Tesla Model 3 Surprise

[jebatty]

Wait - surprise is next paragraph. We had to take our Model 3 (Tesa Rose) into the Tesla Service Center in Minneapolis-St. Paul, not because of a fault in the car but because of a fault in the owner. My wife lost her keycard, we ordered and quickly received the two-pack replacement key cards, and then when programming (it's really easy) in the car, my wife accidentally deleted my key card. With no active keycard available , we could not complete the programming and had to bring Tesa Rose into the Service Center. Reprogramming was done in about 20 minutes and without charge, but . . .

to our surprise, we were told that our Model 3 now also could have the full self-driving (FSD) HW3 update installed immediately! To complete that the car would have to be left for the day. We could not leave the car, so we headed home and now have scheduled a time later this month when we can leave the car for the day. Apparently installing the HS3 update takes about five hours and some driving for final calibration. Thinking back to March 2019 when we bought the car, we made sure that our purchase included the FSD capability, so we are very pleased that Tesla is following through on this. By the way, mileage is about to cross the 16,000 mile boundary.

 

[semipro]

Reprogramming was done in about 20 minutes and without charge, but . . .

Actually, this surprised me.
I don't think I can ever remember a dealership doing anything for free.

 

[DBoon]

I think the difference is that Tesla owns this location, whereas most car "dealers" are really independent distributors that don't want to do much at all for free.

 

[begreen]

Actually, this surprised me.
I don't think I can ever remember a dealership doing anything for free.

All warranty work we have had done was free, and included a rental vehicle.

 

[semipro]

All warranty work we have had done was free, and included a rental vehicle.

I was referring more to the reprogramming of the key card which was not a warranty issue.
Most dealerships charge a hefty sum for programming new smart keys.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

A self driving car would have the same affect on me as riding with my daughter ,intense anxiety.

 

[woodgeek]

I eagerly await the self-driving report, Jim.

Be safe!

 

[begreen]

A self driving car would have the same affect on me as riding with my daughter ,intense anxiety.

I had the same feeling for the first few days driving with adaptive cruise control. Finally started getting used to it, but remained vigilant.

 

[jebatty]

Seems like Tesla is releasing a flood of software OTA lately, but reality is that I finally achieved a good wi-fi connection in the garage from the router in our house, and that good connection resulted in receipt of the updates. For our purposes a very appreciated improvement is in auto-pilot, which is now greatly improved in accuracy generally and particularly in recognizing lanes with worn lane striping and navigating curves at fast highway speeds, as well as smoothness in all auto-pilot functions. Another one we really will appreciate is the ability to view the four dashcam on the display in real time, as well as display recorded clips from the cameras and from sentry mode. There's a lot more which we gradually will explore. Anyone interested in Tesla OTA updates can *oogle "Tesla Model 3 Software Updates.

As a result of continuing software updates, the Model 3 continues on the path of getting better and better from what in the beginning was a very good car.

As for moving another step into full self-driving (FSD), the Covid-19 put the brakes on that. We scheduled another service appointment to have the hardware and software installed, but the shutdown of the Fremont factory has resulted in a shortage of parts, and getting the installation will have to await parts availability.

As for the getting the good wi-fi connection, the problem has been both distance from our router and our garage having metal siding. I achieved the good wi-fi connection first by raising the router to a shelf near the ceiling, and second by installing a wi-fi extender on an outlet in the house closer to the garage.

 

[begreen]

Can the car only update via Wifi? Getting wifi to our metal garage is not very practical. It would be easier to go park outside our library.

 

[blades]

My little Escape has that adaptive @!#$%^&* stuff on it. 100K miles and I still do not know who or what it has adapted to.

 

[jebatty]

adaptive @!#$%^&* stuff

The Tesla adaptive cruise control, etc. works very well, as does auto-pilot. We use both nearly all the time on highway driving.

 

[jebatty]

I think that wi-fi must be used for the OTA because we were not getting them via the internet connection. Maybe there is a way to force a data connection, as radio, music, and other data/phone app/entertainment features do not rely on wi-fi.

 

[begreen]

Looks like it's wifi only. Not sure why that choice was made. Some people just drive to a Tesla Service Center where they have wifi.
(broken link removed)

 

[semipro]

Looks like it's wifi only. Not sure why that choice was made.

Maybe because celluar might incur data charges and because it lacks support for older standards. My 2015 Leaf has a 2G modem in it that is practically useless because of lack of coverage.
I wish it had Wi-Fi. Even 3G 4G are iffy at our house.

 

[begreen]

I think OnStar in the Volt uses cellular, but updates are rare and mostly for Navigation or infotainment.