FSD warning: huge hotspot data hog

[LostVector]

Just a quick warning … I engaged the free FSD trial a month and an half ago … and then did a subscription today for a big trip. While FSD was engaged it ran through my hotspot data plan at the rate of several gigs per day. Tesla needs to do a better job of explaining this as it was totally unexpected.

I think it may be possible to work around this by unchecking a bunch of the data sharing options. But still figuring that out.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Just a quick warning … I engaged the free FSD trial a month and an half ago … and then did a subscription today for a big trip. While FSD was engaged it ran through my hotspot data plan at the rate of several gigs per day. Tesla needs to do a better job of explaining this as it was totally unexpected.

I think it may be possible to work around this by unchecking a bunch of the data sharing options. But still figuring that out.

I am assuming that you do not have the connectivity package? Does FSD not run without your hotspot? I'm confused. Have you tested with your hotspot turned off? I don’t think you covered this bit of detail. Thank you.

 

[EVRider-FL]

FSD does not require Premium Connectivity or WiFi. Why were you using a hotspot?

 

[joelliot]

I believe what the original poster is discussing is that if you do have FSD, the car will try to send back information of interest when it does connect to WiFi. The car really has no way of knowing if it is on a hotspot or dedicated Internet. I think a lot of this depends on what Tesla is trying to improve, for example, if you have roundabouts in your drive and that is something Tesla is gathering information on, your car will upload gigabytes of data every drive.

 

[LostVector]

I am assuming that you do not have the connectivity package? Does FSD not run without your hotspot? I'm confused. Have you tested with your hotspot turned off? I don’t think you covered this bit of detail. Thank you.

FSD does not require Premium Connectivity or WiFi. Why were you using a hotspot?

Certain features like music and video streaming work over the hotspot and otherwise need premium connectivity. Hotspot data is included with my cell plan (or at least 30gb worth is) so I use it. I did not turn it on in relation to enabling FSD.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Certain features like music and video streaming work over the hotspot and otherwise need premium connectivity. Hotspot data is included with my cell plan (or at least 30gb worth is) so I use it. I did not turn it on in relation to enabling FSD.

Gotcha. So your theory is that FSD is seeing the WiFi connection and using it to upload data?

 

[LostVector]

Gotcha. So your theory is that FSD is seeing the WiFi connection and using it to upload data?

Yes ... I probably could have named this thread slightly differently because I can see how it's confusing. I think FSD likely uses WiFi to upload multiple GB's of data per day. Hotspot just looks like WiFi to the car so it goes hog wild with the data despite the fact that the hotspot obviously has data limits.

I think some of the data sharing options may fix this, but there's a lot of options to turn off so I'm not sure which ones.

I'm reasonably convinced it's FSD because the hotspot data consumption stopped when FSD trial ran out, and then immediately burned through the rest of my data in the past two days when I re-enabled it for a trip.

I mostly don't need my hotspot in the car at the moment, so I will probably leave it disabled, but I know I'm not the only one who uses their phone to provide connectivity to the car.

 

[BitJam]

If you are only doing one month of FSD then you could consider getting premium connectivity for that month so you don't need to use your hotspot.

Thanks for the heads up!