Over the last week I'm seeing nearly a half-dozen different firmwares showing up on TeslaFi. Anyone have any idea what the difference is between .18.10 & .18.11? Is .10 just the "Advanced" updates and .11 is the standard? I've only had my MY for a month, so I just don't have a lot of history with FW updates.
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So Many Firmware Versions
- Thread starter PorthosJon
- Start date
There's a numbering system. First number is year, second is week# of the main development branch, others are builds and hotfixes. Most builds out there today are 2021.4.x so they are all from the "end of january 2021" development branch. Only minor fixes and bug fixes have been ported to that branch since. Normally we'd be at something like 2021.24 by now but Tesla has stopped releasing feature builds this year. They seem to be focusing on finishing the new vision-only FSD AI. It is suspected that we'll start seeing feature builds once that is complete.
There's nothing you can do to control the updates your car receives. Tesla has a (undisclosed) algorithm to choose which cars get updates and in which order. A tech might sometimes push an update if you report a bug that they know is fixed in that release. Otherwise you just wait until you get notified of an update and apply it.
When you see updates with a very little number of people, it's either to fix specific problems or it's a release that has caused problems so it's not pushed to the bulk of people. It follows relatively standard Software DevOps principles.
There's nothing you can do to control the updates your car receives. Tesla has a (undisclosed) algorithm to choose which cars get updates and in which order. A tech might sometimes push an update if you report a bug that they know is fixed in that release. Otherwise you just wait until you get notified of an update and apply it.
When you see updates with a very little number of people, it's either to fix specific problems or it's a release that has caused problems so it's not pushed to the bulk of people. It follows relatively standard Software DevOps principles.
Yes, GtiMart, all of that I am aware of, and you laid it out nicely. However, none of that is addressing what I posted in my initial post where I am inquiring about the history of how Tesla uses the different update paths. In reading the update notes I can see that some of the fixes are listed multiple times in the same branch (e.g., interior camera for 4.18.10 & 4.18.11), which would contradict best software development practices about including the same commits in multiple branch releases instead of merging to a master branch, even if only for that update path.
If you look at TeslaFi Firmware Tracker (not all encompassing, but pretty good) you will see that 2021.4.18.11 has rolled out to a couple of thousand users starting on 7.3.21. My car (which happens to be selected on Advanced updates), received the 2021.4.18.10 update last week which only deployed to a few hundred cars. There is also a 2021.4.21.2 which has only deployed to a few hundred cars as well.
My question is really to get actual experiences about why I would be set on 4.18.10 (with hundreds of installs that are tapering off) instead of receiving the update to 4.18.11 (with thousands of installs that is ramping up), and both seem to have the same descriptive "fix" notes.
I've had my model 3 for 19 months now so I do have some experience. I believe the release notes are not being updated properly between releases, which leads to cases like what you describe, with two updates stating that they introduced the inside camera.
As for why you are not getting an update whereas others do, I just told you why. It is not a definitive answer because Tesla have not documented their method. Historically there has been an update for every ~4 weeks, which might be their iteration length. There have been smaller bug fixes updates in between. What we are seeing in 2021 doesn't match any prior experience.
As for why you are not getting an update whereas others do, I just told you why. It is not a definitive answer because Tesla have not documented their method. Historically there has been an update for every ~4 weeks, which might be their iteration length. There have been smaller bug fixes updates in between. What we are seeing in 2021 doesn't match any prior experience.
No need to get snarky. You didn't "tell me why," because that isn't the question I asked. I also am aware that there is no definitive answer at this point. My initial question actually asked:
The question I asked is if there is a history of deploying a software update to those selected on "advanced" and then deploying a minor point release subsequent to it for those that are on standard release. The build might be identical and the versioning might be there to help Tesla quickly identify Beta/Charlie users versus final release users with the same builds. As an example Apple does this with their developer/public beta releases, where they are given different version numbers but still have the same build number (they also do this with their Beta Gold Masters and Final Release of major revisions).
I gave the example of my vehicle later because I thought it would be more illuminating as an empirical case, rather than the vaguer notion that I originally posted. That obviously confused you as to my question. Sorry about that.
Yeah, no snark either way 
But I agree I think that would only get transparency from someone with inside knowledge, I would love to see their actual build notes. If anyone is on 18.11 I would love to see a pic/copy of the build number to compare against my .10 build number (I believe it is on the screen under the line with the version #).
But I agree I think that would only get transparency from someone with inside knowledge, I would love to see their actual build notes. If anyone is on 18.11 I would love to see a pic/copy of the build number to compare against my .10 build number (I believe it is on the screen under the line with the version #).
whisperingshad
Active Member
Ruffles
Member
Great thread. I was about to post asking about this as well. It would be really interesting to know what their algorithm is. I wonder if it has anything to do with the normal, daily logs the cars send back? I get frequent updates but it is never to the "latest" versions. Right now, there are 5 newer on the same type of car (Model Y Performance) in the same geo (US).
I find it interesting how Teslafi appears to be showing a large new firmware rollout (2021.4.18.11), but is entirely excluding some fairly large countries like Canada and Australia. What's the reason behind this? Looks like 18.2 and 18.3 are converging with this version - if I'm not mistaken, these were the respective versions for radar and radarless cars.
dduffey
Member
parkds_nyc
Member
The patch notes with the minor patches are just notes from the main branch, that's why they are the same. The minor bug fix releases have hidden bug fixes for certain cars, etc. that are unlisted.
whisperingshad
Active Member
Still stuck on 2021.4.18.10. I don't see a single update from that release to anything newer on TeslaFi. No idea what that means, but now I'm like 5-6 revs back that have rolled out to thousands. I really don't understand the lack of transparency on this from Tesla. Why create user frustration and anger when there is no need to. Just explain why certain rollouts happen and while you will still have people demanding different treatment, the vast majority will stop looking at it as a negative to owning a Tesla.
There is a similar thread about this
Update versioning
There really is no need for frustration and anger over a software update - just understanding.
This is regular agile development in action - it actually shows a massive amount of development work.
The reason for all of the releases could be the uniqueness of the Tesla production and it reacting to the many component changes they have had to make to keep the lines running. Some of the components sourced during the ongoing shortage may not be drop in replacements for each other, so software would have to be adjusted to allow for that.
Each of the the different releases will be slightly different and be there to allow for specific branches of the code.
You can see that pattern in action on services like TeslaFi, you'll see the minor numbers incrementing in steps. Then a different branch doing the same as they correct found issues. You can see that lots of 12.25.7 is going out while the first few are getting 12.25.10 with a tiny number on the semi mythical 2021.24, all running at the same time as 4.21.x and 4.18.x
Sometimes you'll see obvious branches that focus on S/X and others on 3/Y only to be later merged into one, other times the reason for the branch is much more esoteric and could even be based on the drivers usage, car location or battery charging methods for instance.
Sooner or later all these various branches will merge and disappear.
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