What the CR guy said (pointing at their late 2012/early 2013 Model S) was, "It's not compatible with operating system seven..."; which is open to interpretation (assumption: it's firmware version 7 he's talking about; assumption: 'not compatible with' means it won't even run v. 7). If my assumptions are wrong, or if he got bad information from someone 'close to' Tesla (and it wouldn't be the first time!) then all bets are off.
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Consumer Reports says older cars will not be compatible w/ version 7
- Thread starter AmpedRealtor
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- Model S User Interface
What the CR guy said (pointing at their late 2012/early 2013 Model S) was, "It's not compatible with operating system seven..."; which is open to interpretation (assumption: it's firmware version 7 he's talking about; assumption: 'not compatible with' means it won't even run v. 7). If my assumptions are wrong, or if he got bad information from someone 'close to' Tesla (and it wouldn't be the first time!) then all bets are off.
MikeBur
ManualPilot
I don't put much faith in this. I'm hopeful Tesla's current approach of enabling firmware, where applicable and capable, continues. As mentioned, this will come to an end for "free", though I'd like to imagine something akin to the planned upgrading similar to what has been promised for the Roadster. If not, then it's a good excuse to trad in and up.
Yes, there are going to be significant additional compute horsepower requirements in the near future. I believe it is no coincidence that the replacement Tegra SoCs (Drive PX from NVIDIA Tegra Automotive | NVIDIA) are focusing on this and that they are coincidentally nick-named "auto-pilot" computers. I would be surprised if this is on the current Model S, though the integration of Nav for all new cars, yet maintaining the same additional cost for the Tech Package, might be an indicator of an imminent bump in the specs here.
Overall, if I can get 3 years of good autopilot use and free upgrades to keep improving the effectiveness of my car, whilst increasing safety, then I am a happy puppy
Yes, there are going to be significant additional compute horsepower requirements in the near future. I believe it is no coincidence that the replacement Tegra SoCs (Drive PX from NVIDIA Tegra Automotive | NVIDIA) are focusing on this and that they are coincidentally nick-named "auto-pilot" computers. I would be surprised if this is on the current Model S, though the integration of Nav for all new cars, yet maintaining the same additional cost for the Tech Package, might be an indicator of an imminent bump in the specs here.
Overall, if I can get 3 years of good autopilot use and free upgrades to keep improving the effectiveness of my car, whilst increasing safety, then I am a happy puppy
You are making an assumption that I believe is unwarranted.
The Consumer Reports speaker is likely making a general statement -- and also an assumption -- that firmware V7 will have many Auto Pilot features that earlier cars (which we know means pre 09-18-2015 or thereabouts) cannot utilize.
That is not news, as V6 contains features that early cars cannot utilize. Please don't blow this out of proportion with unfounded speculation, at least not until V7 is released and we actually know the facts.
The Tesla Model S Service page says "Think of Model S as an app on four wheels. Software updates keep your Model S current with the latest features developed by Tesla." and "Just like your laptop, Tesla will provide periodic updates to your Model S."
I doubt they would stop adding features to a car someone has owned on for as little as one year.
I doubt they would stop adding features to a car someone has owned on for as little as one year.
I agree. They've constantly touted how the car continues to get better after purchase. They can't completely abandon the older hardware without a huge PR hit.
I think the journalist made a mistake too. V7 will likely have new features that can't be used in pre auto pilot cars, but I don't see why other features can't be supported. AFAIK there have been no significant processor changes in the cars.
Having said that, I hope people realize that the Tesla software has hundreds if not thousands of code bases right now, depending on how you define a code base. Almost all hardware in that car has been tweaked multiple times, from Bluetooth antenna placement to charger modules. All requires slightly different software.
Having said that, I hope people realize that the Tesla software has hundreds if not thousands of code bases right now, depending on how you define a code base. Almost all hardware in that car has been tweaked multiple times, from Bluetooth antenna placement to charger modules. All requires slightly different software.
I agree that the most likely case is the journalist made a mistake. Someone told them 7=autopilot, and autopilot is not compatible with earlier cars. Journalist translated that to a=b=c, or v7 is not compatible with older cars.
The difference is that these guys at CR know their stuff and know the Model S inside and out. They are very well informed. CNN not so much.
If they are right, and pre-autopilot cars don't get 7, no one should be surprised. It was going to happen sooner or later.
I think ecarfan has it correct. Elon said it himself. He said that some of the new autopilot features would require sensors not available on some of the older cars.
My sig has a sig, for example, and the Signature Model S does not have parking sensors or the ability for autopilot updates), however his car continues to get the same firmware updates as everyone else, just some of the features are not available.
I think the reason the CR guys were confused it that they the car they have is at least 1 year old or more, and does not have the required sensors for autopilot, so they are confusing the fact that their existing car won't have some of the features available in firmware V7 with "ios incompatibility". The very fact that the guy kept calling it OS 7 instead of version 7.0 of firmware tells me he was confused.
Maybe... or it may be that the bulk of the new user interface improvements involve autopilot. Or maybe they require a new graphics chipset. Who knows... I'd prepare to be surprised.
I have noticed that, in general, TMC users are a very hopeful group. Many were convinced that Tesla was going to do an over the air update which would increase range somehow, or would give non-Tech Package owners navigation, or would get free updates for life. Oh, and their cars won't depreciate like other cars because... Tesla!
I have noticed that, in general, TMC users are a very hopeful group. Many were convinced that Tesla was going to do an over the air update which would increase range somehow, or would give non-Tech Package owners navigation, or would get free updates for life. Oh, and their cars won't depreciate like other cars because... Tesla!
Canuck
Well-Known Member
Yes, right. Many here thought all of those things. Not a few people here, but many. Like me. I expected greater range in updates and I thought my car was going to increase in value...
No, instead they have MANY code bases per say. sig vs non-sig. autopilot vs non-autopilot. air suspension vs non-air suspension. parking sensor equipped vs non parking sensor equipped. etc, etc, etc. it's already like this. every car has a different built configuration. this isn't concerning at all. it's just a bad choice of words. basically every release that contains an autopilot feature is not compatible with earlier cars. instead, earlier cars just get a different build based on the same code base but without the autopilot features. there's no news here other than a horrible CR report.
You guys might want to settle on some terminology before continuing the debate.
As an example, if Tesla is building a different binary for Sigs so that they can bake different Sig art in like 3 places rather than using runtime "if/else" logic then they probably should reconsider a lot of things in their software development pipeline.
Who knows the truth. Everyone here is just speculation. It's probably a combination of both. Different builds aka binaries plus some if/else based on a local configuration file. I heard it was a real mess for a while, in that they have to maintain a database of every single part in every single car bc things as low level as a single chip/module were getting improved/replaced would require a different build so literally there could be thousands of different builds that they have to maintain. Again, only tesla knows the exact details.
Canuck
Well-Known Member
Yes, and also based on countries. For example, I was reading that the web browser is disabled in Hong Kong. There's another code base required because of location. The CR report seems to be based on the premise that there are two codes - one for pre, and one for post, autopilot -- and the pre code will no longer be updated. I doubt that's the case.
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