Model 3 Software Update 2019.5.x

[argon2018]

why are people so ungrateful? the amount of entitlement is unbelievable. I have owned AUDI BMW Lexus.. none of them have ever released any updates. Tesla needs to make sure that the software is stable for wide release and people are complaining.. unreal.

They have been releasing new features/enhancements every couple of months, no other car manufacturer does that. None. So stop complaining because you haven't received a software update yet.

To put things in perspective BMW charges for xenon light, power seats... each for a couple of thousands..

 

[PoitNarf]

Let's looks at the software industry and in particular Microsoft, as an example, since they have the software release process down to an art.

I wouldn’t use Microsoft as a role model for software releases. Sure they have a consistent schedule, but some of their updates/patches have been buggy as hell as of late. There’s the botched Win10 1809 update that had to be re-released weeks after it was first made available because it started deleting files off of machines (whoops!). There was also an update to Office 365 a few months back that pretty much hosed the Exchange connection on a majority of the mobile devices enrolled in MDM at my job. I know there were a few other update screw ups by Microsoft last year as well but I just can’t think of them off the top of my head.

To put things in perspective Tesla really isn’t any better. They’ve definitely released a handful of buggy builds to the Model 3’s in my nearly 11 months of ownership. It appears that they’ve become a bit more careful with the deployments recently which is definitely a good thing. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll start seeing new update installs starting up again tomorrow.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Let's be honest Tesla is bending the truth like they always do with overly optimistic predictions. Rolling releases are done when all bugs have been fixed not in the initial small release to be tested by small number of customers.

Let's looks at the software industry and in particular Microsoft, as an example, since they have the software release process down to an art. They release a new version of Windows every 6 months. They have a relatively small group of customers that opt in to get pre-released beta versions of upcoming software knowing that they are full of bugs. These users will get new builds constantly for that entire 6 months of development and those are not rolling, since small groups don't need to be rolled.

When all the customer reported bugs are fixed, and the software is ready, that's when they announce the release date. It is at this point that the rest of the public gets the software in a rolling fashion. Why rolling? Because when you are finally ready for wide public distribution you can't have all the users get it at once. Rolling prevents the servers from being swamped. This is the proper time to do rolling not during the small release test phase.

Tesla however does this process in an odd way. They publicize the release when the software has not been tested by anybody outside Tesla so it is guaranteed to be loaded with bugs (as we have seen every time). They strangely claim its a rolling release when undoubtedly bugs that will immediately surface will stop the wide release thus not needing it to be rolled until it's ready for wide release.

Tesla looks like an immature child constantly reaching and rushing to things without going through the proper steps that the software industry took years to developed and perfect. Thinking as a child with a blank slate is great for inventing and innovating but its a shame that Tesla, is so reluctant to adopt even the most basic things that have come before them, like a proper software release process that doesn't need reinventing.

This release is actually quite a bit different than typical releases which what you said is more in line with.

What's different this time was how much it's iterated since it was initially released. That to me shows that the development was a bit different. Normally it's just a few "you really should have caught these before even talking about releasing it" kind of bugs.

Where this release is a feature requested by customers mostly in California to address an issue they were having. So it seems like Tesla took the right approach in how they rolled this out.

The development of the feature was also far quicker than most SW releases from Tesla. I think that's because of how massive the problem was.

Normally I have a lot of issues with how Tesla releases things for some of the reasons you mentioned, and how it's annoying in not simply being able to request an update when it's convenient. So those that wanted to be earlier and take more chances on bugs then they could.

I simply don't like the "just wait for it" approach, and not everyone is always connected to wifi. So it would be much easier to simply have a request button like Elon mentioned wanting to implement, but that's been a request for years.

But, this go around I'm simply going to give Tesla a free pass. It's not a feature I expected anyways, and an Alarm type feature is trickier to implement than one might imagine. You don't want false positives because then people get annoyed with it.

I have to save my energy to be mad at them for the slow release of Smart Summons.

 

[ChrisH]

I want sentry pretty badly. Makes the car even more amazing.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I wouldn’t use Microsoft as a role model for software releases. Sure they have a consistent schedule, but some of their updates/patches have been buggy as hell as of late. There’s the botched Win10 1809 update that had to be re-released weeks after it was first made available because it started deleting files off of machines (whoops!). There was also an update to Office 365 a few months back that pretty much hosed the Exchange connection on a majority of the mobile devices enrolled in MDM at my job. I know there were a few other update screw ups by Microsoft last year as well but I just can’t think of them off the top of my head.

To put things in perspective Tesla really isn’t any better. They’ve definitely released a handful of buggy builds to the Model 3’s in my nearly 11 months of ownership. It appears that they’ve become a bit more careful with the deployments recently which is definitely a good thing. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll start seeing new update installs starting up again tomorrow.

Can anyone these days do Software right?

Like in reality, and not in theory?

Nike can't even release a shoe without it getting bricked by bugs in a phone app that connects with it. Or firmware on the shoe is glitchy.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

TeslaFi doesn't include all vehicles so absolute numbers are irrelevant, but it's percentages should be applicable to the entire fleet. 1.8% of all Tesla owners is not the kind of rollout where they send it to 10-15% of the fleet in batches and slowly roll it out. We're talking less than 2% which represents the beta tester group, employees, and YouTube influencers. If you look at the S/X 2019.4.2 rollout they currently stand at approximately 15% rolled out and have stopped, possibly to re-evaluate or to fix a bug who knows. But for the Model 3 2019.5.x line they obviously rolled out a very small amount, then released another version, then another version, then they haven't released anything for 3 days. This is not the slow rollout of a release, but the small rollout to beta testers and people who will make articles or videos touting new features that are not yet released. No big deal really, just be honest.

Keep in mind the S/X is over a lot of different configurations where the Model 3 is over one.

With the Model S there is:

MCU1 with no AP
AP1+MCU1
AP2+MCU1
AP2.5+MCU1
AP2.5+MCU2

That's five different configurations, and 3 of them can't do Sentry mode.

So if you look at it from a per-configuration point of view it's pretty equal. We haven't hit a wide-release, and I'm not hearing anything from Tesla/Elon/Reddit/Here/etc.

They also don't seem to have the blindspot chime working which is likely something they'll need to fix because that would be rather ridiculous to do a wide-release with such a pathetic bug.

 

[DDotJ]

They also don't seem to have the blindspot chime working which is likely something they'll need to fix because that would be rather ridiculous to do a wide-release with such a pathetic bug.

I wonder how Tesla didn't catch that bug. It's not even a conditional thing like the sentry + dog mode. It flat out does not work. Same with the corrupting TeslaCam issue from the last major release. Makes me wonder if Tesla tests these features at all prior to release...

 

[BrandonLive]

Let's be honest Tesla is bending the truth like they always do with overly optimistic predictions. Rolling releases are done when all bugs have been fixed not in the initial small release to be tested by small number of customers.

Let's looks at the software industry and in particular Microsoft, as an example, since they have the software release process down to an art. They release a new version of Windows every 6 months. They have a relatively small group of customers that opt in to get pre-released beta versions of upcoming software knowing that they are full of bugs. These users will get new builds constantly for that entire 6 months of development and those are not rolling, since small groups don't need to be rolled.

When all the customer reported bugs are fixed, and the software is ready, that's when they announce the release date. It is at this point that the rest of the public gets the software in a rolling fashion. Why rolling? Because when you are finally ready for wide public distribution you can't have all the users get it at once. Rolling prevents the servers from being swamped. This is the proper time to do rolling not during the small release test phase.

Tesla however does this process in an odd way. They publicize the release when the software has not been tested by anybody outside Tesla so it is guaranteed to be loaded with bugs (as we have seen every time). They strangely claim its a rolling release when undoubtedly bugs that will immediately surface will stop the wide release thus not needing it to be rolled until it's ready for wide release.

Tesla looks like an immature child constantly reaching and rushing to things without going through the proper steps that the software industry took years to developed and perfect. Thinking as a child with a blank slate is great for inventing and innovating but its a shame that Tesla, is so reluctant to adopt even the most basic things that have come before them, like a proper software release process that doesn't need reinventing.

This was an interesting read considering my job as one of the engineering leaders working to make Windows ship more like Tesla ;-) I’m half-joking, but there are things they do that are harder for us but we want to get to.

We do use the Insider program as our “beta” audience, and I believe Tesla has a similar thing (Early Access or something). But even today when we launch a new major OS version to retail, we roll it out very slowly initially, and have machinery in place to detect classes of devices hitting some kinds of problems and stopping the rollout to affected devices until the issue is fixed. We make fixes for those and other issues that are found and then apply them before rolling out further. Sometimes this goes faster, sometimes it goes slower.

It’s an added capability that didn’t exist back in the days of OS upgrades on CDs, and it lets us provide a better experience and reduce the negative impact of issues found during the initial rollout. I’m not surprised that Tesla uses this approach as well.

 

[DDotJ]

A new version 2019.5.4 4c3c414 was just logged on TeslaFi, probably with bug fixes (hopefully fixes the blind spot chime).

Also, both of our Model 3s downloaded 5.3 GB today but no OTA notification appeared. Also 5.3 GB is too big for an OTA.

Does anyone know if there was a new set of Map updates today? I haven't seen anything about it online. Hope it fixes some issues with NoA

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

A new version 2019.5.4 4c3c414 was just logged on TeslaFi, probably with bug fixes (hopefully fixes the blind spot chime).

Also, both of our Model 3s downloaded 5.3 GB today but no OTA notification appeared. Also 5.3 GB is too big for an OTA.

Does anyone know if there was a new set of Map updates today? I haven't seen anything about it online. Hope it fixes some issues with NoA

It's funny how we talk about Software Bugs, but at the end of the day something as easy as a Map version would go a long ways. Both having an actual map version, and being able to click "download map updates" for those that aren't allows connected to wifi. So those people could download maps while temporarily connected to wifi.

 

[DDotJ]

It's funny how we talk about Software Bugs, but at the end of the day something as easy as a Map version would go a long ways. Both having an actual map version, and being able to click "download map updates" for those that aren't allows connected to wifi. So those people could download maps while temporarily connected to wifi.

Totally agree, I don't know why it doesn't tell you when the maps are updated. The only way to know is to monitor network traffic. It used to, but I guess when they moved away from Garmin they stopped doing that.

I hope Tesla does eventually add a "check for updates" button for maps and software. Elon said he would add one for software, although who knows when they will actually get around to it.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

So you're saying that they only rolled it out to a couple percent, different than they have done in the past for just this release? So they are changing their prior method of rolling out to 15% or so at a time and are now rolling it out to 0.5-1% at a time? Wow, you must be someone with insider Tesla knowledge. I'd love to hear your detailed proof of this that this is going out to non-beta testers and media/youtubers/influencers.

This is how Tesla has been doing it for years. If you think it's tough on Model 3 owners, imagine being an S or X owner. We have one single AP hardware configuration to code for. S and X have multiple configurations out there.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

A new version 2019.5.4 4c3c414 was just logged on TeslaFi, probably with bug fixes (hopefully fixes the blind spot chime).

Also, both of our Model 3s downloaded 5.3 GB today but no OTA notification appeared. Also 5.3 GB is too big for an OTA.

Does anyone know if there was a new set of Map updates today? I haven't seen anything about it online. Hope it fixes some issues with NoA

View attachment 379574 View attachment 379576

My 3 pulled the same amount of data, with no notification yet, either.

 

[ivengo]

A new version 2019.5.4 4c3c414 was just logged on TeslaFi, probably with bug fixes (hopefully fixes the blind spot chime).

Also, both of our Model 3s downloaded 5.3 GB today but no OTA notification appeared. Also 5.3 GB is too big for an OTA.

Does anyone know if there was a new set of Map updates today? I haven't seen anything about it online. Hope it fixes some issues with NoA

View attachment 379574 View attachment 379576

What software do you use to track how much data the car has pulled?

 

[ModelNforNerd]

What software do you use to track how much data the car has pulled?

Your wifi router of choice. @DJung is using Google Wifi. I have Plume.

Most mesh network setups should be able to tell you the amount of data each device is uploading or downloading.

 

[Zaxxon]

This was an interesting read considering my job as one of the engineering leaders working to make Windows ship more like Tesla

Hey, I recognize you, I think! Welcome, albeit a bit late. Kudos for the Insider program--despite the flak that Microsoft has received for various update issues lately, I've found the Insider program to be a refreshing step forward for MS.

 

[SoCalDude]

Well I guess I'm wrong..

You are correct in your statement above if that helps???

 

[pscarroll]

No you are incorrect. Wow, today an amazing number of people got 2019.5.x today? Oh wait, if you review who got what updates, it's people going from 5.3 to 5.4, perhaps it's random folks in the fleet? We can just make stuff up as nobody cares about real data. We're open to all opinions no matter how crazy or outdated.

 

[dendenyc]

why are people so ungrateful? the amount of entitlement is unbelievable. I have owned AUDI BMW Lexus.. none of them have ever released any updates.

There were annual updates released for my Audi and Lexus, they were to the maps on the navigation and the updates cost $150/yr...not the mention the time wasted because I had to take it in to service because they no longer released maps on DVD's.

 

[Relayer]

There were annual updates released for my Audi and Lexus, they were to the maps on the navigation and the updates cost $150/yr...not the mention the time wasted because I had to take it in to service because they no longer released maps on DVD's.

Oh, don't get me started on my 2006 Lexus 400h nav! (Too late! I'm started!)
It's been practically useless since 2008, particularly since it's just a crappy DVD. As if that weren't bad enough - they decided to remove the "hack" that used to allow a passenger to operate the system while driving! Oof and no streaming music to the bluetooth, just phone, no auxiliary jack, CD player can't play mp3's.
Don't get me wrong, it continues to serve me well as our SUV, but so many bad decisions were made so that their demographic wouldn't be too put off by too many changes and new tech.

Anyway, on-topic: looks like more 2019.5.4 are trickling out on TeslaFi. Hoping this version has fewer bugs and can prompt a bigger rollout.