Intermittent LTE/3G reception - anyone else?

[5_+JqckQttqck]

We're in Canada eh - and our internets is SLOOOOOW

 

[wayner]

Since the V9 update, I have had no connectivity at all with my Tesla. For example, I left the house this morning at 9:40 and it’s 10:20– still no connection. Other times connectivity might return after an hour or two. I have loads of cell service on my iPhone, so I don’t understand why it’s not on my 2018 Tesla MS. What do I need to do? Disconnect my phone and reconnected again? Change a setting?

The temporary fix is to reboot the centre screen on the Model S. You do this by holding down both scroll wheels for several seconds. Don't worry - you can do this while driving. The system will come back up in about a minute but I find that the LTE/3G will take close to five minutes to lock in.

 

[dusdev]

The temporary fix is to reboot the centre screen on the Model S. You do this by holding down both scroll wheels for several seconds. Don't worry - you can do this while driving. The system will come back up in about a minute but I find that the LTE/3G will take close to five minutes to lock in.

Next time the event occurs (parking underground then loss of LTE) I will give it a try. I'm not a huge fan of having to do this (on the Model 3 it means you loose speedo and turn signals). Plus it seems like a pretty big bug that the system is unable to reconnect to LTE after being disconnected like this.

 

[McFlurri]

Next time the event occurs (parking underground then loss of LTE) I will give it a try. I'm not a huge fan of having to do this (on the Model 3 it means you loose speedo and turn signals). Plus it seems like a pretty big bug that the system is unable to reconnect to LTE after being disconnected like this.

You dont actually lose the turn signals... just the sound of the turn signals.

 

[Tezzie]

The temporary fix is to reboot the centre screen on the Model S. You do this by holding down both scroll wheels for several seconds. Don't worry - you can do this while driving. The system will come back up in about a minute but I find that the LTE/3G will take close to five minutes to lock in.

So this can be done while driving without any deleterious effects on the driving system?

 

[mociaf9]

Yes. All actual driving functions still work fine during a reboot (even autopilot), only the displays will be affected.

 

[Oldschool496]

All Tesla's use a US provider. AT&T iirc. so everybody's roaming, hence crappy Cdn coverage. Lead technician at a service centre told me this. Why its been sucking more lately than before... who knows... maybe the increase in cars roaming in the territory has an impact?

Yep all AT&T. Turning the signal down. 1bar, someone has tightened the ship on down here. Slow=cost less $$$. Asia there system is wide open. Everything is on wide open, fast and reliable signal 247. Don't we all wish. Tesla pays for this service for older Tesla's its free for 8 years(or as long as the systems can get a signal), Newer cars not so sure how long they get it paid these days????? Anybody answer that question.

 

[Oldschool496]

So this can be done while driving without any deleterious effects on the driving system?

A/c shuts down and all function of the UI for moments. Perfectly fine while driving. Systems appear to be completely separate, not knowing for sure, but experience tells me all setting are saved by UI and obviously screen goes blank momentarily and A/C shut off for a short period. Model S.

 

[sauce]

I've been having issues a plenty with data connectivity, especially recently (possibly correlated to V9). I've been working with a tech at Tesla on it, but so far, limited progress. They keep asking for more timestamps to check into -- given them about 5-10 already. Mine started with reporting voice recognition issues, but they are treating it as a data connectivity issue.

For me, it exhibits as any or some of the following:

• streaming audio not working (independent of the Slacker server issues that were happening)
• map tiles (segments) not loading
• voice commands not working (just not sending to the server and timing out)
• web browser unable to load pages (no indication or progress or timeout)
• web browser bandwidth very poor (using fast.com very limited - ~200-800 kbps instead of 20-80 Mbps)
• showing network disconnected on top row icon

I think their cellular stack is completely mucked up in some way. Having been in the cellular business for a bit, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Even the vendors of the chips/stacks seem to struggle to get them working properly.

I had some issues early on with LTE (and lots of fallback to 3G), but after an update or two, it seemed to become consistently more reliable, but then in the past 2 updates (especially with 2018.39.x), it has gotten really bad. However, the problems are not clearly linked to a specific software release (at least that is visible to us users -- who knows if they are updating some modules/subsystems behind the scenes or not).

On the roaming comments made by someone above -- that doesn't make for poor coverage. The Tesla tech you got the information from doesn't know how cellular systems work. It's the same as if you were on a local network (in general), there can be carrier applied bandwidth limiting etc, but the underlying radio access technology (RAT) is the same, so coverage is identical to being on a local carrier. In the general case, when it's AT&T (which is what Tesla uses I believe), it prefers to roam on the Rogers network.

Hmm reading this I'm realizing all the issues I've been experiencing separately and at different times may be related as I'm checking on all the boxes of what you're describing in your post.

I've adressed a Bluetooth issue as well with Service where I'd receive or send a call and the other person would hear me, but nothing would come out of my mic on Bluetooth. Then I'd have them hang up and immediately call back and Bluetooth would work fine and we'd get on with our conversation. Happened 95% of the time. After service remotely reset my Bluetooth connection the issue remains but with less occurences, I'd say 40% of the time now.

No improvement elsewhere so may be looking at 2 separate issues, but definitely streaming audio inconsistent, connection icon systematically showing only 3G with 1 bar no matter the connection quality, map tiles may be slow to appear, connection sometimes shifts to off in places where that can't be like on HWY 20, Web browser (bandwidth and speed) went from ridiculous to plain dead, etc.

 

[Gabbleratchet7]

This thread has been silent for a while. Have people had their cellular problems remediated? I picked up my model 3 a week ago and have had a couple of LTE drop-outs so far (bars greyed our with line through it).

First time a reboot saw LTE return after a few minutes. Had been parked in an open air parking lot for an hour, The second time was today, after being in an underground garage all day. I chose not to reboot and the LTE did not return for the entire 30-minute drive home.

 

[obryan20]

I'm still having problems too. At times, it's all gone for an entire drive. Originate in an underground parking garage as well.

Saw somewhere (maybe as a rumour here on TMC) that Tesla is looking to swap out the AT&T sims in our cars with a local one (either Rogers or Telus).

 

[Buggle]

It's gotten way better for me, it hasn't gone out in months.

 

[wayner]

It still happens to me from time to time, but it is better than when I started this thread six months ago.

 

[Birdman325]

I still get it the odd time after parking underground where there is no reception. Seems to happen less than it used to - but either way, a 2 button reset fixes it.

 

[wayner]

I still get it the odd time after parking underground where there is no reception. Seems to happen less than it used to - but either way, a 2 button reset fixes it.

You mean a reboot? That does fix it but I find that it takes around 5 minutes until the system resyncs up with the LTE/3G network. So no music or updated maps for 5 minutes, which is annoying.

 

[dusdev]

Yes I still see the issue occasionally. It is especially bad after being underground with no reception. Once above ground (in a high quality reception area) the vehicle will not regain any connection (bars with line). Only a reboot seems to remedy the situation.

It seems to me this could be relatively easily solved with the vehicle restarting the network stack when it doesn't have a connection - especially when driving. Say after 5 minutes of no connectivity, reboot. Why does it take an entire system reboot just to restore the network. Seems like a marginal design to me.

Also related to this - how come the media playback (slacker) can't incorporate a small offline cache (say, 1 hour of music) onto a USB key (or internal). So when the LTE cuts out (underground, bad reception, buggy network stack) music can continue?

I love the idea of a connected car but Tesla needs to do a better job of dealing with the corner case where connection is limited or unavailable.

 

[ytwytw]

Driving on 401 between Mississauga and Markham road almost daily and notice the cell signal has gone really bad recently

I often saw 3G and never saw Lte Until reboot MCU

Ending up just turn on the hotspot on the phone and share to the car. Much faster and stable now

 

[GarthG]

Driving on 401 between Mississauga and Markham road almost daily and notice the cell signal has gone really bad recently

I often saw 3G and never saw Lte Until reboot MCU

Ending up just turn on the hotspot on the phone and share to the car. Much faster and stable now

Does it use up much of your data that way?

 

[ytwytw]

Does it use up much of your data that way?

Not really for me, map and traffic data are not huge data anyways I think

 

[GarthG]

Not really for me, map and traffic data are not huge data anyways I think

Thanks for the reply. I think you are probably right. Streaming music might be another matter.