FM Radio Solution for Upgraded MCU2 cars?

[bob_p]

Performing a non-Tesla hardware upgrade should invalidate the warranty for anything that could be impacted by that upgrade (which could cause software, hardware or security problems). Rather than not activating the hardware, Tesla should activate the hardware and provide notification that by doing so, any issues related to the MCU will not be covered under the remaining warranty.

Let the customer decide...

Tesla should provide an option for upgrading the radio - if it is more labor-intensive, then provide a quote for the labor cost.

Let the customer decide...

 

[drklain]

@bob_p at the end of the day, the customer can decide buy choosing whether or not to purchase something from Tesla. Tesla is under no obligation to offer something to the customer if they don't want to.

Lots of people who purchased iPhones didn't like the fact they were locked into the ITunes store for apps and could not do unapproved things to their phones...and complained. Apple responded that they believe the closed ecosystem is the best approach for security and consistency of the user experience and told them to pound sand. Same principal applies here.

 

[quickstrike12]

Since you bring up the iPhone as an example. When they made the decision to remove the headphone jack from the phone people went crazy about this decision and got mad at Apple.
Then of course went out and still bought the phone and complained. And here we are now the industry seems to be moving in the direction of not having this. At least in the Apple world. many people believe traditional radio will go by the wayside also at some point.

 

[Barry]

^^^ Reasons I have never owned and will never buy an Apple product.

 

[bob_p]

Compared to other manufacturers, Tesla took a very unusual step in even offering the MCU upgrade - especially for vehicles that are now over 3 years old.

For those of us who frequently listen to FM/HD/XM radio, we have decided not to downgrade the media player with the Infotainment upgrade.

And it's unlikely Tesla will change their position on supporting either Tesla or 3rd party upgrades for the radio.

However, for those of us who purchased FSD, we did get the FSD computer upgrade, and at least so far, FSD/MCU1 vehicles are getting the same AutoPilot features as FSD/MCU2 vehicles - which for us is more important than the MCU2 features we didn't get by skipping the Infotainment upgrade.

 

[smilepak]

Compared to other manufacturers, Tesla took a very unusual step in even offering the MCU upgrade - especially for vehicles that are now over 3 years old.

For those of us who frequently listen to FM/HD/XM radio, we have decided not to downgrade the media player with the Infotainment upgrade.

And it's unlikely Tesla will change their position on supporting either Tesla or 3rd party upgrades for the radio.

However, for those of us who purchased FSD, we did get the FSD computer upgrade, and at least so far, FSD/MCU1 vehicles are getting the same AutoPilot features as FSD/MCU2 vehicles - which for us is more important than the MCU2 features we didn't get by skipping the Infotainment upgrade.

Well it’s not like it is free upgrade. It’s a business calculation and we the consumer pay them for the upgrade, they made a profit off it.

the whole FM not being there is half baked design

 

[P100D_Me]

the whole FM not being there is half baked design

Yes it is indeed, but if it is all too hard to fit an analog tuner externally for the MCU2 then you think they could have at least tried to make a DAB radio work. Most of the AM & FM stations are on DAB as well, my main concern is how poor Spotify and TuneIn work, it's embarrassing how unstable they are and yet people 'upgrading' to MCU2 from 1 are lumped with those as their only choice. Maybe Tesla think that the spinning circle of nothingness or 'loading error' is acceptable operation.

 

[drklain]

@P100D_Me Just FYI, since I got the MCU2 upgrade, Tune-in and Spotify work flawlessly for me and I haven't had an issue getting radio stations that way....

 

[P100D_Me]

Maybe MCU2 is just better at handling Tune-in and Spotify, but if I had no FM in my car then often I would be driving in silence because of the flakiness of the streaming functions.
As long as I can remember Spofity will get a loading error when I leave the garage and attempt to change a song once it has left the WiFi range and switches to what might be a marginal cell signal. It never recovers, I have to switch away to FM and then back to Spotify multiple times before it works.

 

[drklain]

Agreed. It did NOT work well in my MCU1. The difference with MCU2 is night and day and similar to the difference in the web browser, map rendering and navigation calculations...all likely for the same reason.

 

[Buschik]

I've upgraded my 2015 MS70D to MCU2, and, as expected, lost AM/FM/XM.. I wonder if the analog radio was actually removed or just unplugged. I have seen a couple links to swapping,installing the digital tuner from a 2017/18/19 to regain the functions .. along with wiring and resetting the MCU to see the tuner and work accordingly.

My attempt at regaining FM is to use the browser and bring up the stations webpage.. only problem I have is several of them have popups that I cant click through, and I think Flash is req'd .. so .. no go using the Info/entertainment unit :/ the FM radio app on my Samsung phone doesnt stream thru BT, so I'm stuck there .. *sigh* .. streaming isnt bad, just was hoping to listen to KEZ's 24hr Christmas music which starts next week and sadly, the loss of XM is the same, though, I have a Delphi outboard XM receiver with -can- BT .. so that my next (likely last) thing to try..

 

[Krash]

...I wonder if the analog radio was actually removed or just unplugged...

Not removed. But I never thought about how many future MCU2 upgraded cars will eventually be parted out and have analog MCU1 tuners in them.

...I have seen a couple links to swapping,installing the digital tuner from a 2017/18/19 to regain the functions .. along with wiring and resetting the MCU to see the tuner and work accordingly...

I think this requires kdday, green or wk057 level gateway super powers. Not for mere mortals.

 

[Galinette]

Hey, I just had an information from my service center manager that they will offer a FM/DAB retrofit later on for people who did the MCU2 upgrade. This is in Europe though. You should ask other SC to check if they have the same info.

 

[KyleDay]

Actually, it wasn’t unplugged. The cabling between tuner 1 and mcu2 is still connected - it just doesn’t do anything. Mcu2 has a newly introduced 4 pin connector to go to the tuner2. Nothing is left unplugged.

 

[Buschik]

The receiver swap, didnt look that difficult .. I may try it once the weather gets a bit cooler (been 63 days of 110F + ) so i'm not in a hurry to crawl under the dash to check it .. maybe November I can do the wiring, just finding the receiver from a parts yard, and plugs (again, not gonna be quick about digging in a junk yard), as it's not likely the parts guys pull those. so, waiting for cooler temps is 1st on the list.

 

[smilepak]

I was a f. up design to omit the whole digital tuner as part of the whole upgrade conversion.

 

[KyleDay]

The receiver swap, didnt look that difficult .. I may try it once the weather gets a bit cooler (been 63 days of 110F + ) so i'm not in a hurry to crawl under the dash to check it .. maybe November I can do the wiring, just finding the receiver from a parts yard, and plugs (again, not gonna be quick about digging in a junk yard), as it's not likely the parts guys pull those. so, waiting for cooler temps is 1st on the list.

Swapping won’t help unless you have root access on mcu2 to enable the tuner2 module. Otherwise it won’t do anything

 

[P100D_Me]

I just had an information from my service center manager that they will offer a FM/DAB retrofit later on for people who did the MCU2 upgrade.

Really this should have been the case from the start.

 

[TravelFree]

Friend of mine sent me this link which will debunk the hearsay from official word on the MCU2 upgrade and tuner.

Infotainment Upgrade

 

[zanary]

Friend of mine sent me this link which will debunk the hearsay from official word on the MCU2 upgrade and tuner.

Infotainment Upgrade

(1) It's not Hearsay. When the Infotainment Ugrade Package became available, there was no officially way to keep the radio.
(2) The addition you're noticing was added in the past week or two so it's a new option available.
(3) To keep the radio, it's another cost, meaning it's not part of the $2500 Infotainment Ugrade Package. I don't recall seeing anyone mention the price yet, but I suspect maybe another $500 or $750 and they will upgrade the tuner for you after you also pay the $2500 Infotainment Ugrade Package.