Wi-Fi hotspot connection issues

[MrNik]

My setup:
I have a garage where I have Wi-Fi. When driving, I use my mobile hotspot. Both these Wi-Fi network have the “Connect while driving” option turned on.

My Issue:
Whenever I drive off my garage, the wifi automatically gets turned off (fyi - doesn’t just disconnect from the network but the wifi itself is turned off).

Next, when I turn the wifi on and try to connect to my hotspot, it doesn’t find the network. I have to restart the hotspot and then it detects it. When I park & start driving, it switches wifi off again. It doesn’t directly again connect to the hotspot after turning wifi on. I have to restart the hotspot everytime for it to detect.

Basically everytime i park & drive, I have to turn on the Wi-Fi and restart my hotspot just to connect and obviously I don’t want to fiddle around while driving. Anyone else facing this annoying issue ?

Alternative:
As of now, I don’t even use Spotify app of the car. I play Spotify on my phone & connect via Bluetooth.

 

[littlemy]

Same problem here with 2023.12.9. Very annoying and the bug (?) is not a new thing, have been around in previous versions also.

 

[MrNik]

Same problem here with 2023.12.9. Very annoying and the bug (?) is not a new thing, have been around in previous versions also.

How hard is it to turn off the wifi only when the car is locked. I don’t understand the logic of turning off the wifi everytime it goes to park

 

[Beans4Me]

I experienced this in a rental. That sealed the deal for paying for connectivity. One thing that I experienced that you didn’t mention was it would randomly drop my hotspot connection while driving. Then we’d lose music and I’d be fumbling around trying to reconnect the Wi-Fi.

 

[YW555]

2023.12.9 update here and connects to my phone's hotspot fine. If you want to have Tesla connect to your hotspot automatically then you'll have to stop using your home WiFi. Then it'll connect to the first WiFi it sees which is your hotspot. There's really no point using home WiFi unless you have a hotspot data cap and don't want to download updates on it.

Another way is to kick the Tesla off of your home WiFi in the morning, like a schedule function in your router. Or have your Tesla connect to a WiFi repeater and cut the power off during the day with a smart switch.

 

[MrNik]

I experienced this in a rental. That sealed the deal for paying for connectivity. One thing that I experienced that you didn’t mention was it would randomly drop my hotspot connection while driving. Then we’d lose music and I’d be fumbling around trying to reconnect the Wi-Fi.

Oh yeah this happens to me as well. Frustrating to suddenly lose music when driving (especially with a child in the back seat - ruckus when music stops)

 

[MrNik]

2023.12.9 update here and connects to my phone's hotspot fine. If you want to have Tesla connect to your hotspot automatically then you'll have to stop using your home WiFi. Then it'll connect to the first WiFi it sees which is your hotspot. There's really no point using home WiFi unless you have a hotspot data cap and don't want to download updates on it.

Another way is to kick the Tesla off of your home WiFi in the morning, like a schedule function in your router. Or have your Tesla connect to a WiFi repeater and cut the power off during the day with a smart switch.

Hi, I tried this but doesn’t fix my issue. even if I stop using my garage wifi, I still have the problem of wifi switching off when driving and when I park & drive the car.

 

[YW555]

Hi, I tried this but doesn’t fix my issue. even if I stop using my garage wifi, I still have the problem of wifi switching off when driving and when I park & drive the car.

Even after checking the box to stay connected while driving?

 

[MrNik]

Even after checking the box to stay connected while driving?

Yup. This box is checked which is why it’s frustrating!

The issue is the way Tesla have built this - the network might stay connected but wifi itself turns off so even if the box is checked it doesn’t matter because when I start driving, the Wi-Fi itself switches off.

 

[rub1k]

I'm new but add me to the list of people baffled by the way this works (or doesn't).

Has to be done on purpose to drive people crazy and upsell the premium connectivity, right? Ugh.

 

[Bolt007]

This issue really grinds my gear. I'm starting to think this is an intentional Ploy to get consumers to purchase Premium connectivity.

 

[rub1k]

Another observation -- not sure if it's the same for all but I've noticed this since I've been paying more attention to this issue:

The WiFi being turned off must be on a timer (X # of minutes or whatever). I say this because I've noticed that if I'm driving around, connected to my cell phone hotspot and I park the car (i.e. to go into a restaurant to pick up takeout) and then I return a few minutes later, the car automagically reconnects to my hotspot.

I have my hotspot set to automatically turn on when my phone's bluetooth is connected to the car and to turn off when it disconnects. I visually checked my phone while picking up the food and it behaved as expected -- it turned off the hotspot as I walked away from the car and turned it back on shortly after I sat back down to drive off.

The biggest (only?) issue remains the whole "Car WiFi toggles to OFF while car is parked at home" (regardless of whether it's set to connect to home WiFi or not, possibly after a few mins/hours/whatever being parked). I don't understand why it ever toggles OFF. Or why it doesn't toggle back ON if it was ON before it went to sleep, etc.

 

[ajmorr.is]

I'm new but add me to the list of people baffled by the way this works (or doesn't).

Has to be done on purpose to drive people crazy and upsell the premium connectivity, right? Ugh.

I had premium connectivity up until the start of July and I cancelled since almost everything I need it for I can do with a Wi-Fi hotspot (the only thing I miss a bit is the traffic lines on the map). I already had an automation setup on my phone so it worked seamlessly and the car would connect fine every time.

Since I cancelled PC though, each time my car is not connected to a Wi-Fi network when parked (even for 2 minutes) Wi-Fi then turns itself off and needs to be manually turned back on again, which can’t be done with a voice command.

 

[GreyFoggyDay]

I have similar connection issues with my 2023 MY. I have an automation on my iPhone to enable my hotspot when driving focus is enabled. (Driving focus is enabled automatically when it connects to the car via BT.) The car is connected to the home wifi as well. It very rarely automatically connects when I leave my house and start driving. Sometimes it works. A lot of times it doesn't. And just this morning it wouldn't connect to the hotspot as it required the password!?! No changes made on my end but for some reason it's losing the hotspot password. Very annoying.

Also - it opens a keyboard to enter the hotspot password while I'm in Drive?!? That's a serious safety issue. No onscreen keyboards should open while the car is in Drive.

 

[Mike728]

Premium Connectivity was one thing that took only about 5 seconds to decide was a necessity. It's only $8.25/mo if you pay for the year upfront. I was paying almost 3x that for just SiriusXM in our old vehicle, and all we got was some constantly repeating music channels and lousy talk radio. I'm as happy with the built in Slacker Tesla app as I was with that alone.

I'm curious as to what some of the reasoning is to use your phone as a hotspot. I can't imaging it's the cost. It looks like way more of a hassle than it's worth.

 

[GreyFoggyDay]

Premium Connectivity was one thing that took only about 5 seconds to decide was a necessity. It's only $8.25/mo if you pay for the year upfront. I was paying almost 3x that for just SiriusXM in our old vehicle, and all we got was some constantly repeating music channels and lousy talk radio. I'm as happy with the built in Slacker Tesla app as I was with that alone.

I'm curious as to what some of the reasoning is to use your phone as a hotspot. I can't imaging it's the cost. It looks like way more of a hassle than it's worth.

$14 a month here in Canada. I don't see an option for annual payment otherwise I'd likely go that route. My sub expired a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to see how it would behave with a hotspot. Not great thus far.

 

[ajmorr.is]

£10 a month in the UK and no yearly option here either. I don’t pay for things like this because they’re convenient, I pay because they provide features of value and since I can get 99% of the same features on a Wi-Fi hotspot then what’s the point in paying? As I mentioned, the only thing I miss is the traffic visualisation on the map.

 

[ajmorr.is]

I had premium connectivity up until the start of July and I cancelled since almost everything I need it for I can do with a Wi-Fi hotspot (the only thing I miss a bit is the traffic lines on the map). I already had an automation setup on my phone so it worked seamlessly and the car would connect fine every time.

Since I cancelled PC though, each time my car is not connected to a Wi-Fi network when parked (even for 2 minutes) Wi-Fi then turns itself off and needs to be manually turned back on again, which can’t be done with a voice command.

I’ve just noticed that Wi-Fi only seems to disable when I stop briefly. If I’m parked at home overnight for example then it either stays enabled or at some point it enables itself (since I know it was disabled when I parked up).

When I stop for a very short period of time, like when dropping the kids off at school - so 2 minutes out of the car - it is disabled when I get back in.

 

[GreyFoggyDay]

I read that if you wait a moment before shifting into Drive, you will have more success with it maintaining the wifi connection. Or at least I've found that wifi will remain on and I can connect manually to the hotspot if I need to.

If I jump in the car and quickly shift into Drive, wifi will turn off and it will be a PITA.

 

[ODWms]

Has anyone found a solution for this?