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MCU1 S Owners: Logic FOR/AGAINST Tesla's $2,500 "Infotainment Upgrade"? (Not required for FSD)

MCU1 Owners - Will you opt for the $2,500 Infotainment Upgrade?

  • I DO have the FSD package but will NOT opt for the Infotainment Upgrade.

  • I DO have the FSD package and WILL opt for the Infotainment Upgrade.

  • I do NOT have the FSD package and will NOT opt for the Infotainment Upgrade.

  • I do NOT have, nor am planning to buy, the FSD package but I WILL opt for the Infotainment Upgrade.

  • I do NOT have the FSD package and WILL opt for BOTH the Infotainment Upgrade and the FSD Upgrade.

  • I prefer to KEEP my MCU1, even if it means replacing it with another MCU1.

  • I DO have FSD BUT would only opt for the Infotainment Upgrade if my existing MCU1 broke.

  • I do NOT have FSD BUT would only opt for the Infotainment Upgrade if my existing MCU1 broke.

  • I own a S/X with MCU1 but NONE of these are applicable to me...I just want to see the results.

  • I don't own a S/X with MCU1 so NONE of these are applicable to me...I just want to see the results.


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1st post in the club.

Do we think this may be how Tesla gets those grandfathered in with the premium connectivity to pay to give it up? That's my fear... Dropping $2500 then having to pay a monthly fee for those apps and features.


On the plus side will this upgrade give those with 3g the LTE data?

All MCU2 cars have LTE, the switch to LTE was well before MCU2.
 
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1st post in the club.

Do we think this may be how Tesla gets those grandfathered in with the premium connectivity to pay to give it up? That's my fear... Dropping $2500 then having to pay a monthly fee for those apps and features.


On the plus side will this upgrade give those with 3g the LTE data?
If you already have grandfathered premium, you keep it even if you upgrade your MCU. It is tied to the car, not the MCU.
 
The bigger question is if EVERY MCU2 car, S, X, 3 have FM radio, why would it NOT be in this upgrade? And since every car in existence has FM radio, that lowers the resale value of the car. Since MCU2 obviously has an FM chip and does FM, there is absolutely no reason why putting MCU2 into a 2017 MCU1 car would not have FM. I hope someone from Tesla chimes in here, as the ONLY logical reason FM would be lost is if it was NOT an MCU2 being installed, which leads me to think is it a newer MCU3? It is quite possible that they had to redesign the motherboard and new motherboard does not have the $1 FM chip, lol. But if that is the case, there is also a chance that the processor, memory, or other parts are faster or newer than even MCU2. I would really like to know technically what parts I would be buying for $2500 and forefiting FM radio for. Also if we have paid for FSD, Tesla has to install working HW 3.0 computer board or give everyone $5000 back, and I have a feeling that HW 3.0 board won't work with MCU1, so that means if people that bought FSD and don't want to pay $2500 and lose FM, eventually Tesla will most likely have to upgrade MCU1 to this unit to let HW 3.0 FSD work, and that would be at no cost, or they would have to give the FSD upgrade fee back. So many questions need to be publicly answered here.

The MCU in the model 3 does not include a tuner module in it. The tuner module is located in the back of the car. If I remember correctly it is made by Harmon Kardon. I don’t know if the MCU2 for the models S and X has a built-in or external FM tuner.
 
It's external, and sits right above your feet in the dash / firewall area. They probably just don't include it in the upgrade because replacing it would add a lot more time/price to the retrofit and the old one must not work on MCU2.
 
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(1) It does NOT lower the resale value. It's FM/AM/SX radio. Everyone is now streaming and yes you can stream from radio.com.

(2) The reason is already explained all over twitter and in another thread here on TMC. Check it out as it explain exactly why it's not included.

For someone like me that is not on twitter would you kindly explain the reason for omitting the FM and XM tuners. Thank you.
 
For someone like me that is not on twitter would you kindly explain the reason for omitting the FM and XM tuners. Thank you.

Our current radio module is not compatible with the new MCU board. The cost of the Radio Module is not that high but adds a lot of person-hours to snake wires etc. Tesla made the decision that at $2500 they wouldn't offer to upgrade the radio - probably due to the number of person-hours it would take (and their service will be swamped doing HW3 upgrades for a while!. It's not clear if we will be able to upgrade the radio separately at cost.
 
For someone like me that is not on twitter would you kindly explain the reason for omitting the FM and XM tuners. Thank you.

Look at the post right before yours:

It's external, and sits right above your feet in the dash / firewall area. They probably just don't include it in the upgrade because replacing it would add a lot more time/price to the retrofit and the old one must not work on MCU2.
 
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My MCU1 just died and my car is in the shop for replacement. I was told at this time warranty will only replace with MCU1 and if I wanted MCU2 I would need to pay the full $2,500. I have AP1 so the MCU2 upgrade is really negligible anyway, but it seems ridiculous they are not allowing an upgrade to MCU2 if they are replacing the MCU1 anyway, or at least offer the upgrade at a discount (like $500). Maybe they want to prevent people from sabotaging their MCU1 to get a free/discounted upgrade.
 
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2013 Model S P85. My MCU1 has bubbles and is leaking juice. The memory issue hasn't happened yet...It still works, for now...

I don't listen to the radio; and carry my own USB sticks with plenty of my favorite music.

The new upgrade would provide better performance, get rid of the bubbles and the juice leak, deflect the memory issue, and get me some new streaming video and game features....

When my time comes for an invite, after all the FSD folks, etc., I'll probably do the upgrade.

The touchscreen is separate from the MCU. If one upgrades the MCU, do we know whether you also get a new touchscreen or do they simply reuse your original touchscreen?
 
My MCU1 just died and my car is in the shop for replacement. I was told at this time warranty will only replace with MCU1 and if I wanted MCU2 I would need to pay the full $2,500. I have AP1 so the MCU2 upgrade is really negligible anyway, but it seems ridiculous they are not allowing an upgrade to MCU2 if they are replacing the MCU1 anyway, or at least offer the upgrade at a discount (like $500). Maybe they want to prevent people from sabotaging their MCU1 to get a free/discounted upgrade.

Interesting scenario. I guess the question is whether there is any (or how much) profit for Tesla in the $2500 upgrade ?
 
Correct, I do not like DJs or Sports (although I love playing basketball). I like music only. Most of the music I like I have bought as MP3s. I almost always use the streaming service in the car. If I am in the mountains, I switch over to my USB stick. As an extremely side note, my favorite artists are ELO, Duran Duran, Howard Jones, Hall & Oates, The Cars, REO Speedwagon, Huey Lewis & the News and Madonna.

I feel extremely lucky to be able to drive a Tesla.

Brent
 
But Tesla isn't calling this a MCU swap. It is an "infotainment upgrade". We just don't know what it includes. (But we do know it doesn't include the tuner module. :rolleyes:)

You're right, we don't know exactly what the upgrade will entail hardware-wise. If I were setting up the program, I would design/procure a whole bunch of the MCU2 or whatever units to be able to ship out to the service centers as one swappable unit. If Tesla only shipped the MCU itself and required the service tech to do some disassembly on the old MCU and get the screen off and re-mount it, that doesn't seem to lend itself to the most efficient operation. Then they can collect all the old MCU1 units back at the factory and refurb them if necessary to turn around and use in future repairs for people that don't take the upgrade.
 
My MCU1 just died and my car is in the shop for replacement. I was told at this time warranty will only replace with MCU1 and if I wanted MCU2 I would need to pay the full $2,500. I have AP1 so the MCU2 upgrade is really negligible anyway, but it seems ridiculous they are not allowing an upgrade to MCU2 if they are replacing the MCU1 anyway, or at least offer the upgrade at a discount (like $500). Maybe they want to prevent people from sabotaging their MCU1 to get a free/discounted upgrade.
Um...No.

The MCU2 is a vertical upgrade. Warranty replacement is same for same, a lateral (or horizontal) move. after your MCU2 bites the dust if you pay for the upgrade, then yes, they would replace it with an MCU2, which would then be a latera (horizontal)l move.
 
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When driving around my local area, there is an FM station that provides traffic reports every 10 minutes. I don't want to give that up. In our typical heavy traffic, I don't want to be looking down at the large screen map to see if there is red traffic indicators. When I have someone else in the car with me, they will look at the map --- and I've found that the FM radio station will sometimes report traffic problems long before it shows up on the map.

I do listen to XM occasionally, as they have a large selection.

I do also listen to streaming music, but I've also driven through areas where the cell signal gets lost --- and there goes the streaming music with it.

So I'm not on board with losing my FM or XM capability.
 
My MCU1 just died and my car is in the shop for replacement. I was told at this time warranty will only replace with MCU1 and if I wanted MCU2 I would need to pay the full $2,500. I have AP1 so the MCU2 upgrade is really negligible anyway, but it seems ridiculous they are not allowing an upgrade to MCU2 if they are replacing the MCU1 anyway, or at least offer the upgrade at a discount (like $500). Maybe they want to prevent people from sabotaging their MCU1 to get a free/discounted upgrade.
Actually, it's not weird at all. If you buy an iPhoneX and it breaks, warranty covers a repair or a refurbished iPhoneX, not an iPhone11 replacement. Good news from your message is that apparently they can already do the upgrade to AP1 cars already (at least for people with dead MCU's) rather than make you wait till April.
 
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