Tesla LTE

[Scrith]

I think it's safe to say the feature won't ever be disabled completely because that is how Tesla is gaining tons of data about roads for current (and future) autopilot (and associated) applications. But, yes, it is possible that they may make you pay an additional fee for services such as Slacker (which probably costs Tesla money) once the four year window runs out.

 

[Joer293]

All mobile data devices access the Internet via a proxy server. AT&T's connected car SIM vendor 'jasper wireless', is capable of split billing via multiple virtual proxy servers. 1 proxy for manufacturer, 1 for remote control(tesla mobile app) 1 for infotainment, 1 for tethering, etc. This is the main reason AT&T has won all the major car manufacturer contracts in North America, and making inroads in Europe. 4 years of free internet for "infotainment" is highly likely, then a paid option. The Vehicle connectivity proxy for autopilot and diagnostics, (which everyone signed the privacy policy at delivery) would continue on Tesla's billing contract for the life of the car. Oh, And Jasper is also used by other telecoms around the globe, so highly likely that everyone not on ATT will have similar options.

Most likely Tesla will introduce a new option plan with the Gen 3 platform. model 3 & Y would have a free trial period, (2 -3 months unlimited, 128kb/s throttled, or first 200mb/month free) then you buy a package, add to your personal mobile share plan, or pay monthly. Tesla would be smart to include a much longer free period and 5mb/s throttle in the 2nd gen platform model S & X. Tesla has the opportunity to split remote control mobile app access into its own cheap plan if they choose for model 3. Many of those customers likely will be frugal.

This of course would lock owners in to ATT as a provider, but allow a couple price points for cost conscious customers. By the time paying for it matters, 600mhz LTE will grant ATT better coverage in dead zones. And you'll have to buy the 600mhz LTE module upgrade for 400$ installed.

 

[Canuck]

All I know is that the Internet browser app is useless in my Model X. Websites either take forever to load or never load at all. It's a complete joke, even when the LTE shows all bars of coverage. It affects the dynamic Google maps too, as sometimes by the time they're done loading I've already driven off the displayed section of map!

I have 3G and I use the browser a lot. It's not lightening fast but it's certainly usable for me.

A lot of that is for security reasons but the inability to use Flash, stream video or install extensions is for safety.

My surveillance cameras show video. It's jumpy and not great but it works. I can see the wind in the leaves of trees, and waives on the beach when looking at the cameras at my cabin.

My phone is so much more powerful and functional...why waste time with the browser?

Because is $500 plus points for touching your phone here.

No tabs? that's weird, because the I did the test drive there most certainly were. i opened my webmail on a new tab.

Sorry, but there's no way you did that on Tesla's browser.

Is there roaming charge if the car is driven out of country (like Canada?)?

Works fine and no roaming charges. AT&T roams on Rogers in Canada. It's actually a native AT&T sim so all Canadian cars are roaming -- which has caused connectivity problems in Canada at times -- at least with 3G -- as set out in threads here.

3G connectivity issues since V6.xxx

 

[msnow]

I have 3G and I use the browser a lot. It's not lightening fast but it's certainly usable for me.



My surveillance cameras show video. It's jumpy and not great but it works. I can see the wind in the leaves of trees, and waives on the beach when looking at the cameras at my cabin.



Because is $500 plus points for touching your phone here.



Sorry, but there's no way you did that on Tesla's browser.



Works fine and no roaming charges. AT&T roams on Rogers in Canada. It's actually a native AT&T sim so all Canadian cars are roaming -- which has caused connectivity problems in Canada at times -- at least with 3G -- as set out in threads here.

3G connectivity issues since V6.xxx

Most modern CCTV cameras use Flash extensions (either on the NVR or the web interface to the camera itself) which is blocked on the gateway to the Tesla browser so can you share how you are able to view them? I'd love to be able to do that if it's possible.

 

[HankLloydRight]

It's easy to fake video by showing successive frames with Javascript in browsers where flash or video is not supported.

I wrote a script to do that in 1997. That's just one way to do it.

Also, @kennybroh -- there's no way you saw tabs.. you just think you did. Also, bookmarks totally suck in the Tesla browser.. no folders, no sorting, etc. You can use the browser for real basic stuff, but it's essentially useless as a real browser. The Tesla Waze app is pretty good, though.

Also, people as suggesting using your phone's hotspot instead of the AT&T LTE service.. that works only when parked. As soon as you shift into drive, the car shuts off the wi-fi. Try it.

 

[msnow]

It's easy to fake video by showing successive frames with Javascript in browsers where flash or video is not supported.

I wrote a script to do that in 1997. That's just one way to do it.

Also, @kennybroh -- there's no way you saw tabs.. you just think you did. Also, bookmarks totally suck in the Tesla browser.. no folders, no sorting, etc. You can use the browser for real basic stuff, but it's essentially useless as a real browser. The Tesla Waze app is pretty good, though.

Also, people as suggesting using your phone's hotspot instead of the AT&T LTE service.. that works only when parked. As soon as you shift into drive, the car shuts off the wi-fi. Try it.

Still don't understand how JavaScript will render a frame or frames if the source (Network Video Recorder or web interface to one of the cameras) only renders from the respective propriety format and is looking for those extensions. Doesn't really matter though as my iPhone is able to so I'm covered but it would be cool to watch my dog on the 17" sometimes .
Regarding your comment about the mobile hotspot not working, do you remember we did a test on this in another thread a few months ago? What we found is that once you're moving (already in drive) it will connect to the mobile phones hotspot. The only use case I've come up for this though is in case of an emergency where you need connectivity (say ATT has no signal but Verizon does) you can use your phone. You're right that once you stop the car and start again you would have to reconnect. You're also connecting on your own dime.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Still don't understand how JavaScript will render a frame or frames if the source (Network Video Recorder or web interface to one of the cameras) only renders from the respective propriety format and is looking for those extensions. Doesn't really matter though as my iPhone is able to so I'm covered but it would be cool to watch my dog on the 17" sometimes

There are certainly web cams that render individual frames and send them down one at a time as jgps or even gifs. I even have one (older) that does this -- it gives you the option of (wait for it..) ActiveX or Javascript. Maybe the confusion is that Javascript doesn't render the frames, it just shows static frames in succession, simulating video.

I didn't see the wi-fi testing thread, thanks for the info. Still it's a PIA and baffling when Tesla would twiddle the wifi connection each time.

 

[msnow]

There are certainly web cams that render individual frames and send them down one at a time as jgps or even gifs. I even have one (older) that does this -- it gives you the option of (wait for it..) ActiveX or Javascript. Maybe the confusion is that Javascript doesn't render the frames, it just shows static frames in succession, simulating video.

I didn't see the wi-fi testing thread, thanks for the info. Still it's a PIA and baffling when Tesla would twiddle the wifi connection each time.

Thanks, does ActiveX work in the Tesla browser? I do have a camera that uses that but I just get white space where a picture should be. Again, no biggie as I have dedicated iOS apps that work perfectly for this.

 

[HankLloydRight]

If ActiveX works in the Tesla browser, I'll eat my hat.

Hopefully ActiveX doesn't work *anywhere*!!!

edit to add: These days with things like jQuery I could write a 5 line Javascript program that downloads an image from a fixed URL every 1/2 or 1/4 second and displays it like a video. The server would just have to replace/refresh that single image. In the browser, it would look like a video. Even in the Tesla browser.

 

[K-MTG]

Perhaps they should allow video on park mode, that is what my old Cadillac did with DVDs

 

[HankLloydRight]

Perhaps they should allow video on park mode, that is what my old Cadillac did with DVDs

I'm not sure if the browser itself could adequately handle video, say to watch a movie. And even if it can, they'd need to provide file-system access to the USB drive so the content doesn't have to be streamed via wi-fi or LTE through the Tesla proxy servers. Much easier to use an iPad and duct-tape.

 

[K-MTG]

I'm not sure if the browser itself could adequately handle video, say to watch a movie. And even if it can, they'd need to provide file-system access to the USB drive so the content doesn't have to be streamed via wi-fi or LTE through the Tesla proxy servers. Much easier to use an iPad and duct-tape.

USB movies are also fine, so you can watch a movie while you supercharge

 

[HankLloydRight]

I think that's what I said, no?

 

[K-MTG]

I think that's what I said, no?

I would be fine with duck tapping an iPad but that may cause a broken window if I park in a sketchy area

 

[Joer293]

I had an opportunity to sit in a prototype model S back in 2012. It had the slightly rounded 17" display frame, not the squared production version. The browser did play HD video and AC3 surround audio streaming over cellular. Tesla back then said internet would be included for life if you bought the expensive tech package. They also claimed about $700 of the tech package price was for a lifetime unlimited 3G plan. They also promised and showed me that I would be allowed to play YouTube, even in a drive gear, where it's legal of course. They also promised that the Model S would have an upgradeable 32gb SD chip, for users to store audio and video. They did all they could to justify why the tech package cost so much.

All of this was pulled from firmware and roadmap before the production models rolled out, or atleast before my 2013 delivery. So, if you took a prototype test drive back then, yes you had video, adobe flash and browser tabs. I'm sure somebody has video of the firmware 1.0 features in a model S prototypes.

 

[K-MTG]

I had an opportunity to sit in a prototype model S back in 2012. It had the slightly rounded 17" display frame, not the squared production version. The browser did play HD video and AC3 surround audio streaming over cellular. Tesla back then said internet would be included for life if you bought the expensive tech package. They also claimed about $700 of the tech package price was for a lifetime unlimited 3G plan. They also promised and showed me that I would be allowed to play YouTube, even in a drive gear, where it's legal of course. They also promised that the Model S would have an upgradeable 32gb SD chip, for users to store audio and video. They did all they could to justify why the tech package cost so much.

All of this was pulled from firmware and roadmap before the production models rolled out, or atleast before my 2013 delivery. So, if you took a prototype test drive back then, yes you had video, adobe flash and browser tabs. I'm sure somebody has video of the firmware 1.0 features in a model S prototypes.

And I assume that the hardware is the same??? How much was the tech package?

 

[freds]

Also, people as suggesting using your phone's hotspot instead of the AT&T LTE service.. that works only when parked. As soon as you shift into drive, the car shuts off the wi-fi. Try it.

It's always worked for me; just went though a period of time after an LTE upgrade that I thought it sucked. Was at a supercharger and everyone else could access their car but me.

They ended up replacing the central computer module as there was a partial short on the antenna connector (worked at the shop). So during that time period I drove the car a lot with the phone in hotspot mode in order to have connectivity.

 

[ssq]

If ActiveX works in the Tesla browser, I'll eat my hat.

Hopefully ActiveX doesn't work *anywhere*!!!

edit to add: These days with things like jQuery I could write a 5 line Javascript program that downloads an image from a fixed URL every 1/2 or 1/4 second and displays it like a video. The server would just have to replace/refresh that single image. In the browser, it would look like a video. Even in the Tesla browser.

I'll eat 50% of that hat if ActiveX is supported on the tesla browser. Heck, what is supported on that browser, only text and image MIME types?!

 

[Joer293]

And I assume that the hardware is the same??? How much was the tech package?

From what has been posted on TeslaTap, and other press releases, the hardware in current vehicles is built in to the chipset. The ubuntu APT video and audio package has just been uninstalled from the OS. Mpeg2 and H.264 offload support for linux is in nvidia's chips. A hacker could theoretically just run the APT command to reinstall it. Javascript on the other hand, the true reason the browser sucks, is all software based, no hardware offloading. I'm sure there are tweaks to webkit, but yea, the underpowered chipset is going to be a limitation.

 

[Joer293]

Also, people as suggesting using your phone's hotspot instead of the AT&T LTE service.. that works only when parked. As soon as you shift into drive, the car shuts off the wi-fi. Try it.

I've had my Tesla tethered to a Verizon sim iPhone 6s while driving, no shut off. It's not supposed to shut off, so maybe something different about your specific firmware version. At first it was just a test to see if Verizon coverage really was better on my daily commute and long trips. AT&T kept saying over and over "it's a customer perception issue, customers think our coverage isn't good due to Verizon's marketing". Then I tethered it to an AT&T sim in the same iPhone, just to see if it was the car or AT&T. (End result was as expected, Verizon had zero drop outs, zero buffering issues with music streaming and google maps. AT&T LTE in the car, and tethered AT&T iPhone dropped in the same 12 places, buffered in the same 20 places.) I even submitted hundreds of "AT&T mark the spots" to AT&T who just responds, "it's a customer perception issue, our coverage is second to none!"