Slacker Radio Tip for New Owners!

[BEEZR]

Hi all, I have a solid tip for all of you new or soon to be owners. I emailed [email protected] and asked them for my Slacker Radio username and password, which they quickly replied and provided back to me within a few hours. With that info, I went to the Slacker website on my Mac and logged in, went to account settings, and changed the low quality audio setting to high! Now I have the higher quality 320kbps streaming audio in my car!

Enjoy!

I did this, received from Tesla, logged in at home, changed the settings as you did. However, in the car at the bottom of the Slacker/Streaming home page, still says "Have a Slacker account?" with a SIGN IN button. When I tried to sign in with the username/password I received from Tesla, it hangs with a spinning circle. I've reported that to Tesla. But I can use Slacker in the car with my previously saved favorites just the same as before. So it seems to indicate that I need to sign in.

Do you have the same state on your Slacker home page? Or does it show you as being signed in?

Thanks.

 

[dhcp]

I did this, received from Tesla, logged in at home, changed the settings as you did. However, in the car at the bottom of the Slacker/Streaming home page, still says "Have a Slacker account?" with a SIGN IN button. When I tried to sign in with the username/password I received from Tesla, it hangs with a spinning circle. I've reported that to Tesla. But I can use Slacker in the car with my previously saved favorites just the same as before. So it seems to indicate that I need to sign in.

I have had the exact same experience, I even did a hard reboot to see if it helped, same thing.

The odd thing is that i logged into the Slacker web site, picked stations and whatnot and when I went out to the car all the new stations I had made favorites were showing on the car too, even though it still has that same "have a slacker account?" message like it's not logged in but obviously it is. Maybe it's just a software bug that causes it to hang after logging in.

I don't see any other new controls or settings, how can you tell the Tesla is really running at a higher bit rate or if that setting just changed the web-based player?

I have the standard audio system, not the ultra.

 

[BEEZR]

I have had the exact same experience, I even did a hard reboot to see if it helped, same thing.

The odd thing is that i logged into the Slacker web site, picked stations and whatnot and when I went out to the car all the new stations I had made favorites were showing on the car too, even though it still has that same "have a slacker account?" message like it's not logged in but obviously it is. Maybe it's just a software bug that causes it to hang after logging in.

I don't see any other new controls or settings, how can you tell the Tesla is really running at a higher bit rate or if that setting just changed the web-based player?

I have the standard audio system, not the ultra.

I have the same question as above. I have UHFS, but don't know if that matters in this case... I have 3G, which I think is more relevant for whether the car can stream at the higher bit rate or not.

In addition, while I can log in to the Slacker.com site and see my saved favorites (My Music), I cannot add any new stations to My Music -- it hangs and then crashes my browser tab. I've sent a note to Slacker support and I suspect this is related to the issue with saving Favorites in the car. I'll post their response if relevant.

 

[TacC]

I'm now having this issue regardless if I select high bitrate or not. Called Tesla support and they had me reset the touch screen, didn't help. They finally escalated to engineering on Sunday but I have yet to hear back. I can no longer login anymore, so frustrating.

Are y'all sure you're not already logged in?

Not trying to be condescending or sarcastic. I tried to log in a dozen times before realizing that I was already logged in and could stream music without issue.

 

[BEEZR]

Are y'all sure you're not already logged in?

Not trying to be condescending or sarcastic. I tried to log in a dozen times before realizing that I was already logged in and could stream music without issue.

Yes, I must be logged in as I can stream music -- at least I assume so. But it's pretty poor engineering if while logged in the screen still offers the user to Sign In. That's basic user interface design. And, when I attempt to sign in (there's no way to "sign out") it hangs and spins until I touch something else. At one time it went for more than 20 minutes spinning...

 

[CuriousG]

Yes, I must be logged in as I can stream music -- at least I assume so. But it's pretty poor engineering if while logged in the screen still offers the user to Sign In. That's basic user interface design. And, when I attempt to sign in (there's no way to "sign out") it hangs and spins until I touch something else. At one time it went for more than 20 minutes spinning...

This is very confusing. If you sign in to the TuneIn interface, you'll note that it is signed in with your e-mail address. Since the Slacker interface is similar, I'm under the impression the button should say sign out or have the teslamotors.com e-mail address when properly signed in.

 

[Joelc]

I have had the exact same experience, I even did a hard reboot to see if it helped, same thing.

The odd thing is that i logged into the Slacker web site, picked stations and whatnot and when I went out to the car all the new stations I had made favorites were showing on the car too, even though it still has that same "have a slacker account?" message like it's not logged in but obviously it is. Maybe it's just a software bug that causes it to hang after logging in.

I don't see any other new controls or settings, how can you tell the Tesla is really running at a higher bit rate or if that setting just changed the web-based player?

I have the standard audio system, not the ultra.

I also got the spinning/hanging issue when trying to log in with my Tesla Slacker account . I thought it was an issue with my console so i took it in.

Turns out that the Slacker username / password login option is for personal (non-Tesla) accounts.

Since the Tesla Slacker accounts are tied witb the car, that account is hardcoded and persistent (ie, should never have to login with Tesla/slacker account because it will always be logged in UNLESS you have a personal Slacker account).

I told the service tech to make a note and send it up the chain to the powers-that-be that designed that particular UI that "it sucks".

 

[CuriousG]

Anyone have any idea how to play "Favorites Radio"? It appears when you thumbs up it marks it as My Music from the web interface and it appears to hold 99 tracks. Seems this is only available to play from web interface and doesn't appear as a station under Recently Played on the Tesla. I suppose you can do it through Bluetooth with your phone but at that point may as well play Pandora or Spotify instead.

 

[theslimshadyist]

Are y'all sure you're not already logged in?

Not trying to be condescending or sarcastic. I tried to log in a dozen times before realizing that I was already logged in and could stream music without issue.

Positive. I have to enter my username and password.

 

[Ormond]

I had the spinning/hanging issue too. I blame it on Slim Shady.

 

[brkaus]

Sheesh, me too - do we all have Sonos at home as well??

yes!

 

[BEEZR]

I also got the spinning/hanging issue when trying to log in with my Tesla Slacker account . I thought it was an issue with my console so i took it in.

Turns out that the Slacker username / password login option is for personal (non-Tesla) accounts.

Since the Tesla Slacker accounts are tied witb the car, that account is hardcoded and persistent (ie, should never have to login with Tesla/slacker account because it will always be logged in UNLESS you have a personal Slacker account).

I told the service tech to make a note and send it up the chain to the powers-that-be that designed that particular UI that "it sucks".

Thank you!

These kinds of nuggets would be really helpful in a Tesla-managed FAQ available to owners on Tesla.com. Or maybe if Tesla customer service had mentioned this once in the multiple-email back and forth I had with them... Now this makes sense, but UX is poor. They either didn't consider this (most common) use case, or the engineering work was poorly thought out, or it was too much dev effort... How about if they just had a dialog pop up that says "You are already signed in with that account." or similar? SMH

 

[BEEZR]

This is very confusing. If you sign in to the TuneIn interface, you'll note that it is signed in with your e-mail address. Since the Slacker interface is similar, I'm under the impression the button should say sign out or have the teslamotors.com e-mail address when properly signed in.

Yeah, apparently that's not how it "works..."

 

[CmdrThor]

Tesla provided my user and pw but asked that I not change the pw, claiming in the event I 'forgot' it its easier for them to reset.
Has anyone NOT changed their pw? Its a crazy alpha-numeric that I'll never remember. BTW, I added to Sonos too....first thing I did.

They said the same thing in the email they sent me but I'm going to change my password just so they can't eff with my account!

You should know that Tesla renews the accounts based on the password they set. Therefore whenever your account is set to expire, it will just expire since you changed your password. If I were you I'd change the password back to what it was.

 

[Joelc]

Thank you!

These kinds of nuggets would be really helpful in a Tesla-managed FAQ available to owners on Tesla.com. Or maybe if Tesla customer service had mentioned this once in the multiple-email back and forth I had with them... Now this makes sense, but UX is poor. They either didn't consider this (most common) use case, or the engineering work was poorly thought out, or it was too much dev effort... How about if they just had a dialog pop up that says "You are already signed in with that account." or similar? SMH

It even stumped one of the senior techs. They had my car in the service bay for quite awhile while I waited.
He also agreed that that the UX was confusing and needed a message 'you are already logged in'.

 

[fiksegts]

weird to see a pic of my previous tesla at my house as your avatar... do you own that car now?

I have had the exact same experience, I even did a hard reboot to see if it helped, same thing.

The odd thing is that i logged into the Slacker web site, picked stations and whatnot and when I went out to the car all the new stations I had made favorites were showing on the car too, even though it still has that same "have a slacker account?" message like it's not logged in but obviously it is. Maybe it's just a software bug that causes it to hang after logging in.

I don't see any other new controls or settings, how can you tell the Tesla is really running at a higher bit rate or if that setting just changed the web-based player?

I have the standard audio system, not the ultra.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I also got the spinning/hanging issue when trying to log in with my Tesla Slacker account . I thought it was an issue with my console so i took it in.

Turns out that the Slacker username / password login option is for personal (non-Tesla) accounts.

Since the Tesla Slacker accounts are tied witb the car, that account is hardcoded and persistent (ie, should never have to login with Tesla/slacker account because it will always be logged in UNLESS you have a personal Slacker account).

I told the service tech to make a note and send it up the chain to the powers-that-be that designed that particular UI that "it sucks".

Right. The car should be logged in be default. If you can play music through Slacker, you're logged in. The problem being that you can't get High Quality (320Kbps) audio without setting the toggle. The setting on Slacker's site is ignored by the Tesla's media player, which requests the Low/High quality streams specifically. Since there's no option to sign out of the default account, they've effectively locked you to the low quality stream if you hadn't already made the change before this bug (?) was introduced.

This may be on purpose. Tesla's paying for everyone's data currently, so they may wish to keep their costs down. I suspect the number of owners paying for their own, separate, Slacker account is relatively small. The fact that, for the default Tesla account, this used to be a user setting that was removed lends some credence to it being intentional.

 

[NikeWings]

weird to see a pic of my previous tesla at my house as your avatar... do you own that car now?

That is bizarro!

 

[GTIceman]

Right. The car should be logged in be default. If you can play music through Slacker, you're logged in. The problem being that you can't get High Quality (320Kbps) audio without setting the toggle. The setting on Slacker's site is ignored by the Tesla's media player, which requests the Low/High quality streams specifically. Since there's no option to sign out of the default account, they've effectively locked you to the low quality stream if you hadn't already made the change before this bug (?) was introduced.

This may be on purpose. Tesla's paying for everyone's data currently, so they may wish to keep their costs down. I suspect the number of owners paying for their own, separate, Slacker account is relatively small. The fact that, for the default Tesla account, this used to be a user setting that was removed lends some credence to it being intentional.

Maybe to get around this make a trial slacker account or just try logging in with a free one and then log out? I get my car back tomorrow so I might try that.

 

[Pwdr Extreme]

So I've read pages and pages about bitrate and being able to change it pre 8.0 and changing on the PC making no difference, etc. I have a few questions:

1. In new cars with 8.0 is there ANY way to set the Tesla slacker account to a higher bitrate in the car?
2. Do we know what the actual highest bitrate is in the car after 8.0?
3. If I use my own paid for premium or plus account, can the car then play in a higher bitrate?

Thanks!