Software update failed, “Contact Tesla service”

[mblakele]

I'm up to six failed updates. On Monday the SC team asked me to check the heater: it doesn't seem to work. Today someone on the diagnostics team contacted me, and asked me to check the glovebox light. It isn't working. According to him, that means the problem has to be fixed at the SC. Good thing I already have an appointment.

Just in case it helps anyone, the Fremont SC was able to fix my problem by resetting something called "VC_Right". After a little research, this seems to be one of three main controllers in the Model 3. Among other things it acts like a fusebox for the components it controls. Speculating, I think the brand-new VC might be in an indeterminate state when installed at the factory, and should be reset before the car goes out. That might be an easy step to skip, especially if everything seems to be working ok. But that's just my theory, not confirmed by service.

Anyway if you have chronic software update errors, and especially if other components like heat or glovebox light don't seem to work, ask about a VC reset. It might even be something they can do remotely, or using mobile service.

In retrospect I'm kind of surprised the remote diagnostics team didn't pinpoint this and reset it remotely, or send a mobile tech to do it. That would have saved us both a fair amount of time. But at this point I guess we're all still learning about the Model 3 and its failure modes.