How's life without Premium Connectivity?

[exxxviii]

Just thought I'd add that I'm a little frustrated with car companies adopting subscriptions. Stories of BMWs with subscriptions for heated seats has me worried for the future. That and I'm already paying for Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus. It's getting a little nuts.

Every carmaker has been doing connectivity subscriptions for a while, and not just EVs. This was tied to cost of the cellular services plus additional services. On the plus side, Tesla's $10/month is one of the cheaper. It could be worse - they might want $25/month like GM for OnStar connected services on the Lyriq.

But, what chaps my arse is subscriptions for hardware you bought. This is an epic BMW fail and one of the many reasons I will probably never own another BMW. EAP and FSD kind of fall in the middle. Tesla gives you the option to buy them (at exorbitant prices) or rent them for a subscription that is a tiny fraction of the own it cost.

 

[bobbyjae]

Life is good because I'm not paying for another unnecessary subscription.

 

[Bubblehead]

I think it's priceless. PC gives you live traffic conditions, which allows nav to give you a different route based on your "save time" setting. A must have for me since my commute is 56 miles each way. Subscribed to Tidal to check out, Love it, and cant see losing it. Apple music was a nice addition and my wife and I almost exclusively use both. I'm just surprised that Tesla only wants $100 a year for it.

 

[arbitrage000]

I'm just surprised that Tesla only wants $100 a year for it.

....don't let them know it is a good deal.....

 

[Tonedog77]

i cant even fathom someone not willing to pay 99 dollars are year for it

 

[epicshooter]

Every carmaker has been doing connectivity subscriptions for a while, and not just EVs. This was tied to cost of the cellular services plus additional services. On the plus side, Tesla's $10/month is one of the cheaper. It could be worse - they might want $25/month like GM for OnStar connected services on the Lyriq.

But, what chaps my arse is subscriptions for hardware you bought. This is an epic BMW fail and one of the many reasons I will probably never own another BMW. EAP and FSD kind of fall in the middle. Tesla gives you the option to buy them (at exorbitant prices) or rent them for a subscription that is a tiny fraction of the own it cost.

Agree- I purchased with Audi, paid in advance and it is what drove me away from Audi. They killed sat maps and lowered connection speed two separate times. That was enough to ditch the brand.

 

[Kokukenji]

About a couple of months without Prem connectivity and so far there are definitely some things that I thing I'm missing out on, like direct connect to sentry when parking at sketchy places and this feeling that when I use the map, it's not getting the latest update so it would tell me to take the wrong.slower route. The map issue, I would have my phone also mapping to the same place, which is redundant but unsure if this is just the downside of Tesla map vs. Prem connectivity feature or not.

 

[YNoVA]

I paid $60k for this car, another $99/yr isn't going to break me.

 

[Noflash]

Sometimes when using navigation, I am skeptical of the route Tesla suggests, I pull up directions on my phone, and they are different. I also like that Google directions on my phone give you visible options on routes. I might take a longer route to avoid a sketchy part of town.

Again, $100 is going to break anyone here. I just lit my cigar with a c-note to emphasize the point.

 

[fiehlsport]

I think it's priceless. PC gives you live traffic conditions, which allows nav to give you a different route based on your "save time" setting. A must have for me since my commute is 56 miles each way. Subscribed to Tidal to check out, Love it, and cant see losing it. Apple music was a nice addition and my wife and I almost exclusively use both. I'm just surprised that Tesla only wants $100 a year for it.

Tesla navigation still uses live traffic data for routing without premium connectivity. You just don't have the visuals on the screen.

Man, there's a lot of incorrect info in this thread about Premium Connectivity.

 

[exxxviii]

I think it's priceless. PC gives you live traffic conditions, which allows nav to give you a different route based on your "save time" setting.

Great point! I forgot mapping needs connectivity for traffic data for routing. That puts connectivity back into the must have category, since the car does not have CarPlay or Android Auto for mapping.

 

[Noflash]

Great point! I forgot mapping needs connectivity for traffic data for routing. That puts connectivity back into the must have category, since the car does not have CarPlay or Android Auto for mapping.

But it just shows green, orange, and red? It never gives multiple route options. It would re-route you if needed, but it would do that without premium.

 

[fiehlsport]

Great point! I forgot mapping needs connectivity for traffic data for routing. That puts connectivity back into the must have category, since the car does not have CarPlay or Android Auto for mapping.

The car has connectivity for traffic data. It uses it for routing even without Premium Connectivity. You just don't get the visuals without PC.

Navigation routes are *no* different with or without PC.

 

[iamnid]

Great point! I forgot mapping needs connectivity for traffic data for routing. That puts connectivity back into the must have category, since the car does not have CarPlay or Android Auto for mapping.

No, no, no. Mapping does NOT need connectivity for traffic data for routing. We need to nip this in the bud. As others have stated in this thread, you still get traffic-based routing without premium connectivity -- you just don't see the traffic colors along your route.

What you do NOT get without premium connectivity:

Sentry live view
Satellite view on maps
Traffic-based color on maps
Streaming (spotify, tidal, netflix etc.)

I think that's it, unless I'm forgetting something. We have 2 cars. One with connectivity and one without. There's very little difference if you don't use the streaming features. Personally, I enjoy the colors on the traffic and I enjoy being able to watch netflix while charging without having to tether to my phone for data. Tethering DOES work fine for all streaming services though if you don't mind messing around with it.

Please, go back and read the chart posted in post #19 -- it explains everything.

 

[brkaus]

(seems silly to withhold a free Google feature)

Definitely takes more cellular bandwidth, which Tesla pays by the usage Not sure if google charges them more. Google doesn’t provide all this for free.

 

[mickeys_stepda]

I don’t have premium connectivity and i do not miss it. I didn’t really even realize i had lost it after the trial lapsed. I have never needed the in car entertainment while charging as i have never spent more than 10 minutes at a supercharger.

 

[Happy Hippo]

I would get it. It is a tech car and a major reason people buy it is b/c it is a tech car. Why wouldn't you want the premium connectivity? I am keeping mine when my free trial is up in a week.

 

[Eto Demerzel]

No, no, no. Mapping does NOT need connectivity for traffic data for routing. We need to nip this in the bud. As others have stated in this thread, you still get traffic-based routing without premium connectivity -- you just don't see the traffic colors along your route.

What you do NOT get without premium connectivity:

Sentry live view
Satellite view on maps
Traffic-based color on maps
Streaming (spotify, tidal, netflix etc.)

I think that's it, unless I'm forgetting something. We have 2 cars. One with connectivity and one without. There's very little difference if you don't use the streaming features. Personally, I enjoy the colors on the traffic and I enjoy being able to watch netflix while charging without having to tether to my phone for data. Tethering DOES work fine for all streaming services though if you don't mind messing around with it.

Please, go back and read the chart posted in post #19 -- it explains everything.

How do you tether? I didn't think you could hook up to a hotspot

I don’t have premium connectivity and i do not miss it. I didn’t really even realize i had lost it after the trial lapsed. I have never needed the in car entertainment while charging as i have never spent more than 10 minutes at a supercharger.

Same here. Only thing is it would be nice to web browse and the streaming music but I plan on a usb w/ mp3's.

 

[arbitrage000]

How do you tether? I didn't think you could hook up to a hotspot


Same here. Only thing is it would be nice to web browse and the streaming music but I plan on a usb w/ mp3's.

You can use a hotspot from your phone. Turn on the hotspot and select it from the list of available WiFi networks on the Tesla. That is how I tried to run mine for a couple weeks. It works but sometimes you have to go into the Wifi settings and tell it to connect. Other times it connected automatically. It was too annoying to me so I subscribed. But when the car is properly connected it works just fine using your phone's data. You still don't get satellite maps or live sentry view. But you can run the video streaming services. Although I'm not sure if Apple Music, Spotify or Tidal work via hotspot??

 

[bradtem]

I only buy premium connectivity when going on a road trip. In that case it's nice to get access to the different cell network (sometimes my phone has no signal and the car does) though the browser in the car is close to useless, sadly.

If you really want the features you can tether to your phone, which gets you almost all of them while driving, though it's not tremendously convenient, so if you use the in-car streaming and other things regularly you may want to pay for it. Waze has better nav, though yes, it can be nice to see the traffic on the screen. We tend to check the route in Waze and make sure the Tesla agrees with it, and if it doesn't, drive the Waze one until the Tesla agrees.

Remote access of sentry cameras isn't something I do, if you care about it you can pay for this service.

It would be nice if it were *more* useful on road trips, by letting my phone tether to the car, to do things like booking motels in areas where the phone doesn't have service but the car does. If the browser were better...