LTE Upgrade, Did YOU Do It?

[Bound466]

Did it. Have had no issues with it. Works great. Not as fast as I thought it would be but still worth it.

 

[stevesol]

Did it. Very happy. Faster. Zero regrets.

 

[Nigel16494]

I am happy with 3G, I did find that an older Tesla S of a guy I work with has the slow loading maps, tiles appearing. I thought that was more the speed of the processors than the reception. Does speedtest etc work on that Tesla browser so we can check the speed? Or did anyone use something else to check the speed.

 

[luvnMyTS]

Guess it probably depends on your area and how strong your 3G signal really is. I did the upgrade on my 2013 and barely noticed a difference. About the only difference I noticed was that addresses came up a little quicker when searching Navigation. But we're talking about a half a second difference. Being that for some strange reason, the most technologically advanced car in the world still does not allow us to enter in multiple destinations at one time, the 1/2 second really wasn't a big deal. The web browser still sucks. That's a hardware issue more than anything. Pages still load very slow and sketchy even with 4G on my 2013 and on my 2015. 3G handled my internet radio options just fine.

So, I would say again, it depends on your 3G coverage strength. If you have 3-4 bars of signal most of the time, then you're likely not going to notice much of a difference. I had a strong 3G signal most of the time. However, if you have a weak signal, then 4G will likely make a bigger difference. It seems to perform better with a lower signal than 3G did. Also, if you travel a lot, 4G seems to have a more expansive coverage area. That combined with working better on a single bar of signal means it could work better for you when travelling out of strong coverage areas. I would answer those questions first before deciding on whether to upgrade. $500 isn't all that much relative to the overall car cost, just don't want you to be disappointed with result if you're expecting a night and day difference. If you're primary reason for considering it is to increase the speed of the web browser, you'll definitely be disappointed.

Just my 2 cents based on my personal experience.

 

[tanner]

Wow, had no idea some were having such problems. I live in a major metropolitan area and I did the LTE upgrade on our '13 P85; much faster map loads and overall performance.

Highly recommended upgrade and at a somewhat reasonable cost.

I too wish the browser was far better/faster, but WHEN it is upgraded I'll be ready to go.

is the browser getting an upgrade?

 

[andrewket]

Did it. Much faster. Worth the cost. In northern VA/DC.

 

[jerry33]

I highly recommend AGAINST it! Basically my car has been useless since I "upgraded" to LTE.

In the first 10 months of ownership (using 3G) I think my internet music stopped playing 3 times and a GPS map tile would fail to load at a frequency of every week or two.

Now that I "upgraded" to LTE the car is useless. In the morning it takes 10 minutes for the LTE modem to find service. This is not an exaggeration. I literally watch the trip computer and wait for 10 minutes. So now most days when I need to use GPS to get to an appointment I just drive my Ford). Once the Tesla finds LTE service, the map tiles will fail to load a handful of times per trip. Also I switched back to FM radio because the Internet radio frequently stops in the middle of a song, or the car will simply just stop playing music displaying a "cannot load next track" error.

BTW all of this happens with 2 to 4 bars of LTE service. This is in the Washington DC / Annapolis MD areas, which has had LTE service for 5 years. And yes I do have my energy / always connected settings set correctly. This behavior happens not just my first drive of the day but subsequent trips as well, although subsequent trips can find LTE service in as quickly as 4 minutes.

So unless you want to spend $500 to make your car useless, I would tell you to stick to 3G. After all does it really matter how quick the map tiles load and the radio buffer fills? Stick with reliability and usability.

No problems with mine connecting. I have traveled to areas of no coverage where neither LTE nor 3G worked. When this happens, there appears to be a back-off algorithm that slows the reconnection. A reboot fixes this. Note that if the no coverage area is instant, like an underground parking garage, reconnection is also instant. It's only when the signal fades from going to a service area to a no service area that this happens, and a reboot fixes it instantly.

I recommend getting it. Well worth it and very few problems. I suspect the back-off algorithm will get fixed in the next couple of releases.

 

[James Anders]

I assume all new cars come with LTE?

 

[whitex]

I did it. No noticeable difference on the maps load time. Slightly faster on the web browser (waze) load. HOWEVER, I have more coverage with LTE - a couple of spots where in the past I was having troubles to connect to the car on 3G (to turn on pre-heat/cool) now work every time. I got it for the purpose of having better coverage for travel in the first place, so it did what I expected.

 

[GSP]

I assume all new cars come with LTE?

Yes. The production switchover to LTE was reported here at TMC by owners. No one has reported getting a car with only 3G after that.

GSP

 

[sillydriver]

I did it. No noticeable difference on the maps load time. Slightly faster on the web browser (waze) load. HOWEVER, I have more coverage with LTE - a couple of spots where in the past I was having troubles to connect to the car on 3G (to turn on pre-heat/cool) now work every time. I got it for the purpose of having better coverage for travel in the first place, so it did what I expected.

I should add that despite the problems I mentioned above, connecting with the iPhone app works much better now. By luck I tend to park in areas of good LTE coverage, including my home. It's the dropouts I get driving around the hilly Virginia piedmont that really throw the thing off and leave it hunting for a signal for long periods.

 

[andydoty]

Well worth it. App connectivity seems mildly faster. The web browser is hit or miss although it still appears to be hit or miss. And the map refresh and slacker are through the roof. Voice recognition seems to work faster as well.

 

[paulkva]

I agree. After the SC had me do various reboots, they have been "working" on this for 3 weeks now, supposedly from remote. (In other words, I'm my opinion they aren't interested).

I wonder how much they are going to charge me to put 3G back?

I don't have LTE and have seen (and reported) similar problems in the past. In my case, on my way home from work I start in an underground parking garage with no signal. On many days it takes the car a full 5 minutes to connect to 3G. Big pain when I'm concerned about traffic, as I have to make route decisions in my first couple minutes of commuting.

Rebooting the touchscreen will usually restore 3G service more quickly. So if it's the case that you start out in an area with no signal, a reboot as soon as you reach an area with signal might help. I'm not at all suggesting that's a viable long term solution, but maybe it'll help till Tesla sorts out the problem. It's a little disheartening to hear the the LTE upgrade might bump up that 5-minute window to 10; I was considering the upgrade, hoping it would just fix the issue altogether. Guess I'll hold off for now.

 

[preilly44]

Does anybody know if the LTE upgrade includes a new bluetooth chip? If so, that would be an added bonus.

Thanks!

 

[RDoc]

Our 3G around here is OK, just barely though, so eventually I'll convert to LTE, but I'm hoping a new processor will be available soon too. From what I've seen, when the map updates get very slow, rebooting the central display almost always fixes it.

 

[William13]

I upgraded 4 months ago. I was worried due to my frequent drivers through marginal and dead areas. The 4G improved all areas for me. No issues. The browser is slow as noted above. It is worth the money to me

 

[tanner]

Does anybody know if the LTE upgrade includes a new bluetooth chip? If so, that would be an added bonus.

Thanks!

Don't think so, the service rep told me they just replace the cellular modem & add a new SIM.

- - - Updated - - -

Well worth it. App connectivity seems mildly faster. The web browser is hit or miss although it still appears to be hit or miss. And the map refresh and slacker are through the roof. Voice recognition seems to work faster as well.

I just stream over bluetooth from Apple Music anyway, so the apps are pretty useless (for me).

 

[InsaneDriver]

i did it like 3 weeks ago. My coverage improved and I haven't had to re-boot the system since. Prior to upgrading, felt like i was re-booting once a week because i lost the connection to SLACKER

 

[jrreno]

Very interesting. I have 3G and drove down to FL last Sat. When I went through the DC area to Glen Allen there was horrible traffic and my Nav would not refresh. Tiles would not redraw. I called Tesla and will have it checked next week. Now I'm wondering if it was just the area and nothing to do with my car. I switched to Wifi via a hotspot device using LTE and all worked fine post Glen Allen. Heading back up starting tomorrow so I will see if 3G or LTE hotspot works better.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the cell service. We have 3g. Last Saturday we were returning home from Key West. Had no problem with maps on the way down. Coming home on Saturday the maps went to the gray grid for the whole trip back to Sarasota. Started working again with no action on my part late Satuday evening. I wonder if the server had an issue?

 

[jbcarioca]

I took the upgrade to improve coverage. That happened so it delivered. However, they also replaced the wiring harness, and sound quality subsequently improved, possibly reflecting defect in the original wiring harness or improved specifications of the replacement harness. The upgrade,though expensive is completely worthwhile to me.