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cpa

cpa

Active Member
May 17, 2014
3,810
5,911
Central Valley
#1
(No, this is not a variation on The Gifts of the Magi by O. Henry.)

is the fee that Tesla assesses now to push a software update to our car. Really.

We purchased our S in 2014, and we followed up with our 3 in 2018.

Our wi-fi signal is not strong in our garage, and the antenna on the 3 is not located to pick up the signal easily.

I made an appointment on the app for mobile service to push the update in the thought that once someone read the request that they would simply push the update at their convenience. Au contraire! The mobile appointment was kicked over to a service center appointment. They sent me an estimate to approve to push the software for $9.75.

In past years, the Service Center or the mobile tech has always pushed software updates without charge or asking. Now they are making software updates a fee-for-service. Seems petty and greedy to me. Tesla is becoming El Cheapo.

I do not understand all the bells and whistles relating to wi-fi and its cousins. I am not a person to buy new equipment every year to get the latest and greatest. What I have works, and works just fine thank you very much. Buying new equipment that essentially will be a unitasker (not to mention where to place it) is senseless, stupid, and a waste of money.

'Nuff said. :)
 
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#4
cpa said:
(No, this is not a variation on The Gifts of the Magi by O. Henry.)

is the fee that Tesla assesses now to push a software update to our car. Really.

We purchased our S in 2014, and we followed up with our 3 in 2018.

Our wi-fi signal is not strong in our garage, and the antenna on the 3 is not located to pick up the signal easily.

I made an appointment on the app for mobile service to push the update in the thought that once someone read the request that they would simply push the update at their convenience. Au contraire! The mobile appointment was kicked over to a service center appointment. They sent me an estimate to approve to push the software for $9.75.

In past years, the Service Center or the mobile tech has always pushed software updates without charge or asking. Now they are making software updates a fee-for-service. Seems petty and greedy to me. Tesla is becoming El Cheapo.

I do not understand all the bells and whistles relating to wi-fi and its cousins. I am not a person to buy new equipment every year to get the latest and greatest. What I have works, and works just fine thank you very much. Buying new equipment that essentially will be a unitasker (not to mention where to place it) is senseless, stupid, and a waste of money.

'Nuff said. :)
Click to expand...

If you are what your handle is (a CPA), you surely realize that if a person does not want to setup wifi to get the free updates, and instead makes an appointment which costs SOMEONE some time, there is a cost to that, right? Now, who bears that cost? Tesla has absorbed it in the past, but they likely are tired of people putting in appointments to get updates pushed to them because they want the latest thing.

Tesla's service center hourly rate is like 150 to 175 an hour. they are charging you for like 4 minutes, most likely to discourage people from putting in appointments for updates.

Either tether to your cellphone if you have a phone capable of that (maybe you dont), or park somewhere with free wifi and download it, or pay for the 4 minutes of labor.
 
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#10
webbah said:
I used to tether to my iPhone and then just got a second SIM card that shares the same mobile plan. Then installed a Teltonika RUT850 wifi automotive router in the car completely hidden with LTE/GSM booster antennas. The joys of living in an apartment with underground parking!
Click to expand...

This is a GREAT solution, but doesnt meet the OPs underlying desire / request to simplify the technical aspect. Anyone capable of being a CPA, however, can either figure out or be shown once how to turn on tethering on their device and tether it, so that does meet that threshhold.

I would have a different opinion if tesla started charging everyone for the updates we download while at home, but that is NOT what is happening in this case. This OP is being charged for creating a service ticket to get the update pushed because they do not want to solve their "I cant download it at home" issue themselves, then getting upset when tesla starts finally billing a little for someones time. If OP is a CPA i guarantee that part of what they do for their clients is assist them in accurately accounting for their time for their businesses and recording it properly, so I dont get the angst here.
 
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#11
UncertainTimes said:
Ok fine 100 foot Cat 5e cable is like $10. Move the freaking router closer to the garage. If you can operate a Tesla you can somehow get Wifi in to your garage. ITS A WIRELESS SIGNAL AND GOES THROUGH WALLS.
Click to expand...
Except it doesn't always.

I live in a condo with a separate garage. As an experiment, I took it to the level of running a long cable to move my base station to the closest (still within my unit) to the garage. I then took a satellite to the garage in a corner closest to the base station. Other than two walls (wall of my condo and wall of the garage), it was as direct line-of-sight as I could do with about 150' of separation. Couldn't get them to connect.
 
#13
Kevy Baby said:
Except it doesn't always.

I live in a condo with a separate garage. As an experiment, I took it to the level of running a long cable to move my base station to the closest (still within my unit) to the garage. I then took a satellite to the garage in a corner closest to the base station. Other than two walls (wall of my condo and wall of the garage), it was as direct line-of-sight as I could do with about 150' of separation. Couldn't get them to connect.
Click to expand...
Love the work we do just to get the signal. I've done some wild things years ago, like putting a router in a plastic bottle pushing POE and hanging it in a tree for coverage around my neighborhood. We also used pringle cans to boost the direction of signals. That was back when I was installing computers into cars, running netstumbler ect...

screenshot3.jpg Photo_072605_003.jpg
 
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#14
Kevy Baby said:
Except it doesn't always.

I live in a condo with a separate garage. As an experiment, I took it to the level of running a long cable to move my base station to the closest (still within my unit) to the garage. I then took a satellite to the garage in a corner closest to the base station. Other than two walls (wall of my condo and wall of the garage), it was as direct line-of-sight as I could do with about 150' of separation. Couldn't get them to connect.
Click to expand...

If you had put it in a window, it might have worked. That was my first attempt to get wi-fi in my garage (line of sight, 60 ft away). Later I picked up a second Google Nest hub and moved my old one into the garage. Either one got me a download speed ~25 mbps in my garage.
 
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