Firmware Version 9

[ℬête Noire]

There's a reason why almost every major car manufacturer is turning to CarPlay or Android Auto for media/connectivity.

That reason being making a nice native UI is hard work that requires a lot of software adeptness, and basically all of their's suck donkey nuggets anyway where as it's much easier to just do a cheap and dirty hack to cover the whole thing up with full screen CP or AA? Or that none of them have OTA capability so CP and AA are their only shot at keeping their UX from starting to look dated while the vehicle is still standing on the sales lot?

On the other hand that doesn't really apply to Tesla since their screen UI is also their most basic driver control interface, so they've got to shoehorn this sometimes-crap interface they don't have control over into their overall UI. The result will be almost certainly be an AA/CP component to the UX that is at style odds with the rest of Tesla's screen, usually to a jarring degree, resulting in a artless dog's breakfast look.

 

[chillaban]

Yeah, I get that they want it to be a revenue stream, but I'd like to think (and hope) Elon is a little smarter than trying to get people to pay for something that someone else does better. There's a reason why almost every major car manufacturer is turning to CarPlay or Android Auto for media/connectivity. There's just no sense in trying to create your own media ecosystem. The smartphones function as people's central hub for all of that.

Honestly, I think the reason is that Qualcomm, Nvidia, and integrators like Harman have been pushing arm64 platforms with virtualization extensions to automotive companies that include Android Auto and Carplay certification as a part of the featureset, and as automakers adopt that, they're now magically coming out with CarPlay / AA capable cars.

Here in my industry we've been interviewing candidates that have been working on these platforms for the last 2-3 years and leaving once they're productized. It sure doesn't seem like a trivial effort to add support for these things, for a company that's already stretched thin and wants to make everything in-house rather than buying from the traditional supplier ecosystem.

 

[woodisgood]

That reason being making a nice native UI is hard work that requires a lot of software adeptness, and basically all of their's suck donkey nuggets anyway where as it's much easier to just do a cheap and dirty hack to cover the whole thing up with full screen CP or AA? Or that none of them have OTA capability so CP and AA are their only shot at keeping their UX from starting to look dated while the vehicle is still standing on the sales lot?

On the other hand that doesn't really apply to Tesla since their screen UI is also their most basic driver control interface, so they've got to shoehorn this sometimes-crap interface they don't have control over into their overall UI. The result will be almost certainly be an AA/CP component to the UX that is at style odds with the rest of Tesla's screen, usually to a jarring degree, resulting in a artless dog's breakfast look.

I agree there are aesthetic considerations here. But given that Tesla's interface is probably closer to iOS than anything else, it seems a fitting version of CarPlay could be developed, beneficial to both Tesla and Apple and implemented seamlessly and beautifully.
I agree that CP is clunky-looking, but it's clunky because it goes into clunky interfaces.

 

[daniel]

Recently I've been listening to the streaming music. The only thing they have I like is the Baroque channel. But they never play a whole piece. Just isolated movements from pieces. If they start charging me for this I'll just go back to playing music from my own collection on the USB drive or from my phone.

I don't care about streaming music, and I think that games are a stupid idea because until the car is truly FSD you can't play games while driving. I want the serious safety features like blind spot monitoring: Show me vehicles in my blind spots, not in front of the car where I can already see them. That's just screen clutter. Or traffic light recognition and stopping when a pedestrian steps into the crosswalk. I'd probably upgrade to the FSD package for those features.

 

[Interferon]

Well, Elon said 9.0 would be out at the end of August, at least for beta testers. There is a half-hour left.

Any bets on it coming out on schedule?

 

[bahree]

I think we all have learned not to dwell on elon time.

 

[gilscales]

We still have 10 min PST

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

Whole year left until the end of August! V9 is coming, I can sense it.

 

[Mazari4life]

I wish to receive notification on the screen when I receive a text.

 

[daniel]

I think we all have learned not to dwell on elon time.

Elon is a chrono-optimist. He expects things to happen much sooner than they can actually get done. On the good side, he is flexible, and rather than insisting on sticking to his arbitrary deadlines he lets his people get it right before coming out with it. The result is that nothing comes out when promised, but when it does come out it's the best in the industry.

I'll take that. Just don't ever get your hopes up about deadlines, or make firm plans based on them.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I think we all have learned not to dwell on elon time.

My thoughts are currently with the poor saps that missed the deadline, it's going to be a Bad Week for them and their families until such time as the updates start propagating out there. The pressure, as much as it was undoubtably high leading to hear, will have step up another sizable notch.

P.S. It is possible, right, that the Model S/X will begin receiving 9.0 before/after the Model 3 does? I know some updates start shipping at the same time but not all of them. Seems quite likely there could be a notable difference here, too.

 

[daniel]

I would expect them to roll it out slowly, if it's such a big re-write as people seem to expect. It would be nice if they allowed people to sign up (perhaps via their My Tesla account page) to get new updates early or late. Maybe Jack wants to get updates as soon as possible, and Joe would rather wait until others have discovered the bugs and the second or third revision comes out.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I would expect them to roll it out slowly, if it's such a big re-write as people seem to expect. It would be nice if they allowed people to sign up (perhaps via their My Tesla account page) to get new updates early or late. Maybe Jack wants to get updates as soon as possible, and Joe would rather wait until others have discovered the bugs and the second or third revision comes out.

The downloading the firmware patch is automated but Initiating the update flashing process is manual, right? Haver there ever been updates that you are not allowed to reject?

I mean besides when you take the car for service and they deem a firmware update as required for the work.

 

[FloridaJohn]

Well, Elon said 9.0 would be out at the end of August, at least for beta testers. There is a half-hour left.

Any bets on it coming out on schedule?

Most likely the beta testers are under a NDA and will be unable to speak about what’s in the new version. For all we know, the beta testers have already had the software for weeks.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Most likely the beta testers are under a NDA and will be unable to speak about what’s in the new version. For all we know, the beta testers have already had the software for weeks.

Doesn't that usually cause blips on the data gathering services, Teslafi and that other one that I forget the name of? Has there been any hints of it there?

 

[daniel]

The downloading the firmware patch is automated but Initiating the update flashing process is manual, right? Haver there ever been updates that you are not allowed to reject?

I mean besides when you take the car for service and they deem a firmware update as required for the work.

True. You can choose not to install. But there are people who'd like to get it right away. I don't want to be the very first, but I also don't want to be late in the queue.

 

[davedavedave]

Most likely the beta testers are under a NDA and will be unable to speak about what’s in the new version. For all we know, the beta testers have already had the software for weeks.

...and that they live among us.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Haver there ever been updates that you are not allowed to reject?

There's been at least one. In about 2014, a Model S with air suspension, which was set to lower automatically at highway speed, hit a trailer hitch that had fallen off a truck, and the trailer hitch punctured the front module of the battery pack.

Tesla pushed a software update that disabled air suspension auto-lowering, and this update was forced with no way to opt out.

Once Tesla redesigned the battery shield with the titanium plate and retro-fitted all Model S vehicles with it, a subsequent regular update reenabled the auto-lowering feature, although the lowest setting was about 0.75" higher than it was previously.

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

It's happening! 2018.34 is rolling out...

 

[ℬête Noire]

It's happening! 2018.34 is rolling out...

Confirmed that it’s 9.0?

EDIT: Checked the S forum, appears that it is not: Software Update 2018.34 b4c2b9a