Model S intermittently loses 4G/LTE/network connectivity while powered off

[tefla]

Anyone have problems with the car intermittently losing 4G/LTE/mobile network connectivity while powered off / parked and locked?

During this you cannot connect with the app, which is highly annoying.

When entering the car the signal indicator for the network connectivity is depicted with a diagonal line over it.

When starting driving there's still no network for about 2 minutes, but it seems rock stable when online again.

It has occasionally been slow to connect for a long time, but it really got bad some time after entering 2021.

The SC has claimed it's a software issue for several months, but no fix so far. And they claim that it is not fixable with HW-change, which is obviously false, since it is not a problem for everyone.

It's an early 2019 100D at 2021.4.18.2, and I pay for premium connectivity.

I have searched a bit in the posts, but haven't found any good matches.

 

[DerbyDave]

Although I am supposed to be in a good area for both AT&T (which Tesla uses) and Verizon (my phone), my car sitting in the garage sometimes cannot get sufficient AT&T 4G signal. I have also noticed that when starting out in the car, it can take several minutes for the cellular connection to be able to be established, with a diagonal line across the bars displayed until I can get a signal. I think this is a cell phone company issue and not the car.

 

[GtiMart]

I believe the cellular data is disconnected when the car falls asleep. When you start the mobile app, the Tesla servers wake the car up with an SMS so the cellular connection is alive, but I don't think "data" is available.
I've heard of many people having problems waking their car up when they were connected to their home WIFI but the signal where the car was parked was very low. In that case, it's possible that the car favors wifi but cannot communicate to the Tesla servers properly. You could try removing your wifi connection from the car and try again. I know this has helped a lot of people on the local facebook groups I follow.

 

[tefla]

Thanks for your reply.

Since the problem is repeatedly occurring within urban/city area, it seems to me that cellular signal strength is not the issue.

 

[DerbyDave]

The app requires a cellular connection for authentication on certain car functions. WiFi alone will not allow the app to connect to the car. Although the car can wake up, if it cannot get the cellular connection, it will not connect.

 

[tefla]

I believe the cellular data is disconnected when the car falls asleep. When you start the mobile app, the Tesla servers wake the car up with an SMS so the cellular connection is alive, but I don't think "data" is available.
I've heard of many people having problems waking their car up when they were connected to their home WIFI but the signal where the car was parked was very low. In that case, it's possible that the car favors wifi but cannot communicate to the Tesla servers properly. You could try removing your wifi connection from the car and try again. I know this has helped a lot of people on the local facebook groups I follow.

Thanks for your reply.

I did not know that it worked like that.

However, the wifi is not connected at all when experiencing this issue.

I regularly experience the issue in urban/city areas.

For good measures, though, I will try to remove every wifi connection.

 

[GtiMart]

@DerbyDave , the mobile app communicates with the Tesla servers only, and that goes through the cell phone's internet connection. That can be wifi or LTE, it doesn't matter. The Tesla servers in turn communicate with the car, again through whatever internet connection the car has, either wifi or lte. The phone does not communicate directly with the car for mobile app functions. I'm not aware of the requirement for a specific connection in that flow.

Separately from that, the phone can also act as the car key. That is completely different and goes through bluetooth LE AFAIK. Not the bluetooth connection that lets you stream music etc, the Low Energy variant. Yes, it is also the mobile app that provides the credentials to the car, but through that bluetooth LE connection (so proximity to the car is required). None of the functions (e.g. buttons) of the app go through that.

 

[DerbyDave]

It was my understanding that the flow from Tesla servers to the car for the app were through the secure cellular networks, and not any WiFi connection.

 

[GtiMart]

Ok. I am fairly sure that if you have a wifi connection, that communication goes through wifi.

 

[PDX-Y]

I've heard of many people having problems waking their car up when they were connected to their home WIFI

That doesn't make sense to me. When the MCU is idle, it's 100% for sure not on the wifi network. It's down, it won't ping nor respond to anything, and when it does come back up (for whatever reason) the first thing it does is re-request its DHCP address.

 

[GtiMart]

It does not quite make sense for me either... I'm echoing the reports I got. Maybe their cars were not actually asleep, in which case the car would have favored wifi for connection but the Tesla servers would have trouble reaching the car if it's got bad wifi...

 

[cousin_IT]

On the Dutch subforum we had this same discussion. On my car the SIM extender was replaced with an e-SIM to resolve the problem of losing LTE but it didn't help. There seem to be multiple bugs in the mobile software stack, reporting them is all we can do for now.

 

[Vegas]

Anyone have problems with the car intermittently losing 4G/LTE/mobile network connectivity while powered off / parked and locked?

During this you cannot connect with the app, which is highly annoying.

When entering the car the signal indicator for the network connectivity is depicted with a diagonal line over it.

When starting driving there's still no network for about 2 minutes, but it seems rock stable when online again.

It has occasionally been slow to connect for a long time, but it really got bad some time after entering 2021.

The SC has claimed it's a software issue for several months, but no fix so far. And they claim that it is not fixable with HW-change, which is obviously false, since it is not a problem for everyone.

It's an early 2019 100D at 2021.4.18.2, and I pay for premium connectivity.

I have searched a bit in the posts, but haven't found any good matches.

Same issue here in OZ. After upgrading to MCU2, it loses connectivity for several minutes. When connected it's great. Definitely not a signal strength issue. Many MCU upgraders in Australian are suffering the same issues. I reported it to Tesla Service who advised it's a software issue and they are 'working on a fix' - hopefully this is true.

 

[tefla]

Thanks, guys.

I must say that as a consumer, I hate not having the power to request a fix now, or else...
You're completely in their mercy, whether they will bother fixing your problem or not. If only eg. 1% are having this problem, why would they?

So right now, I don't have the product that I paid for. Will I have to purchase a new car to have this working again?
NOT OK!

At one time, they could not communicate with the car via the mobile networks, so I just connected it to a wifi hotspot. I have no indication that they could not communicate with it over wifi.

 

[tefla]

Sorry about the somewhat OT rant above.
(I found no way to edit the post/comment)

 

[GtiMart]

@tefla, you have the power to request a fix immediately, through a service call in the mobile app, just like any other problem with your car. As all other manufacturers / dealers, when they check your car they are allowed to say "it's within spec" however. I've had that with ICE cars before too, it's not special to Tesla.

 

[Giampigua]

In my personal experience (Italy), I am sure the car can connect to TESLA app via wifi only.

My car is parked at -2 floor with no cellular signal. To solve this issue, I added an internet line to my box and the car is connected to the APP via wifi only.

BTW sometimes it happens that the communication is interrupted. But somehow connection is recovered in 30 sec - 5 min period of time

 

[Jjdsyd]

I have exactly this issue with both of our cars. Only started after each was upgraded to MCU 2. Very frustrating. And worse, I can no longer rely on unlocking the car with my phone or watch. Got caught out after a surf recently. Came back to the car and couldn’t get in.

 

[tefla]

@tefla, you have the power to request a fix immediately, through a service call in the mobile app, just like any other problem with your car.

I did request a service call !

They just closed it with the comment that it is a not a hardware issue - it is a known firmware issue, and engineering is working on a fix.

This is of course not really all truthful. If it is not a problem for everyone, it is indeed a hardware issue. My guess is that the hardware fix is too expensive or time consuming.

I also called support about this problem back in early april. Essentially they said the same as the SC, just several months before. The guy I spoke to got weirdly quiet when I asked about it, for some reason...

I have no belief in Tesla fixing this problem any time soon. (but Tesla might surprise me)

 

[tefla]

I have exactly this issue with both of our cars. Only started after each was upgraded to MCU 2. Very frustrating. And worse, I can no longer rely on unlocking the car with my phone or watch. Got caught out after a surf recently. Came back to the car and couldn’t get in.

That doesn't sound like fun.

Maybe the hardware is the same for your replacement units as I have in my AP2 facelift?

Sometimes I have been able to restore the connection by killing the app and trying again, and again...
(For Android: Long-click the icon on the home screen, and find the "stop"-button.)