what do I lose without premium connectivity and why does wifi keep turning off?

[robl45]

So two questions. I had premium connectivity for a day until they added me to the Tesla account and now I lost it. Curious exactly what I'm losing as it just appears to be colored maps?

I hotspotted my phone and had the car connect to the hotspot and streaming works fine. However wifi turns off every time and I have to turn it back on, is this normal?

 

[jjrandorin]

Answer to question 2 = Yes, this is how tesla designed it.

Answer to question 1 is directly on teslas website, and is the first result when you google "tesla premium connectivity"

Connectivity

That link from tesla should answer all of your questions about premium connectivity.

 

[robl45]

Thanks that was helpful. I noted that aside from fancy maps you lose nothing. Not even traffic routing.

 

[towndrunk]

I hotspotted my phone and had the car connect to the hotspot and streaming works fine. However wifi turns off every time and I have to turn it back on, is this normal?

While stepping on the brake, put your car in drive, connect to your hotspot, then drive away.

 

[vickh]

While stepping on the brake, put your car in drive, connect to your hotspot, then drive away.

i have to turn on wifi each time to. I wish they had a wifi auto on switch

 

[robl45]

Now my wifi doesn't connect at all. Hopefully that will resolve itself

 

[pcrow]

The WiFi switching off is clearly a bug. If you have premium connectivity, the WiFi won't switch off, but if you don't, it switches off every time you shift out of Park. This is obviously exactly the opposite of what everyone wants. Before my premium expired, I would have to drive a while for the WiFi to drop out, and it would be trying and failing to load songs from my home WiFi. Now that my subscription has ended, I set up my phone as a hotspot, and I have to turn the WiFi back on every time I shift out of park. I tried reporting it as a bug, and I would encourage everyone else to do so so that they get this fixed.

 

[robl45]

Not a bug it's supposed to drop the wifi so you don't have the situation you encountered, but for people like me and you using hotspot it's obnoxious

 

[pcrow]

No, if you have premium connectivity, it doesn't drop the WiFi, but if you don't, it does. The logic is reversed. It's clearly a bug.

 

[jjrandorin]

No, if you have premium connectivity, it doesn't drop the WiFi, but if you don't, it does. The logic is reversed. It's clearly a bug.

I have premium connectivity, and a wireless access point in my garage ( so strong wifi), and when I put my car in reverse to back out of my garage, it drops the wifi.. so my experience is not the same as you describe.

I have never had the car without "premium connectivity" so I cant speak to what its like when you dont have it (and I have no intention of canceling my subscription to wifi, its more convenient to me, even though I have free hotspot with my cellular plan).

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

I just got the “premium connectivity is expired” message.
For me the loss of pretty maps and the streaming radio were enough for me to pay the 10bucks a month. I now have it back. It was a rough 20 miles to work without it.

 

[robl45]

If you have free hotspot all you lose is pretty maps which is pathetic on Tesla part. I have better maps in a Honda Civic

 

[pcrow]

I know on our 2015 S, the home WiFi doesn't drop out until we've driven a hundred yards from home. I'll watch to see if this has changed recently (and it doesn't get updates that often anymore). I just wish the behavior on the two cars was swapped. In any case, it should be using the premium connectivity status to decide whether to drop WiFi on shifting out of park.

 

[Gasaraki]

If you have free hotspot all you lose is pretty maps which is pathetic on Tesla part. I have better maps in a Honda Civic

So the maps in your Honda is better than Google Maps?

 

[robl45]

Don't have one but know others that do. Yes they are much better than the non premium garbage.

 

[jjrandorin]

No, if you have premium connectivity, it doesn't drop the WiFi, but if you don't, it does. The logic is reversed. It's clearly a bug.

I have premium connectivity, and a wireless access point in my garage ( so strong wifi), and when I put my car in reverse to back out of my garage, it drops the wifi.. so my experience is not the same as you describe.

I have never had the car without "premium connectivity" so I cant speak to what its like when you dont have it (and I have no intention of canceling my subscription to wifi, its more convenient to me, even though I have free hotspot with my cellular plan).

I just tested this again this morning....

To reiterate:

I have premium connectivity, and I also have a wifi access point about 7 feet from my car, on a shelf in my garage right above my car, basically. I have full wireless connectivity in my garage, as well as premium connectivity subscription.

I watched VERY closely, as I went through the routine of getting in my car to drive into work today. I stepped on the brake to start the car, and the car was in park, and I had full wifi connectivity. AS SOON AS I shifted to reverse (note, I didnt actually move anywhere, I just shifted to reverse) the car IMMEDIATELY dropped the wifi connection and was connected via LTE (I have 1-2 bars LTE in my garage).

So, if yours works how you describe, then you have an issue, or I have a unicorn one of those two. I suggest testing it yourself, carefully, again.

 

[pcrow]

Maybe it's an S vs. 3 thing. My S with firmware 2020.20.1 will not turn off the WiFi when shifting into gear. My 3 with firmware 2020.24.6.1 does turn off the WiFi when shifting out of Park. I had assumed it was about premium connectivity (which would be a logical way of doing it), but obviously not.

 

[jjrandorin]

Maybe it's an S vs. 3 thing. My S with firmware 2020.20.1 will not turn off the WiFi when shifting into gear. My 3 with firmware 2020.24.6.1 does turn off the WiFi when shifting out of Park. I had assumed it was about premium connectivity (which would be a logical way of doing it), but obviously not.

that certainly could be. my only tesla is a model 3, so thats the only one I am familiar with on this setting. I have only had model S as a loaner car a few times, and did not connect it to my wifi when I did.

 

[Jimmer]

Thanks that was helpful. I noted that aside from fancy maps you lose nothing. Not even traffic routing.

Odd - I had a brief interval without premium and lost traffic info but maintained the rest of the maps and routing.

 

[robl45]

Odd - I had a brief interval without premium and lost traffic info but maintained the rest of the maps and routing.

You are supposed to lose nothing, but the colored maps. I think maybe it doesn't show the traffic on the map, but you still get traffic routing, so with a wifi hotspot, aside from the annoyance of having to turn wifi on each time you move the drive stick and having to reboot the touch screen when it decides not to connect to wifi, you really lose nothing except colored maps and I can't justify 12 a month for colored maps, although it does aggravate me that a honda civic with navigation has better maps than me.