Hotspot instead of Tesla connectivity

[yessuz]

here's the question:
I already have a phone with unlimited data, which I pay for.
Now, tesla is 10 pounds a month for the premium connectivity. not much, but still.

I wonder if I can have hot spot turned on on my phone and would tesla connect automatically to it even while driving?

I could create an automation with my phone that it will turn on the hot spot every time phone connects to car's BT.

so question is - would this work? can car connect to wifi even driving?

do I need a premium connectivity on the car in order to be able to use all the remote functions, like pre-heating, unlock etc?

 

[sc20]

There's a table on this page showing differences between Premium Connectivity and Wi-Fi What is Tesla Premium Connectivity and What's included

It appears that Live Traffic Visualization and Satellite-View Maps are two features that aren't available via WiFi hotspot.

Can't speak to how easy it is to get the car to connect each time. I am curious since my plan is also unlimited and 5G on EE which is far faster than Tesla's O2 network on 4G. If Tesla was also 5G on a good network I think it would be more of a no-brainer, but it sucks that my phone's data is 10x faster than the car's.

 

[Adopado]

here's the question:
I already have a phone with unlimited data, which I pay for.
Now, tesla is 10 pounds a month for the premium connectivity. not much, but still.

I wonder if I can have hot spot turned on on my phone and would tesla connect automatically to it even while driving?

I could create an automation with my phone that it will turn on the hot spot every time phone connects to car's BT.

so question is - would this work? can car connect to wifi even driving?

do I need a premium connectivity on the car in order to be able to use all the remote functions, like pre-heating, unlock etc?

Yes all remote functions work. The facility to do hotspot on the move and by default came with a software update a while back. So long as you have a connection everything works other than satellite map view I think. Anyway why are you asking…. Just try it and see!

 

[Adopado]

There's a table on this page showing differences between Premium Connectivity and Wi-Fi What is Tesla Premium Connectivity and What's included

It appears that Live Traffic Visualization and Satellite-View Maps are two features that aren't available via WiFi hotspot.

Can't speak to how easy it is to get the car to connect each time. I am curious since my plan is also unlimited and 5G on EE which is far faster than Tesla's O2 network on 4G. If Tesla was also 5G on a good network I think it would be more of a no-brainer, but it sucks that my phone's data is 10x faster than the car's.

Why do you need a faster network? For car connectivity 4g is fine. A reliable connection available everywhere is the priority… and I’m not sure 5g meets that requirement!

 

[Irata]

I use my phone as a hotspot, for my commute it actually proves more reliable than the in car one. The car often loses signal along a certain road, while my mobile does not. This disrupts streaming radio stations.

The problem with a roaming SIM, like in the car, is that it can become sticky to a network until it has no choice but to change. So although in theory it has overall better coverage, that doesn't always translate to a better user experience when on the move.

There is now an option in the car to keep the WiFi connection when in drive, but note this setting is per WiFi network.

 

[sc20]

Why do you need a faster network? For car connectivity 4g is fine. A reliable connection available everywhere is the priority… and I’m not sure 5g meets that requirement!

Whether it's the speed or the coverage I'm not sure, but there have been plenty of occasions where Spotify has been slow at loading tracks or the map has been slow to load, where my phone would normally work well in the same areas. At least the areas I frequent, EE and Vodafone have far better coverage than O2.

 

[Js1977]

Yes all remote functions work. The facility to do hotspot on the move and by default came with a software update a while back. So long as you have a connection everything works other than satellite map view I think. Anyway why are you asking…. Just try it and see!

You need premium connectivity for live view of the sentry cameras if that matters to anyone.

 

[Adopado]

You need premium connectivity for live view of the sentry cameras if that matters to anyone.

Ah yes, I had forgotten that folks without premium connectivity don’t get live camera views.

 

[JonB]

As others have said, it does work.

However, in my car I cannot get it to connect automatically even if I keep my phone's hot spot on permamently. I have to fiddle with the settings every time I get into the car, not ideal on a short trip with several stops but OK I suppose for a long drive as I only have to do it the once. I have a home network it connects to as well, this does seem to be automatic. I just wish it'd swap over when the home network is out of range without me having to faff about with the settings (like amobile phone does, for example).

 

[26ct2143]

As others have said, it does work.

However, in my car I cannot get it to connect automatically even if I keep my phone's hot spot on permamently. I have to fiddle with the settings every time I get into the car, not ideal on a short trip with several stops but OK I suppose for a long drive as I only have to do it the once. I have a home network it connects to as well, this does seem to be automatic. I just wish it'd swap over when the home network is out of range without me having to faff about with the settings (like amobile phone does, for example).

agreed, I find this also.
I selected the phone's wifi hotspot and ticked stay connected when driving...
But when I unlock and drive off, the car will normally switch off it's wifi...

So have to turn wifi on AGAIN when I drive off...

 

[JonB]

Not quite the same as what I'm seeing - my wifi doesn't look as if it is turning off when I go into Drive. It just doesn't connect to my phone automatically when the other access point goes out of range.

 

[Irata]

For those where the WiFi is turning off...

I don't know if this is the difference, but I have ticked the stay connected option for every WiFi network I have setup in the car (even the ones that are not my hotspot).

This seems to work for me, I get in the car and when I leave home it moves onto my phone's hotspot.

I dare not try changing settings now, in case I break it again.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Rather than links to third party websites, the Tesla list is here

Connectivity | Tesla Support United Kingdom

Connectivity is an important part of all Tesla vehicles, further enhancing the driving experience by providing access to features that require data usage. Find out more about Standard and Premium Connectivity.

www.tesla.com

Materially the only thing you lose hot-spotting is the sat images (personally I’ve never used them as I find it harder to tell what’s going on) and visual traffic info (something I’d like but not at £120 a year), it’s worth noting the sat nav still has traffic information, it’s only the visual display of google traffic that’s lost. The new remote sentry camera access also needs it but we have it on another car and I’ve simply never used it.

Others will value these things or the convenience, but for me it’s simply not worth it as I lose so little by not having it.

 

[Adopado]

Rather than links to third party websites, the Tesla list is here

Connectivity | Tesla Support United Kingdom

Connectivity is an important part of all Tesla vehicles, further enhancing the driving experience by providing access to features that require data usage. Find out more about Standard and Premium Connectivity.

www.tesla.com

Materially the only thing you lose hot-spotting is the sat images (personally I’ve never used them as I find it harder to tell what’s going on) and visual traffic info (something I’d like but not at £120 a year), it’s worth noting the sat nav still has traffic information, it’s only the visual display of google traffic that’s lost. The new remote sentry camera access also needs it but we have it on another car and I’ve simply never used it.

Others will value these things or the convenience, but for me it’s simply not worth it as I lose so little by not having it.

Do you get consistent connectivity using your phone? I would have thought that you would have a few more dead areas where your phone's particular network is unavailable.

 

[AutomaticMan]

Rather than links to third party websites, the Tesla list is here

Connectivity | Tesla Support United Kingdom

Connectivity is an important part of all Tesla vehicles, further enhancing the driving experience by providing access to features that require data usage. Find out more about Standard and Premium Connectivity.

www.tesla.com

Materially the only thing you lose hot-spotting is the sat images (personally I’ve never used them as I find it harder to tell what’s going on) and visual traffic info (something I’d like but not at £120 a year), it’s worth noting the sat nav still has traffic information, it’s only the visual display of google traffic that’s lost. The new remote sentry camera access also needs it but we have it on another car and I’ve simply never used it.

Others will value these things or the convenience, but for me it’s simply not worth it as I lose so little by not having it.

Oh, ok, I didn't realise this... I assumed I would have to get the premium connectivity for the traffic stuff. I'm not worried about it displaying on the screen, but I would like it to try to route me around accidents and road closures and things. You're saying that it does this even without premium connectivity?

 

[Rooster6655]

but I would like it to try to route me around accidents and road closures and things. You're saying that it does this even without premium connectivity?

It had better do that as its a pretty common navigation feature these days

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Oh, ok, I didn't realise this... I assumed I would have to get the premium connectivity for the traffic stuff. I'm not worried about it displaying on the screen, but I would like it to try to route me around accidents and road closures and things. You're saying that it does this even without premium connectivity?

Yeah - it's a common misconception about the traffic information. Whats worse is the sat nav doesn't use Google traffic info at all, the google traffic data is only superimposed on the google map, in fact the sat nav doesn't use Google map data either and has its own local map which can be out of date. It's not as bad is it used to be (or wasn't last time I had premium cnnecectivity to see), but you get occassions where the nav takes you on convoluted route for no obvious reason on the map and its because there is a traffic incident still showing on the traffic info service that Tesla use. On a similar basis the nav might route you directly into a red area on google maps because the Tesla Nav traffic feed hasn't flagged it yet.

TL;DR Google maps and visible traffic info <> sat nav maps and sat nav traffic info (the latter of which you get irrespective of premium)

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Do you get consistent connectivity using your phone? I would have thought that you would have a few more dead areas where your phone's particular network is unavailable.

I don't use my phone hotspot at all as the only thing I'd need it for when driving is music streaming and I either listen to the radio or HD files on a USB drive.

 

[AutomaticMan]

Yeah - it's a common misconception about the traffic information. Whats worse is the sat nav doesn't use Google traffic info at all, the google traffic data is only superimposed on the google map, in fact the sat nav doesn't use Google map data either and has its own local map which can be out of date. It's not as bad is it used to be (or wasn't last time I had premium cnnecectivity to see), but you get occassions where the nav takes you on convoluted route for no obvious reason on the map and its because there is a traffic incident still showing on the traffic info service that Tesla use. On a similar basis the nav might route you directly into a red area on google maps because the Tesla Nav traffic feed hasn't flagged it yet.

TL;DR Google maps and visible traffic info <> sat nav maps and sat nav traffic info

Oh that's great, you probably just saved me a tenner a month so thanks very much!

It looks like you can sign up for and then cancel premium connectivity at any time without a contract, so I expect what I will do is buy it for a month if I'm ever taking a trip into Europe. Now that mobile phone companies are adding roaming charges back post-brexit, I probably wouldn't want to use my phone as a hotspot for watching Netflix and things on travels in Europe. Plus the remote sentry viewing might be useful if I'm away from the car all day on holiday doing touristy things. Of course, this assumes that premium connectivity still works when you cross international borders... I assume that it does, but maybe I should double check that!

 

[Durzel]

I have Premium Connectivity and use my phone’s hotspot in the car, for the simple reason that it tricks TIDAL into thinking that the car is on a static wireless network, so it plays stuff in higher quality.

Something to be aware of - you can only connect to WiFi when in Park. Once on the move unless you’ve already connected and you’ve set that network to stay connected when in Drive (the checkbox) then you can’t connect to any wireless network.