Tesla provided Cellular Data Plan - Free forever?

[bmah]

That was a bug in 8.0 and I thought that they have already fixed it in later builds.

That was my experience (it was broken when in drive mode in early 8.0, and fixed in later 8.0).

Bruce.

 

[MP3Mike]

Who are we kidding? When's the last time Tesla pushed a maps update? lol

I think the last navigation map update was pushed out in February, and they normally do it "yearly".

 

[tls]

We do not know what the pricing will be after the 4 years. But we do know that it won't continue to be free. I suspect people won't like it though, because they've started to put things in the OS to limit the ability to tether the car to wifi while driving, which tells me they're worried people will find their data plan too expensive and cheap out by getting a wifi hotspot from their cell provider for less money.

Well, no. They disabled tethering while in motion to stop people in nearby vehicles from hijacking your car by mimicing the "Tesla Service" network! No joke.

If people shouldn't like anything here, what they shouldn't like is that someone at Tesla was so dumb as to put a backdoor in the firmware that allowed effectively unauthenticated access to service functionality so long as the car was on a particular Wifi network -- and that they lost tethering-in-motion because of an emergency fix to that. I can only assume there will be a real fix and the ability to tether while in motion will reappear; Tesla has much better ways to make money than to nickel and dime us by preventing use of our own network connectivity.

 

[Saghost]

Well they've flat out said that's not happening, so we can go to the next idea...

Where did they say it definitely won't be free after four years?

The last comment I remember on it was an interview with Elon several months ago where he said they'd like to make it free/included forever, but they were still working on a business model to figure out if they could afford that.

 

[tomp]

See the shareholder letter from 4Q2013. Excerpt is:
To further enhance the driver experience, new Model S customers will now receive free data connectivity and Internet radio for four years. As an added benefit to our existing Model S customers, the free four year period starts on January 1, 2014. To be fair to all, in rare cases a customer may be charged for extreme data use.

 

[2krazykats]

I was told 4 years free as well when I picked up my car Jan 2016. However, would not having the cellular data access inhibit Tesla from gathering AP data and other data about the car that they're uploading to the cloud? What if there isn't any wifi configured for the car? Then presumably, their data collection would never happen. Of course, the car would be limited in its ability to receive OTA updates, too.

 

[bmah]

I was told 4 years free as well when I picked up my car Jan 2016. However, would not having the cellular data access inhibit Tesla from gathering AP data and other data about the car that they're uploading to the cloud? What if there isn't any wifi configured for the car? Then presumably, their data collection would never happen. Of course, the car would be limited in its ability to receive OTA updates, too.

What some of us have said could happen is that Tesla leaves the cellular connection in place (and they continue paying for it), and they'd continue to stream the AP learning data over that connection. However they could block you as an owner from using that data connection for maps, streaming music, Web, OTA updates, etc. unless you pay for it. It's pretty straightforward to do in a technical sense. This would be another example of building a capability into the car, but only enabling it (after the first four years free, anyway) for a fee.

Bruce.

 

[ThisIsTrue]

download a couple of gigs of data for a map update over your tether.

I just finished reading the current Model S manual, and it explicitly says that you have to connect to WiFi to get map updates.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

They will just make browser worse and worse so no one uses data except on wifi at home for ota updates..

They can make it worse?

 

[whitex]

What some of us have said could happen is that Tesla leaves the cellular connection in place (and they continue paying for it), and they'd continue to stream the AP learning data over that connection. However they could block you as an owner from using that data connection for maps, streaming music, Web, OTA updates, etc. unless you pay for it. It's pretty straightforward to do in a technical sense. This would be another example of building a capability into the car, but only enabling it (after the first four years free, anyway) for a fee.

Bruce.

Uhmmm... I don't think it would be straightforward. Let's say the customer 500MB plan from ATT, so the modem is now used for customer data - how would they stream AP fleet learning data and updates without using customer's data plan meant for navigation only?

Also, Tesla is pioneering the field of connected cars. One of the things a connected car always needs is security updates, since new security flaws in open source software like Linux (which Teslas use according to Elon's tweet Tesla provided Cellular Data Plan - Free forever? )are always discovered. Having cars without connectivity to allow updates could leave them vulnerable. It will actually be quite interesting what will happen when the AP cars are 12+ years old and still on the road. Will Tesla continue to provide security updates and nav maps, or is there a permanent kill switch disabling all connectivity on old cars to prevent some chaos monkey hacker from ustlizing a fleet of old AP capable cars for thei own evil purposes?

 

[Shock-On-T]

They will just make browser worse and worse so no one uses data except on wifi at home for ota updates..

The browser is disabled/hidden in Australia anyway. I have never known the joy :-(
Do like my Spotify though...

 

[Shock-On-T]

I think it would be cheaper for Tesla just to pay to keep everyone connected.
They want to keep collecting Autopilot data, and core functions require data. Things like voice commands are handled server-side, not on the car. It would cost them a fortune to code around those limitations, much cheaper to just pay a few bucks at their corporate rate and keep everyone online.
This goes triple once cars are fully autonomous.

 

[Vad42]

I've been pondering about recently announced SpaceX plan for 4000 satellites in LEO to provide global internet. I'll bet Elon would plan to switch Teslas globally to use that instead of being tied to local cell service. If this comes to fruition of course.

 

[AustinP]

Who are we kidding? When's the last time Tesla pushed a maps update? lol

We own the car since June 2015, and we had already three map updates notifications. And I indeed noticed the internal GPS, which is the one concerned, had corrections in areas where there had been route modifications in the last year.
Last exact time was June 30th 2016.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

He didn't say which December

Or which planet. He might already be using a Martian calendar.

 

[Gwgan]

I suspect Tesla will use the SpaceX satellite network once it is available for their own telematics needs and then charge users for personal bandwidth uses.

 

[Boourns]

If I'm not mistaken the network is AT&T's. Do you think AT&T might be pushing Tesla to charge for it, with 300k Model 3s about to be added?

 

[Max*]

We own the car since June 2015, and we had already three map updates notifications. And I indeed noticed the internal GPS, which is the one concerned, had corrections in areas where there had been route modifications in the last year.
Last exact time was June 30th 2016.

I've owned the car since about June 2015 also. I'm pretty sure I've only had 1 maps update in about 18 months. It must be regional.

 

[msnow]

If I'm not mistaken the network is AT&T's. Do you think AT&T might be pushing Tesla to charge for it, with 300k Model 3s about to be added?

They're already getting paid for every single car and just one customer to bill, Tesla. Why would AT&T push to change that?

 

[msnow]

I've owned the car since about June 2015 also. I'm pretty sure I've only had 1 maps update in about 18 months. It must be regional.

Same here but I never got screen notification of the last one from December/January. The only way I knew was from changes to the graphics on the IC that were pointed out on this forum. I had to call my SvC to have them confirm I had the latest at that time. My point is that it's possible we are getting map updates without us realizing it.