Those with MCU1,AP2.5 and no FSD - what will you do ?

[Dan Baldwin]

So I have MCU1, AP2.5 and currently no FSD. I will almost certainly do the upgrade from MCU1->MCU2. My dilemma is whether or not to upgrade to FSD. In my case, the FSD upgrade will be $4000. If I was motivated to get FSD, buying it now would have two advantages as I see it: 1) I would get the MCU upgrade sooner (no big deal at all) and 2) I would be getting the complimentary HW3 upgrade.

What doesn't seem clear to me is what else I would be getting with FSD besides perhaps a cheaper price then in the future ? Currently I have auto steer and use it all the time on interstate trips. I think I have NoA, although I've never used it because many say its more trouble than its worth. The auto parking has never worked for me, not even once. Summon has occasionally worked but really haven't had a use for it.

I'd appreciate to hear any opinions or advice from others in the same situation or anyone for that matter.

EDIT: I should also say that it is likely I will keep this vehicle for several more years.

 

[azred]

I held out for a cheaper price for FSD on both Teslas and jumped on the $2000 “sale” a year ago. I do recall Musk later “apologized” to early adopters who had paid for FSD under the original terms and promised it wouldn’t happen again, but I believe that was only because the sale occurred before FSD was delivered. So perhaps they will have a sale one of these months after FSD is “feature complete” ... or not.

Though I bought FSD for both cars, one had EAP so that car has no additional benefit so far. The car with AP has auto lane change and since I drive mostly on busy freeways that is a huge benefit. (Summon is a joke though I do use some days for moving cars in and out of garage but performance is buggy.)

I will do the MCU upgrade for my 2.0 S, but if I didn’t have a Model 3 with MCU2 for comparison purposes I wonder if I would have paid much attention to the much crappier MCU1 in my 2016 S. I love the snappy maps in my 3 and even enjoy YouTube when waiting in the airport cell phone lot to pick up my wife a couple times a week. As for the MCU1 failures, I see some experts believe MCU2 will eventually fail for the same reason — albeit not as quickly — so I am not buying mostly for that reason.

 

[cookie99]

I see some experts believe MCU2 will eventually fail for the same reason — albeit not as quickly — so I am not buying mostly for that reason.

Really? I thought the MCU2 mostly fixed the issues the MCU1 had. So should I be using it less like for spotify and instead just bluetooth from my phone. I read someone said thats what they do earlier but I brushed it off as a tinfoil hat.

 

[houstonian]

Have a poll here which covers some of your question.

MCU1 S Owners: Logic FOR/AGAINST Tesla's $2,500 "Infotainment Upgrade"? (Not required for FSD)

 

[Dan Baldwin]

Have a poll here which covers some of your question.

MCU1 S Owners: Logic FOR/AGAINST Tesla's $2,500 "Infotainment Upgrade"? (Not required for FSD)

Thanks, I have posted in that thread also. I posted here, because I'm interested in others (AP2.5, MCU1, no FSD) thoughts about adding FSD (or not) when they upgrade to MCU2. Part of me is hoping to be talked into adding FSD .

 

[SaveOurPlanet]

Actually I look at the upgrade price is for HW3 since it is a much faster processor and would provide better AP but not so much for the red light and city AP, true FSD is years away. I would have paid 2K or even 3K for it way back if they would provide ETA for the HW3 upgrade, but not for 4K now. I paid 5K for EAP so adding 4K FSD now would make it a total of 9K, not really fair since you can have the whole thing for 7K now. I would rather wait a year or two and buy another car than sinking more money into an already sadly obsolete 2 year old car.

 

[TMeister]

Thanks, I have posted in that thread also. I posted here, because I'm interested in others (AP2.5, MCU1, no FSD) thoughts about adding FSD (or not) when they upgrade to MCU2. Part of me is hoping to be talked into adding FSD .

I'm in your bucket for MCU1/AP2.5 with no FSD.

I don't think I'd ever get FSD mostly because I have EAP which is all one can "get" right now anyways. I'm not a believer that FSD will ever occur and given our most recent 2500 mile trip I'm even more convinced. I currently have 2020.4.1 and AP was unusable this time. I now have the lane wondering feature. It was only tolerable on interstates in the straight sections. Any curve or lane change would invoke the oscillations in the lane boundaries. I also now have the phantom braking feature and adjacent lane tracking. The car changes speed for no good reason. It continually thinks that cars will enter my lane. The only thing that worked better with this software update was lane change is quicker.

So I really can't see how these cars could ever improve to the point that I'd trust them to drive themselves. What I have now is just a little better than any other traffic aware cruise control. It's certainly not worth $4K to get on a list for some future deliverable that is likely not going to ever happen.

I also fall into the "I like my FM/XM radio" group so this upgrade to MCU2 is a non-starter. In the western states that we regularly drive we almost always use XM since there is no cell service and very few FM stations. We plan our longer trips so that SuC stops we are not sitting in the car so things like playing games are of no interest. My MCU1 screen is adequate for navigation and the car understands me very well for voice commands. There are no shortcomings that I have right now. The eMMC failure worries me but I still have another year+ left on warranty. I have noticed that a reboot with 2020.4.1 takes a long time.

So I'm on the sidelines for both of these upgrades.

 

[Unitedbacom]

I too have a 2017 AP2.5, MCU1, no FSD, MX. I haven’t decided if the FSD upgrade is worth it since I already have EAP, so the only features are TBD. Is the MCU2 upgrade included in the $4,000 FSD upgrade, or is the $2,500 in addition to the $4,000 for a total $6,500? If included in the $4,000 I will proceed with the upgrade, if in addition I’ll only consider the MCU2 upgrade. I have been plagued with a laggy mapping display, voice command & interpretation delays, routing malfunctions & music streaming errors & issues this last year. No matter how often I bring it in for service or describe the errors, it never improves. They’ve cleared the cache or memory as well and that made zero difference. Would an eMMC upgrade make all of those lag issues go away? If yes, how do you get TESLA to replace it with an updated eMMC?

For a car under warranty I don’t feel very covered, seems like everything I need to keep the MX current is an out of pocket expense. If Elon were smart about it he’d ensure any TESLA under warranty delivered an up to date experience. I step into an M3 and it immediately feels like the future and this MX is less than 36 months older. Motivate current owners to recommend the cars, reinvest in the brand and deliver on brand promises.

 

[Dan Baldwin]

Thanks all for the comments so far. In my original post I neglected to mention that I do have EAP. It seems the MCU upgrade and FSD are completely separate purchases with the only advantage possibly being the complimentary HW3 upgrade include with the MCU upgrade if you have FSD. For me the MCU upgrade and FSD will be $2500+$4000= $6500. So far I can see absolutely no value in buying FSD.

 

[vraev]

I'm in the same boat with my 2017 MS AP2.5 and EAP. I missed out on the FSD since there was no particular benefit and proof about the AP 3 computer. In hindsight, I would have spent 2k on it...but then and now, my biggest gripe has been the MCU 1 performance. I have been waiting for the new computer since I missed out on it by 3 months. My only hesitation is whether the 5K CDN FSD upgrade would also provide a MCU 2 upgrade which I feel is reasonable, but if it is a separate charge (5k CDN + 3K CDN), I will just stick with the MCU upgrade. It will definitely provide a new lease of life to my car as it will finally enable me to use maps properly, web browser properly. While netflix and youtube is a perk, I don't think it is a big deal for me (except on road trips), and games is totally something I dont care about.

 

[azred]

Really? I thought the MCU2 mostly fixed the issues the MCU1 had. So should I be using it less like for spotify and instead just bluetooth from my phone. I read someone said thats what they do earlier but I brushed it off as a tinfoil hat.

Jason Hughes wk057 is who I was paraphrasing as being concerned that MCU2 could face similar issues. If you search his posts here and also read his tweets, you will get a better idea of his concern. Last Fall Jason and Musk exchanged tweets and Musk said it should be better now but didn’t elaborate. BTW I don’t make a habit of paraphrasing others as that is risky at best. I probably should have just suggested people wondering about MCU issues should read some of Jason’s comments. BTW I think we all understand that there aren’t a lot of independent mechanics who understand our cars in depth simply because Tesla is such a young company. Jason seems to be one of those rare people. I wish his shop was in AZ!

 

[ILLCOMM]

MY2017 | MCU1 | HW2.5 | EAP

My MCU already failed once bricking my car in the garage. Not sure if they put in a new or refurb'd MCU but I am guessing that extends my countdown timer to the next bricking. Glad it happened under warranty (the first time).

Aside from that guillotine hanging over my (our) head (shame on Tesla) I see no reason to pay them $2500 for a new MCU. Yes MCU1 is laggy but it's not $2500 laggy. It's fine. For $2500 I can buy several generations of iPad to stream video on, should anyone in the car want to stream. So, what exactly are upgraders getting? Less screen lag? Love Tesla, but it's total BS that they push us through upgrades that introduce lag and solve it with a $2500 bill. Split the codebase for MCU1 and 2 and leave us MCU1ers in the pre-lag days of past. Or upgrade us on your dime.

Also:
1) There is no guarantee that MCU2 fixes the eMMC problem.
2) There is no guarantee that in X months MCU3 comes out and you're back in Tesla-holding-you-ransom territory.

(And I have go give up FM? Nope!)

 

[Dan Baldwin]

MY2017 | MCU1 | HW2.5 | EAP

My MCU already failed once bricking my car in the garage. Not sure if they put in a new or refurb'd MCU but I am guessing that extends my countdown timer to the next bricking. Glad it happened under warranty (the first time).

Aside from that guillotine hanging over my (our) head (shame on Tesla) I see no reason to pay them $2500 for a new MCU. Yes MCU1 is laggy but it's not $2500 laggy. It's fine. For $2500 I can buy several generations of iPad to stream video on, should anyone in the car want to stream. So, what exactly are upgraders getting? Less screen lag? Love Tesla, but it's total BS that they push us through upgrades that introduce lag and solve it with a $2500 bill. Split the codebase for MCU1 and 2 and leave us MCU1ers in the pre-lag days of past. Or upgrade us on your dime.

Also:
1) There is no guarantee that MCU2 fixes the eMMC problem.
2) There is no guarantee that in X months MCU3 comes out and you're back in Tesla-holding-you-ransom territory.

(And I have go give up FM? Nope!)

I thought MCUs could fail and still have a drivable car ?

 

[ILLCOMM]

I thought MCUs could fail and still have a drivable car ?

No idea. Not the case with mine.

 

[houstonian]

I thought MCUs could fail and still have a drivable car ?

No idea. Not the case with mine.

IIRC as long as there was not a PIN code, the FOB would be enough to drive the car. Nothing else would work - IC / HVAC / etc. - would all be offline but the car would still drive (?)

 

[ILLCOMM]

IIRC as long as there was not a PIN code, the FOB would be enough to drive the car. Nothing else would work - IC / HVAC / etc. - would all be offline but the car would still drive (?)

I do use PIN-to-drive, so that might be why my car was bricked. And it happened in my garage which sucked for towing.

 

[SO16]

I do use PIN-to-drive, so that might be why my car was bricked. And it happened in my garage which sucked for towing.

PIN to drive would explain it.

I can reboot my MCU and still put it into drive.

I wish pin to drive was location based. I’d turn it off when at home in the garage but use it when out.

as far as MCU2 upgrade, no one is forcing people to get it. I also don’t think MCU1 is “that” laggy. Sure the browser isn’t the best but other than that, maybe there’s a half second to second delay. I will buy the upgrade though. For 2500, I get features that make my 2017 feel like a brand new car. I Never had that from any other manufacturer.

 

[0CO24U]

LOVE LOVE LOVE MCU1->MCU2 +FSD upgrade
possibly one of the first in Virginia. MS built11/17 HW 2.5 EAP. Probably the 1st one done by Glen Allen VA (Richmond) Service Center. Appointment by app. I did not have a invite, I was heading up towards Richmond so I thought I would give I a try so confirmation came shortly. Appointment on the 20th at 8:30. It was done by 3PM. They even fixed the passenger map light for. MCU upgrade is GREAT. Maps Nav Apps all Pop now. Visualization much bet. Great staff/Tech and all this happen in the middle of Cov-19 scare. The team was practicing social distancing and using hand sanitizer etc. Could not ask for a better experience. 5/5

 

[vraev]

Thats awesome. I guess it will be a few more months before they open this up in Canada. Not to mention with the currency rate atm, I am not too confident about the pricing they are going to charge.

 

[boshk]

Thanks all for the comments so far. In my original post I neglected to mention that I do have EAP. It seems the MCU upgrade and FSD are completely separate purchases with the only advantage possibly being the complimentary HW3 upgrade include with the MCU upgrade if you have FSD. For me the MCU upgrade and FSD will be $2500+$4000= $6500. So far I can see absolutely no value in buying FSD.

I think you answered the biggest question, Do you believe FSD is of any value.
$4000+2500 is a lot of money for MCU2, of course you will be getting the better faster processing HW3.0, FSD functions.
How much time do you spend in the car? will it make a day vs night difference for you?

You could wait it out but it could be a long long wait with the current global situation.
They announced the current MCU 2 upgrade were for people with HW2.5 and FSD,
for HW2.0 and FSD cars, its late March, probably mid-year to end of year now AND they have to find some retrofit I heard...
All other cars......soon....