When I bought my MS I was already very conscious that OTA updates were not viewed as a universal benefit by all owners. IIRC the demise of V8 was an example. Then there were changes to battery parameters and charging characteristics that negatively impacted ownership experience. Extending vehicle life, addressing safety issue or dodging warranty claims?
Many, or even the vast majority of threads make constant comparison between one software version and another and how different car models in different States or Countries appear to respond.
FSD Beta / city streets added another layer but with a different core purpose of helping to evolve FSD into a more functional, solid product.
At first I was very much in favor of the idea that my car would be kept up to date for some time at least. I did my best to ensure that by getting a new HW3 car rather than chance Tesla honoring obligations to upgrade earlier 2.0 or 2.5 cars. Within only a few updates (claimed to increase the range or at least displayed range of MS R LR models) I discovered that features of OTA updates may not apply to my car.
Excitement over an update that would allow me to 'control' the windows from the app was short lived when I found that while I could open them, I could not close them! In addition, I started getting warning messages that the windows were left open when in fact they were not. Recalibration offers only a momentary fix until the windows are next used - unless recalibrated every time.
Since the first long journey I made, I had some dramatic phantom braking events around tunnels, over head gantries and curtain sided semi trucks. It took months before Tesla appeared to acknowledge this to be a genuine problem, and the solution, once it came, was apparently to disable radar on cars like mine. In reality the 'fix' was more of an exchange of one bad behavior for another slightly different one.
My expectation that OTA would somehow keep my car up to date was shattered when the latest models had sentry video visible in the app. I saw videos of hacked older cars' being able to support the same functionality, but it never came to my car.
As a UK owner, one area I needed OTA to deliver in was updating my purchased FSD software in line with regulatory constraints. All I have seen is addition of traffic light features that just don't work in busy streets and consecutive sets of lights. General AP has at least got no better during my ownership, and in many ways the fact that anomalous behavior / slowing in wrong places / attempting to turn off where there is no off ramp etc remain inconsistent with new quirks coming and going from one software version to another, it keeps getting worse or at least more distracting.
Changes in for sizes and moving controls around behind menus all adds to the distraction.... or at least stops me from becoming settled and comfortable with at least consistent and known behavior.
Throughout all this, I have begun to wonder how OTA changes are monitored and approved in different countries, especially if they make any significant change to original tested specifications. Changing regen behaviour, pre heating for AC and DC charging, changing charging rates etc must all impact efficiency. Changing to TV / VO must change behaviour and characteristics of safety features. The fact that so many behaviors (like auto wipers and headlights) get changed must mean at least there was room for improvement, or even that a previous iteration might have had serious flaws.
When we bought our cars, most owners would have clicked on various screens of small print about AP / FSD, but did we also agree that Tesla can add and remove features during our ownership at their will in future? Although we accept install of each update, Tesla do not give full breakdown of what's in an update, exactly why it's needed and how it may effect my car BEFORE we click to accept.
I believe it is also possible for Tesla to force update installation although that is only based on 2nd hand posts on TMC.
Tesla cars are probably the first that have had this regime of OTA updates giving the manufacturer a window to twiddle and tweek our cars at least to some extent beyond our control. Do other owners still see OTA as a massively positive feature? How much should a manufacturer be able to meddle with cars after sale and is that / should that be regulated in any way? When cars are sold with a promise that functionality will be delivered or reinstated (FSD / USS) at some future date, does the possibility of OTA update help or just allow the can to keep getting kicked down the road?
While my observations are fairly negative, I am interested if there are owners who still eagerly anticipate each update with some confidence that it will be broadly a positive thing.
Many, or even the vast majority of threads make constant comparison between one software version and another and how different car models in different States or Countries appear to respond.
FSD Beta / city streets added another layer but with a different core purpose of helping to evolve FSD into a more functional, solid product.
At first I was very much in favor of the idea that my car would be kept up to date for some time at least. I did my best to ensure that by getting a new HW3 car rather than chance Tesla honoring obligations to upgrade earlier 2.0 or 2.5 cars. Within only a few updates (claimed to increase the range or at least displayed range of MS R LR models) I discovered that features of OTA updates may not apply to my car.
Excitement over an update that would allow me to 'control' the windows from the app was short lived when I found that while I could open them, I could not close them! In addition, I started getting warning messages that the windows were left open when in fact they were not. Recalibration offers only a momentary fix until the windows are next used - unless recalibrated every time.
Since the first long journey I made, I had some dramatic phantom braking events around tunnels, over head gantries and curtain sided semi trucks. It took months before Tesla appeared to acknowledge this to be a genuine problem, and the solution, once it came, was apparently to disable radar on cars like mine. In reality the 'fix' was more of an exchange of one bad behavior for another slightly different one.
My expectation that OTA would somehow keep my car up to date was shattered when the latest models had sentry video visible in the app. I saw videos of hacked older cars' being able to support the same functionality, but it never came to my car.
As a UK owner, one area I needed OTA to deliver in was updating my purchased FSD software in line with regulatory constraints. All I have seen is addition of traffic light features that just don't work in busy streets and consecutive sets of lights. General AP has at least got no better during my ownership, and in many ways the fact that anomalous behavior / slowing in wrong places / attempting to turn off where there is no off ramp etc remain inconsistent with new quirks coming and going from one software version to another, it keeps getting worse or at least more distracting.
Changes in for sizes and moving controls around behind menus all adds to the distraction.... or at least stops me from becoming settled and comfortable with at least consistent and known behavior.
Throughout all this, I have begun to wonder how OTA changes are monitored and approved in different countries, especially if they make any significant change to original tested specifications. Changing regen behaviour, pre heating for AC and DC charging, changing charging rates etc must all impact efficiency. Changing to TV / VO must change behaviour and characteristics of safety features. The fact that so many behaviors (like auto wipers and headlights) get changed must mean at least there was room for improvement, or even that a previous iteration might have had serious flaws.
When we bought our cars, most owners would have clicked on various screens of small print about AP / FSD, but did we also agree that Tesla can add and remove features during our ownership at their will in future? Although we accept install of each update, Tesla do not give full breakdown of what's in an update, exactly why it's needed and how it may effect my car BEFORE we click to accept.
I believe it is also possible for Tesla to force update installation although that is only based on 2nd hand posts on TMC.
Tesla cars are probably the first that have had this regime of OTA updates giving the manufacturer a window to twiddle and tweek our cars at least to some extent beyond our control. Do other owners still see OTA as a massively positive feature? How much should a manufacturer be able to meddle with cars after sale and is that / should that be regulated in any way? When cars are sold with a promise that functionality will be delivered or reinstated (FSD / USS) at some future date, does the possibility of OTA update help or just allow the can to keep getting kicked down the road?
While my observations are fairly negative, I am interested if there are owners who still eagerly anticipate each update with some confidence that it will be broadly a positive thing.
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