HW3 upgrade lost game progress and profiles?!

[APotatoGod]

I just got my car back from getting the upgrade to hardware 3, and found that apparently all my progress on Stardew Valley, Beach Buggy Racing, and Cuphead has been lost!

Why is there apparently no way to backup the progress and restore it, or to transfer it over to the new computer?? I can't be the only one that's put a lot of time into those games, and was not willing to have all my progress wiped without even being warned beforehand? Does anyone know of a solution to restore the progress, or if the service center could keep the computer until a fix is found?

 

[ewoodrick]

It functions the same way as it does in all other manufacturer vehicles.

You must live at a Supercharger.

 

[ry-ballz]

Jesus

 

[Skione65]

How are you going to sleep at night? (Full Disclosure: I haven’t wasted one minute on those games.....think I’m good and ready for the install). No losses here.

Ski

 

[APotatoGod]

It functions the same way as it does in all other manufacturer vehicles.

You must live at a Supercharger.

What do you mean? I don't use superchargers very often, or see what that has to do with anything?

It's clear that most of the replies here aren't really the target demographics for the games, but I'm sure anyone who actually plays them feels the same way I do. As an analogy for the rest of you, imagine some other project you spent quite a bit of time on, at least a few hours. Whether that's improving or saving up for a car or house, making a cabinet, learning a sport, or even just watching a TV series. Now imagine suddenly, and without warning, all of your progress in that project or skill were erased. You project totaled, and the only recourse is to start from the very beginning, redoing the project or relearning the skill from the beginning, knowing you'll have to re-do the entire process, including the part you've already completed. You'd be pretty frustrated at having to start from the beginning again, saving up from zero, or watching the whole TV series just to get to where you left off. Even then, it probably won't be quite the same, you can't remember all the details to accurately recreate your project as it was originally.

I know it's an imperfect analogy, and I'm sure I am overreacting, but it's frustrating that there was no warning that this would happen, and it's entirely preventable, there's absolutely no technological reason to not save the game's progress to the dashcam SD card, and allow it to be restored later. I sure hope there's some impressive updates soon for the HW3 Computer, because so far I'd rather have HW2.5 back.

 

[jjrandorin]

Oh I get the consternation around losing game save files, but as someone who is both a gamer and in IT, I would have to say that there should be NO EXPECTATION of data backup in your car. Now, there likely "can and should" be some form of self service backup option in the car. No idea if there is or not, because I dont play games in my car... I come inside and use one of my consoles or my computer for that.

There should be a self service backup, and I am fairly certain that tesla (the company not the service centers) could implement it. With that being said, there should be NO expectation that anyone in a service center should backup customer data, nor warn anyone about it.

Thats not their job, and this is not anywhere near critical data. All game backups are the responsibility of the user, on all systems. Tesla could implement this better at the system level, but any expectation of service center assistance with this, or keeping any computers, storage medium etc aside to ensure no lose of data is misguided.

 

[MP3Mike]

I can't be the only one that's put a lot of time into those games, and was not willing to have all my progress wiped without even being warned beforehand?

What would you have done had they told you that game progress would be lost? Would you have refused the HW3 upgrade?

Personally I think the game makers should allow you to create an account to sync your progress across cars. It would be nice if tesla provided that as a service including syncing your Tesla profile. (Which I think Elon has said is on their list of things to get to eventually.)

 

[Twiglett]

car settings, driver profiles - good to maintain
basically all its lost is game scores, don't really care
I'd rather have HW3
sounds like you'd prefer your game scores over the HW3 computer - each to his own I guess

 

[APotatoGod]

@jjrandorin and @MP3Mike, thanks to both of you for considerate, non-insulting replies (unlike the earlier replies from others). I agree that it shouldn't be the service center's problem to need to deal with migration of things like the game's save data, and it should be something I could do manually as needed.

As for if I had been warned about the progress loss, no I don't think I would have turned down the upgrade, but I likely would have played the games a lot less in the time before the upgrade, not gotten so invested in my progress, knowing it was temporary. The ability to sync data between cars (including resiliency for situations like this) would be awesome, much needed feature that they'll hopefully add soon.

Especially frustrating in this particular case is that just a couple days ago, I spent a while with a friend, setting up a game of Stardew Valley with them, customizing the character, etc. They were looking forward to continuing their adventure next time I saw them, but now I'll need to tell them that the save file has been lost, and they'll need to start over if they want to continue playing. If I'd had some advanced warning I wouldn't have started a game with them till after the upgrade. Also not finding out until picking up the car totally ruined what should have been the fun excitement of the FSD feature preview.

When taking a computer in for service, the staff always will ask if you've made a recent backup, say how they can't guarantee there won't be data loss, even if they're doing something that shouldn't have any effect on your stored data. I would have expected Tesla to do the same thing, at least for something like this that is guaranteed to wipe out the data.

Also some data wasn't overwritten, as the Music Favorites we're still saved, so it's clearly possible for data to be persistent across computer upgrades.

Also to clarify @Twiglett, it's not the scores I care about significantly, but the experiences in the game that can't even be accessed without redoing the rest of the game now. I had done everything up to the final boss in Cuphead, but now if I want to experience that boss level, I'll have to spend hours doing every other level again first. That's what I care about, not the number of points.

 

[coconutboy84]

Dear lord....

 

[ewoodrick]

What do you mean? I don't use superchargers very often, or see what that has to do with anything?

It's clear that most of the replies here aren't really the target demographics for the games, but I'm sure anyone who actually plays them feels the same way I do. As an analogy for the rest of you, imagine some other project you spent quite a bit of time on, at least a few hours. Whether that's improving or saving up for a car or house, making a cabinet, learning a sport, or even just watching a TV series. Now imagine suddenly, and without warning, all of your progress in that project or skill were erased. You project totaled, and the only recourse is to start from the very beginning, redoing the project or relearning the skill from the beginning, knowing you'll have to re-do the entire process, including the part you've already completed. You'd be pretty frustrated at having to start from the beginning again, saving up from zero, or watching the whole TV series just to get to where you left off. Even then, it probably won't be quite the same, you can't remember all the details to accurately recreate your project as it was originally.

I know it's an imperfect analogy, and I'm sure I am overreacting, but it's frustrating that there was no warning that this would happen, and it's entirely preventable, there's absolutely no technological reason to not save the game's progress to the dashcam SD card, and allow it to be restored later. I sure hope there's some impressive updates soon for the HW3 Computer, because so far I'd rather have HW2.5 back.

What do I mean? Since you don't Supercharge, then it seems that you must just sit in the car for long periods of time. I have other gaming platforms for which I don't sit in the car for.

 

[jkoya]

I sure hope there's some impressive updates soon for the HW3 Computer, because so far I'd rather have HW2.5 back.

Have you noticed a change in the rear view camera image quality with HW3 at all ? I've read some owners feel the rear view camera image quality is better with HW2.5..

 

[focher]

I think they should let you know that the data will be lost, but then what? Would you have declined the upgrade or just accepted that it would happen? Because the third option in the poll should be "Tesla should inform the owner then perform the service."

 

[hugh_jassol]

Anyone who wants to give me their place in line for HW3 upgrade so they don't lose their game progress, PM me

 

[APotatoGod]

Have you noticed a change in the rear view camera image quality with HW3 at all ? I've read some owners feel the rear view camera image quality is better with HW2.5..

I have noticed a bit of a change, I'd say that the image quality is better, not worse, with HW3, especially in good conditions. In dark conditions, it seems more grayscale tinted then before. Take this with several grains of salt, as I wasn't particularly looking for changes, and any I have noticed could very well be a placebo. Either way, doesn't seem to be a dramatic change, if any.

Also an update on the games: while my saved progress was not restored, it didn't take as long as expected to reach where I was initially in Stardew Valley, and I guess I'll just resign myself to never finishing Cuphead world 1.

And to clarify a bit why I've played the games when not supercharging much, I'll often play them for 10-20 minute sessions when waiting to meet a friend, or sometimes play the games with my friends, as people love the novelty of playing games on the car.

So at this point, I'm happy with the HW3 upgrade, though now much more impatient for more software updates to improve the functionality. I would have still gone ahead with the update if they had warned me about the progress loss, but would have had some time to "come to terms" with it so to speak, rather than having it as an unpleasant surprise that initially spoiled the excitement of getting HW3.

 

[jkoya]

I have noticed a bit of a change, I'd say that the image quality is better, not worse, with HW3, especially in good conditions. In dark conditions, it seems more grayscale tinted then before. Take this with several grains of salt, as I wasn't particularly looking for changes, and any I have noticed could very well be a placebo. Either way, doesn't seem to be a dramatic change, if any.

Thanks for the feedback on the rear camera. I had an early Dec 2018 delivery, so I'm not sure when my VIN will get the HW3 upgrade....

 

[Lorenzo Grilli]

Scheduled retrofit in NJ on Monday (2/11). Any other information lost?

 

[APotatoGod]

Scheduled retrofit in NJ on Monday (2/11). Any other information lost?

Almost all settings, driver profiles, etc were lost, including (sort of scary when you don't realize to change it), walk away lock defaulting to off. My car spent a week or so always unlocked before I realized and fixed it. Thankfully no one broke in during that time.

Homelink was another annoyance to re-configure (mainly because we'd lost the physical remote).

Slacker's music favorites were not lost, but favorite radio channels were, as well as TuneIn's podcasts. (I don't use Spotify, so can't speak to it's behavior).

Even the car's "name" was lost. The odometer kept the mileage, but the custom odometers with efficiency were reset. Basically you can think of it as if you got a new car, really the only things kept are linking to your account, the keys, and the Slacker music.

Hope this helps, let me know if there's anything else in particular you want to know.

 

[Lorenzo Grilli]

Thanks for the info!

With my luck they’ll release HW4 shortly after I get the upgrade Not likely but wonder if there’s future chips released will be covered by FSD purchase. (Minus any other camera/sensor hardware changes)

 

[AustinPowers]

I'm on HW 2.5 and have as yet no indication on when or if at all I will be getting HW 3. The only game I sometimes play in the car (usually when waiting in a car park to pick up some family member from shopping, an appointment or some activity) is 2048 as it appears to be the only one I can play and still listen to my Spotify music or radio. So I would only lose that highscore, which would not be nice, but not a big deal either. I think I'd prefer HW 3 over savegame files anytime.
That being said, I of course wouldn't mind some easily accessible way to backup and restore savegame files in my Model 3.