How to keep M3 attached to WiFi?

[seantay00]

I've been trying to keep car attached to WIFi as much as possible. I just learned it appears it won't stay connected to my phone hotspot while driving, and only will use WiFi while in park. I left my phone in my car for several hours to see if I could snag the update... however when I returned the car wasn't associated to any WiFi and had to be "awoken" to reconnect.

Any tricks?

Do I need to have it plugged into power so it stays constantly on WiFi?

 

[mswlogo]

I read that it does not maintain a WIFI connection. It waits for a signal via LTE to wake up and connect for updates.
Maybe it will stay on WIFI if no LTE available.

I only read on a forum. But it does make sense to do this because WIFI might take more power than LTE.

 

[MP3Mike]

I just learned it appears it won't stay connected to my phone hotspot while driving, and only will use WiFi while in park.

Did you connect to your phones WiFi after you put the car in drive? By default it disconnects from WiFi when you put it in drive to prevent map/streaming audio issues as you drive away from your WiFi network.

 

[OPRCE]

When you engage Drive from Park, it switches to LTE. At that point just pause and re-tether to the phone and it should remain connected until the sequence repeats.

 

[seantay00]

Today I waited until car was in park then setup wifi. It still disconnected when I check on it an hour later.

 

[mswlogo]

Today I waited until car was in park then setup wifi. It still disconnected when I check on it an hour later.

That’s normal for Model 3 to shutdown WiFi when the car deep sleeps.

To compound things, If using an iPhone hotspot (possibly depending on plan and/or carrier), the iPhone won’t allow reconnect on its own without helping it. If hotspot has no active clients while phone is asleep it shuts down the hotspot.

This is on an unlimited Verizon plan. I think they do this so it’s inconvenient to keep an hotspot open and available. It also saves a ton on battery. My plan heavily throttle hotspot as well.

It would be nearly impossible to do an update via my phone. Unless you can predict when it will try to download the update.

Not sure what Android does these days.

 

[buddhra]

I work in an area that has no AT&T service so I tried to use a Verizon jetpack to give it a wifi signal throughout the day, but it doesn't work. As soon as the car goes to sleep it drops out. BUT, sentry mode keeps the car awake all the time, so maybe it will stay connected to wifi if sentry is enabled?

 

[mswlogo]

I work in an area that has no AT&T service so I tried to use a Verizon jetpack to give it a wifi signal throughout the day, but it doesn't work. As soon as the car goes to sleep it drops out. BUT, sentry mode keeps the car awake all the time, so maybe it will stay connected to wifi if sentry is enabled?

The disconnect is not an issue. As long as the hotspot can stay available for when the car feels like reconnecting you should be all set. Keeping WIFI active is not gonna speed up the updates.

It sounds like the jet pack would be no different than a regular WiFi router. And the car will work as it normally does for updates. Which will disconnect/connect from WiFi when it feels like it.

 

[brkaus]

I don't believe it matters one bit how much it's connected to wifi.

Why the goal of staying connected? If it is updates, I'm pretty sure the mothership decides when the car is ready... and then the car downloads the next time it connects.

 

[buddhra]

The disconnect is not an issue. As long as the hotspot can stay available for when the car feels like reconnecting you should be all set. Keeping WIFI active is not gonna speed up the updates.

It sounds like the jet pack would be no different than a regular WiFi router. And the car will work as it normally does for updates. Which will disconnect/connect from WiFi when it feels like it.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm not trying to stay on wifi for faster updates (and I don't think it would matter anyway). I want to be able to use the app at work where I have no AT&T, but in either case, I think sentry mode might keep wifi active. It has stayed connected to my google wifi at home for 20+ minutes so far.

 

[ewoodrick]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm not trying to stay on wifi for faster updates (and I don't think it would matter anyway). I want to be able to use the app at work where I have no AT&T, but in either case, I think sentry mode might keep wifi active. It has stayed connected to my google wifi at home for 20+ minutes so far.

I'm pretty sure that the app actually doesn't support Wi-Fi. That comes from some personal experiences and other comments here. It only uses the cellular connection.
When the car connects to Wi-Fi, it is pretty much a short term thing. It checks to see if there is an update and then connects.

 

[buddhra]

Can confirm that sentry mode keeps wifi going.

I've currently been at work for 2 hours with no AT&T signal. I connected to my wifi hotspot and turned on sentry mode before I left the car. The car is still accessible from the app. It connects and updates pretty much immediately and I've lost 1% of my battery charge.

 

[oliverpecha]

I have set up a reliable wifi router at my garage where Tesla doesn't have cellular connection at all.

Even with sentry mode on, it eventually disconnects from wifi after a day or two in idle.