Data usage on the “About Your Tesla” screen

[digistyl3]

While waiting in my Model S with a hotspot, hoping that it would pick up the 2018.10.4 update, I noticed a pattern. Whenever the “About Your Tesla” screen is open, I see 23mb data consumption on my hotspot. It stops after that. If I re-open that screen, another 23mb goes through, and stops again. This has happened 10 times in a row now (yes, I want that update badly). Do you think this is a trigger to download a chunk of the new firmware?

 

[digistyl3]

I received the update prompt! In the meantime, I noticed the following behavior:

• After the ~10th cycle, I left the “About Your Tesla” screen open. The car kept generating network traffic at a slow rate, creeping up to a total of ~350mb
• After a while, the car locket itself. Data consumption continued at the same rate
• Some more time had passed, and all the MCU fans stopped, and immediately the download speed increased drastically!
• Network activity stopped at a total of 651mb, then the MCU fan came on
• I received the update notification on my phone

It could be that the “About Your Screen” is a red herring, and the MCU interrupts downloads as soon as the user is interacting with the car (I may have adjusted the climate control while in the car). BTW, I didn’t have my key with me, the car was opened with the phone app.

 

[cpsss]

very good digging

 

[steinermeister]

I tried it, no luck

Stuck on 6.1 here...

 

[Ande]

I got 2018.6.1 - tried your method, many times, (went to the car and clicked about, left) - got to 2.1GB and then gave up...
It was not a hotspot, rather my car's own WiFi access point , (and the access points wifi stats) , really fast fiber connection to the net.

I wish we could see anyone confirm this method.

 

[Xtek]

None of these tricks actually work, your car has to be flagged for the update. There's a good chance it's just downloading a bunch of release note information. The download happens in one big chunk. 10.4 was around 500Mb for me.

 

[digistyl3]

Yes, maybe this was just a coincidence. I may have been lucky to get the real update exactly when I was messing around with the About screen. Sorry everyone.

Downloading of release notes could explain why I saw burts of data.

 

[GatorGuy]

Hasn't worked for me either.

 

[chillaban]

yeah IMO this is coincidence. I can confirm a bit of data (tens of MB) transfers every time you open that screen, but opening it a bunch of times doesn't magically trigger an update to install either.

 

[boaterva]

So the frigging release notes aren't even local?! Jeez... I can see it checking for updates, but, good grief, this may be taking connected devices just a bit too far...

I think we thought there was a flag when the maps were installed and you got updated notes, not that every time you touched that link, it fetched a new copy. No cache? We need one of the rooted guys to chime in here...

 

[appleguru]

Appears that the car is pulling down the latest list of superchargers and service centers (along with some related routing info) from tesla’s servers as well as checking for some basic provisioning for your car RE data plan/radio subscription/etc.

Nothing I see RE fw updates though.

 

[Xtek]

Appears that the car is pulling down the latest list of superchargers and service centers (along with some related routing info) from tesla’s servers as well as checking for some basic provisioning for your car RE data plan/radio subscription/etc.

Nothing I see RE fw updates though.

Something you can see via man in the middle or root access?

 

[appleguru]

Mitm would presumably show not much useful as traffic to the mothership is all over an open vpn tunnel..