Data plan update?

[gregincal]

So back in an old shareholder letter Tesla said this:

To further enhance the driver experience, new Model S customers will now receive free data connectivity and Internet radio for four years. As an added benefit to our existing Model S customers, the free four year period starts on January 1, 2014. To be fair to all, in rare cases a customer may be charged for extreme data use.

So that means in theory that those of us with old cars are going to have to start paying for data in about three months. What are the odds that Tesla is going to say anything about this one way or another in the next 3 months? I suppose they are going to have to release details of the Model 3 data plans at some point, and they might update us on the Model S at the same time.

 

[xyeahtony]

So back in an old shareholder letter Tesla said this:

To further enhance the driver experience, new Model S customers will now receive free data connectivity and Internet radio for four years. As an added benefit to our existing Model S customers, the free four year period starts on January 1, 2014. To be fair to all, in rare cases a customer may be charged for extreme data use.

So that means in theory that those of us with old cars are going to have to start paying for data in about three months. What are the odds that Tesla is going to say anything about this one way or another in the next 3 months? I suppose they are going to have to release details of the Model 3 data plans at some point, and they might update us on the Model S at the same time.

i think they'll just keep offering free data.

 

[gregincal]

i think they'll just keep offering free data.

You would think then that they're announce it as a feature, like lifetime free supercharging. And maybe they will, but I'm just looking for a definite sign one way or another from Tesla. I believe the Model 3 only gets like 3 months of free data.

 

[Cyclone]

You would think then that they're announce it as a feature, like lifetime free supercharging. And maybe they will, but I'm just looking for a definite sign one way or another from Tesla. I believe the Model 3 only gets like 3 months of free data.

I saw someone share a screenshot that showed two years of data with the premium package. I can't imagine that non-pup cars wouldn't get it too though.

 

[boaterva]

It’s been mentioned elsewhere... I think Tesla wants the data from the car as much as we want the data connectivity. And it costs them virtually nothing, a lot less than it would cost us for a hotspot, etc., in the quantity deals they can work out. *Especially* when you add in the quantity of the 3’s in the pot soon! A few dollars a month? Less?

 

[bob_p]

There are two data streams - Tesla and customer.

Even if Tesla starts charging for the customer data plan (which is likely for Model 3's), they will still keep their data plan to use for downloading firmware updates and uploading car status/AP data.

We don't yet know what will happen with the S/X data plans - with the oldest cars approaching the end of the last "4 year free" announcement from early 2014. Tesla could start charging for data plans for the older cars - or they could extend the data plan again.

What would make sense is to provide lifetime free data plans (with some limits for anyone who uses an excessive amount of data - which is difficult since you can't do much in the browser, can't stream videos, and can't use the car as a hot spot) for Model S & X, as part of the differentiation from the lower priced 3/Y models.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

They should throw in data as long as you're paying for the "service plans" which are kind of a joke considering how much work is done and how much you pay... just lump it in with that... that way you can also make sure folks keep their cars serviced and all the TSBs get applied, etc.

 

[wayner]

There are two data streams - Tesla and customer.

Even if Tesla starts charging for the customer data plan (which is likely for Model 3's), they will still keep their data plan to use for downloading firmware updates and uploading car status/AP data.

So you are saying that your car will have two data plans. I would think that requires two SIM cards and I don't think the cars are equipped to do this. Or the Tesla data could only be sent when the car is connected to wifi - which means with some cars that they will never send data to Tesla.

 

[wayner]

So back in an old shareholder letter Tesla said this:

To further enhance the driver experience, new Model S customers will now receive free data connectivity and Internet radio for four years. As an added benefit to our existing Model S customers, the free four year period starts on January 1, 2014. To be fair to all, in rare cases a customer may be charged for extreme data use.

T minus 75 days and counting (until Jan 1, 2018). Anyone know what is going to happen?

 

[d21mike]

So you are saying that your car will have two data plans. I would think that requires two SIM cards and I don't think the cars are equipped to do this. Or the Tesla data could only be sent when the car is connected to wifi - which means with some cars that they will never send data to Tesla.

Can not speak for him. But I would expect that you would not be charged data usage when connected to Tesla Servers. But when using the Web Browser (not used much) or maybe syncing Calendar or Contacts then you are using your data.

 

[wayner]

But practically how would that work? I am assuming that if we have to start paying for data then we have to add the car's SIM card to our own wireless data plan with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mo, Sprint etc (in the US) or Rogers, Telus or Bell here in Canada. They will bill you for all of the data flowing through their network. I doubt that they will differentiate your billing on where the data goes - whether to Tesla or not.

By the way, I don't think the browser, Contacts or Calendar uses much data - I believe that the contacts and Calendar come directly from your phone, not from the cloud. The significant uses of data would be streaming music (Slacker) and software upgrades, assuming that they came when not connected to wifi.

 

[d21mike]

But practically how would that work? I am assuming that if we have to start paying for data then we have to add the car's SIM card to our own wireless data plan with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mo, Sprint etc (in the US) or Rogers, Telus or Bell here in Canada. They will bill you for all of the data flowing through their network. I doubt that they will differentiate your billing on where the data goes - whether to Tesla or not.

By the way, I don't think the browser, Contacts or Calendar uses much data - I believe that the contacts and Calendar come directly from your phone, not from the cloud. The significant uses of data would be streaming music (Slacker) and software upgrades, assuming that they came when not connected to wifi.

I was not thinking you would add it to your normal cell phone bill (like adding a Watch or iPad). I was thinking it would be a subscription with Tesla. Like Model 3 users will be charged for SuperCharging. The bill comes from Tesla. But of course I could be wrong. I agree that usage for Calendar and Contacts would be very low. Music streaming could be more but of course you could also use your Phone to stream music via BT.

 

[wayner]

I guess you could be right - I never thought of Tesla setting up the billing for data but this means that they then have to maintain accounts with all Tesla owners for this service. And then you may get complaints from some folks complaining that the carrier that Tesla is using doesn't have good coverage in their area.

 

[bob_p]

It's possible to use your own carrier if your smartphone can serve as a WiFi hotspot - and then have the car connect to it instead of the AT&T 3G/LTE network.

If Tesla decides to start charging for the data plan (which seems very likely for the Model 3's - Tesla could decide to keep the data plan free for the Model S/X, as part of their differentiation for the higher priced models).

 

[d21mike]

It's possible to use your own carrier if your smartphone can serve as a WiFi hotspot - and then have the car connect to it instead of the AT&T 3G/LTE network.

If Tesla decides to start charging for the data plan (which seems very likely for the Model 3's - Tesla could decide to keep the data plan free for the Model S/X, as part of their differentiation for the higher priced models).

I have not done it personally but I am pretty sure you could use your iPhone as a personal hot spot. But not sure how seamless it would be. Seems to be a hassle to connect my iPad but I think my MacBook connects pretty quick. Maybe the Tesla WiFi would automatically connect when you get into the car. Of course I would not want all of the Tesla Data to hit my iPhone so that could be a problem.

 

[wayner]

You can use your iPhone as a hotspot and I do that for iPads from time to time but to be honest it makes more sense that the car acts as a wifi hotspot so that your kids, etc can use devices connected to the WiCan (Wireless Car Area Network). This makes more sense when you are paying for your own data rather than Tesla paying for it.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

If you wanted to use your phone as a WiFi hotspot, you could use an app like tasker or something similar to create an action rule that anytime your phone pairs with the Tesla's bluetooth to turn on your phone's hotspot. The Tesla is going to auto join to any WiFi hotspot you have connected to in the past, so this would work fairly well and seamlessly. If you wanted to do this manually, you could create a shortcut on your phone's homescreen or buy an NFC tag that's in the car and have it mapped to the hotspot enable/disable action... Lots of ways to make it happen... I hope it doesn't come to that but if Tesla wants more than say $5-10/mo I will probably try to use my phone's hotspot and not pay Tesla/AT&T. I say this because I don't use anything but the map and browser (for Tesla waze) on the car's data... I don't use slacker at all I only use spotify streamed through my phone so 5-10/mo prob isn't worth it for my limited use case

 

[wayner]

I am guessing you are on Android as I don't think you can do some of these things that you mentioned, like NFC, with an iPhone - and that is about 50% of the Tesla drivers.

 

[Cyclone]

The Tesla is going to auto join to any WiFi hotspot you have connected to in the past, so this would work fairly well and seamlessly.

This changed a couple updates ago. The will now disconnect from all WiFi networks once put in park. You can reconnect, but you need to manually click on the network in car’s network drop-down list.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

This changed a couple updates ago. The will now disconnect from all WiFi networks once put in park. You can reconnect, but you need to manually click on the network in car’s network drop-down list.

Interesting... I haven't had mine on a wifi in 12+ months because it didn't seem to help me get updates any faster and once the classic cars updates slowed down in terms of new stuff I really wasn't chomping at the bit to get the updates so quickly anymore....

Guess they made this change to prepare for charging us for data.... I'm sure they'll say it was for "security"