists is bad, Dodge hasn't done any better, and neither has Chev. The best interface for managing the music is on the iPhone, so I'm good with having that. Of course you can't handle your phone while driving, so you have to set it and forget it. Maybe a software update from Tesla will allow for iPhone control in the future for music.

 

[wayner]

My current car, at least until I take delivery on Dec 30, is a 2013 LexusGS350. It has pretty got iPod integration for when you are plugged in via USB. But when you use BT connectivity the functionality is substantially reduced for some reason. You can browse your music through the cars screen and select the songs that way rather than using the device itself. I would think hat is legal since it is no different thN using a car radio. You can also use voice controls to play music.

 

[mknox]

I think I prefer the bluetooth method. In our Nissan the interface they I plemented to control your iPhone music and playlists is bad,

The iPod integration in my old '09 Cadillac worked great on its touch screen. Even the most basic of rental cars I've driven (including a Chevy Spark) worked quite well. The fact that Tesla doesn't support this after all this time is kinda difficult to understand.