Wife's car was a paperweight. (And not a very good one). [RESOLVED]

[SabrToothSqrl]

My car and wife's both got the 2018.50 update over the weekend.
Mine went fine.

Wife's car is now bricked. Won't go out of Park. Won't recognize her phone as a key, won't recognize either key card (that worked fine before). She had to call Tesla to unlock it just to get her garage pass!

Called on Sunday approx 1PM. They said they would remote troubleshoot...

Luckily the car was in our garage and not a random parking lot!

NO dice, and as she called back approx 5PM on Sunday, there was "no one" who could do anything. because it was "Sunday"? Who cares what day / time it is. Tesla BROKE her car.

Luckily for us, our 3rd vehicle, hasn't sold yet.

I told her to rent a car, and provide Tesla w/the receipt and fuel costs as a thank you for breaking hers. Which is exactly what we'd have done had we not had the 3rd car.

so... Thanks Tesla!

 

[CUBldr97]

ouch, good luck with that, what have they said today? are they sending a mobile team, or tow truck and a loaner?

 

[Lasttoy]

What is really bad is the help eesk closes at 9pm now. It was 3am i called, car would not charge to get home.
Answer machine said, sorry we are closed. WTF over.
V9 has done so much damage to Tesla Karma. Just junk sw. My wont charge and its been 4 weeks.
I have an antique, and v9 has just destroyed a wonderful car.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I called, because while we both work, I have more time between meetings today than she does.
I can remotely open the garage door for a mobile tech or a flat bed. I don't know what value us being there is.
I put a pin pad door lock between the garage and house just for this! lol. Ok, not for this, but ya know.
Not to mention the 13 cameras on site... but that's another story.

Road Side assist says they are talking to Mobile Techs and will get back to me today.

I said mobile is fine, even if it takes more days as it's less hassle for us long term... (vs. towing to MD).

Starting to rethink not having a 3rd car... ugh...
Very nice people on the phone, but this NEEDS to be 24/7. There are a TON of cars now and you can't go around making someone's car stop working...

My wife and I have a rule - only update at home due to the possibility of this issue... that rule now says 'at home, and NOT on a sunday'... ugh.

 

[Cirrus MS100D]

And you’ve obviously tried the usual tricks of rebooting / powering off? (Just in case you haven’t...)

 

[Chickenlittle]

My car and wife's both got the 2018.50 update over the weekend.
Mine went fine.

Wife's car is now bricked. Won't go out of Park. Won't recognize her phone as a key, won't recognize either key card (that worked fine before). She had to call Tesla to unlock it just to get her garage pass!

Called on Sunday approx 1PM. They said they would remote troubleshoot...

Luckily the car was in our garage and not a random parking lot!

NO dice, and as she called back approx 5PM on Sunday, there was "no one" who could do anything. because it was "Sunday"? Who cares what day / time it is. Tesla BROKE her car.

Luckily for us, our 3rd vehicle, hasn't sold yet.

I told her to rent a car, and provide Tesla w/the receipt and fuel costs as a thank you for breaking hers. Which is exactly what we'd have done had we not had the 3rd car.

so... Thanks Tesla!

Sorry for your issue but your car is not bricked. It does not work and your frustrated but your battery is not bricked. Hope your repaired soon

 

[TexasEV]

Sorry for your issue but your car is not bricked. It does not work and your frustrated but your battery is not bricked. Hope your repaired soon

Completely agree, and @SabrToothSqrl as a long time Tesla owner you of all people should not be using that term because
1. You know that Teslas haven’t been bricked since the Roadster, and
2. You know the baggage that term carries by its use for FUD by the anti-EV constituencies.

For those new here, bricked meant a battery that is permanently damaged so it’s unusable. Calling a car that won’t start “bricked” is inflammatory and just feeds the anti-EV trolls.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

It doesn't "car". Hence, it's a brick. Deal with it. I could have chosen much harsher words.

Brick (electronics) - Wikipedia

"The word "brick", when used in reference to consumer electronics, describes an electronic device such as a mobile device, game console, or router that, due to severe physical damage, a serious misconfiguration, corrupted firmware, or a hardware problem, can no longer function, hence, is as technologically useful as a brick.[1]"

Only in this case, a brick would have cost less, and been more useful for building.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

And you’ve obviously tried the usual tricks of rebooting / powering off? (Just in case you haven’t...)

Yep. Tried everything support asked us to.

 

[kev1n]

unpopular opinion but my 2 cent,

dont update the car if you need the car and cant afford for it to be bricked/something goes wrong as a possible aftermath

this goes for anything electronic wise, computer, phone, etc.

i never update anything unless i need to or if i have time to fix said problem that comes up after because there is a likely chance that an update will break things

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I've done dozens in my S without issue.

It's infuriating that they don't have 24/7 support for what amounts to a "retry" button.
The retry button could/should actually be on the car.

While I also prefer reliability, at some point you do have to update the car...
Luckily we have 3 cars, but within a few weeks, we will have two, and this would have played out very differently... She's had very few issues w/the 3, and thus I was willing to buy one...

Pushed update again (3x now) and will check when we get home... Finger crossed.

I have no doubt Tesla will make it right, I'm just frustrated and trying to stick to the facts of what it's like to not be able to drive when you critically need your vehicle.

 

[dhanson865]

My wife and I have a rule - only update at home due to the possibility of this issue... that rule now says 'at home, and NOT on a Sunday'... ugh.

Will they do anything on a Saturday? How about after/before business hours on weekdays? Which of these is the correct strategy if you don't have a 3rd car?

* only update at home and NOT on a Sunday
* only update at home and on a Saturday
* only update at home and after work on a weekday
* only update at home before you go to work on a weekday

edit: if saturday is iffy for service I'm thinking

* only update at home and after work on Mon-Thur and only if the next day isn't a major holiday.

No reason to try it on Friday evening or Saturday or Sunday and no reason to do it right before you need to leave for work.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

My understanding is, "retrying" an update is something service centers can do, and thus is tied to their hours... so Saturday's sometimes.

 

[TexasEV]

It doesn't "car". Hence, it's a brick. Deal with it. I could have chosen much harsher words..

OK if you dont want to listen to me, would you listen to @bonnie about how this term has been misused for fear-mongering about EVs? Here are some of her posts from a similar thread last yesr:

In terms of electric vehicles, saying your car is 'bricked' means that the main battery (not the 12V) is dead and non-recoverable. Can't be charged again. You're buying a new battery for your car.

Your car wasn't bricked . And be glad for that!

"Bricked" will get a response, because historically, the FUD-spreaders have looked for bricked electric vehicles to use to go negative. Roadster batteries can be bricked & there were definitely headlines over that.
Tesla Battery 'Bricking': The Real Story Behind The Scare
But misuse of the term 'bricked' with EVs is somewhat sensitive, precisely because of the history associated with it. A bricked car made headlines, and not positive headlines. And the bricking was always due to an owner mistake or just plain not paying attention.

Model S, X, 3 are not easily bricked (even with owner abuse) like the Roadster was/is -- so when I see a thread title saying a Model 3 was bricked, it gets my attention. And the attention of every original Roadster owner on this forum. We lived through the headlines.

Right. And a bricked vehicle is only useful as a brick. Non-repairable. Battery only useful as a paperweight. I'm well aware that only a handful of Roadsters were bricked, but it wasn't just a handful of articles and headlines about it.

At EV events, we've all had to deal with folks who only saw the headlines & would make comments like 'I heard it's really easy to brick this car & you have to replace the battery constantly'. The FUD worked. A large segment of the general public still vaguely remembers this. It's not that Roadster owners are overly sensitive. It's that we have dealt with the fallout from the use of the term.

 

[Darren Donovan]

unpopular opinion but my 2 cent,

dont update the car if you need the car and cant afford for it to be bricked/something goes wrong as a possible aftermath

this goes for anything electronic wise, computer, phone, etc.

i never update anything unless i need to or if i have time to fix said problem that comes up after because there is a likely chance that an update will break things

But then that goes against one of the major selling points of a Tesla vehicle: constant updates that make the car you bought a while ago feel/act like a new one, unlike ICE cars that stay the same. It's ridiculous that any updates that Tesla put out has a much higher than acceptable probability of introducing new bugs as solving any old ones, Lol.

 

[GoSharks]

OK if you dont want to listen to me, would you listen to @bonnie about how this term has been misused for fear-mongering about EVs? Here are some of her posts from a similar thread last yesr:

OP's use of brick is completely in line with the how it is used in the consumer electronics world. Seeing how Tesla and its fans are always pushing how a Tesla is more like consumer electronics than a traditional car, I find "brick" to be perfectly descriptive of the situation here.

 

[chillaban]

OP's use of brick is completely in line with the how it is used in the consumer electronics world. Seeing how Tesla and its fans are always pushing how a Tesla is more like consumer electronics than a traditional car, I find "brick" to be perfectly descriptive of the situation here.

The term is overused and incorrectly used for consumer electronics too. And that’s a huge problem for those of us who work on low level firmware, ROMs, etc because it leads to too many misunderstandings where people assume “bricking” is reversible.

If the term bricking now refers to devices in an inconveniently recoverable state, at least come up with a new term to mean truly bricked devices.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Feel free to edit Wikipedia lol. I donated to them last year, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

If the response to my use of the word "brick" is that her car gets fixed, and fewer people have the same issues, I'd call it a win .

Once Tesla fixes it, it will be Unbricked... It's a technical term, it can be found here:

Brick (electronics) - Wikipedia

 

[MP3Mike]

Feel free to edit Wikipedia lol. I donated to them last year, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

If the response to my use of the word "brick" is that my car gets fixed, and fewer people have the same issues, I'd call it a win

Once Tesla fixes it, it will be Unbricked... It's a technical term, it can be found here:

Brick (electronics) - Wikipedia

Or you could look at the Oxford dictionary, which I trust more than Wikipedia: brick | Definition of brick in English by Oxford Dictionaries

Cause (a smartphone or other electronic device) to become completely unable to function, typically on a permanent basis.

They also have:

A smartphone or other electronic device that has completely ceased to function.

In either case your car didn't meet those criteria since Tesla was able to connect to it remotely and unlock the car, so it didn't completely cease to function.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Will they do anything on a Saturday? How about after/before business hours on weekdays? Which of these is the correct strategy if you don't have a 3rd car?

* only update at home and NOT on a Sunday
* only update at home and on a Saturday
* only update at home and after work on a weekday
* only update at home before you go to work on a weekday

edit: if Saturday is iffy for service I'm thinking

* only update at home and after work on Mon-Thur and only if the next day isn't a major holiday.

No reason to try it on Friday evening or Saturday or Sunday and no reason to do it right before you need to leave for work.

lol, that's funny right there... so... like... never? lol.