Just a post to give my experience upgrading from MCU1 to MCU2.
My car prior to upgrade: 2017 Refresh Model S, MCU1, AP2.5, Sunroof, Sirius XM, AM/FM, LTE, FUSC, WiFi 2.4GHz, Free Premium Connectivity, EMMC Recall active, Autopilot (not FSD)
My car Post Upgrade: Still 2017 Refresh Model S, MCU2, AP3.0, Sunroof, FUSC, WiFi 5GHz, Free Premium Connectivity, EMMC Recall fixed, Autopilot - I didn't pay extra for FM radio or Sirius (AM not an option)
Cost: $2,250.00
but worth it.
TL;DR - Worth it - YES, if you're keeping the car for more than 2 more years. Much faster screen response with new animations in the driver dash screen. Cool new adds like: green light chime, Sentry/DashCam viewer, two new reverse cameras and firmware updates again! But the experience wasn't perfect. Tesla could have plus'd up the purchase expereience. Some apps broke or didn't work till later (Spotify/Disney+) and I feel like Tesla got away with an EMMC recall upgrade on my dollar.
Experience:
First, the experience itself is farily lack luster from Tesla. Totally worth it but when I spend $2,250 on an upgrade, I kinda expected a "tour of the new system" so to speak. "Congratulations on your MCU upgrade! Here are all the cool new things you can do with it!" All I got was a "your car is ready to be picked up" notification from the app.
The upgrade itself didn't take 100% and I had to take it back to have the software "reinstalled". I think this is one of those things I could have done going into service mode but I didn't realize it at the time. I didn't have Karaoke (didn't care but wanted what I paid for), and there were some games and features missing. It was almost as if they loaded a version of the software that wasn't specifically for my car. In any event, it got fixed ... sorta (more on that below).
The Awesome: The new MCU is fast. I mean really fast. The screen is buttery smooth and navigation speed is WAY faster. Prior to the upgrade, the screen was skippy and laggy. Navigating from Nor Cal to Disneyland took about 25 seconds to fully load and the route selection was not always ideal. After, it takes about 8 seconds to do the same task.
I now get firmware updates again and new features are still populating. I love that I can now view Dashcam/Sentry footage from the main screen without having to disconnect the HDD and plug into computer! The driver dash console has updated animations for traffic lights, road signs, construction cones, cars, people, bikes! It's eye candy-ish but still cool.
When I reverse, the two front fender cameras activate to aid in parking. That was a cool add! I also got the "green light chime" when sitting at a stop light. That's a neat feature.
Voice dictation works now. It sorta worked before but it struggled with basic things like "Call [wife name]". It would take several attemps to get accuracy before. Now it's near perfect and I can send voice text messages very reliably.
I'm a gamer so all the extra video games are pretty cool. When I charge, I can now play all the cool new games. Prior to the upgrade, the game experience was terrible. Now there are new games and they all actually work!
The Meh: At first, Disney+ would not play videos. It has since been fixed but I don't know when or why. I could login but videos were just black screens. No audio or video.
Spotify broke. I can play A song, but can't play a "song radio". After the first song ends, Spotify tries to keep playing the first but it just skipping/looping the first 2 seconds of the song that just played until it gives up. Typing every song I want to hear while driving sucks. Dunno if that's Tesla's software or Spotify's but I'm switching to Tidal because of this. Crossing fingers.
EMMC Recall - I kinda feel like Tesla got away with one on me. I paid to upgrade to MCU2 which fixed the "recall issue" they had. They would have had to fix an issue they had but because I upgraded, I fixed the problem for them. I would have liked to have been credited something for that but whatever. I'll get over it in like 2 years.
Cost - was it really worth it? For me yes but it was hard to choke down. I plan to keep the car for a while longer because I'm grandfathered into FUSC. Say what you will about the value but it's a hard perk to give up.
There's more to say I'm sure but these are the highlights. Your mileage may vary.
"Tesla Model S" by cdorobek is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
My car prior to upgrade: 2017 Refresh Model S, MCU1, AP2.5, Sunroof, Sirius XM, AM/FM, LTE, FUSC, WiFi 2.4GHz, Free Premium Connectivity, EMMC Recall active, Autopilot (not FSD)
My car Post Upgrade: Still 2017 Refresh Model S, MCU2, AP3.0, Sunroof, FUSC, WiFi 5GHz, Free Premium Connectivity, EMMC Recall fixed, Autopilot - I didn't pay extra for FM radio or Sirius (AM not an option)
Cost: $2,250.00
but worth it.TL;DR - Worth it - YES, if you're keeping the car for more than 2 more years. Much faster screen response with new animations in the driver dash screen. Cool new adds like: green light chime, Sentry/DashCam viewer, two new reverse cameras and firmware updates again! But the experience wasn't perfect. Tesla could have plus'd up the purchase expereience. Some apps broke or didn't work till later (Spotify/Disney+) and I feel like Tesla got away with an EMMC recall upgrade on my dollar.
Experience:
First, the experience itself is farily lack luster from Tesla. Totally worth it but when I spend $2,250 on an upgrade, I kinda expected a "tour of the new system" so to speak. "Congratulations on your MCU upgrade! Here are all the cool new things you can do with it!" All I got was a "your car is ready to be picked up" notification from the app.
The upgrade itself didn't take 100% and I had to take it back to have the software "reinstalled". I think this is one of those things I could have done going into service mode but I didn't realize it at the time. I didn't have Karaoke (didn't care but wanted what I paid for), and there were some games and features missing. It was almost as if they loaded a version of the software that wasn't specifically for my car. In any event, it got fixed ... sorta (more on that below).
The Awesome: The new MCU is fast. I mean really fast. The screen is buttery smooth and navigation speed is WAY faster. Prior to the upgrade, the screen was skippy and laggy. Navigating from Nor Cal to Disneyland took about 25 seconds to fully load and the route selection was not always ideal. After, it takes about 8 seconds to do the same task.
I now get firmware updates again and new features are still populating. I love that I can now view Dashcam/Sentry footage from the main screen without having to disconnect the HDD and plug into computer! The driver dash console has updated animations for traffic lights, road signs, construction cones, cars, people, bikes! It's eye candy-ish but still cool.
When I reverse, the two front fender cameras activate to aid in parking. That was a cool add! I also got the "green light chime" when sitting at a stop light. That's a neat feature.
Voice dictation works now. It sorta worked before but it struggled with basic things like "Call [wife name]". It would take several attemps to get accuracy before. Now it's near perfect and I can send voice text messages very reliably.
I'm a gamer so all the extra video games are pretty cool. When I charge, I can now play all the cool new games. Prior to the upgrade, the game experience was terrible. Now there are new games and they all actually work!
The Meh: At first, Disney+ would not play videos. It has since been fixed but I don't know when or why. I could login but videos were just black screens. No audio or video.
Spotify broke. I can play A song, but can't play a "song radio". After the first song ends, Spotify tries to keep playing the first but it just skipping/looping the first 2 seconds of the song that just played until it gives up. Typing every song I want to hear while driving sucks. Dunno if that's Tesla's software or Spotify's but I'm switching to Tidal because of this. Crossing fingers.
EMMC Recall - I kinda feel like Tesla got away with one on me. I paid to upgrade to MCU2 which fixed the "recall issue" they had. They would have had to fix an issue they had but because I upgraded, I fixed the problem for them. I would have liked to have been credited something for that but whatever. I'll get over it in like 2 years.
Cost - was it really worth it? For me yes but it was hard to choke down. I plan to keep the car for a while longer because I'm grandfathered into FUSC. Say what you will about the value but it's a hard perk to give up.
There's more to say I'm sure but these are the highlights. Your mileage may vary.
"Tesla Model S" by cdorobek is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
