Model S as a hot spot

There were many rumors around this, and when I ordered I was originally told to expect this feature shortly. I think most of us expected it would be announced when we learned the pricing for the connectivity plans. Then they announced connectivity would remain free. As long as Tesla's footing the bill for the data, I doubt we'll get hotspot functionality.

The feature was advertised on the features page when I ordered my vehicle. It has since been removed without any official comment from anyone at Tesla. It's not the only feature that received this treatment.

I'm guessing they will allow hotspot when you actually pay for the cell connection

Feh.

No time Like The prEsent.

I'm nothing if not subtle.

Would drain on bandwidth limit any functionality of the car? being able to contact HQ for some reason or Internet Radio services...?

It's my understanding they are using a chip that only supports 3G/4G. To have a good tethering experience you'd want a chip that supports LTE. never mind the fact that they have the module limited to 3G which would be awful to use.. Oh, and they don't charge you for data... I think this one isn't coming any time soon and even if it did would cost $$ and not be as good of an experience as most would expect from a modern LTE device

I guess that typically these types of M2M operator contracts include bandwidth limits, so tethering is not viable. In some countries (Japan included) tethering is very common, and operators charge monthly fees ($5) to access tethering. They assign different APN for tethering, so operators can limit bandwidth based on QoS.

So basically unless we pay, I think economically not possible for Tesla.

Tesla in Australia has this feature, through their telecom provider Telstra.

Lerxt said:

Tesla in Australia has this feature, through their telecom provider Telstra.

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Really? That's very cool. Thanks for letting me know.

Really? They said nothing to me when I got my car. Also, it does show up on my iPad when in the car....

Why would having the car as the hotspot be better than just using your phone as the hotspot?

billarnett said:

Why would having the car as the hotspot be better than just using your phone as the hotspot?

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You're not draining the phone's battery (if it isn't plugged in), some carriers may not let you use your phone as a hotspot or charge extra for this functionality, better antenna in the phone than in your car, etc.

It's part of the problem with being early to market with this stuff. Most of the vehicles updated since the Model S came out that have connectivity packages include hotspot functionality. It's likely those owners are paying for connectivity (I haven't checked), but it is possible. My Model S gets better reception than my phone (bigger antenna, I assume), so I'd have some interest. Plus I have an old (but cheap) AT&T plan that prevents tethering my phone, so it would be nice.

Someone investigated previously and found our chipset does include HSPA+ (which AT&T calls 4G and is admittedly fairly fast), but it doesn't appear to be enabled on our vehicles.