Car Won't Start, Software Update Failed

[BMWLover]

Got the new update, 2018.10.5 installed last night. This morning, car wouldn't start. It said I need to contact Tesla service. I called my nearest service center, they said they can't do anything since there's no service ticket open on my vehicle. I was told to contact roadside assistance, I contacted them, they transferred me to vehicle support. Vehicle support wanted to send me back to roadside to tow my car. Told them I don't have time to wait on a tow truck and that the nearest service center is over an hour away. I had to take a Lyft since I at this point was late to work. They said they will contact diagnostics and try to push the update to my car again and have me install it after work.

Things I've tried already:
- Reset the car 3 different times
- Turned off the car completely, waited 10 min, started it again

This is terribly inconvenient, and shouldn't happen on a brand new, 2018 model car. I was late to work, have to pay for round-trip Uber/Lyft, and I've got a car sitting at my house unable to drive anywhere. I'm wondering if my job was about an hour or hour and a half away what would I have done? I understand I'm an early adopter, and we pretty much received beta-testing cars, I'm not new to Tesla, but this is a bit unacceptable.

Anyone run into this problem? Any solutions?

 

[BMWLover]

edit: second bullet point, I meant I powered the vehicle, as in the touch screen and what not, but the vehicle did not actually start

 

[randy1077]

I also did the update last night, and it wanted me to use the Valet card for the first start after update instead of my phone. Did you try putting the Valet card by the cub holders?

 

[BMWLover]

I also did the update last night, and it wanted me to use the Valet card for the first start after update instead of my phone. Did you try putting the Valet card by the cub holders?

I did not, as my phone key was working fine. I will try that after work, thank you.

 

[Skidmark]

I've also had one instance when the phone unlocked the car, but the car would not start. However, there were clear messages on the display saying that the key was not detected when that happened.

 

[adaptabl]

Got the new update, 2018.10.5 installed last night. This morning, car wouldn't start. It said I need to contact Tesla service. I called my nearest service center, they said they can't do anything since there's no service ticket open on my vehicle. I was told to contact roadside assistance, I contacted them, they transferred me to vehicle support. Vehicle support wanted to send me back to roadside to tow my car. Told them I don't have time to wait on a tow truck and that the nearest service center is over an hour away. I had to take a Lyft since I at this point was late to work. They said they will contact diagnostics and try to push the update to my car again and have me install it after work.

Things I've tried already:
- Reset the car 3 different times
- Turned off the car completely, waited 10 min, started it again

This is terribly inconvenient, and shouldn't happen on a brand new, 2018 model car. I was late to work, have to pay for round-trip Uber/Lyft, and I've got a car sitting at my house unable to drive anywhere. I'm wondering if my job was about an hour or hour and a half away what would I have done? I understand I'm an early adopter, and we pretty much received beta-testing cars, I'm not new to Tesla, but this is a bit unacceptable.

Anyone run into this problem? Any solutions?

Welcome to the world of software based cars. There is a reason traditional car manufactures are more careful with software upgrades.

 

[Zhoujianfu]

I just got exactly the same problem (and error messages from your screen shots) on my Model 3 on Friday (April 19th, 2018) after a software update failed. I just called Tesla support and they so far are just recommending I try the soft reboot (which I'm about to try... we'll see).

Did you get your problem resolved... and if so, how?!

 

[BMWLover]

I just got exactly the same problem (and error messages from your screen shots) on my Model 3 on Friday (April 19th, 2018) after a software update failed. I just called Tesla support and they so far are just recommending I try the soft reboot (which I'm about to try... we'll see).

Did you get your problem resolved... and if so, how?!

From what happened to mine, reboot won't do anything. I tried multiple reboots, turning on/off several times, walking away from car for 5-10 min, walking back, etc. They have to get their tech support/software team to push the update to your car again, then reinstall to fix.

 

[apacheguy]

If the update failed the first time it is unlikely to succeed the second time. Unless they push a different version.

There is actually a retry mechanism if one of the embedded units refuses the firmware file. It tries like 10 times and then gives up. But if some of them succeeded and others did not then you end up with this problem.

 

[N5329K]

"All sufficiently complex systems operate in the failure mode..."
Robin

 

[BMWLover]

If the update failed the first time it is unlikely to succeed the second time. Unless they push a different version.

There is actually a retry mechanism if one of the embedded units refuses the firmware file. It tries like 10 times and then gives up. But if some of them succeeded and others did not then you end up with this problem.

They pushed the same version for me a few hours later and it worked.

 

[apacheguy]

Interesting. I’d love to know what exactly happened.

There is no way that the download could have been corrupted. Tesla performs signature/integrity checks on the update package before you even get an alert on the screen. If they pushed the same update and it worked then it means that it did the exact same thing twice and once it did work and another it did not. That’s generally not how computers work.

 

[BMWLover]

Interesting. I’d love to know what exactly happened.

There is no way that the download could have been corrupted. Tesla performs signature/integrity checks on the update package before you even get an alert on the screen. If they pushed the same update and it worked then it means that it did the exact same thing twice and once it did work and another it did not. That’s generally not how computers work.

This is a weird computer then

 

[kaffine]

Interesting. I’d love to know what exactly happened.

There is no way that the download could have been corrupted. Tesla performs signature/integrity checks on the update package before you even get an alert on the screen. If they pushed the same update and it worked then it means that it did the exact same thing twice and once it did work and another it did not. That’s generally not how computers work.

I don't know that is how most computers I deal with are. They don't work and suddenly after I get tech support on the line it starts working again.

Used to have ECM fail during firmware updates when I was a mechanic, normally it would brick the module though as the new firmware updated everything including the base load function so it would not start up enough to attempt a second install. I have seen most firmware updates now exclude that part of the program unless it has to update that part, so if there is a failure it will boot up enough to retry. Others I have seen have 2 sections of memory they have a backup that is used only if the firmware update failed and it wont boot up anymore. Depends on what system it is on how it switches to the backup so the primary program can be reloaded, some are hardware jumper or switch has to be manually set others use a watchdog timer of some sort to switch automatically.

 

[apacheguy]

My point was that computers interpret code consistently. They don’t have brain farts like us humans.

If you run a set of code once and it fails, chances are pretty good that the next time you run it, it will also fail.

 

[favo]

My point was that computers interpret code consistently. They don’t have brain farts like us humans.

If you run a set of code once and it fails, chances are pretty good that the next time you run it, it will also fail.

That is only the case if the computer is in the same state both times, which is highly unlikely given the car's myriad sensors and electronic components, some of which might intermittently have problems. Plus, it seems the firmware updates (sometimes?) include tests to verify the update. Those tests might also fail because of some transient condition, even if the the update loaded correctly. Some (all?) updates also include firmware for components of the car (e.g., drive unit). If any of those fail, it will presumably consider the whole update failed.

 

[Lifesabeach]

My Tesla was scheduled for an update overnight (2 a.m. today). The vehicle functioned perfectly normal yesterday even as late as 11pm when I picked up a friend at the airport. There was no indication of any problem. The first time I got in it today, I received a similar message on the dashboard as the original post on this thread. Initially the dashboard and screen did work, but the car did not turn on (the Message indicated car could not turn on and to contact Tesla for service). I did try to reboot with scroll buttons, but the only thing that happened was the screen and dashboard went completely dark/blank. I did call Tesla, and they indicated 1) that the download failed at some point, 2) that they could NOT communicate with my vehicle remotely, 3) that they would try to do so, and then try to push the update. The latter both failed, and as with the OP’er, my vehicle is “dead in the water”, in my garage. It will not even accept the plug back into the charging port. I have now been informed that I have to have the vehicle towed to the Service Center which is an hour away.
Anyone else experiencing this with this latest or recent update? And if so, what did they finally determine the problem to be?

 

[N5329K]

Interesting. I’d love to know what exactly happened.

There is no way that the download could have been corrupted. Tesla performs signature/integrity checks on the update package before you even get an alert on the screen. If they pushed the same update and it worked then it means that it did the exact same thing twice and once it did work and another it did not. That’s generally not how computers work.

The guy who invented DOS once told me this:
Things that fail for no apparent reason can also fix themselves for no apparent reason.
We expect logic. Sometimes we get it.
Robin

 

[Lifesabeach]

The guy who invented DOS once told me this:
Things that fail for no apparent reason can also fix themselves for no apparent reason.
We expect logic. Sometimes we get it.
Robin

I can only hope for a self-fix. But definitely don’t expect it.

 

[SDKoala]

My Tesla was scheduled for an update overnight (2 a.m. today). The vehicle functioned perfectly normal yesterday even as late as 11pm when I picked up a friend at the airport. There was no indication of any problem. The first time I got in it today, I received a similar message on the dashboard as the original post on this thread. Initially the dashboard and screen did work, but the car did not turn on (the Message indicated car could not turn on and to contact Tesla for service). I did try to reboot with scroll buttons, but the only thing that happened was the screen and dashboard went completely dark/blank. I did call Tesla, and they indicated 1) that the download failed at some point, 2) that they could NOT communicate with my vehicle remotely, 3) that they would try to do so, and then try to push the update. The latter both failed, and as with the OP’er, my vehicle is “dead in the water”, in my garage. It will not even accept the plug back into the charging port. I have now been informed that I have to have the vehicle towed to the Service Center which is an hour away.
Anyone else experiencing this with this latest or recent update? And if so, what did they finally determine the problem to be?

This is one of the things that I fear about having a car so dependent on software. Maybe it's just me, but a car should not be able to be bricked.