Connectivity: service plan/upgradability/speed

[swegman]

NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers LTE support

NVidia unveiled the Tegra 4 at CES. This mobile chip includes support for LTE. See NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support . Wonder whether Tesla will use this chip in the future in the Model S, and whether it will bve reto-fittable for existing cars.

 

[KenEE]

NVidia unveiled the Tegra 4 at CES. This mobile chip includes support for LTE. See NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support . Wonder whether Tesla will use this chip in the future in the Model S, and whether it will bve reto-fittable for existing cars.

I would definitely pay for the upgrade! I love being constantly connected but the maps etc. can be sluggish.

 

[dsm363]

Me too. Would this make much of a difference? Can't imagine the chip makes up much of the power consumption in a car though

...45 percent decrease in power consumption when compared to Tegra 3

 

[Todd Burch]

NVidia unveiled the Tegra 4 at CES. This mobile chip includes support for LTE. See NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support . Wonder whether Tesla will use this chip in the future in the Model S, and whether it will bve reto-fittable for existing cars.

So to get this straight, it took 6 days for my Model S's neato touchscreen to become obsolete. Great. hehe

 

[sublimaze1]

http://www.netzero.net/

The dongle will not work, correct?

 

[GeekGirls]

So to get this straight, it took 6 days for my Model S's neato touchscreen to become obsolete.

Essentially every piece of technology you will ever buy is obsolete by the time it reaches the market. It only makes sense to buy something because of what it is and what it can do for you, not because it's cutting edge technology.

 

[brianman]

It only makes sense to buy something because of what it is and what it can do for you, not because it's cutting edge technology.

[insert kitchen knives salesman joke here]

 

[markb1]

There's an update on connectivity on the Tesla Bulletin Board (http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/update-when-tesla-going-announce-connectivity-pricing):

We originally planned to announce a standard connectivity plan as well as a smart phone tethering plan for Model S in December. We have made a lot of progress in designing our connectivity plans and are happy to announce that the option to tether your smartphone device to Model S will indeed be possible.

Connectivity plans will be published on teslamotors.com soon and yearly subscriptions will become available on your My Tesla page near the end of your free trial. For a limited time, all Model S will continue to be delivered with unlimited 3G data and a free three month subscription to all connectivity features, including Google Maps with traffic, voice control, internet radio with album art and a web browser.

 

[ken830]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

 

[swegman]

Tesla says "For a limited time, all Model S will continue to be delivered with unlimited 3G data and a free three month subscription to all connectivity features, including Google Maps with traffic, voice control, internet radio with album art and a web browser." Does this mean we are going to have to pay to have Google maps and voice control and use of the web browser, seperate from a data plan?

 

[markb1]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

It is strangely worded. Tethering to a smart phone should be supported, and Tesla damn well better not charge for that. (I already pay my carrier plenty, and I will have to pay them even more to enable tethering. But Tesla should not be charging any service fees for that.)

Using the Model S as a WiFi hotspot might also be a desirable feature to some people, but that is not specific to smart phones. Charging extra for this would be sort of justifiable, since that's just like me turning my phone into a mobile hotspot, which will cost me extra. (Justifiable in that Tesla will probably have to pay the carrier extra to allow this. Don't get me started on the idiocy of carrier service plans.)

What I hope (and I'm not holding my breath) is that Tesla is taking so long to finalize this because they are negotiating with the carriers so they can offer us a really sweet deal.

 

[JakeP]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

+1, exactly. Why pay for another carrier when my phone will always be with me in the car while I am driving? This does raise the question of how and when firmware updates would be downloaded, but that can easily be handled by the car having a WiFi attachment to my home network.

 

[andrewket]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

+1

I read it the same way you did. I don't want to tether my LTE smartphone to my 3G car. I want to not have to buy another data plan and be stuck on AT&T. Tether the car to the phone.

Edit: I just realized tethering to a phone is great while driving, but it won't help while the car is parked. Software updates, and anything to do with the smartphone app won't work unless your phone is in/near the car. Sigh. We're going to end up with another data plan anyway.

 

[ElSupreme]

+1, exactly. Why pay for another carrier when my phone will always be with me in the car while I am driving? This does raise the question of how and when firmware updates would be downloaded, but that can easily be handled by the car having a WiFi attachment to my home network.

I read the whole MVPA (well not the lemon law pages from other states) and there was a bunch of stuff on 'connectivity'. It basically stated that if you got a 3G plan you would allow Tesla to send and receive data from your car on your data plan. If you don't get a data plan Tesla will operate a 3G plan to send and receive data from your car. If you get a data plan and you cancel it, you are required to tell Tesla, so they can start operating a 3G plan so they can continue to send and receive data from your car.

So basically Tesla has some connectivity unless you do. If you have a plan Tesla can use it on your dime.

 

[mknox]

Edit: I just realized tethering to a phone is great while driving, but it won't help while the car is parked. Software updates, and anything to do with the smartphone app won't work unless your phone is in/near the car. Sigh. We're going to end up with another data plan anyway.

I have heard (but not confirmed) that there are two levels of data connectivity. One compulsory connection for Tesla software updates, to allow Tesla to remote diagnose and (possibly) for smartphone remote access, and another optional level for maps, voice control, Internet radio and so forth.

 

[kevincwelch]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

This does seem to be either a very strange way of saying you can tether your Model S to your smartphone, or perhaps what they meant to say is that a device such as a tablet could be tethered to the Model S (but I would think they would say wifi tethering in that instances).

It makes no sense to tether a phone that supports LTE to a 3G car or even a 3G phone to a 3G car.

 

[strider]

Edit: I just realized tethering to a phone is great while driving, but it won't help while the car is parked. Software updates, and anything to do with the smartphone app won't work unless your phone is in/near the car. Sigh. We're going to end up with another data plan anyway.

Well, if you have WiFi at home and signal in your garage the car should be able to connect to that so it can download updates and such overnight. The big question is how the mobile app will work if you are tethering. Tesla will have to keep 3G service to the car even if you don't pay for it, but will they allow the mobile app to ride their service or force you to pay for access? I suspect it's these kinds of thorny issues that have prevented them from finalizing the plans.

 

[4sevens.com]

Does anyone know where the sim card is located?

 

[gregincal]

I wonder what they mean by "tether your smartphone." I don't want to tether my phone. I want to tether the car to my phone. Hope it's just a miswording.

Just an informal look around the web shows that it's a pretty common usage, even if probably inaccurate. I see numerous "how to tether your smartphone" articles and statements like: "

The biggest obstacle, though, is just being able to tether your cell phone to your laptop at all."​

 

[strider]

Does anyone know where the sim card is located?

Tesla has stated that the SIM card is not a serviceable part.