Caution: Driving while firmware is updating

[petecrayton]

Thinking I had plenty of time while shopping in Costco, I disabled Sentry Mode and started my update (to 20.4). However when we got back to the car, the screen said "Update in Progress". I thought we wouldn't be able to drive the car until the update was completed, but I thought I'd try anyway. To my surprise, the car started normally with the update screen still showing. After a minute or two of driving, the screen went black. I was able to continue driving HOWEVER the screen was black and I had no regenerative braking.

After a few more minutes of driving carefully, the screen rebooted with a message saying the update was being confirmed (something like that). After another minute the update was successfully installed and the What's New screen showed that Dune Buggy Racing 2 had been installed. All good.

I'm not sure what else wouldn't function properly during the update while you're driving. The lack of regenerative braking was the only thing I noticed, but try this at your own risk.

I am so stupid; I actually thought the car would not move during an update. Even if the "baby was coming". Of course, I am the same idiot that thought I would go to jail if removed the composition label from my pillow.

 

[daniel]

... Of course, I am the same idiot that thought I would go to jail if removed the composition label from my pillow.

Just because they haven't come for you yet doesn't mean you're safe. I hear they are backlogged but slowly getting caught up on arresting label removers.

 

[zhu-]

So, who's going to test Autopilot on a curvy mountain while driving during an update?

 

[daniel]

Not me!

 

[AaronE]

when I took delivery of my car, the delivery guy said "it's updating, but you can drive it anyway." he'd driven it to me like that. he said it'll be an hour -- but it never completed. dead MCU. the car was in diagnostic mode with all unlocalized text on the instrument cluster. it took about 2 minutes each time to start driving.

still drove fine though, you just couldn't do anything with any controls except the windows, lights and turn signal.

kinda embarrassing first impression

 

[ngogas]

Stupid move. Can’t wait for you to complain you lost control of the car while updating. Doesn’t it state not to drive. Software driving lock is needed for morons like this. Lol.

 

[notrhj]

Just to be perfectly clear, I do not recommend that anyone else try this and I would never do this again. But it is nice to know that nothing awful happened and the car was able to drive while it was updating itself. Big props to Tesla.

I believe the latest firmware was installed completely and I was able to play the buggy game after the install. All other features of the car also are working as before.

I have never had to reboot after a firmware update and everything has gone smoothly with my updates. This includes my 2013 Model S. I believe the firmware updates are designed to reboot the car's computer automatically after they has been installed.

Pointed 4000 lbs rolling weapon at head.
Pulled trigger
Nothing happened
See wasn’t so bad

 

[Deslah]

Today, I received my "two minute warning" update notice while I was in the middle of driving. The clock started counting down (1:59, 1:58, 1:57...) while going 70mph (120km).

Earlier in the day I had received the notice that an update was available. In app, I said "run it". For unknown reasons, the update never started. Well, about five hours later while cruising on the Autobahn, the notice popped up that the install was about to run in 2 minutes (and counting...). I abruptly canceled the install on screen, and that was that. But it certainly was a surprise to see that.

But since this is a bit of a thread hijack, here's a brand-new thread for it...

===> Received the "two minute warning" of an update...while driving.

 

[GolanB]

Today, I received my "two minute warning" update notice while I was in the middle of driving. The clock started counting down (1:59, 1:58, 1:57...) while going 70mph (120km).

Earlier in the day I had received the notice that an update was available. In app, I said "run it". For unknown reasons, the update never started. Well, about five hours later while cruising on the Autobahn, the notice popped up that the install was about to run in 2 minutes (and counting...). I abruptly canceled the install on screen, and that was that. But it certainly was a surprise to see that.

I'd file this as a bug for sure; there are at least two problems going on here. The first is what would appear to be a message backlog or a dependency problem starting the update, and the second is that the Tesla did not check to see that it was in operation before launching the update process!