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FSD upgraded today - MCU1 is crawling on its knees
- Thread starter njhtran
- Start date
The only think I could see happening is Tesla doing a limited time discount price similar to FSD. Granted everything else from Tesla has been reduced In price at one point. I feel like the MCU is another appreciating asset given that it will eventually have more entertainment abilities.
BigMskiman
Active Member
My related case written in this thread. Agree it's complicated as to what our options are based on what our car offers.
Anyway, I'm testing the w/o FSD path for a while, not for savings, just to know.
2017 model X HW3 and MCU2 upgrade
So, you had EAP with MCU1+HW2.5 and now upgraded to MCU2+HW3 without purchasing FSD? Also is ur FSD price dropped to $3K in your APP?
BigMskiman
Active Member
Yes
Before: EAP with MCU1 +AP2 (MCU burned out which put me maybe to front of the line)
After: Infotainment as I described in other thread below, yes still w/o FSD.
I'm mistaken: APP shows it's $5k still, and my inbox shows $3k for a previous date deadline. Sorry about that.
2017 model X HW3 and MCU2 upgrade
That's great! Is your car now display the traffic lights & stop sign at least in IC? I understand it cannot stop or take action without FSD. but at least visuals are cool to have. EAP includes emergency alert anyway if you happen to run a red light. It is there even on HW2.5.
BigMskiman
Active Member
Yes, stop signs, painted STOP on the pavement, and trash cans show in the IC now. It's looking out farther for cars it seems.
BigMskiman
Active Member
Also, traffic lights, their color & construction cones.
My smart summons is broke, telling me cameras are calibrating, but that already happened in about 10 miles of driving. It may not grandfather from EAP and I need FSD. Navigate on AutoPilot and all other functions seem to be working though.
I'd love to know what's different. I mean, it's not like anyone could necessarily tell if they had say "MCU 1.0 vs MCU 1.1" so this may be true, but I'd like to understand rather than blindly believe it based on "All 2.0 vehicles" when only a small sample set would post online about it. Also, it's probably just nitpicking and not relevant, but no, 2.5 vehicles haven't always had dashcam, 2.5 came out before dashcam came out, so they've only had it since it was released. In any case, the odds of a "MCU 1.0 to MCU1.1" transition happening at the exact same time as AP2.0 to AP2.5 transition are slim-to-none. So if this were true, there would likely be a number of "unicorns" out there that either did NOT experience this issue even though they started with AP 2.0 or DID experience this issue even though they started with AP 2.5.
I sort of wonder if the slowness isn't the MCU1 ingesting the updated mapping data. Does the slowness go away and return to normal MCU1 speed after a while?
rush6410
Member
I just got reading an article, I don't remember which site and article, about the different MCU versions. It read that there were two versions for MCU1 with the only difference being a port that changed on the back. It also stated that all AP2.0 and 2.5 vehicles with MCU1 had the second version.
rush6410
Member
The slowness goes away when the USB drive is not installed in the port. It is tremendous when the USB drive is inserted in the port regardless if it is actively recording or not.
That conflicts with your suggestion that the older MCU is causing the problem on AP2.0 vehicles, because they would have the same MCU. However, there is a lot of misinformation out there, and that's why I've asked for evidence. For instance, the port change may actually have changed with AP2.5, and that may be why AP2.0 owners who want an MCU2 have to pay extra. I actually have a theory that would support AP2.0 vehicles consistently having the problem post-upgrade, but only if they are using dashcam, but it's just that, a theory.
This would invalidate my theory (the AP2.0 2 color cameras could use more bandwidth due to an older codec), but an inactive USB device slowing down the MCU when AP3.0 hardware is installed that didn't slow down the same MCU when AP2.0 hardware was installed makes zero sense. That sounds more likely to be related to a problem USB device than the FSD upgrade. It is also possible that the USB device isn't so inactive after all, but someone experiencing the problem and knowledgeable enough to investigate would be required to suss that out.
rush6410
Member
It could also indicate that there are other hardware differences such as busses, cameras which we know are different.
My findings were tested with three USB drives all with different transfer rates but all within stated specs for the drive. Where I ended up with my choice of USB drive came directly from the manual for known tested drives by Tesla (SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive). All with the same results; when installed in usb port - immediate MCU1 lag noted, when not installed - no lag and acting as before. The lag is very evident. Navigation and voice commands struggle tremendously when initiating either.
Other potential problems could be firmware specific to the initial AP2.0 configurations that differ from AP2.5 vehicles. Or camera bandwidth to MCU1 issues. The cameras feed to FSD seems to be fine since there is no lag noted with FSD visualization recognition or AP reaction issues.
There are obviously more differences since the upgrade kit itself is different between AP2.0 and AP2.5 vehicles.
Since I am just one data point with AP2.0 to FSD with MCU1, I would like to have other folks test my theory of slowness being related to the USB drive installed or not.
A known and proven issue that has been supported by all AP2.0 to AP3.0 MCU1 observations is the dashcam recordings stutters and randomly but frequently has spots of low res quality. These observations have not been reported on AP2.5 to AP3 MCU1 configurations.
So, I would conclude there is something else going on besides the MCU1 hardware incompatibilities.
Here is a link to the MCU1 specs that provides the data you may be looking for. Autopilot, Processors and Hardware – MCU & HW Demystified | TeslaTap. I think we can conclude that all AP2.0 vehicles had the second version of MCU1 since they all shipped with LTE capability.
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Right, my theory was that the older cameras used less efficient compression (and thusly more bandwidth). However, then the issue should only occur when the camera feeds are being routed to the MCU. I suppose there could be a bug (or poor design choice as the case may be) where camera feeds are always sent to the MCU while USB is connected with a TeslaCam folder regardless of whether or not dashcam or sentry mode are active.
ETA: Technically, such a bug / poor design choice wouldn't necessarily require the TeslaCam folder, either.
Shaz
Member
Interesting theory...will test out my slow MCU 1 after removing the USB SSD 256 GB drive...will report back when I get a chance. I had AP 2.0 which was upgraded to HW3.
Shaz
Member
Had a chance to try this out. Went on a 4 hr road trip over the weekend and tried the first hour with usb detached and response time seems to have improved as there were no more delay in enabling autopilot while driving. Noticed the menu were a bit faster as well. I then plugged in the usb drive and the delay to turn on autopilot was not noticeable at first but as the ride went on I started seeing delays again. I left the usb attached for the remainder of the trip. What's interesting is that we did a stop over and when coming back to the car the MCU looks to have restarted as it was showing the Tesla T logo. Also during this time the chime that plays when opening the falcon wing doors did not play when I opened them.
So I think usb has a part slowing down the MCU1 but note entirely sure. This could just be a placebo effect thinking that the MCU is faster detaching the usb ...but really could have been the same.
In the end I'm giving up as I don't want my MCU dying during one of our road trips as it's becoming a safety concern for me. I've schedule an MCU 2 upgrade in a couple weeks.
I'm aware of the eMMC upgrade , but would rather have Tesla deal with this as this is our only car and will need a loaner.
Good luck to all with MCU1. I am hoping Tesla sends out an update to help those with MCU 1 after FSD upgrade.
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