Failed Firmware Update

[bob_p]

If you have AP2.x hardware - and haven't seen an update for a while, read this...

Since hurricane Harvey came through, our S 100D hasn't received any software updates, after staying up-to-date with updates before that after delivery in March. We're still on the .32 release, when other cars have been updated to .34 or .36.

Called Tesla today - and found out something that other owners should be aware of.

According to Tesla, they attempted to download an update last week - and after failing several times (possibly due to networking issues), their server gave up - and will evidently not try to deliver any more updates to our car!

We didn't have any notices on the console display indicating this had happened. And Tesla didn't attempt to call, send an e-mail or a text message, notifying of this problem.

Now that our car is in this state, they can't push the latest software to our car. To get new updates, our only options are to take the car over to the nearest Service Center or have one of their mobile service vans come to us - and then have Tesla manually force the update into our car.

So...

For anyone (especially with AP2.x hardware in their cars) that hasn't seen an update recently (for us, since .32), you should call Tesla's phone support and have them check the logs for your car - and see if they tried to push an update to you and had failures.

Add this to the list of improvements Tesla should be addressing before they start selling over 500K cars per year - since this situation will become a much bigger problem when Tesla has a lot more cars on the road...

 

[SMAlset]

You don't indicate where you live and I assume you are in the Harvey affect area but thinking this will also apply to those in Florida and elsewhere that have been affected similarly. Willing to bet a lot has been learned from this as it pertains to OTA updates on cars like this. I'm sure Tesla will figure it out and get updates rolling again once the infrastructure is back up and working reliably. You'd think they would know who didn't get them and could do a special push just to that group of owners.

Not really sure how the updates are sent. I know we get ours through wifi connection at our house. Can they be sent through cellular too or is that too slow and expensive?

 

[croman]

Updates will come through 3G/4G, the priority is on wifi initially then Tesla pushes through whatever means possible. The issue @bob_p is mentioning isn't new. If Tesla repeatedly fails to upload an update to your car, the flotsam of the failed update will "clog" the update process. I've heard of it before but there isn't a great solution (though I thought they could fix it remotely). Guess not.

 

[boaterva]

It may depend on whether the car never got it at all or the car failed the download and gave up after retries. We’ve seen the latter case before and the SC needed to clear it on the car (also no idea why a reboot/remote access isn’t enough!).

If updates never got to a car (no network connectivity at all) you wouldn’t think there would be an issue, same as if a car was in a deep garage for a week.

 

[bob_p]

When we first received our S 100D, it was already behind in updates. Tesla kept the car overnight and after multiple failed attempts to get the car updated to the latest firmware, they gave up and ordered a new processor board. But when I took the car home, I did reboots of the dashboard/center console - and powered off the car - and within a few minutes the update appeared - and installed. And after that, the car updated correctly.

According to Tesla, the failure this time is different - and it doesn't appear to be a hardware-related problem. The software attempted to download and install several times - and after that failed - their server removed our car from the update list - so it evidently won't receive any more updates until we get Tesla service to manually force an update.

What's disappointing about this - there is no indication in the car or with the smartphone app that this has happened. There weren't any notifications the updates were attempted and failed. And when Tesla's server noted the problem, Tesla didn't notify us of the problem - and indicate we needed to take the car in for service to get the update installed.

 

[boaterva]

When we first received our S 100D, it was already behind in updates. Tesla kept the car overnight and after multiple failed attempts to get the car updated to the latest firmware, they gave up and ordered a new processor board. But when I took the car home, I did reboots of the dashboard/center console - and powered off the car - and within a few minutes the update appeared - and installed. And after that, the car updated correctly.

According to Tesla, the failure this time is different - and it doesn't appear to be a hardware-related problem. The software attempted to download and install several times - and after that failed - their server removed our car from the update list - so it evidently won't receive any more updates until we get Tesla service to manually force an update.

What's disappointing about this - there is no indication in the car or with the smartphone app that this has happened. There weren't any notifications the updates were attempted and failed. And when Tesla's server noted the problem, Tesla didn't notify us of the problem - and indicate we needed to take the car in for service to get the update installed.

Yeah, that’s a broken process. It definitely needs a notification that it failed and what to do about it. Any normal update process would have the client notifiying the server (Tesla) when it had been cleared of the issue and was ready to receive again. Very weird implementation!

 

[bob_p]

One way to get Tesla to fix the process...

Within two weeks of a release being distributed - if every owner who hadn't received the release yet called Tesla's phone support and asked them to check if there was a problem in getting the software sent to their car - Tesla would likely get this problem fixed, so their phone support isn't wasting their time on this!

And... Tesla should provide owners more control over the update process - notifying them when updates are available, when their car should receive the update, and allowing the owners to request the update be installed...

And... Better release notes - as to what is actually being changed would be helpful, plus allowing you to see the release notes BEFORE installing the software would be very useful...

 

[Iluvpcs]

Very simple process. Make it manual like XM radio does, or have a checkbox on the tesla.com portal, or the App to attempt a repush.

 

[bob_p]

Some owners may want to be running the latest software, as soon as it's released, even if that means they may encounter problems that were missed during Tesla's testing.

Others may prefer to wait for a while, and only install stable releases that have had several iterations with bug fixes.