Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 1, 2017

Free data for four years! part 1

  • Feb 19, 2014
    pekap
    Shareholder's letter just released states that data will be free for four years. Good news!


    "To further enhance the driver experience, new Model S customers will now receive free data connectivity and
    Internet radio for four years. As an added benefit to our existing Model S customers, the free four year period
    starts on January 1, 2014. To be fair to all, in rare cases a customer may be charged for extreme data use."
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    deonb
    Woo-hoo! Now if only I can figure out how to run BitTorrent on it...
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    efusco
    WOW!! Outstanding!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Denarius
    This just made my day!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    N4HHE
    What constitutes "extreme use"?
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Doug_G
    I'm guessing:

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  • Feb 19, 2014
    GDH
    Sweet, now if only slacker radio would download songs faster!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    brianstorms
    Fantastic news from Tesla. A real relief.

    I wonder if AT&T basically said, look, you're not interesting enough (read: not enough subscribers) for us to do something interesting w/ data plans a la Apple iPhone, and Tesla said, okay, we'll wait until 2018 when there are hundreds of thousands of Teslas roaming the earth.

    By then, Tesla can just attach cell towers to each of its thousand-plus SuperChargers and Mini-Chargers, and form its own cellular data company.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    jcadman22
    Bravo Tesla! Four years from Jan. 1, 2014 - classy move makes current owners happy.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    ken830
    Just read this in the shareholders' letter. Great news!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    tenstringer009
    Awesome. Can't help but wish there was a mention of 4 years of 4G data for free :biggrin: Kinda a 4 for 4 thing...a missed marketing opportunity if you ask me.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Morristhecat
    I just read the report and saw this too - incredible! It just gets better and better!!!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    techMology
    4G means nothing. AT&T's HSPA+ classifies (what the MS has now) as 4G (and yes, it's BS).

    I want to see LTE.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Owner
    I am excited too! I doubt we are using all that much data, but this sure saves the hassle of administrating a plan for each of us or dealing with tethering!:biggrin:
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Ven Rala
    Awesome news. Great benefit for us current Model S owners
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Liz G
    Hmmmm. I hope this is transferable upon sale of the car. The remainder of the 4 years, that is.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Trnsl8r
    banana.gif
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    AnOutsider
    Should be if it's tied to VIN
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    jerry33
    Rumor has it (the last IEEE meeting I attended this week) that ATT will drop 3G in 2017 and have only LTE.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Andrew
    Woohoo!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    beck.christopher
    If only they would upgrade modem to support to LTE.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Gizmotoy
    How did they word it? AT&T successfully lobbied to call HSPA+ 4G. I wonder what would lead them to drop it so soon. I mean, they still have Edge (2.5G) towers in service.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    dsm363
    No one is angry about this? They promised us they'd start charging us already:)

    Great news. They may have fallen down on some promises but this helps make up for smaller ones like lighted visors I think.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Zaxxon
    I had just come here to post something along those lines. Nice.

    Another missed deadline, Tesla...
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    kevincwelch
    Fantastic news! I'm happy to hear this, but the browser is still painfully slow. Hopefully this is something that improves with time/upgrades.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    jomo25
    The great news just keeps rolling on in! Thanks Tesla!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    jerry33
    Well, it wasn't an ATT person that mention it in his presentation--which is why I said rumor.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    huntjo
    Lol!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Todd Burch
    Didn't we hear that Chrome is coming to the Model S within a year?
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    ChrisPDX
    I'm surprised Tesla is taking this kind of revenue hit, not that I'm complaining. Put it this way, assuming they eventually charge $20 per month (low end), that means this 4 years of free service saves us $960! If they charge $30 (more likely), then we are now saving $1,440! This makes me one very happy customer!
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Crispix
    Fantastic news! I'm sure someone will find some reason to complain; after all, this is an Internet forum, so shame on anyone who complains!

    Thanks to Tesla Motors. This is a huge win.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    liuping
    AT&T charges $10 a month to add a tablet to your plan. I doubt they would charge more than that for the Model S. If Tesla charged $20-$30, people would just go directly to AT&T.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    gg_got_a_tesla
    I was hoping for 8 years... :( :D

    Seriously, it's a great move. Do want to upgrade (by paying for the hardware, of course) to 4G LTE at some point. And, hoping for a more usable and responsive browser too after future software updates.

    When is that SDK coming btw? Can't wait for the $19 billion WhatsApp on the 17" screen :tongue:
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Gizmotoy
    Only if you already are an AT&T subscriber, AND you're on a mobile share plan. Otherwise the cost is $15/month for 250MB, or $30/month for 3GB.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    Chris TX
    Awesome news! Setting my alarm to get a dedicated Verizon MiFi now. ;)
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    howardc64
    Carriers usually seek second life use for older wireless technology. The infrastructure is already deployed and paid for.

    I'd imagine smartphone's rapid LTE migration means there is probably excess 3G capacity. Just a guess but this is probably the reason Tesla is sticking with 3G and I'd imagine it is very cheap. Tesla's silicon valley computer trained engineers probably wants everyone to have live connection to continue collecting in field car's telemetry for feedback on product improvement.

    Moving up to LTE would increase cost and likely have to pass cost onto the end users.
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  • Feb 19, 2014
    riceuguy
    It's definitely not this...the car (well, the cellular equipment) is designed to be able to split off telemetry and other Tesla-paid data (before they decided to make our data free!) so that customers could choose not to buy a data plan and Tesla would still have access to our logs and other key data, and could still push updates. I would guess two things are involved here: 1) Billing may have been too hard/expensive/not worthwhile for so few US cars, and 2) If Tesla buys in bulk for 20,000-40,000 cars, they probably get a much better rate than making it optional...otherwise it's a risk for AT&T to put in the billing effort; what if only 5k people signed up, for example? And can you imagine the hassle of people wanting to "add a device" where that device is a Tesla? I imagine AT&T would rather send one bill to Tesla and cut them a very nice deal. And folks, let's just establish that Tesla and AT&T have said that for current cars it will be 4G HSPA+, which is far faster than what we need for what the car can do today. I know LTE is much faster, but people, we are browsing the web without video and listening to compressed internet audio while downloading some maps...do you really think 2, 3, 4, or 5 mbps isn't enough?!?!
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    brianman
    They call it "brightwork" and your car already has it. ;)
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    Pate
  • Feb 20, 2014
    Chipper
    BOOOOOO!!! Some are "not so bright". :tongue:
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    contaygious
    Yay! So slacker too right? Does that mean i can get the user info to setup my phone and pc? I had the login once but lost it.

    Also does that mean if you didnt get the tech package you are missing out at all? I have tech so i dunno
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    Rodolfo Paiz
    I'd actually expect the monthly charge to be closer to $10, which is what Verizon charges me for a tablet or notebook computer on my plan... and those devices probably (speculation) suck down much more data than my car does. Still, that's $480 I don't need to spend and it's great customer service, so I'm both happy and grateful.

    What I'd like to know is what the implications are for the concept of using the car as a WiFi hotspot that supplies its occupants, which is something I'm very much anticipating. I hope that having the car be a hotspot is still something we can expect to see, and I further hope that Tesla simply uses this as an upselling opportunity: you get basic data service in your car for free, but hotspot functionality costs an extra $10 or $15 a month. I'd be extremely disappointed if hotspot functionality went the way of in-car music storage (which I don't miss).
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    liuping
    This helps the TCO calculations as well. Tesla like using that to lower the effective cost of the car to something around $610 a month. Charging $30 a month for data would increase the "effective" cost by 5%.
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    howardc64
    Billing headache is sensible reason. I still think 3G is likely very cheap being old tech and probably have better coverage during the Model S release cycle.

    On 4G HSPA+, are we there yet? or still on 3G?

    I do think and agree getting LTE is probably unnecessary and won't be beneficial for a number of reasons

    - music+maps+telemetry don't need it. These are the primary functions in a car.
    - browser is the only one that can use it and maybe video streaming if Tesla were to add it. I can think of 2 factors that prevents this area from improving.

    A. smartphone/Tablet/computers's fast browsers comes from a ton of software tuning work by the browser developer. I doubt Tesla software team will dedicate the necessary effort to tune up the browser. Browser is also a constantly evolving standard with lots of plugins which all requires tuning as well. Takes a lot to keep up. I would guess the "browser" feature on Tesla will fade into the sunset (probably have already given its current capability) unless they piggy back onto standard products like Apple or Android. And its reasonable for Tesla to say "just leave that complicated browser function to mobile tablets". We all have used Tesla's browser, compatibility doesn't seem very good and speed is very poor. At first glance, the reason doesn't appear to be hardware or 3G. Apple and Google's browsers are constructed from open source these days (webkit) Just building this browser without a heavy tuning effort can not reach competitive performance or compatibility (flash etc...)

    Making video go fast require dedicated hardware for video playback. The reason our latest smartphones+tablets do video so well is because they put great video hardware in it. The evolution was really fast. Video hardware improved by at least 2X/year in the last few years. Not sure what is the vintage of Tesla's entertainment computer but surely <= 2011 hardware given the car's design cycle. In addition, Tesla has no business evolving the entertainment computer rapidly as they should be focused on building great cars. It is impossible to keep up the smartphone/tablet's improvement rate anyway.

    So while Tesla teases the world with that huge infotainment screen and leads everyone to believe "it can be a great newest generation tablet with 17" screen". There is neither the hardware revision effort or software effort necessary to match tablet's progress. It is a big screen but behind it is old hardware and minimal common web software efforts.

    Even if we get LTE, Tesla's browser is likely still slow unless they put a lot more software work into it.

    B.. Carriers fundamentally wants to see additional revenue streams for bigger mobile screens such as tablets. They probably don't want to give it away for cheap in cars.

    C. Bigger bandwidth means richer data to that big screen and likely wants to grab attention. Drivers will likely not be able to use it while driving so will not be primary function.

    I'd imagine A is a lot bigger deterrent than B. Tesla's software engineers have lots primary car feature work to do before getting to a world class browser which is quite an effort. They probably also became wowed by the 17 inch screen at the beginning and put the browser in. But surely have seen the development cost now and have already backed off on this goal.
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    techMology
    It's pretty much the opposite of this. Wireless carrier's actually *want* customers off older infrastructure as quick as possible, especially in the case of heavy data users (I would classify a mobile Tesla in this category, if Google maps are running and Slacker or TuneIn is streaming). Older networks hog available spectrum. Those using it are making inefficient use of spectrum. It's in a carrier's best interest to move users to technologies (such as LTE) which make more efficient use of their spectrum. If AT&T and Verizon could shut down their 3G (and 2.5G) networks without causing an uproar, they would in a heartbeat. The quicker you can deliver data to user equipment (a car, a phone, a tablet, etc...) the more available the network is for other users.

    My guess is Tesla is sticking with 3G (HSPA+) because their component costs are lower (there are some antenna changes required too), and/or they have committed to X number of modules and haven't hit that run yet. Few carriers are charging extra for 4G (LTE) access (and none in developed markets that I can think of), so it's highly unlikely there would be an additional "cost" to Tesla if they provided LTE.

    From AT&T's perspective, it's not #1. The billing infrastructure is identical, and it's already set-up. There is no difference between billing a 4G LTE customer and a 3G HSPA customer. Billing from a Tesla perspective? Different story. Tesla may not want to bother dealing with it right now. It's doubtful Tesla would ask customers to sign up with AT&T directly, so they would have to juice their current systems to bill for wireless services on a recurring basis (or outsource it, which would be more likely).

    #2. The number of units Tesla produces is largely irrelevant; it's the amount of data that's consumed that matters. Yes, having more customers gives you more leverage in pricing discussions, but those numbers are widely circulated by Tesla and would have been part of the discussion. The technical and administrative aspects of billing are a no-brainer, and a non-issue.

    ...and as far as "HSPA+ being enough", when it comes to throughput, sure. It's fine. The biggest difference between LTE and HSPA is real latency vs. theoretical latency. With LTE, it's less than 1/2 HSPA in real use. With downlink throughput being equal, LTE will outperform HSPA significantly. The end result is a better user experience. Also, it's 2014. I plan on having my car for at least 8 years. With the SDK being released next year (hopefully), the number and type of applications that will be around in 2 or 3 years could have massive bandwidth requirements that is unsuitable for HSPA (or whatever is left of the HSPA network after AT&T migrates more spectrum to LTE because consumer handsets are 100% LTE capable and use of HSPA has declined significantly).

    Having LTE is less about today, and more about tomorrow. I don't plan on replacing my car every 2 years like I do my smartphone. Due to antenna requirements, it may not be a simple module swap to upgrade to LTE either.

    My guess is that as the whole family plan sharing thing catches on (carriers are heavily promoting it now), there will be little demand for this, so I'm guessing it will be low priority. Want to give your kid with the iPod Touch Internet access? Tether to one of the other 3 phones in the car that have connectivity. Agreed, it would be a nice option, but I don't see it happening. Maybe in 4 years when Tesla finally starts charging people for wireless.
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    techMology
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    howardc64
    Good point, I don't know the frequency spectrum utilization between 3G and LTE. If it is same, make sense to shift to more bits/Mhz :) I guess my reference comes from very old technology like PHS and pager network :)

    Another reason to stick with 3G is design cycles. LTE component infrastructure was likely not as ready at Model S's design/integration phase.

    Just a note having done a webkit project recently. Webkit is commonly use by most device that wants to be on web these days. Just getting the open source code, building it and do a basic integration will leave a lot of performance on the table. There are careful tuning efforts necessary to handle Java code and plug-ins like flash to a specific piece of hardware.

    So yes, Tesla uses the same open source webkit infrastructure as Apple/Google. but they probably quickly discovered the size of the effort for a competitive browser and the never ending large scale effort to track the browser updates.

    BTW, most open source projects are like this. Can't be competitive just grabbing code, build and release. Quite a bit of work has to go into it.

    And yes, circa 2008/9/10/11 hardware probably has lot to do with the browser performance as well :)
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    techMology
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  • Feb 20, 2014
    neroden
    Aha. I was correct: it's not worth Tesla's time to bill for it because almost everyone uses the data connectivity so little. They're hedging their bets by charging anyone for "extreme" data use.

    I'm going to betcha that the data continues to be free for four more years after that, because it still won't be worth billing for it.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Think about the use case for the browser in the car. I've used it to look up the address and phone number of restaurants or shops or businesses on their website. Some people put a clock up in the browser. I've used it to check the weather report. For all of this, a browser doesn't need to be very fast.
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  • Feb 21, 2014
    Rodolfo Paiz
    For all of this, a browser doesn't need to be very fast... but having it is a godsend. My greatest use of the browser is to pay for parking since many places in Miami allow you to do this via an app/web... passenger jaws drop when I pull up the browser, pay for the parking, and I'm on my way. Also, going to a business's website to find its locations, phone numbers, and hours has proven invaluable a few times. And while stopped and waiting for someone, my kids love pulling up song lyrics on "the big screen" so they can follow along with the song. Love the browser.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I disagree. I have a family plan with a high data quota. Adding mobile data to a tablet increases its cost from $269 to $349 (Nexus 7), a rather significant 30% increase, plus the $10/month charge for that device. Plus, I just don't want my kids' tablets to have mobile data at that age. And tethering to my phone creates immediate battery concerns... I want my phone to be useful as a phone and be fully charged at the end of the trip, and I want the hotspot available for all users in the car at all times without having to turn on my phone's hotspot every single time someone wants to use it that way. What you propose is, frankly, a usability nightmare in my eyes. Which is why I hope that Tesla says "free data for your car, and $10-$20/month if you want hotspot functionality."
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  • Feb 21, 2014
    paco3791
    So this is great news, but I haven't seen a lot of discussion on the internet radio portion of the announcement. Does this mean that I get premium slacker access again so I can look up any specific song? Since my initial 3-month slacker premium trial expired I've lost that functionality. Granted I used it pretty rarely, but it was nice to have when the mood struck me for a specific song.
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  • Feb 21, 2014
    techMology
    I never said I agreed with it. It's just my take on what's going to happen. I agree, it's a total usability nightmare, and also, I wouldn't want my kids to have mobile data either, but that doesn't really change my guess on what's going to happen.

    If Tesla is prepared to charge us zero for monthly access now, I'd venture to guess that they're not going to put any effort into enabling a hotspot feature on the car which would require a recurring monthly fee. Besides, with the current hardware, sharing multiple devices on a 14.4 Mbps connection will be painfully slow. I wouldn't be surprised if the agreement with AT&T prohibits using the car as a mobile hotspot.

    A friend of mine a couple of years ago picked up a mobile hotspot for his family to share while they were taking a 20+ hour road trip; same speed as the hardware in the MS. Three kids, one wife. He was driving. Their elation at being "connected" to the Internet was short lived. Even as two of them tried to use it (remember, the MS itself is another user of that connection), they quickly complained that it was unusable for what they wanted to do (Facebook, even). They complained the entire 20+ hours. He said it would have been better if he didn't have it available at all.

    For your sake, I hope I'm wrong and I hope Tesla enables it. I think it would be a great feature.
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  • Feb 21, 2014
    HankLloydRight
    I think it depends on if one knows what they're doing. 5 years ago, my family (2 adults, 2 teenagers) took a road trip from Connecticut to Chicago. I had an AT&T USB 3G Data adapter, connected to a Cradlepoint mobile hotspot -- essentially identical in function to any "mobile hotspot" on the market at the time. Except for some cold spots where it dropped to 2G/Edge, we had no problems with 3 or 4 of us accessing the internet at the same time during the trip (of course, not the driver while driving, but surely at rest stops, etc). It was quite robust and a great option to have. We did have to have some rules, like no video streaming, but other than that, it worked great.

    Would Tesla offer a 3G mobile hotspot option using bandwidth they're paying for? I highly doubt it. Would the offer a billing option to unlock it? I also doubt that, since there are so many other options available (like phone hotspot/tethering, etc). I'd also expect Tesla not to put something in place that could overload the bandwidth, interfering with the telemetry.
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  • Feb 21, 2014
    techMology
    It's totally a YMMV (your mileage may vary) thing. I suspect his kids were all trying to hit YouTube also. Coverage and speed also play a factor.

    Tesla would QoS the telemetry, for sure. It's easy enough to do.
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  • Feb 22, 2014
    Aussie
    Maybe not angry but surprised. i purchased a car with advertised features, benefits explained to me in the store an in no paperwork can I find a reference to these fetures costing extra. So my expectation is and always has been that data will be free for life.
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  • Feb 23, 2014
    jerry33
    It's always been known that there would eventually be a charge. One of the perks advertised for the Signature cars was free data for one year.
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  • Feb 23, 2014
    HankLloydRight
    Did some experiments yesterday. I did a speed test (using TestMy.net Broadband Internet Speed Test) in the browser connected to the onboard 3G connection and got 2.11mbps download speed.

    I then tethered my car to my iPhone 5 via personal wifi hotspot -- my phone was connected to AT&T LTE. On the phone itself, a speed test app resulted in about 15mbps download speed. But when tethered to the car, the browser only did 3mbps download. I repeated these tests a few times all with similar results.

    So I don't know where the bottleneck is in the MS -- is it the wi-fi chipset, the OS, the browser, etc. But I can't get faster than 3mbps when tethered. So even if LTE were to be available in the future, there's more that needs to be upgraded to really see the difference (and my guess is that it's the browser/OS platform which is just not optimized for web browsing/large data streams).
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  • Feb 23, 2014
    tomas
    Interesting. So interesting that I re-read my purchase agreement! I agree that it says nothing about charges for connectivity. Actually, there are a lot of clauses limiting owner's rights with regard to Tesla's relationship with its telecommunications carriers etc, and granting Tesla rights to change carriers etc., etc., etc.

    Also, tho not so pertinent to this thread but for those griping in the release threads, it says the following:

    7. Your Responsibilities. ... Services involves software that we
    may change from time to time. We may do this
    remotely without notifying you first. Such changes may
    affect or erase data.

    Don't complain if you signed it!!!!! Don't complain if you have to toggle to reset some personal settings!!!! OR re-do your Slacker searches!!!!
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  • Feb 23, 2014
    brianman
    Since nobody mentioned it, I guess it's my duty to do so...

    "I think Sigs should get 5+ instead of 4+ so they get the extra year that was promised as a Sig benefit." ;)
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  • Feb 25, 2014
    pilotSteve
    naah we should just get free upgrades to "C" 100kW batteries :eek:
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  • Feb 25, 2014
    Lloyd
    Did they not say that the begin date for the 4 years was Jan 14? If that were the case then the sigs did get the extra year since they were delivered first.
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    brianman
    That applies to all cars not just Sigs, hence not a Sig benefit.

    [Yes, the + includes more than a year for some cars and a few months for other cars but that's a separate point.]
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    dsm363
    Can't we all just be happy with four years of free data?
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    brianman
    Yessir.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Sorry for the off-topic but...

    Have we heard anything about Slacker recently? Weren't our cars delivered with ("only") a year of Slacker also?
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    hans
    I thought we only got 3 months of free premium Slacker. The 1 year was the Sig benefit
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    brianman
    Okay, let me rephrase my question.

    Have any Sigs reporting losing Slacker after a year?
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    hans
    Has anyone at all reported losing Slacker? My non-sig still has it after 13 months.
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  • Feb 26, 2014
    brianman
    And there's my point. :)

    For the record: Not complaining. Just budgeting.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    paco3791
    I can report that my non-sig, non-tech 60 has lost access to the "premium" slacker features but still has slacker access. This mainly means that I can no longer search for and play a specific song. you can still search for that song but it just starts a playlist in that "style" it doesn't play the song itself. Car was delivered in October so I figured it was the 3 month trial expiring. I still need to ask Tesla if I'll get premium features back with the "free for 4 years" announcement.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Zextraterrestrial
    this morning my Slacker was logged out :confused:
    hmmm.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    gg_got_a_tesla
    Yup :( Son was upset on the drive to school till iTunes Radio and Siri saved the day...

    yhenezaq.jpg
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    dave
    Yes, see my post earlier in this thread. I lost free Slacker after about six months, and have been paying for a premium subscription since to get it working.

    If it is free now, I'd like to know how to get my Tesla account back.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Zextraterrestrial
    ..and I was listening to a song last night that I paused for my drive to work this morning. booo
    Guess I'll need to fix up my memory with music now. just not sure what I like after using a bunch of random slacker stations.
    Back to DI radio I guess.

    Extra not looking forward to loosing 3G in the future, not something I plan on paying for ever again. 14 yrs now w/out a cell phone! suckers:tongue:
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    AnOutsider
    heh, someone reminded them.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    brianman
    Ick.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Lloyd
    They did say free DATA, not free Music subscriptions!

    - - - Updated - - -

    My tune in radio tab is gone! I am still 5.8.4
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Owner
    :biggrin: I am.

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  • Feb 27, 2014
    mknox
    My Slacker has been working for near on a year now. No issues. I planned on paying for a Premium subscription to get a few more features (like play whole albums etc.) but will wait until my trial runs out.

    I had heard that others lost their access when the car somehow "forgot" the Tesla password, but that the Service Center was able to re-enter it for them.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Zextraterrestrial
    Slacker is having issues today and Tesla knows about it. Try pressing 'T' if is fixed to possibly repopulate your account info.
    I haven't tried it yet..
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    Seven7
    I don't think it's a Slacker problem, they work fine on my PC and phone. I get all the basic Slacker stuff on my car, just not the premium playlist.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I also lost access to premium Slacker, but still receive all the free non premium slacker stuff, car won't let me sign in to slacker premium. I can work around it by bringing up my premium slacker playlist on my phone then playing the phone through bluetooth, but the on screen display for the playlist is gone.
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  • Feb 27, 2014
    smartypnz
    Thought back then that Elon promised no profit in the cost - would pass along what Tesla was charged.
    I suspect AT&T was only charging what amounted to $2-$3 per vehicle. And this would not be worth billing to individuals. Hence we get it 'free'.
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  • Feb 28, 2014
    KenEE
    I'd rather pay and get better performance.
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  • Feb 28, 2014
    rlawson4
    I agree. However, I think it's the browser more than the connection. I remember I used to get pretty decent performance on my 3G air card and macbook. I think the browser just is so poorly implemented it gets hung up while pages load. Some pages just don't load at all. I am no browser expert and don't understand the technology, but it simply cannot handle some pages. Hopefully we will get an updated browser.
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  • Feb 28, 2014
    dave
    Did you guys actually have a PREMIUM Slacker subscription? Premium allows you to do custom playlists, etc. I thought Tesla was only providing Slacker PLUS subscriptions.
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  • Feb 28, 2014
    Seven7
    Correct, I pay $10 a month for the playlist, and the playlist is the only thing missing.
    �
  • Feb 28, 2014
    KenEE
    FWIW, Premium features working fine here. I added a new playlist yesterday, rebooted center console, and it and all the old ones play. (albeit with the same old sometimes not-too-bad and sometimes almost useless buffering...)
    �
  • Feb 28, 2014
    Kraken
    Hmm... I'd love to see this implementation. Since the new Beats music is killing off MOG only to bring out an inferior product, I'm searching for a replacement.

    this is the second time this has happened to me... Napster was killed off when rhapsody took over... Why are people addicted to such horrible music apps. The most popular ones always seem to be the most inferior and have the worst user interface.
    �
  • Feb 28, 2014
    Seven7
    thanks, I've had this problem before and the center screen reboot always fixed it. I'll try again tomorrow.
    �
  • Mar 1, 2014
    TommyBoy
    For clarification, you have a Premium subscription that you pay for, correct? I would like the ability to rewind a song or replay it, and playlists do sound alluring. I just want to verify that if you want those features you must pay for it and that the Tesla Slacker account is basic only. Thank you.
    �
  • Mar 1, 2014
    gg_got_a_tesla
    My understanding is that Tesla's account is somewhere between Basic Plus (as it has no commercials/cut-ins) and Premium (Tesla still can't do single-artist stations). It could be a limitation of the in-car software though rather than that of the account itself.

    I've switched to my own Premium account but, with little gained in terms of getting rid of the buffering in the past 2-3 days. Slacker's pretty much unusable right now for me. Haven't tried a reboot though...
    �
  • Mar 7, 2014
    Seven7
    Slackers premium ($10) playlist is working again, as far as I can tell the car did a download from Tesla over home Wi-Fi, this re-set Slacker to Tesla's free account (no playlist) it was an easy fix once I understood what Slacker gives Tesla owners with the purchase of a car. To fix it go to controls, then settings, then Apps, select media from the apps and you will get the account log in boxes for both Slacker and Tune in.

    Previously it was logged back in by going to the internet media page, touching the Slacker box and a sign in box would pop up for e-mail & password. Something must have changed to re-set slacker to the Tesla account, maybe the Wi-Fi download...
    �
  • Mar 7, 2014
    KenEE
    Right. I pay $10/month for a Premium account and I get playlists. Not sure what else, because playing songs on demand (other than playlists) is very spotty at best. FYI, only playlists provide the ability to rewind. Stations only allow unlimited forward skipping.
    �
  • Mar 7, 2014
    gg_got_a_tesla
    Even after switching the Slacker account in the car to my own Premium one, nothing plays. It seems to be able to login - as I can see recently searched, etc. - but, the songs never play.

    I'm happy to play playlists from the iPhone Slacker app via Bluetooth though. The iPhone 5's LTE connection is much more reliable; no more 3G dead spots on my commute route.
    �
  • Mar 8, 2014
    Seven7
    On the same page you use to sign into Slacker there's a slider for audio quality, I set mine to medium instead of best and it seemed to help with the buffering / 3G dead spots slightly.
    �
  • Mar 8, 2014
    gg_got_a_tesla
    Thanks, Seven7. I tried this today and it looks like things are working now. I was able to play the playlist from the Premium account. I can't tell the difference in quality either from Best to Medium.
    �
  • Mar 10, 2014
    Discoducky
  • Mar 10, 2014
    AnOutsider
    Which has been the norm. Our A6 got 6 months free (then we popped in a T-Mobile sim we had with an old grandfathered plan) and the Q7 we just got also has 6 months (we'll do the same once it's done). Main change here is that they switched to ATT and went LTE (which is a good move IMO).
    �
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