LTE Throttling since 11/3/17

[HankLloydRight]

It was well implemented and then they changed something and now it's badly implemented.

The small number of people complaining would also indicates that the problem is with just some cars and thus hardware related.

So which is it, software or hardware related?

It seems you're using the spray and pray method.. blame everything and then see what sticks. Eventually, you'll be right.

For me, after reviewing all the symptoms, I think this is purely an upstream network problem, and not a firmware (or hardware) change in each car.

One of my businesses was subject to a nationwide outage for every single RoadRunner customer a number of years ago. It took a week to track it down, but they finally found ONE router with a mis-configured routing table dropping all packets heading to my network. So stuff like that can happen, and that's exactly what I think this is. They just haven't found it yet. (Or they're not looking in the right places yet).

 

[bak_phy]

So which is it, software or hardware related?

I wasn't aware that I had been hired to figure it out. If only I'd known that I would have had a solution weeks ago.

Edit. On a more serious note it's obviously a software issue since it used to work fine. However it seems that the problem is that some new software isn't playing nice with some hardware. Most likely not all of our cars have the exact same LTE chips/boards and as a result problems haven't developed with all cars.

 

[doubleohwhat]

B) my guess from Elon’s statement about the battery module automation issue is that they threw a lot of their software resources into fixing it. As an investor and M3 reservation holder, I’d rather see them getting that done over fixing my music problems.

As a person who placed a M3 reservation for my wife, I'm about to be a thousand bucks richer. My wife has been frustrated with the Slacker issue in the S and concerned about issues the M3 might have and how long it'll take Tesla to get them fixed. She's leaning pretty hard on bailing on the M3 at the moment.

 

[HankLloydRight]

On a more serious note it's obviously a software issue since it used to work fine.

No, it's not "obviously" a software issue. There a plenty of network problems that could manifest themselves as what we are seeing, and that's what I believe is happening. Once they find and fix it, the problems will nearly instantly go away.

Just because "it used to work fine" does not mean it's a local issue. It would be trivial to completely break the Tesla in-car interface with network or server based apps (like Slacker) gone wrong.

There was talk earlier that Tesla has to manually update all the Slacker URLs on their servers. That's also not a local software issue.

 

[bak_phy]

Audio Apps that work with Apple Car play (from apple site)

• Podcasts
• Audiobooks
• iHeartRadio
• At Bat2
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• CBS Radio
• Overcast
• Audiobooks.com
• Audible
• Pandora
• Slacker Radio
• VOX
• NPR One
• Clammr
• Downcast
• Radio Disney
• Amazon
• Google Play Music

Apps that works with Tesla (from my car)
Slacker (but not really)
TuneIn

I think that quite a few reservations are going to fall away once people see how far behind Tesla has fallen on what is now considered some pretty basic stuff.

 

[bak_phy]

That's also not a local software issue.

Who said local??

 

[bak_phy]

Once they find and fix it, the problems will nearly instantly go away.

No doubt once they fix the problem the problem will instantly go away.

Why are you trying to make excuses for them? There is no excuse for this. Even one month is way to long to fix anything at all that used to work and hasn't actually burnt to the ground. Either they have lost the people that can fix this or they don't care.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Anyone that bails on buying a Tesla because of AppleCarPlay isn't supported has pretty messed up priorities.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Why are you trying to make excuses for them? There is no excuse for this. Even one month is way to long to fix anything at all that used to work and hasn't actually burnt to the ground. Either they have lost the people that can fix this or they don't care.

I'm not making excuses at all. It's a phenomenally bad situation.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Who said local??

Well, if it's not local, then pretty much nearly every problem (like this) is software. So saying "it's a software problem" really isn't saying much. I seriously doubt it's a hardware problem (local or remote).

 

[bak_phy]

I'm not making excuses at all. It's a phenomenally bad situation.

That we can agree on!!!

I seriously doubt it's a hardware problem (local or remote).

I was once given a piece of fairly straight forward piece of C code which worked perfectly on everybody PC except mine. After sitting down with our lead developer for hours we realized that my computer had a slightly different CPU than the others. It was old as the same major model as all the others but it was actually a different subset. My CPU put random numbers into arrays which were not pre-allocated (as they should be) while the others CPUs put in zeros. So clearly a serious software bug but also a hardware issue.
It might be the same here. Tesla's software playing nice with some cars but not others. That said over on Tesla.com it seems that everybody is now having problems and that it has nothing to do with slacker.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Anyone that bails on buying a Tesla because of AppleCarPlay isn't supported has pretty messed up priorities.

I think the point was that most recent vehicles have numerous media options whereas Tesla basically has two (Slacker and TuneIn) and one isn't even functioning well. I'm not counting radio and local media as those are standard features now (for the most part). That said, Tesla doesn't exactly have a rock solid local media feature either.

 

[bak_phy]

Anyone that bails on buying a Tesla because of AppleCarPlay isn't supported has pretty messed up priorities.

I think that a significant proportion of current Tesla owners would not have bought their car if they had thought that the streaming wouldn't be fixed.
How is Tesla even demoing the cars, which I've read are also afflicted, without making fools of themselves? "The sound system isn't working in this car but we're pretty optimistic that'll be okay in yours"

 

[doubleohwhat]

I think that a significant proportion of current Tesla owners would not have bought their car if they had thought that the streaming wouldn't be fixed.

Eh, I would still buy a Tesla with this issue known. I mean, it'll eventually get fixed. It's just a stupid and frustrating problem to have.

I think a larger problem (larger than the slacker issue) that Tesla has right now is a bunch of AP1 vehicle owners who have little incentive to upgrade. Tesla has dropped the ball on AP2/2.5 and it's not a secret. Last I heard, the automatic wipers feature was still missing and AP2 is just barely starting to perform on a level equal or greater than AP1. It's been a year since AP2 hardware was introduced. By now I should be drooling over what AP2 can do that my AP1 car can't. However, that's not the case. I'm sure some will disagree on this but I imagine I'm not the only one that feels this way.

How is Tesla even demoing the cars, which I've read are also afflicted, without making fools of themselves?

They're likely demoing the streaming radio at the store/service center while connected to wifi and then turning the music off while driving so the potential customer can "see how quiet the car is". A good salesperson could easily pull that off and the potential customer would be none the wiser. If the person notices then it's "just a network issue that will be resolved soon". Either way, this is not creating much of a problem for Tesla when it comes to demoing their cars.

 

[bak_phy]

the potential customer would be none the wiser.

It's like the EV revolution version of "Animal Farm."

 

[steve841]

Just give me screen mirroring and I'll happily never use Tesla's LTE .....

 

[bak_phy]

Just give me screen mirroring and I'll happily never use Tesla's LTE .....

Yep. As long as it "mirrors" the touch controls as well.

 

[swegman]

As a point of comparison, my 2013 P85 with the LTE retrofit is currently showing between 70Kbps and 140Kbps on fast.com. My car is at Tesla and I was given a 2014 P85D loaner vehicle. The loaner is showing on fast.com a data transfer rate of 700Kbps to 1.4Mbps (10 times faster) at the same locations (but different test times). TuneIn stutters (pauses to load data) on my P85, but not on the loaner vehicle. Both cars have FW 2017.46 installed, though Tesla has now updated my car to 2017.48. So is it a hardware issue or software issue? I don't know. Tesla says it's a software bug, but if it is they are taking their time to fix it.

The internet data plan on my car technically expires in Jan 2018 (4 years of free data included with the car). I'm wondering whether the cars having speed issues are those shortly due to lose their free data plans (though Tesla tells me no decision has been made yet as to whether to extend the free data plans or not).

 

[doubleohwhat]

I'm wondering whether the cars having speed issues are those shortly due to lose their free data plans

Nah. My car is only a year old.

 

[bak_phy]

though Tesla has now updated my car to 2017.48.

I'm assuming this didn't fix anything in your car? Was the loaner car LTE? I can't remember when they made the switch from 3G to LTE.