Things I learned about Slacker Streaming

[RangerRick]

I tried upgrading to Slacker premium and then created a bunch of playlists mirroring my favorite Pandora stations on the web site. As far as I can tell, they don't carry over to the car, or if they do, they don't keep their names and such. I'll probably just drop back down to the account that comes with my car. :/

 

[boonedocks]

I tried upgrading to Slacker premium and then created a bunch of playlists mirroring my favorite Pandora stations on the web site. As far as I can tell, they don't carry over to the car, or if they do, they don't keep their names and such. I'll probably just drop back down to the account that comes with my car. :/

What you tried to do works perfectly in all 3 of our Tesla’s. Are you sure you logged out of the Tesla account and logged in with your credentials in the car. Never have / had any of the issues you are experiencing

 

[RangerRick]

What you tried to do works perfectly in all 3 of our Tesla’s. Are you sure you logged out of the Tesla account and logged in with your credentials in the car. Never have / had any of the issues you are experiencing

I've seen plenty of reports of this working on S/X, but it's not in my 3. I'll try logging out and back in but I'm definitely on my own Slacker account.

 

[boonedocks]

Since it works flawlessly on our S&X I am going to venture a guess you uncovered a new "feature" of the model 3.

 

[bnsfengineer]

Found it on page 108


"Note: Tesla also provides you with a complimentary four-year Streaming Personal Radio account. "

Dammit! I didn't know it expired!!!

 

[Daniellane]

This changed dramatically on July 1.
Tesla is introducing new paid ‘premium connectivity’ package to support in-car internet features of growing fleet

https://www.tesla.com/support/frequently-asked-questions-c

 

[Daniellane]

All current Tesla owners and those who order a Model S, Model X, or Model 3 before July 1st 2018 will never have to pay to maintain the current level of internet connectivity in their cars.

For vehicles ordered after July 1st, Tesla will start offering two different packages: ‘Premium Connectivity package’ and ‘Standard Connectivity package.’

As the name entails, the ‘Standard Connectivity package’ will come at no additional charge.

A Tesla vehicle with this package will still have internet connectivity, but it will only be used for applications that require low amounts of data.

Specifically, we are talking about maps and navigation. Owners will still benefit from Tesla’s recently updated navigation system, but they will not have access to the satellite maps or the live traffic visualization.

The routing system will still make use of the live traffic data, but drivers won’t be able to see it on the center touchscreen like the green, orange, and red lines in this screenshot:

 

[Snowstorm]

The routing system will still make use of the live traffic data, but drivers won’t be able to see it on the center touchscreen like the green, orange, and red lines in this screenshot:

I fail to understand how the live traffic coloured lines would add that much data, esepically compared to the base map graphics. Maybe the base map is cached and doesn’t change much at all, but still.

 

[drklain]

The base map is tiles of static images. The traffic is discrete segments on every road, and the segments are quite short in length. Each segment needs to be transmitted (start point, end point and color) and then they all get stitched together in your display. This is exactly how XM traffic is transmitted to other car gps displays in the United States, and there is a subscription cost to get that data.

 

[Daniellane]

I fail to understand how the live traffic coloured lines would add that much data, esepically compared to the base map graphics. Maybe the base map is cached and doesn’t change much at all, but still.

I’m guessing it’s just a way of distinguishing the standard connectivity package from the premium package. For example XM charges extra for traffic data.
I just copied & pasted this from the article I referenced. Read the article for mire details.
https://www.tesla.com/support/frequently-asked-questions-c

 

[Snowstorm]

I’m guessing it’s just a way of distinguishing the standard connectivity package from the premium package. For example XM charges extra for traffic data.
I just copied & pasted this from the article I referenced. Read the article for mire details.
https://www.tesla.com/support/frequently-asked-questions-c

Well then, just give us apple/android car play and call it a day... or let us use our phone for the extra data required for premium connectivity. Let Tesla Build cars and chargers, and telco provide the internet pipes.

 

[Daniellane]

Seems the price of premium connectivity is a bargain in the scheme of things.

 

[pinball_player]

The base map is tiles of static images. The traffic is discrete segments on every road, and the segments are quite short in length. Each segment needs to be transmitted (start point, end point and color) and then they all get stitched together in your display. This is exactly how XM traffic is transmitted to other car gps displays in the United States, and there is a subscription cost to get that data.

We own a Chevrolet Volt and the XM traffic data is completely useless compared to the traffic data in the Tesla. The XM traffic data only shows data for major highways, and the segment length is something like 2-3 miles. The Tesla/Google traffic data is down to the foot it seems. I cancelled the XM traffic data service in the Volt because it was useless). I had better traffic data on my Garmin portable unit which received traffic data through an FM subcarrier.

 

[drklain]

Agreed. I didn't say it was good, just that they charge for it. Of note, I find that the implementation of displaying XM traffic varies from car to car. My old Lexus (2010) displayed it much as you describe. My wife's 2016 Kia displays traffic on far more roads (similar to what Tesla displays). This makes me think all the data is in the data stream but that some navigation displays (be it the display or the processor or the car software) "de-rez" the traffic thing and show less of it (presumably to avoid bogging down the display).

 

[Wahbash]

I tried upgrading to Slacker premium and then created a bunch of playlists mirroring my favorite Pandora stations on the web site. As far as I can tell, they don't carry over to the car, or if they do, they don't keep their names and such. I'll probably just drop back down to the account that comes with my car. :/

@RangerRick - I'm having the same problem. Wife got me a Premium Slacker subscription for Christmas, and we set it up with a bunch of custom stations. In my M3, I logged out of the Tesla-version account and logged into Slacker using the new account she made, but it doesnt show any of the stations we made.

Have logged out and then back in a few times, but same result. Were you able to get it to work?

 

[CapnLoki]

@RangerRick - I'm having the same problem. Wife got me a Premium Slacker subscription for Christmas, and we set it up with a bunch of custom stations. In my M3, I logged out of the Tesla-version account and logged into Slacker using the new account she made, but it doesnt show any of the stations we made.

Have logged out and then back in a few times, but same result. Were you able to get it to work?

Slacker Premium has worked for me since I got the car. I had set it this summer in anticipation and my several playlists carried over with no issue. I can't say I get the high bit rate, but at my advanced years I'm not sure I'd hear the difference.

 

[Wahbash]

Ohh...think I may have found the issue:

hokiegir1 | May 1, 2018

@Daryl -- you are incorrect. I was able to log in to the car with my premium account. I did have to go through an extra step to get my custom stations to show up in the car. Playlists were there immediately, but you have to add the stations to "my music" on a hone or computer to get them to show up on your dash. It only takes about 30 seconds to do, but there's nothing that tells you that anywhere. I found it doing a search for how to get them there and there was a M3OC post about it.

Wouldnt have thought you needed to do that, but Slacker is not intuitive at all, so not surprised. Will see if this works.

 

[RangerRick]

Slacker Premium has worked for me since I got the car. I had set it this summer in anticipation and my several playlists carried over with no issue. I can't say I get the high bit rate, but at my advanced years I'm not sure I'd hear the difference.

Right, but we're talking about *stations*, not *playlists*. I don't want to manually make a bunch of playlists, I'd rather the algorithmically generated ones show up in the Tesla UI, but I guess they don't support it.

 

[RangerRick]

Ohh...think I may have found the issue:

Yeah, I've seen this mentioned all the way back to ancient threads on it, but I've never been able to make it work. The impression I got from more recent discussions is that the slacker web interface doesn't let you do that anymore. "Starring" them doesn't add them to it.

 

[CapnLoki]

Right, but we're talking about *stations*, not *playlists*. I don't want to manually make a bunch of playlists, I'd rather the algorithmically generated ones show up in the Tesla UI, but I guess they don't support it.

My several favorite stations also carried over. I just added some modifications to a station (added Jon Cleary to Marcia Ball station) and it was picked up in the car. As near as I can tell everything works, except maybe 320kbps.