Slow Infotainment after HW3 upgrade

[BBB4000]

I noticed the infotainment has gotten really, really slow after upgrading from HW2 to HW3 (late 2016 MS, MCU 1). I've done my own troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the Tesla Dashcam. When I have a USB memory card plugged in and the dashcam is recording then I can almost guarantee the Infotainment system will be slow. When I unplug the USB stick I notice better response times - but I no longer get to take advantage of Sentry or Tesla Dashcam.

I have a service appointment in a few days. I am sure others have noticed similar behavior. I am curious whether Tesla has been able to fix this without upgrading to MCU2 ? Does upgrading to MCU 2 resolve these issues? Seems kind of like BS for Tesla to offer HW3 upgrade but then introduce regressions in promised features.

One note: Tesla cleared out the nav history a few months back and that seemed to temporarily help.

 

[luckyj]

Yep, same issue. Actually worse for me. Dashcam makes the MCU extremely slow - unusable really - and locks up and reboots frequently. Can't use the dashcam feature. Have not tried to get Tesla to fix it under the assumption that it'll be "working as designed" for an MCU1.

 

[viper2ko]

I noticed the infotainment has gotten really, really slow after upgrading from HW2 to HW3 (late 2016 MS, MCU 1). I've done my own troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the Tesla Dashcam. When I have a USB memory card plugged in and the dashcam is recording then I can almost guarantee the Infotainment system will be slow. When I unplug the USB stick I notice better response times - but I no longer get to take advantage of Sentry or Tesla Dashcam.

I have a service appointment in a few days. I am sure others have noticed similar behavior. I am curious whether Tesla has been able to fix this without upgrading to MCU2 ? Does upgrading to MCU 2 resolve these issues? Seems kind of like BS for Tesla to offer HW3 upgrade but then introduce regressions in promised features.

One note: Tesla cleared out the nav history a few months back and that seemed to temporarily help.

Yea dashcam and sentry aren't meant for MCU1. If you pull up the sketchpad while driving it will help. MCU1 can't handle dashcam, streaming and the constant nav tracking simultaneously

 

[2101Guy]

Even with dashcam/sentry disabled, you can expect to have degraded performance when you combine mcu1 (engineered with 2011 technology/chipset) with HW3.

mcu2 is much more powerful than mcu1 and was designed to be fully compatible with the resource demands of HW3.

mcu1 was designed around the resource demands of ap1, but also was sufficient to support demands of hw2 and hw2.5.

 

[drklain]

Not an issue. You are using a 10 year old MCU computer to drive things, including features that were never included with MCU1 (dashcam, sentry). Prior to the AP2 -> AP3 upgrade, those features didn't even work in your car. Now they work, but they load down the computer and it operates more slowly. This is why so many of us ate the cost of an upgrade to an MCU2 - the processor is much newer and can handle the additional load without dragging.

It's not BS for Tesla to offer the upgrade. The AP3 upgrade without upgrading MCU gets you additional functionality to support FSD operations. They tell you flat out (in writing on the website) that the MCU1 processor can't handle it all and thus you will not get all the dashboard displays that an MCU2 car can see. Tesla wasn't disingenuous. When you did the upgrade, you did so knowing that without upgrading MCU you were saving money but at a cost of MCU performance. You shouldn't be surprised or upset now that you have an MCU performance issue.

 

[2101Guy]

Not an issue. You are using a 10 year old MCU computer to drive things, including features that were never included with MCU1 (dashcam, sentry). Prior to the AP2 -> AP3 upgrade, those features didn't even work in your car. Now they work, but they load down the computer and it operates more slowly. This is why so many of us ate the cost of an upgrade to an MCU2 - the processor is much newer and can handle the additional load without dragging.

It's not BS for Tesla to offer the upgrade. The AP3 upgrade without upgrading MCU gets you additional functionality to support FSD operations. They tell you flat out (in writing on the website) that the MCU1 processor can't handle it all and thus you will not get all the dashboard displays that an MCU2 car can see. Tesla wasn't disingenuous. When you did the upgrade, you did so knowing that without upgrading MCU you were saving money but at a cost of MCU performance. You shouldn't be surprised or upset now that you have an MCU performance issue.

i don’t fully agree. True, mcu1 with HW3 won’t give you full functionality (visualizations, Netflix, etc) associated with mcu2, but nowhere did Tesla state for mcu1 users to expect black screens, reboots, severe lag, voice recognition impact, delays in navigation, etc. if those users paid thousands to get FSD.

to not have significant noticeable impact on those things? MCU2 (and it’s more powerful processor) is a must. And Tesla should have stated that clearly to purchasers of the FSD upgrade.

 

[viper2ko]

i don’t fully agree. True, mcu1 with HW3 won’t give you full functionality (visualizations, Netflix, etc) associated with mcu2, but nowhere did Tesla state for mcu1 users to expect black screens, reboots, severe lag, voice recognition impact, delays in navigation, etc. if those users paid thousands to get FSD.

to not have significant noticeable impact on those things? MCU2 (and it’s more powerful processor) is a must. And Tesla should have stated that clearly to purchasers of the FSD upgrade.

Tesla doesn't want to admit they were wrong and full of it when they said MCU 1 would be fine with HW3. Or when elon said if you buy FSD youll get all the hardware needed. Now they are just piecing together a crap ass version of FSD and. Half baked MCU that technically works like 60% of the time, which is within spec.

 

[2101Guy]

Tesla doesn't want to admit they were wrong and full of it when they said MCU 1 would be fine with HW3. Or when elon said if you buy FSD youll get all the hardware needed. Now they are just piecing together a crap ass version of FSD and. Half baked MCU that technically works like 60% of the time, which is within spec.

agreed. From his aspect, if he would have said FSD upgrade will only be sold if you also purchased MCU2? He would have missed out on millions of upgrade dollars.
He’s focused solely on income right now, quality and customer service are much lesser priorities. Why? No competition

 

[BBB4000]

Thanks for the feedback. That's awfully disappointing. If Tesla told me that my infotainment would largely be unusable with the upgrade to HW3 I probably wouldn't have done it.

 

[2101Guy]

Thanks for the feedback. That's awfully disappointing. If Tesla told me that my infotainment would largely be unusable with the upgrade to HW3 I probably wouldn't have done it.

Yes. And that part is why....they didnt...tell you.

 

[Ludalicious]

Even if you upgraded the MCU it's not without issues. My vehicle since the upgrade has constantly had issues with connecting to the internet. Its intermittent, somedays I have it and other day's its a bust. Tesla says it's a known issue and there's no fix as of yet. A service technician also verified the issue with no solution.

 

[drklain]

I think this is a big case of unreasonable expectations. MCU1 was struggling before the AP3 upgrade:

• It could do less than MCU2 (sentry, dashcam)
• It ran slower than MCU2 (screen updates, navigation, map display, voice recognition)
• In some cases it was unusable (web browser)

So in what world would any reasonable person not think they MCU would NOT be negatively impacted when they did the AP3 upgrade while staying with MCU1? Yes, Elon created some expectations years ago that MCU1 could work with FSD but it has been clear for years that, to make that work, MCU1 was running at max capacity and other things would be lost.

I made the choice to pay for the upgrade because the only other real option was to buy a new car and this was cheaper. I looked at it much like the expense I paid to replace RAM, Motherboard and CPU on a PC (as well as adding an additional hard drive) to keep a PC running vice buying a new one. I'm having trouble feeling sympathy for those who chose to stay with MCU1, upgraded to AP3 and are not happy that their system is performing even slower than it did before. I have news for you...other than replacing the memory and CPU in your MCU, there is nothing you can do to get it to work faster/better....just my 2 cents' worth.

 

[viper2ko]

I think this is a big case of unreasonable expectations. MCU1 was struggling before the AP3 upgrade:

• It could do less than MCU2 (sentry, dashcam)
• It ran slower than MCU2 (screen updates, navigation, map display, voice recognition)
• In some cases it was unusable (web browser)

So in what world would any reasonable person not think they MCU would NOT be negatively impacted when they did the AP3 upgrade while staying with MCU1? Yes, Elon created some expectations years ago that MCU1 could work with FSD but it has been clear for years that, to make that work, MCU1 was running at max capacity and other things would be lost.

I made the choice to pay for the upgrade because the only other real option was to buy a new car and this was cheaper. I looked at it much like the expense I paid to replace RAM, Motherboard and CPU on a PC (as well as adding an additional hard drive) to keep a PC running vice buying a new one. I'm having trouble feeling sympathy for those who chose to stay with MCU1, upgraded to AP3 and are not happy that their system is performing even slower than it did before. I have news for you...other than replacing the memory and CPU in your MCU, there is nothing you can do to get it to work faster/better....just my 2 cents' worth.

The underlying problem is elon/tesla making promises/claims that it cannot keep, and trying to cover them up

 

[dgatwood]

Not an issue. You are using a 10 year old MCU computer to drive things, including features that were never included with MCU1 (dashcam, sentry). Prior to the AP2 -> AP3 upgrade, those features didn't even work in your car. Now they work, but they load down the computer and it operates more slowly. This is why so many of us ate the cost of an upgrade to an MCU2 - the processor is much newer and can handle the additional load without dragging.

AP2.5 cars came with MCU1 from July 2017 through March of 2018 (Model S, Model X), and those cars supported dashcam and sentry mode even before the AP3 upgrade. Now you know what we HW2.5 users have been dealing with.

 

[drklain]

What he promised is that MCU1 would support FSD. To date we don't know if that is the case or not because FSD hasn't been released. I am personally sure they are working hard to ensure that happens in a way that will stand up to legal challenges (they'd be fools not to), but every other expectation was never promised by Elon despite what people say....

 

[BBB4000]

What he promised is that MCU1 would support FSD. To date we don't know if that is the case or not because FSD hasn't been released. I am personally sure they are working hard to ensure that happens in a way that will stand up to legal challenges (they'd be fools not to), but every other expectation was never promised by Elon despite what people say....

I understand your position. But what I don't agree with is that a consumer should be able to infer that they're going to lose functionality by performing an upgrade offered by Tesla. We're not talking about an after-market upgrade (in the traditional sense). This is from the manufacturer. If they offer HW3, they should also offer the necessary hardware/software upgrades to make sure your car works as well as before.

 

[2101Guy]

What he promised is that MCU1 would support FSD. To date we don't know if that is the case or not because FSD hasn't been released. I am personally sure they are working hard to ensure that happens in a way that will stand up to legal challenges (they'd be fools not to), but every other expectation was never promised by Elon despite what people say....

depends on ones definition of support.

If the definition is "yes, it will work and allow your car to have the functionality of FSD, but while also increasing your blank screens, frozen screens, random reboots, increased lag in navigation so that you will miss some turns, not capture many of your voice commands, etc", then yes, MCU1 Supports HW3/FSD.

 

[drklain]

@2101Guy And if you believe that is the case, you are free to sue Tesla to make your case they have failed to deliver on a contractual promise. Opinions don't matter unless they come from a judge or arbitrator....anything in this forum is just venting and internet opinion. If you win in court, you will get some sort of settlement or compensation for Tesla breaching a contract...but proving that is going to be pretty hard given the fact FSD has not been released (Beta isn't even out yet) so you have no evidence to prove your car can't work. That said, good luck to you!

 

[drklain]

I understand your position. But what I don't agree with is that a consumer should be able to infer that they're going to lose functionality by performing an upgrade offered by Tesla. We're not talking about an after-market upgrade (in the traditional sense). This is from the manufacturer. If they offer HW3, they should also offer the necessary hardware/software upgrades to make sure your car works as well as before.

Your challenge is in proving it doesn't work as well as before. MCU1 was already struggling. They told you you wouldn't have IC visualizations. Proving that the AP3 upgrade is causing these issues in court will be very hard.

 

[2101Guy]

I think this is a big case of unreasonable expectations. MCU1 was struggling before the AP3 upgrade:

• It could do less than MCU2 (sentry, dashcam)
• It ran slower than MCU2 (screen updates, navigation, map display, voice recognition)
• In some cases it was unusable (web browser)

So in what world would any reasonable person not think they MCU would NOT be negatively impacted when they did the AP3 upgrade while staying with MCU1? Yes, Elon created some expectations years ago that MCU1 could work with FSD but it has been clear for years that, to make that work, MCU1 was running at max capacity and other things would be lost..

Actually, Elon tweeted that with "software optimizations", issues with lag/slowness on MCU1 would be resolved.

Instead, its gotten worse. Significantly. Not talking about wanting or expecting Netlix, Caroake, enhanced visualizations. Just talking about maintaining same (or even close) level of performance that the MCU1 unit had prior to FSD upgrade.

I dont think its unreasonable for TEsla to have clearly stated "if you keep your MCU1 and upgrade to FSD, you can expect the following performance impacts" vs your perspective of owners should have just known they would start suffering freezing, massive lag, voice commands becoming nearly unusable, etc.