New Cars DO NOT have AP3 (Hardware3!)

[rkg114]

This is crazy to me, I had originally ordered a M3 back in early May, that car had a 4/21 "birthday" aka production date.

At that time, it was around when Tesla was to make the full switch to installing all new cars with AP3 chip (hardware3) their FSD chip.

That car did have the chip- however I received the car with 300mi on it and Tesla was unwilling to give me a discount for the custom order having 300mi. So I returned the car and ordered a new custom M3.

This time- the production date is 5/31, yet somehow the car has AP2.5 (hardware 2.5).

I went to Tesla to ask, all sales reps are baffled as to why 2.5 is still in production. Then, he proceeded to check every new car that had just come off the production line and all of them that he checked on Jun 6th had AP2.5

Very odd and disappointing, anyway I pushed my delivery date to Friday and asked him to keep looking for a car with AP3.0 (HW3) until Friday

It makes no sense to me why 2.5 is still in production, if Elon truly plans to actually swap out everyone with 2.5 and FSD to 3.0 chips, he's creating unnecessary work for them by still building cars with 2.5.

It all seems fishy, maybe he doesn't plan to switch the chips and it's all talk, we have no binding agreement stating that he will, just a lot of talk on conference calls and twitter

Disappointed i'm getting a car built 5/31 that has the old chip, I specifically waited this long to buy a new car hoping it essentially guarantees that i'll have the newest chip and not have to wait for a chip swap

 

[Msjulie]

sounds like using up old inventory of parts maybe..

 

[OPRCE]

Cancel again, 3rd time's the charm!

[only half joking]

It will be interesting to see how long this interlude of delivering HW2.5 again lasts. It could indicate that a significant problem has been found in HW3, necessitating another hardware revision, and recall of those already delivered.

It otherwise makes no sense to suddenly want to "use up" old stocks of 2.5 after having already make the switch into series production.

 

[dmurphy]

I'm really amazed that you sent a car back over 300 miles on the odometer. That's mice nuts in the grand scheme of things.

I've taken traditional ICE cars with 200 miles on the odometer - was the result of a dealer swap (i.e. they brought it over from another dealer because it was the exact config I wanted..)

Your warranty starts with the mileage on the odometer when you pick the vehicle up, so it's not even like you'd lose out on that.

If that was the sole reason to reject a $50,000 car, I'm a little gobsmacked.

 

[rkg114]

The car had wind noise issues and the seats had wrinkles on them..Tesla had no explanations for any of it and with 300mi on it, I asked to at least give me a credit, they refused....so I didn't trust the stories or the build of the car, it could've been a test drive car etc so I returned it

 

[dmurphy]

The car had wind noise issues and the seats had wrinkles on them..Tesla had no explanations for any of it and with 300mi on it, I asked to at least give me a credit, they refused....so I didn't trust the stories or the build of the car, it could've been a test drive car etc so I returned it

That's quite different... I understand those reasons completely. I thought it was "just" the mileage - which would be a nitpick. Wind issues and used seats - that's an issue worth rejecting over.

 

[rkg114]

unfortunately, now I can still see the old car in my Tesla app...and it's sitting in the showroom parking lot, BUT they can't just let me get that car back instead of this new 2.5 car lol smh

 

[OPRCE]

unfortunately, now I can still see the old car in my Tesla app...and it's sitting in the showroom parking lot, BUT they can't just let me get that car back instead of this new 2.5 car lol smh

Ask them for the seats from the new one, in the old one, for the win!

[ Sorry, I had to make fun of Tesla's ridiculous contortions, not you. ]

 

[quikshifter]

300 miles sounds like a 7 day return policy car.

 

[Troy]

You should return this car too and order again. By the way, be cautious if they promise you something to keep the car. On 28 Feb 2019, Tesla lowered vehicle prices by $3,000. At the time, buyers who had not taken delivery yet could cancel and reorder for $3,000 cheaper but Tesla said, don't worry, we will give you free AP or FSD instead. Then Tesla backtracked. These people still have the emails and they are still trying to get what was promised. See the news from yesterday here.

 

[rkg114]

I can't risk losing the federal rebate at this point. I've asked the Sales guy to check his view of what comes off production and is on a truck etc heading somewhere to see if he can find any with HW3 and match me w/ that.

That's the best I can do at this point I think without unmatching myself from this VIN and risk losing the rebate

 

[dmurphy]

I can't risk losing the federal rebate at this point. I've asked the Sales guy to check his view of what comes off production and is on a truck etc heading somewhere to see if he can find any with HW3 and match me w/ that.

That's the best I can do at this point I think without unmatching myself from this VIN and risk losing the rebate

Of all things that could be "wrong" with the car, having the HW2.5 chip really isn't the end of the world... In my book (and one of the reasons I pulled the trigger in April, knowing HW3 was coming) - the $1875 fed rebate was worth more to me than having HW3 on day 1. Honestly, I don't mind letting someone else beta-test HW3 first anyway.... it's a new chip, new architecture, new NN, new software - I'm OK being a fast-follower instead of early adopter there.

Of coursew we each have different needs so I totally understand and respect that -- but for me, driving a Model 3 now far outweighs having a chip that doesn't do much for me at this point in time ... that I'll get at some point anyway.

 

[Knightshade]

It will be interesting to see how long this interlude of delivering HW2.5 again lasts. It could indicate that a significant problem has been found in HW3, necessitating another hardware revision, and recall of those already delivered..

That would be my concern-- (and yet another reason, if true, that folks were better off not "waiting" for HW3 cars off the line).

Given Elon has stated 2.5 cars currently work better anyway (indeed HW3 cars were still missing features 2.5 cars had until a recent update and supposedly are still running emulated 2.5 code a touch slower than 2.5 HW does) I see no reason to reject assuming you have FSD and thus will be getting HW3 free once it's "ready" to be useful anyway.... especially not at the potential cost of another $1875 in tax credit.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Do you know how they are "confirming" the hardware is 2.5? If they are just looking at the option codes, they aren't correct as all Model 3s show AP2.5 (or at least they did the last I checked). A couple of ways to actually verify the hardware would be to take the dash apart and confirm...or to check and see what encoding the dash cam is using.

There's really not a huge difference between 2.5 and 3.0 now. It might be less hassle to take the car now and get it upgraded later instead of repeatedly ordering new cars.

 

[TampaRich]

Welcome first-time poster. How were they able to determine that you had HW2.5 instead of 3.0? Up until now I haven't heard of any way to tell other than by the birthdate or taking the dash apart (even for Tesla employees). Since you have it on your app, what version of software is running on your old one?

 

[rkg114]

I don't know how they verified it, the sales guy pulled up the vin number and went into the details and found it had 2.5. He then had service run a diagnostic computer on the car as well to confirm that. He did all this because he was surprised any cars had 2.5 at all.

They then called me and said to test the results, they actually took the car I returned and ran the diagnostic on that and it showed HW3.

Anyway, I do know the car is still amazing w/ 2.5...I can't afford doing another return, that'd leave me w/ 3 outstanding loans while I wait for this unbelievably slow refund process to finish. I also don't want to lose out on rebate.

Do we all trust that Elon will definitely do the chip swap? My showroom (cherry hill, nj) stated they had recently all been trained on the chip swap and that the engineers told them that when enhanced summon is fully rolled out, they will start swapping chips.

I hear so many stories from diff showrooms, I don't know what to believe on that...I called other showrooms to see if they did training, they all said they had not

 

[rkg114]

my old car has 2019.16.3 3e8c226 running currently

 

[SoManyM3s]

I think you got the wrong info, a lot of staff are telling folks that their car has 2.5, depending on what way they check to figure it out. My brother was told his sr-+ had 2.5. he checked the hardware by checking behind the glovebox method posted online and it was indeed hardware 3.0

 

[dsvick]

It makes no sense to me why 2.5 is still in production, if Elon truly plans to actually swap out everyone with 2.5 and FSD to 3.0 chips, he's creating unnecessary work for them by still building cars with 2.5.

It all seems fishy, maybe he doesn't plan to switch the chips and it's all talk, we have no binding agreement stating that he will, just a lot of talk on conference calls and twitter

I'm not sure why you consider this "fishy", if they still have the old 2.5 chips left in inventory it would be an even larger expense to just toss them away and replace them with the 3.0 ones. Yes, some fraction of them will need to be replaced eventually but certainly not all of them. It's not fishy, it's economics.

I've asked the Sales guy to check his view of what comes off production and is on a truck etc heading somewhere to see if he can find any with HW3 and match me w/ that.

That's the best I can do at this point I think without unmatching myself from this VIN and risk losing the rebate

Most everything coming off the line now is going to be designated for someone and not an inventory vehicle that would be available to someone. You may get lucky and someone will cancel an order though.

 

[rkg114]

One other bit of advice i'd like....the new car was to be ready for this past Saturday, however, they said that the motor on the passenger door failed inspection, and so they had to order that part, delaying delivery to Tuesday.

Is that something to be concerned about or pretty normal w/ these cars traveling from California right off the production line?

I've actually pushed my delivery to Friday in hopes the Sales guy matches me w/ a HW3 but he may just be blowing smoke up my ass about the level of effort he's going to put into that at this point