Onboard storage vs. USB drive for music

[dflye]

I'm wondering how many square miles of imagery they are/can cache with the limited size of the onboard storage.

From loading satellite imagery onto my handheld GPS receiver, at highest resolution it averages out to about 15 MB of imagery per square mile. Given that the claim was for a mere pittance of 3,000 songs (likely computed for short tracks with highly compressible music), I can't imagine it being much more than a 16 or 32 GB flash drive. The real specs are probably out there somewhere, but haven't found with a quick search.

So going with that, it could cache perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 square miles of imagery. That sounds like a lot, but that only covers an area somewhere between 30x30 miles and 45x45 miles. At least for me, unless their caching optimizes to retain areas most frequently traveled, it would constantly be dumping pages from the cache to save whatever random place I was driving to each day (I usually drive about 50 miles a day, and rarely to the same destination area for more than a few days a month)

I'd prefer to have some simplistic interface (similar to max charge level) to allow me to set the percentage of storage to dedicate to music vs caching.

 

[Shumdit]

Good info in this thread. Thanks to you guys/gals

 

[aaron0k]

Tesla should provide on-board storage for those who upgraded to the premium sound package; they themselves thought it had enough value to list it as a feature. Some decided to purchase that upgrade for that reason (I did)

That package supposedly included extra storage memory, so whatever storage they're allocating for caching map tiles on the standard sound package should be sufficient and what is left over should still be there for content.

In other vehicles, I found on-board storage was managed better and was more responsive from from internal storage (i.e. indexing, album art, metadata, scanning, playlists, searching, etc.) vs. external storage.

As far as I know; Tesla has not made an official statement that they will not honor having onboard storage... so I'll assume it's still "coming soon..."

 

[dflye]

Now if I could set things up to have one huge external USB drive used for map caching, I'd be in heaven! I really hate going into spotty cell phone coverage areas and losing the google maps view, as unless I have a route planned the minimalistic turn-by-turn view doesn't even exist to give me a vague context of the area.

 

[steve841]

Just a quick survey: Who hear feels that Tesla should send them an $8 flash drive? I'll start the voting with "No." !

I don't want a free USB. Just want what I was expecting. As an early adopter, I've been fine with the teething and Tesla's response. But on a consumer level, it was advertised. If there is a true reason why it's not to be, tesla needs to communicate why.

Note to Tesla.... That communication thing to your loyal owners is still lacking in a major way. Of course, if one has a fire, emails and press releases within hours.

 

[brianman]

I "here" vote yes. Sorry, but I want what was advertised with the car. Synching songs to my HDD via wifi was a fairly big plus to me (and it WAS coming since some of the early reports of delivery specialists was that they were going to get you set up on your network and get synching going). If it isn't coming, fine, but at least acknowledge it (and perhaps offer a usb stick).

the "free 3g" is because they haven't gotten their ish together (for whatever reason). I'll agree there may be bigger issues, but that doesn't mean I'm OK permanently giving up something I was expecting.

I'm willing to compromise on this. Give me 7 additional years of connectivity (once pricing is announced), and I don't care about the music storage issue.

 

[efusco]

I don't want a free USB. Just want what I was expecting. As an early adopter, I've been fine with the teething and Tesla's response. But on a consumer level, it was advertised. If there is a true reason why it's not to be, tesla needs to communicate why.

Note to Tesla.... That communication thing to your loyal owners is still lacking in a major way. Of course, if one has a fire, emails and press releases within hours.

I lean heavily toward the "Just tell us what the hell is going on." side on this. I can live without the onboard storage, though I had counted on it as advertised and would like to have it available as, I assume, it would be more flexible than the current USB option where there's no shuffle or any way to really randomize what music plays. But a nice explanation saying that it had to be used for the NAV or for the browser or just couldn't be integrated properly or whatever would satisfy me...esp. if they sent a free USB dongle with a nice Tesla Logo on it in compensation.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I never understood the need for onboard music storage. It adds another syncing point with your phone, which is annoying and unnecessary. With current bluetooth technology, you can listen to music directly from your phone without needing to waste time transferring your music library from your phone to the vehicle. Then that library needs to be updated, it wouldn't play regular iTunes tracks due to DRM issues, etc. Far more trouble than its worth. Just pair your phone via bluetooth and play your entire music library that way. What's the big deal?

 

[efusco]

I never understood the need for onboard music storage. It adds another syncing point with your phone, which is annoying and unnecessary. With current bluetooth technology, you can listen to music directly from your phone without needing to waste time transferring your music library from your phone to the vehicle. Then that library needs to be updated, it wouldn't play regular iTunes tracks due to DRM issues, etc. Far more trouble than its worth. Just pair your phone via bluetooth and play your entire music library that way. What's the big deal?

That assumes 1) that your entire library of music you might want to listen to fits on your phone, or 2) that you have continuously available data connectivity to stream it from the cloud.
I, for one, don't qualify on either of those fronts. Most of the time I can stream, but we live and drive in a pretty rural area and even at my house I can't get Slacker to stream consistently.

 

[Odenator]

It sounds like they decided they needed the room for caching maps and other uses. Yes it was promised but the amount of room they were promising was tiny (3,000 mp3s?) and can be replaced with a $8 thumb drive.

But the problem is that a contract was signed for certain options to be installed on the car and was paid for. Regardless if the feature is trivial, Tesla is contractually obligated to provide it once both parties agree to the contract and money is exchanged. Now, I'm no lawyer, just a dumb bone doc so my legal logic could be flawed.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

That assumes 1) that your entire library of music you might want to listen to fits on your phone, or 2) that you have continuously available data connectivity to stream it from the cloud.
I, for one, don't qualify on either of those fronts. Most of the time I can stream, but we live and drive in a pretty rural area and even at my house I can't get Slacker to stream consistently.

I am speaking strictly from my own perspective here, but I don't know anyone whose entire library of music could not fit into the space of a 32 GB phone or tablet. If you have music on your phone, as most of us do, you don't need to stream it from the cloud. It's already stored locally on your phone. In the case of iPhone, the only need for cloud streaming is if you are using the new iTunes Radio, in which case local storage would do nothing to help you anyway. If you have tunes in the cloud, local storage won't help you with that either. So no matter how you look at it, local storage is obsolete and very much yesterday's technology. If you were going to sync with a local storage device in the car, you are syncing it from another storage device (USB stick or phone). Just use the USB stick or phone. Easy.

 

[mnx]

I'm willing to compromise on this. Give me 7 additional years of connectivity (once pricing is announced), and I don't care about the music storage issue.

Sounds great. Personally I couldn't care less about onboard storage. I had it in my last vehicle but its user interface, and updating onboard storage felt very outdated. Using a small USB stick is way easier.

 

[efusco]

I am speaking strictly from my own perspective here, but I don't know anyone whose entire library of music could not fit into the space of a 32 GB phone or tablet. If you have music on your phone, as most of us do, you don't need to stream it from the cloud. It's already stored locally on your phone. In the case of iPhone, the only need for cloud streaming is if you are using the new iTunes Radio, in which case local storage would do nothing to help you anyway. If you have tunes in the cloud, local storage won't help you with that either. So no matter how you look at it, local storage is obsolete and very much yesterday's technology. If you were going to sync with a local storage device in the car, you are syncing it from another storage device (USB stick or phone). Just use the USB stick or phone. Easy.

8000 songs goes a long way toward filling up the phone, add in photos, apps, documents and space gets tight and functionality slows. But I hear what you're saying. And certainly can do that most of the time.

 

[ggbjr]

I think a broader selection of apps and better support for phones (iOS in car) would be a perfect solution.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I think a broader selection of apps and better support for phones (iOS in car) would be a perfect solution.

I really want to remove the phone support and icon from my car, please :smile:

I put a piece of Lacewood in my center area and went with Costco (sandisk) usbs that match the red piping.

 

[AnOutsider]

I am speaking strictly from my own perspective here, but I don't know anyone whose entire library of music could not fit into the space of a 32 GB phone or tablet. If you have music on your phone, as most of us do, you don't need to stream it from the cloud. It's already stored locally on your phone. In the case of iPhone, the only need for cloud streaming is if you are using the new iTunes Radio, in which case local storage would do nothing to help you anyway. If you have tunes in the cloud, local storage won't help you with that either. So no matter how you look at it, local storage is obsolete and very much yesterday's technology. If you were going to sync with a local storage device in the car, you are syncing it from another storage device (USB stick or phone). Just use the USB stick or phone. Easy.

This is a perfectly fine solution, but doesn't it miss the point? A promised feature is MIA. You may not want or need it, but some do. It doesn't matter if there's a workaround. Those folks are looking for an answer from Tesla on a missing feature, not a "you're holding it wrong, do this instead".

 

[Argelius]

This is what I got. 64GB. USB 3.0. Metal housing. And tiny.

 

[jvonbokel]

we live and drive in a pretty rural area and even at my house I can't get Slacker to stream consistently

Just curious, have you tried lowering the quality from best to medium? When I did that, I found that dead areas shrunk/disappeared, and personally, I didn't notice a substantial difference in the audio output quality. (Note: I'm sure others will disagree on the quality of the audio output at the lower setting.)

 

[efusco]

Just curious, have you tried lowering the quality from best to medium? When I did that, I found that dead areas shrunk/disappeared, and personally, I didn't notice a substantial difference in the audio output quality. (Note: I'm sure others will disagree on the quality of the audio output at the lower setting.)

Yes, and that does work, but the sound quality is noticably horrible in that mode; and I don't think I have a particularly picky ear (I think XM sounds OK and there are hoards of people who complain that it sounds bad to them).

So, for the most part, I just deal with it. 90% or better of my local driving area has adequate 3G coverage for my needs, so I live with the skipping or non-connection in the few areas where it is less reliable.

 

[brianman]

This is what I got. 64GB. USB 3.0. Metal housing. And tiny.
View attachment 32877

For the budget conscious, USB3 is definitely overkill for just playing music.