Model S/X deliveries with Intel-based MCU

[mdelrossi]

@mebwp So let's say that Tesla told you that if you waited to place your order until after 3/1/18 that you would have gotten the upgraded MCU at no additional cost. But what you didn't know was that you would lose the $14,000 Ontario rebate. Would you be pissed at Tesla because they induced you to delay your order causing you to lose $14,000? All for a faster MCU? (That may or may not get more features than the older MCUs.)

Just curious, why do you think we are "pissed" at Tesla?

Just because some buyers are not happy with how tesla does product change management does not mean we believe tesla is "evil" or out to screw us!

Also, the Ontario government rebate was changed on March 9. No warning, nothing. That's not on tesla. All us Canadians knew that the ev rebate in Ontario could change at any time due to the upcoming election, it's politics.

I will not hold tesla accountable to a government ev rebate program that they have no control or insight on when changes will be made.....but tesla controls their own products, change management and life cycles.

 

[Snowstorm]

I am disappointed that the MCU upgrade is not available for exiting owners. A model S is not an iphone that last 3 years, it is a piece of transportation tech that would last 10, maybe 15 years. When I bought the car last summer, it was immediately obvious that the touch screen was really slow. I told myself, don't worry, there will be OTA updates that can improve the code efficiency, and in the worse case, it would just be a CPU/GPU swap. How much does a graphics card or CPU cost? A high end CPU/GPU would set you back $500-1000, that would be totally worth it for a $150k car. Surely a forward thinking company such a Tesla would have designed their key human interface to be up gradable. That interface would be ridiculous 5 years from now, it would be like trying to use an iphone 4s today.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Surely a forward thinking company such a Tesla would have designed their key human interface to be up gradable.

To your point, I wonder if they built the Intel MCU to be modular/upgradable in the future?

 

[ABC2D]

it was immediately obvious that the touch screen was really slow

Then why did you buy it?

I told myself, don't worry, there will be OTA updates that can improve the code efficiency, and in the worse case, it would just be a CPU/GPU swap

Damn! How dare is Tesla not to listen to your inner voice!

$500-1000

AND YOU EVEN PRICED IT FOR THEM!!!!

Shame on Tesla as you reasoning is totally solid! I hope they read your post and promptly adjust to your plan.

 

[mdelrossi]

I am disappointed that the MCU upgrade is not available for exiting owners. A model S is not an iphone that last 3 years, it is a piece of transportation tech that would last 10, maybe 15 years. When I bought the car last summer, it was immediately obvious that the touch screen was really slow. I told myself, don't worry, there will be OTA updates that can improve the code efficiency, and in the worse case, it would just be a CPU/GPU swap. How much does a graphics card or CPU cost? A high end CPU/GPU would set you back $500-1000, that would be totally worth it for a $150k car. Surely a forward thinking company such a Tesla would have designed their key human interface to be up gradable. That interface would be ridiculous 5 years from now, it would be like trying to use an iphone 4s today.

Completely agree. Tegra 3 chipset is 7 years old. It was not expensive back then.....since then, nvidia has released 5-6 newer chipset that are vastly more powerful than 7 year old tech. One of nvidia's chipset from 2 years ago is what powers the $350 nintendo switch video game system . And that's 2 year old chipset, nvidia has released 2 newer generation SOC. Also, tesla completely switched from nvidia to Intel, for whatever reason.

Point I'm making is, the tech is NOT that expensive, yes the chipset (nvidia or Intel) have additional costs to design and manufacture for automotive environment.....but come on, it's not rocket science to make a motherboard MCU a modular design to be swapped out if newer tech is needed. ELON made this same statement for his current AP 2.0 chipset being swappable if FSD requires an upgrade to chipset.

 

[mdelrossi]

Then why did you buy it?

Damn! How dare is Tesla not to listen to your inner voice!

AND YOU EVEN PRICED IT FOR THEM!!!!

Shame on Tesla as you reasoning is totally solid! I hope they read your post and promptly adjust to your plan.

If only us complainers listen to masterT's inner voice . The world would be better? Who knows

 

[viper2ko]

So guys, can we agree the best way to get Elon to acknowledge us on twitter about this is for 1 person to tweet him and all of us retweet? I'm not entirely sure how it works, but would that push our tweet to the top of his list

 

[Kant.Ing]

They want to really set S and X apart from 3, right? Given what they've done with this MCU2 update, in next major S/X refresh, I wouldn't be surprised if they also have an upgrade to Core, a higher screen resolution, Chrome browser and VLC to play/stream all kinds of videos. If I ever need to surf and blog in the car, my 2-in-1 or cellphone is a better tool!

Enjoy your car as it's designed to be driven hard.

 

[MP3Mike]

Just curious, why do you think we are "pissed" at Tesla?

I never said, or implied, that anyone was pissed. I asked if they would be given the situation I proposed.

And I'm sorry I was off by 8 days on the date.

 

[whitex]

Something

I am new to Tesla and I love the car, the tech and environmental aspect of EV's. I am coming from a Audi Q7 DieselGate scandal. I am picking up my S75D on Saturday in Toronto. Heard from my DS that I missed it by a day. I was debating re-ordering as I am a techie at heart but decided to go ahead as I would also walk away from the 14,000 Ontario EV rebate which was changed on Mar 9th to exclude any cars above MSRP of 75K. Just too much $ to walk away from.

What I did do is switched to a 36 month lease rather than a outright purchase. Can only imagine what three years will bring to the EV space. At the very least a refresh for some of the Tesla models and definitely more competition. So for the next three years I am just going to enjoy car.

Don't you lose the rebate just the same when leasing vs. buying? In the US they simply add the rebate to the residual value, so it's higher, therefore lowering you payment, but if you want to buy it at the end the price is however many thousands (in your case $14K) than wholesale.

 

[Trebek1762]

Being one who is getting the old MCU, the whole experience of being 1-2 days late just leaves a sour taste about the whole thing.

Yes, I originally bought it knowing it had the old MCU. But being this close is so painful (first world problem, I know).

But I’m now buying a car with outdated hardware. At least with iPhones and most ICE, you know when the updates are.

Being out of the blue is just a slap in the face.

I know I wouldn’t be saying this if I was on the other side of the line. But f-me, this SUCKS.

 

[kak1154]

Is this because you referred yourself on the second deposit?

No, I thought the $500 applies to the buyer, not the referrer. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

I actually asked the OA if I could refer myself, hehe. No dice.

 

[Bdubz06]

Any more Xs confirmed with the new MCU? Build date and VIN range would be helpful.

I have a 75D X picking up 3/23. Prod date range 3/3-3/10; VIN 90xxx. DS will not tell me if it has the new MCU as it “breaks the rules”

 

[mdelrossi]

Any more Xs confirmed with the new MCU? Build date and VIN range would be helpful.

I have a 75D X picking up 3/23. Prod date range 3/3-3/10; VIN 90xxx. DS will not tell me if it has the new MCU as it “breaks the rules”

Break the rules ??? Wow. That's a new one

I think your safe. Vin, or order date does not seem to matter, production date is important. Yours being in March is looking good. All reports so far have March production to have the new MCU

I would inspect the car and check browser website to confirm new MCU to be 100% before signing and taking keys.

 

[Bdubz06]

I think your safe. Vin, or order date does not seem to matter, production date is important. Yours being in March is looking good. All reports so far have March production to have the new MCU

I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep for the next week in anticipation. Is it true the production status is not automated and only updated by the DS? Read that somewhere and also noticed after contacting my DS after the car was “in production” for over a week, an hour after I emailed it was updated to production complete and in transit. Coincidence?

 

[mdelrossi]

Being one who is getting the old MCU, the whole experience of being 1-2 days late just leaves a sour taste about the whole thing.

Yes, I originally bought it knowing it had the old MCU. But being this close is so painful (first world problem, I know).

But I’m now buying a car with outdated hardware. At least with iPhones and most ICE, you know when the updates are.

Being out of the blue is just a slap in the face.

I know I wouldn’t be saying this if I was on the other side of the line. But f-me, this SUCKS.

I don't know your situation, rebate in your state / province, deposit, etc

But I feel the same way, hopefully tesla has a solution vs unhappy customers refusing delivery of cars

I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep for the next week in anticipation. Is it true the production status is not automated and only updated by the DS? Read that somewhere and also noticed after contacting my DS after the car was “in production” for over a week, an hour after I emailed it was updated to production complete and in transit. Coincidence?

No clue if the system is truly automated of not.

My DS was able to confirm if my vehicle had the new MCU while vehicle was still in transit. Sounds like some people are getting some resistance from OA or DS to provide that info.

Honestly, you most likely have the new MCU

 

[MarkS22]

Completely agree. Tegra 3 chipset is 7 years old. It was not expensive back then.....since then, nvidia has released 5-6 newer chipset that are vastly more powerful than 7 year old tech. One of nvidia's chipset from 2 years ago is what powers the $350 nintendo switch video game system . And that's 2 year old chipset, nvidia has released 2 newer generation SOC. Also, tesla completely switched from nvidia to Intel, for whatever reason.

Point I'm making is, the tech is NOT that expensive, yes the chipset (nvidia or Intel) have additional costs to design and manufacture for automotive environment.....but come on, it's not rocket science to make a motherboard MCU a modular design to be swapped out if newer tech is needed. ELON made this same statement for his current AP 2.0 chipset being swappable if FSD requires an upgrade to chipset.

It would also be an excellent way to differentiate from the Model 3: Declare more key parts of the Model S/X upgradable for a reasonable price. Imagine Tesla offered upgradable MCUs, sensors (like cameras and radar), and more robust wiring with extra connectors/bandwidth in various parts of the car. Have new empty camera or sensor mounting locations. Declare the seats, headlights, vanity mirrors, even front-end upgradable. Not just aftermarket. Suddenly, the premium in price starts to make more sense.

Sure, you couldn’t cover everything—especially cosmetic—but they have a good roadmap to know what might conceivably be needed for the next 5-10 years. For example, imagine HW1 was ready with a 3 camera housing, placeholders for side cameras, and easily upgradable processor. (All of that was known by Tesla and Mobileye as being needed for future iterations.) And now make the MCU/screen upgradable. Suddenly, you have 3 year old cars with feature parity to a brand new one.

 

[kristofior]

On the subject of Tegra, we are all sitting here bashing it because it's a few years old. Listen, the MCU display is pretty simple. There is absolutely no reason that the Tegra 3 or 4 (information is conflicting) should not be able to do the job a lot better than it does. If Tesla really doesn't want a bunch of backlash from this, they may finally take the time to make their UI snappy on Tegra. The Tegra should be fully capable of rendering the MCU UI at 60fps and responding to touches with much lower latency. Many systems have been built on lower spec hardware that worked just fine; the software people just have to put in the work. If they don't want a bunch of pissed off customers they are gonna have to step up and get the performance out of the older hardware.

True !

Look at what the Tegra3 should be capable of :

 

[verygreen]

Sinking substantial software effort into outdated EOL platform (and with no possible revenue stream from it as well)? Yeah, put down the pipe. I'd believe into retrofit being offered (for a fee!) a lot sooner than into some significant software rework to make Tegra work faster.

 

[quicksilver99]

For a depreciation value, how much would you place on model S with or without mcu2 in five years