Retrofit Autopilot 2.0 Hardware Possibility?

[tliving]

Same answer as those of us that bought pre-AP cars got right after AP 1.0 came out. Still the best car I ever owned. My Model 3 will have AP 2.0 and i'll have over 100K miles on my S that weren't in an ICE. No complaints there.

 

[aesculus]

I am surprised that they are not offering the upgraded front cameras and AP processor which is housed in the camera unit as a AP 1.5 type of upgrade. No wiring harness or drilling required (for Model X and enhanced Model S?). Would not get you full AP 2.0 but vastly improved from what AP 1.0 does I would think.

 

[somnambule]

I received my Tesla S 90D two months ago and I was very happy with it until this week. I am very disappointed that Tesla didn't give me any warning that the new car they built for me was about to quickly become the "old" technology. I feel like I bought a new car and got last years model. I hate the thought that everything exciting about Autopilot that I'll be reading about in the next few years will be based on technology that I missed out on by 2 months. After reading these forums I realized that I should have researched Autopilot further before I ordered so that I could have found about this major technology change that was coming soon. That way I could have waited to place my order instead of being furious with Tesla. This was my first Tesla and it will be my last.

I've had my Model S for less than 4 months; so I'm mostly in the same boat as you. However, I see the situation somewhat differently. My car still does everything I expected it to do when I bought it. No functionality is lost. And AP 1.0 handles the cases I need, and does so for $2500 instead of $8000.

Yes, there is a resale value hit as others have pointed out. However, we can't possibly be surprised by that. We may not have expected a major update in 2 months but there's no way there wasn't going to be one in the next couple of years.

And, finally, Tesla possibly couldn't tell people 2 months before a new update shows up. They would essentially sell nothing for a couple of months. Besides, where should they draw the line? If they tell people 2 months in advance, that just pisses off the people who bought 3 months ago. It's impossible to run a business that way.

Bottom line, enjoy the car you have. It's still a blast to drive (nothing's changed in that aspect). And if you really must have a self-driving car, plan on upgrading or a Model 3 in 2-3 years, which is the minimum it will take for the self-driving tech to mature and regulations to get passed etc.

 

[Jhall118]

I don't necessarily fault Tesla for not doing a retrofit. I think it's a little ridiculous they can't do something simple, like leaving room in the wiring harness for future cameras, to alleviate things like this. It's not like this hasn't happened before. I missed 4g LTE by two days. I was able to pay $500 for a retrofit.

My current car can brake, steer, and has a basic set of sensors. I'm not sure why Tesla can't implement a system that allows people that want to use the software the ability to, after ensuring the hardware is there.

Two years from now, when the software is ready, I would think that $10,000 could get you a hell of a lot of hardware. But Tesla will lock you out of the software without hacking. The hardware just isn't that expensive, especially a year from now.

That's what upsets me. I don't want to buy a car every 3 years, but believe my life is safer in the hands of a computer than myself. Elon constantly talks about how it's irresponsible/immoral to hold back technology that will improve safety. Well, I would like to just say the same thing to him. I don't care if I have to run wires underneath the floor mat, or drill into the car, I just wish there was a lower cost way to get it.

I am still a frothing-at-the-mouth Tesla fan. Please put your pitchforks down. I just don't understand why a third party can't make my car autonomous with how fast computers progress relative to cars, for less than $40,000.

 

[MP3Mike]

I am surprised that they are not offering the upgraded front cameras and AP processor which is housed in the camera unit as a AP 1.5 type of upgrade. No wiring harness or drilling required (for Model X and enhanced Model S?). Would not get you full AP 2.0 but vastly improved from what AP 1.0 does I would think.

How do you know they wouldn't need a new wiring harness? (The PX2 probably draws a lot more power and would require heavier gauge wire.)

And then there is the issue of the require liquid cooling. They would have to pipe coolant tubes up to the camera unit. This would be more possible on an X since the AP processor isn't in the camera housing on the windshield. (Other than the X would need a new wiring harness since from what we know it only has wiring for two cameras to the AP processor.)

 

[shokunin]

I am surprised that they are not offering the upgraded front cameras and AP processor which is housed in the camera unit as a AP 1.5 type of upgrade. No wiring harness or drilling required (for Model X and enhanced Model S?). Would not get you full AP 2.0 but vastly improved from what AP 1.0 does I would think.

nVidia PX2 is huge and is packaged as a liquid cooled case, there's no way to put this on the windshield. Not only that, the retail on PX2 is $10,000 for just the processing unit. I'm sure Tesla is getting a smoking deal, but they would have to rework the existing cooling system to pipe this in as well as add new wiring to handle the power requirements for PX2.

The camera housing is different for the new triple cam, you'd need a whole new windshield as well.

 

[robby]

I don't think you could reasonably come to an estimate of $20k for an AP 2.0 retrofit based on what wk057 did. His own article said that Tesla could never offer something like what he did because it would cost too much.

wk057 also questioned Musk's cost assessment, says he may retrofit his own v2, and thinks two people could repeat his work in under a day.

Jason Hughes on Twitter
Jason Hughes on Twitter

Musk's math is not at all clear to me, but even if we take shokunin's $50k figure, that is less than my upgrade delta will be in a year or two. Will Tesla offer an AP2 upgrade when cars have sufficiently depreciated that a retrofit puts people in the black? If this is really about numbers, I'd like to see the numbers.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I received my Tesla S 90D two months ago and I was very happy with it until this week. I am very disappointed that Tesla didn't give me any warning that the new car they built for me was about to quickly become the "old" technology. I feel like I bought a new car and got last years model. I hate the thought that everything exciting about Autopilot that I'll be reading about in the next few years will be based on technology that I missed out on by 2 months. After reading these forums I realized that I should have researched Autopilot further before I ordered so that I could have found about this major technology change that was coming soon. That way I could have waited to place my order instead of being furious with Tesla. This was my first Tesla and it will be my last.

Don't feel bad, it will be years before the software catches up with the new hardware. Plus you saved thousands, the new hardware is much more expensive.

 

[aesculus]

Fair amount of noise on the Tesla.com X forum on the AP 2 upgrade issue. Don't think the attitudes mirror TMC at all in terms of ratios.