You Tesla _needs_ to be on wifi else it dies??!

[TMeister]

So... the car is back in your hands? Other than saying you needed to be on WiFi what did they do? Just connect it and voila it works? New software, that map update? New MCU? Something else?

I'm agreeing with others here that you got a creative explanation that cannot possibly be true.

 

[ozweepay]

So... the car is back in your hands? Other than saying you needed to be on WiFi what did they do? Just connect it and voila it works? New software, that map update? New MCU? Something else?

I'm agreeing with others here that you got a creative explanation that cannot possibly be true.

Yeah, I picked it up last Saturday and the map looks very different so I guess it updated. The Denver SC contact said that the problem was that the car just needed wifi. So they gave it wifi and downloaded all the pending updates and rebooted and it was g2g. He didn't mention a new MCU and I doubt I could tell if it were replaced. Car is running fine now, 5 days later. (And yes, I have it on wifi now.)

To answer another question from earlier in this thread: yeah, my 20-30 tries to go into Rev/Drive probably took about 1 min and then the car would magically start driving. My gf refused to get in, however, because she thought there's no way it could be safe... but I did manage to get my car home that way. And then managed to get it on to the flatbed the next day to be towed away.

 

[vickh]

were both screens blank or just the MCU?

 

[TMeister]

Yeah, I picked it up last Saturday and the map looks very different so I guess it updated. The Denver SC contact said that the problem was that the car just needed wifi. So they gave it wifi and downloaded all the pending updates and rebooted and it was g2g. He didn't mention a new MCU and I doubt I could tell if it were replaced. Car is running fine now, 5 days later. (And yes, I have it on wifi now.)

Just gotta say wow. Only thing I could think of is that some software update broke compatibility with the old maps and it all came crashing down. Not many getting updated since 2018.48.12.1. Maybe you got an update just before it happened. What's your SW version now?

 

[NeverFollow]

Tesla stopped downloading sw via LTE from ATT directly into your car since v9.
And its cheaper to do it from service center over wifi.
BUT
My wifi is not close to my car, so i had to pull it up to the front of house and open window. Then he loaded.

BUT, has that nothing to do with your problem what so ever. That is pure bs.
The chances of all our cars being next to our wifi is crazy stupid.

You have major sw problems.
v9 broke my car, cannot super charge except at a Gen 5 site,. 3 months still no fix.
V9 is junk in many ways.

My car is in an apartment garage. The local Wi-Fi hotspot that I was able to connect to was not working all the time.
So I installed a PowerLineWiFi Extension and this worked great now. I didn't have to do any particular settings.

I just plug the PowerLine modem to any electrical socket in my home and connected an Ethernet wire to it.
I connected the receiver to my EV charger and immediately I was able to connect my car to my home Wi-Fi service.

Note: I tested this PowerLine with my SmartPhone using SpeedTest.net and SpeedCheck.org and got faster results
than the current Wi-Fi that I am using it in my home. I guess, it's time also to update my home Wi-Fi too.

I noticed that you don't need to worry about putting the modem and the receiver on the same 120 V phase line.
I even put the receiver to one of the service maintenance plug of the garage and still I was able to connect to my Wi-Fi.
I guess there is enough coupling between lines that the Wi-Fi is still available.

The Wi-Fi is protected by password, so not everyone would be able to connect to it.
If you are in a public garage, you can hide the receiver into a plastic junction box, so it cannot be stolen.
There are at least more than 200 ft (60 m) of elctric wires between the two devices.

- NETGEAR PowerLINE 1000 Mbps WiFi, 802.11ac, 1 Gigabit Port - Essentials Edition (PLW1010-100NAS)
- Thomas & Betts E987R 6" X 6" X 4" Junction Box

 

[PWlakewood]

If the car "has to be connected to wifi or else........" then there would be some sort of fine print detailing somewhere. My guess would be that your car was in the middle of and update and it got disconnected and was borked up from there. Does not make any sense what so ever tesla designed there cars to "die" if not connected to wifi.

 

[ac_power]

My guess would be that your car was in the middle of and update and it got disconnected and was borked up from there.

No way it has firmware bootloader without safe recovery feature. Even cheapest gadgets do. Power loss, connection loss, user interruption, version incompatibility, write failure - everything has a workaround as a norm.

Most likely it's still SW module compatibility issue like TMeister said, when new core FW couldn't work correctly with an old navigation SW.

 

[NeverFollow]

Tesla stopped downloading sw via LTE from ATT directly into your car since v9.
And its cheaper to do it from service center over wifi.
BUT
My wifi is not close to my car, so i had to pull it up to the front of house and open window. Then he loaded.
BUT, has that nothing to do with your problem what so ever. That is pure bs. The chances of all our cars being next to our wifi is crazy stupid.
You have major sw problems.
v9 broke my car, cannot super charge except at a Gen 5 site,. 3 months still no fix.
V9 is junk in many ways.

I received the 2018.50.6 update immediately after I installed the above mentioned WiFi PowerLine in my garage.

 

[swegman]

The story you were given for why your car stopped operating is absolute hogwash. My car has not been connected to WiFi for more than 2 years now and it has not caused a problem. Car operates just fine without being connected to WiFi. Firmware updates arrive via OTA.

 

[PWlakewood]

No way it has firmware bootloader without safe recovery feature. Even cheapest gadgets do. Power loss, connection loss, user interruption, version incompatibility, write failure - everything has a workaround as a norm.

Most likely it's still SW module compatibility issue like TMeister said, when new core FW couldn't work correctly with an old navigation SW.

Of all those devices you mentioned they can all have hardware or software failures. There is no such thing as 100% reliable. Every device has a failure rate.

 

[ac_power]

Of all those devices you mentioned they can all have hardware or software failures. There is no such thing as 100% reliable. Every device has a failure rate.

Not saying 100% reliability, with multi-layer protection, no one has real chance to see that sort of an undetected/unrecoverable failure. Of course, assuming that Tesla designed their bootloaders in accordance to industry standards.

 

[PWlakewood]

Not saying 100% reliability, with multi-layer protection, no one has real chance to see that sort of an undetected/unrecoverable failure. Of course, assuming that Tesla designed their bootloaders in accordance to industry standards.

Has Tesla followed industry standards up to this point?

 

[ac_power]

If it didn't, we would read such stories on weekly basis I think.
Over 0.5M vehicles in the field, updating few times a year. You can do the math.

 

[aaron0k]

You don't technically need the IC or the MCU to be able to drive, but the IC is definitely "enough" to drive with safely. You just will have a very lackluster (and at this time of year, cold) driving experience.

Not always true. My MS died, both the IC and Infotainment displays were dead. Car would not engage drive or open charge door. Had to be towed to an SC... I was told the MCU died; replaced ($$$$) and back to 'normal'.