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Tesla infotainment system upgradeable from MCU1 to MCU2

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Thanks rjscoder & zanary.
Two different, well informed Tesla owners with two different theories on HW3 & MCU1.
At least I now know the HW3 upgrade isn't currently being offered for MCU1 owners.
This is interesting - especially to me!

Hw3/ap3 is offered for FSD owners with MCU1-ap2.5 cars, with infotainment(mcu2) upgrade, so I'm not sure if you are mixing terms or not now?
 
Hw3/ap3 is offered for FSD owners with MCU1-ap2.5 cars, with infotainment(mcu2) upgrade, so I'm not sure if you are mixing terms or not now?

Maybe I should have worded that a bit differently.
I do realize if I want to pay to upgrade to MCU2 that I can get HW3 installed (since I have FSD)..
What I wanted to know if I chose to just stay with my MCU1 at this time if I could still get my pre-paid for HW3 installed.

By doing a bit more searching, I found out it is technically possible for MCU1 to work with HW3 and show IC visualizations:
green on Twitter

Guess it's just a wait & see if/when Tesla will do HW3 upgrades (with FSD purchased) for MCU1 cars without requiring an MCU2 purchase/upgrade.
 
Maybe I should have worded that a bit differently.
I do realize if I want to pay to upgrade to MCU2 that I can get HW3 installed (since I have FSD)..
What I wanted to know if I chose to just stay with my MCU1 at this time if I could still get my pre-paid for HW3 installed.

By doing a bit more searching, I found out it is technically possible for MCU1 to work with HW3 and show IC visualizations:
green on Twitter

Guess it's just a wait & see if/when Tesla will do HW3 upgrades (with FSD purchased) for MCU1 cars without requiring an MCU2 purchase/upgrade.

yeah it’s technically possible then! I stand corrected. You’ll just have laggy screens
 
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rjscoder - I wasn't picking on you/your reply. I only posted a bit of info I found while I was searching for more data. As usual, I do appreciate your insight.

Personally, I'd be OK with laggy screens for now. Since FSD software doesn't drive the car (yet), I can wait. I have time left on my original warranty & an ESA for 4 years after, in case my MCU1 decides the eMMC is full & starts shutting down. At that point, based on previous posts, I might be able to then pay $1.1K & then upgrade to MCU2.
So, for me, MCU1 is OK, especially if I can get the upgrade to HW3 done.
 
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For now they DON’T upgrade to AP3 without replacing the MCU1 with a new MCU2 which you have to pay for.
And the service center doesn’t know when and IF it will be available in the future to just replace the AP computer.
I got the infotainment upgrade finished today...

And it’s totally worth it!!! Can’t wait for all the future updates and features.
 
For now they DON’T upgrade to AP3 without replacing the MCU1 with a new MCU2 which you have to pay for.
And the service center doesn’t know when and IF it will be available in the future to just replace the AP computer.
I got the infotainment upgrade finished today...

And it’s totally worth it!!! Can’t wait for all the future updates and features.

According to their site, that’s coming in May:

Full Self-Driving Computer Installations

Also: @sealbeach100d
 
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But it doesn’t say that you can get the AP3 upgrade without the infotainment upgrade though...
It only says for AP2.0 and 2.5 available starting in May

1. It doesn’t list any requirement other than having AP2.0/2.5
2. It’d be kinda weird to list it happening in May, when the infotainment upgrade page says late March for AP2.0 and right now for 2.5.

Pretty clearly for non-MCU2.
 
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I’m glad everyone that has done the MCU2 upgrade is happy with it. But to me, it is not worth it in its present form. Losing the radio is a show stopper for me (and likely many other people).

I have 2 Tesla cars; a classic model S and a model 3 with (not yet available FSD) ability. I have used AP (FSD still being vaporware) and its variants a total of two times, once on my model 3 and once on a model S loaner car. Based on my experience it is not ready for prime time. I’ve had the car try to shift from the lane it was in to an adjacent lane with an 18 wheeler in that adjacent lane, brake for no apparent reason and do other unexpected things. Anyone that thinks they can rely on the system on a highway at 90 mph plus is kidding themselves. If you drive 30 mph you will likely survive an accident when the system screws up. You may even survive an accident at 65 mph in a Tesla when the system screws up. But I’m not willing to trust it at the speeds I typically drive on the highway.

I am not interested in playing games, or watching Netflix. I do neither at home, and have no desire to do so in a car. If Tesla had improved the media player on MCU2 I might consider the upgrade. But it’s essentially the same as on MCU1. I also do not find MCU1 to be laggy. Yes, MCU2 is somewhat faster, but I wonder if part of that is because it is less cluttered with old, extraneous files. If your MCU1 is really laggy, I suggest you do a factory reset. You may be surprised by how responsive MCU1 becomes when all the old stuff in it is deleted. Cell phones and computers slow down over time and doing a clean install on them speeds them up. The same is true with the MCU. In several years you may no longer consider MCU2 to be snappy.

If Tesla ever offers the upgrade with a working radio I’ll do the upgrade. But until that time, I’ll stick with MCU1, which is 7 years old in the model S and has another year on the warranty. If the eMMC fails after the warranty runs out, I’ll get the chip replaced if Tesla doesn’t offer a radio option fir MCU2 at that time.

Everyone has their own preferences and I respect that. To me, having a working radio is more important than all the frivolous games and video apps available on MCU2.
 
Anyone that thinks they can rely on the system on a highway at 90 mph plus is kidding themselves..

Yikes! There are people using self-driving at 90 mph plus? Please let me know well in advance of getting on the highway so I can stay the heck away from you! Thanks very much.

Also if you are going that fast using self-driving, I would much rather you not have a radio of any sort. Just focus on the road, ok. Thank you very much.
 
MarcusMaximus - thanks a TON for that Tesla link I had never seen that before. How did you find it?
To me, I read it like you, that in May they are going to start/schedule HW3 installs for MCU1 cars (built before March 2018) for both AP2.0 & AP 2.5. Heck, by that time I may be legally able to actually leave my house!

turtlesz - appreciate your info from your service center about MCU1 HW3 updates coming soon (sounds like that's May).
Since you''re a SoCal guy like me, would you mind letting me know which service center you use?

I know you guys have all talked about how Tesla isn't exactly forthcoming with exact details. It would have been so much more clear if they would have just put the FSD options/hardware in a chart covering all the critical configurations (AP, MCU & dates upgrades are available).
There is so much great info on this board.
 
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I got my upgrade done today (dropped off at opening, was done mid afternoon but I had one extra item not related to the upgrade). In my case I lost all my settings. I can confirm what others that got the upgrade have said, everything is much much faster. Audio in Netflix sound great but it a display little weird on the 17" screen, I prefer our model 3 for that. In my opinion audio (slacker, spotify and tunein) is much better, now my back door speaker actually seems to have some bass. I can definitely tell the difference between the immersive sound settings and especially the high setting is better then Dolby on MCU1. I love the no wait when changing songs...

Connectivity is much better as well both on wifi and LTE.

Autopilot finally don't dance in the lane but this is HW3 upgrade and not the MCU1.
 
I may be wrong since I don't have a dog in this race (MCU1+AP1), but didn't Tesla themselves say that HW3 will work with MCU1, but it just won't have the enhanced visualizations like traffic cones, and such?
they added assets to show stopsigns/traffic lights on mcu1 in some recent release (traffic cones work already). so MCU1 FSD visualizations are certainly coming.
 
Showing the visualizations will be useful when NOAP is operating on surface streets with stop lights & signs - in driver assist mode, the driver will want to verify the FSD software is seeing the upcoming intersection far enough in advance to take over if the FSD software isn't detecting the intersection (and avoid running a stop sign or red light).

The MCU1 processor should be fast enough to support the visualizations (and likely most of the other apps that only run on MCU2) - the limitation on MCU1 functionality is probably more a factor of software developer resourcing - that Tesla wants to limit how much new software is developed for the shrinking % of Tesla vehicles with MCU1.

Until there is an option to upgrade the radio, not likely to do the Infotainment Upgrade on our 3 year old S 100D....