Tesla infotainment system upgradeable from MCU1 to MCU2

[ucmndd]

This is a rather bombastic claim, and several people are saying it.
-But, have any of you actually gone to a Tesla SC and said, "I need to buy partnumber xxxx" and taken out your wallets?

There are many many threads on here discussing this. You can look up yourself which parts are “restricted” in Tesla’s own online parts catalog.

You cannot walk into a service center and walk out with an MCU. They will not sell it to you. Full stop.

I guess in worst case scenario, I would go to any of the shops that are "certified Tesla mechanics" and bought it from them, possibly with a markup.

There is no such thing as a “Tesla certified mechanic”. Tesla is the ONLY source for Tesla parts (excluding gray market, salvage, etc ).

 

[nimrooz]

There is no such thing as a “Tesla certified mechanic”. Tesla is the ONLY source for Tesla parts (excluding gray market, salvage, etc ).

Yes there is, maybe not in your country, but here it certainly is.
A Tesla certified mechanic/shop is where the mechanics and others have been on courses on Tesla SC's and got certified as a Tesla mechanic and/or bodyshops.
A quick search shows me that this is divided into three courses:
*MET - (regular mechanics) Mechanical, Electrical and Trim
*Aluminum welding (bodyshops)
*Structure (bodyshops)

Our model S have been sent to these kind of shops several times, from Tesla SC themselves. Both for bodywork and for regular warranty work, on several occasions.
Heck, I even bought parts from one of this third party shops once...

But according to you, this was all a dream, right?

 

[whitex]

Ahh, but if I trade in my S, the package would get cheaper I hope

Nope, trade-in is unrelated, unless there are sales tax credits involved. If you trade in all you cars (Tesla or not) you might even get money back, but doesn't make the package any cheaper.

 

[ucmndd]

But according to you, this was all a dream, right?

I don’t live in Norway so can only speak to how it is in the US.

Though I’ll maintain that anybody officially affiliated with Tesla is extremely unlikely to sell you a cash and carry MCU.

 

[nimrooz]

I don’t live in Norway so can only speak to how it is in the US.

Though I’ll maintain that anybody officially affiliated with Tesla is extremely unlikely to sell you a cash and carry MCU.

I would also consider buying a new MCU2 in hand to be more difficult than buying a set of rims, but I don't know if it's impossible, because based on the contact I've had with these shops it doesn't seem to be impossible.
I guess the difficulty is to have Tesla make the database be up to speed regarding your car.
Because the owner who installs it isn't a certified Tesla mechanic.

-isn't there anyone who is working at Tesla on this forum, who has access to database and would try(upgrade) on his own car?

 

[tyson]

No problem. I’ll buy it from them.

My goal isn’t free or cheap. My goal is to succeed.

It doesn't work that way right now. Tesla will only sell you what is in your car now and ONLY if they are swapping the part out. Even then you may have to fight them to keep the old one. Even with paying a core charge.

 

[supratachophobia]

No problem. I’ll buy it from them.

My goal isn’t free or cheap. My goal is to succeed.

Ahh, got it. Yes, if you had access to toolbox, then you could make the necessary changes yourself.

 

[supratachophobia]

This is a rather bombastic claim, and several people are saying it.
-But, have any of you actually gone to a Tesla SC and said, "I need to buy partnumber xxxx" and taken out your wallets?

I guess in worst case scenario, I would go to any of the shops that are "certified Tesla mechanics" and bought it from them, possibly with a markup.

Yep, they will not. And, like several parts, if you don't have that particular Tesla model on your account, they won't sell you a part to a different one. At least that has been the general policy.

 

[supratachophobia]

I would also consider buying a new MCU2 in hand to be more difficult than buying a set of rims, but I don't know if it's impossible, because based on the contact I've had with these shops it doesn't seem to be impossible.
I guess the difficulty is to have Tesla make the database be up to speed regarding your car.
Because the owner who installs it isn't a certified Tesla mechanic.

-isn't there anyone who is working at Tesla on this forum, who has access to database and would try(upgrade) on his own car?

I have heard of techs doing their own upgrades but for things like TPMS and auto-fold mirrors.

 

[S100D]

Ahh, got it. Yes, if you had access to toolbox, then you could make the necessary changes yourself.

If you make the changes, Tesla still has the original configuration. Will a firmware update make you have to change the configuration each software update. Can Tesla push the original configuration to your car and reset it to the original configuration.

 

[KyleDay]

If you make the changes, Tesla still has the original configuration. Will a firmware update make you have to change the configuration each software update. Can Tesla push the original configuration to your car and reset it to the original configuration.

Yes

 

[MarcusMaximus]

This is a rather bombastic claim, and several people are saying it.
-But, have any of you actually gone to a Tesla SC and said, "I need to buy partnumber xxxx" and taken out your wallets?

I guess in worst case scenario, I would go to any of the shops that are "certified Tesla mechanics" and bought it from them, possibly with a markup.

I did this with the Bioweapon Defense Mode filter back before they officially offered the upgrade. The individual parts guy was willing to sell it, since it wasn’t a restricted part(MCU is), but they absolutely wouldn’t perform the config change. Shortly after that, I heard they sent out a service bulletin saying not to sell the filters to people who don’t have the BWD mode package already(and, of course, later on from that, they started selling the upgrade).

 

[whitex]

I did this with the Bioweapon Defense Mode filter back before they officially offered the upgrade. The individual parts guy was willing to sell it, since it wasn’t a restricted part(MCU is), but they absolutely wouldn’t perform the config change. Shortly after that, I heard they sent out a service bulletin saying not to sell the filters to people who don’t have the BWD mode package already(and, of course, later on from that, they started selling the upgrade).

What Tesla did there doesn't make sense to me. I get they wanted to make money, but at the same time they were discouraging people from $800 annual inspections, which ought to be mostly profit (which was supposedly done to alleviate service overcrowding).

 

[dannycamps]

In all fairness, the MCU never had to be the most bleeding edge tech. This is what do many people miss. It just had to do it's job quickly and reliably. Quality is conformance to requirements. There are software improvements that Tesla makes that don't require any speed increase at all, but then there are others (like dash cam), that require large amounts of processing power. I'm a firm believer that there is a point where the MCU doesn't have to do everything and nor should it. But the stuff it does do, I want it done fast and the same every time without crashing.

Absolutely correct but as software gets more advanced, the hardware requirements go up as well. Tesla had the option of cutting off the MCU1 cars after a certain OS revision (e.g. v6 or v8 which people seem to like) but in doing so, would create even more fragmentation than they already have and make it harder to push out needed bug fixes. It's nice that Tesla opted to keep even their first cars from 2012 up to date with software (as much as possible) but those older MCUs are not really up to the task.

It's also possible that the newer software just needs to be better optimized but that also takes time and resources.

P.S. to @whitex, typing this on my Surface RT and yes - still very much usable.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

What Tesla did there doesn't make sense to me. I get they wanted to make money, but at the same time they were discouraging people from $800 annual inspections, which ought to be mostly profit (which was supposedly done to alleviate service overcrowding).

I’m guessing they wanted to keep everyone from doing the upgrade themselves for ~$150 until they were ready to sell it for $500.

 

[emir-t]

I'm surprised no one in the community still didn't try to retrofit MCU1 with MCU2-IC2. If you could get around the wiring then I don't think programming it would be an issue. Although it is difficult because we don't know (At least I don't know) if MCU2 still has an IP for IC, even if it is living in MCU2 case now. (IC2 is just a display) Also AFAIK you can't SSH let alone root in the newer versions without a whitelisted rsa id so things are getting more difficult by the day. As a fiddler myself (not the discoverer-tier like green or wk but as a hobby-est let's say) my ultimate dream would be to get my 2017 S90 to HW3 and MCU2. So I can get sentry, netflix, visualizations and all other goodies. Still waiting on it to be confirmed.

Would it end there? I doubt it. I'd probably want to upgrade to a low cycle count 100 pack after my pack warranty is done after 2025.

 

[whitex]

I’m guessing they wanted to keep everyone from doing the upgrade themselves for ~$150 until they were ready to sell it for $500.

Yea, but they are already turning profit away by discouraging annual services, so why invite more people to service centers for the $500 upgrade?

 

[supratachophobia]

Absolutely correct but as software gets more advanced, the hardware requirements go up as well. Tesla had the option of cutting off the MCU1 cars after a certain OS revision (e.g. v6 or v8 which people seem to like) but in doing so, would create even more fragmentation than they already have and make it harder to push out needed bug fixes. It's nice that Tesla opted to keep even their first cars from 2012 up to date with software (as much as possible) but those older MCUs are not really up to the task.

It's also possible that the newer software just needs to be better optimized but that also takes time and resources.

P.S. to @whitex, typing this on my Surface RT and yes - still very much usable.

That's just it though, the software shouldn't be getting more advanced for controlling the cars basic functions. For AP, absolutely.

I may be there minority here, but I believe that there should be a feature set freeze at some point OR go to Android auto/car play route. Tesla is unwilling to do either. Let your device that gets upgraded every 18 months do all the heavy lifting.

 

[supratachophobia]

If you make the changes, Tesla still has the original configuration. Will a firmware update make you have to change the configuration each software update. Can Tesla push the original configuration to your car and reset it to the original configuration.

Possibly? But the way software updates used to work is that the cars would actually make the request from the Mothership. They send along their current configuration and then a "custom" firmware gets built and sent back based on the hardware manifest. Doing it this way ensures that if Tesla's info is out of date (not sure why that would be), then reality takes precedence.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Yea, but they are already turning profit away by discouraging annual services, so why invite more people to service centers for the $500 upgrade?

Idk about anyone else, but when I went ahead and bought that upgrade(I really wanted the button, plus didn’t want to be locked out from getting replacement filters, and was willing to pay them what they wanted to charge for it), it was all done by a mobile tech.