Why would you not want remote cellular monitoring/control

[markwj]

]i'll have to go back and read about the SIM card options/costs but i think this thread has catalyzed me into taking the OVMS plunge.

To re-iterate: the purpose of my poll, and this thread, is not to "sell" OVMS/Tattler.

I _really_ want to know why people would not want their car connected. So far from the responses here, the primary reason appears to be hassles and costs involved in the cellular plan. Next down is people don't have a need for it or are waiting for Tesla's solution (if any). Interestingly, privacy and warranty concerns are quite low down.

Does anyone know how many roadster owners are active/lurkers on TMC? A few hundred?

 

[tennis_trs]

...Does anyone know how many roadster owners are active/lurkers on TMC? A few hundred?

Maybe add a poll with the only vote being: "I own a Tesla Roadster.", or have the variants:
1.5, 2.0, 2.0 Sport, 2.5, 2.5 Sport

 

[daniel]

Almost every "dumb" phone I've seen in recent years can do texting. That's all you need.

None of my friends or family use texting. So I have no need for a texting plan. But I was getting junk-advertising texts, and being charged 25 cents each for them, since I didn't have a plan. And though my phone can text, it has no keyboard. You press 2 three times to get the letter c. So I have texting blocked. I cannot send texts and I do not receive them.

Sounds like Daniel has a Jitterbug.

Nope. Samsung Convoy. But as noted above, texting is blocked. Maybe the day will come when I unblock it. But for now I have no use for it.

 

[augkuo]

I think the primary purpose of the OVMS is to know the charging status of your car - if your charger can do that for you then it's a neat app to see if you left the doors unlocked, etc.
I use chargepoint chargers (ChargePoint Network-Fueling the Electric Transportation Industry) which will email/text you if anything goes wrong with the charge and there's also an app to check your status. So yes the
extra hassle of installation, getting a cell plan, etc. is a big barrier.

To re-iterate: the purpose of my poll, and this thread, is not to "sell" OVMS/Tattler.

I _really_ want to know why people would not want their car connected. So far from the responses here, the primary reason appears to be hassles and costs involved in the cellular plan. Next down is people don't have a need for it or are waiting for Tesla's solution (if any). Interestingly, privacy and warranty concerns are quite low down.

Does anyone know how many roadster owners are active/lurkers on TMC? A few hundred?

 

[daniel]

I think the primary purpose of the OVMS is to know the charging status of your car...

... And my car only charges while I'm sleeping.

 

[tennis_trs]

...
the recurring cost is a minor deterrent (one thing i like about the roadster is that while my initial cost was high, the recurring (fuel/electrons) cost is low!
...

LOL (the cost of the OVMS hardware plus cellular is insignificant compared to tires and 12month/12,000mile service)

 

[doug]

Sounds like Daniel has a Jitterbug.

Nope. Samsung Convoy. But as noted above, texting is blocked. Maybe the day will come when I unblock it. But for now I have no use for it.

Heh... well Jitterbug was a joke. But thanks for the clarification. :smile:

 

[NigelM]

I think the primary purpose of the OVMS is to know the charging status of your car -

I find it great to put the car in valet mode from my phone so I don't have to enter the pin number when the valet is standing right beside the car. Also it's a great security feature for tracking the car.

Side note: I accidentally locked the car instead of putting it in valet mode last night at a restaurant. Locked the poor valet in the car, he was nervous 'cos he thought he'd done something wrong.....didn't tell him it was my fault.:redface:

 

[daniel]

I find it great to put the car in valet mode from my phone so I don't have to enter the pin number when the valet is standing right beside the car.

I do not go anywhere where I cannot park and lock my car myself. Even in the Prius.

Humorous aside: In Mexico there is a common scam where someone appearing to be a valet offers to park your car. Gives you a ticket and everything. You never see your car again.

 

[jerry33]

I didn't realize they even had valet parking anymore. I kind of remember some in the 1960s.

 

[SByer]

I want the features, and I've got a tattler, but it's sat on a shelf for a couple of months now, waiting for me to get time to put the latest stuff on it.

- Can't get a decent plan from AT&T. And certainly not in a decent way. Our family plan is on a corporate discount, which means most of the web tools for changing account level and features work. Which is a royal friggin pain in the ass. It's 2012 for #&^$ sake! Hire some non-moronic web monkeys! They want me to call?!?! I don't have a phone at my desk, why would I?

- At work, most parking is underground. No signal. At home, it's in the garage, and it's in an AT&T near-dead spot. So, flaky in the places where the car spends 99% of it's time. In both places, WiFi would work.

- At work, charging is ChargePoint. I can pretty much tell how far along charging is from the Android ChargePoint app.

I do believe the OVMS architecture is more correct (put as much server-side as possible!), and have thought about getting one, but just haven't gotten to the point where it's worth it considering yet - I'm about 5 months of projects behind at home. I would if AT&T and futzing with the plan wasn't such a royal pain in the ass. All cell phone companies hate on their customers, sigh. I hope somebody comes up with a disruptive technology to end them.

 

[NigelM]

All cell phone companies hate on their customers, sigh. I hope somebody comes up with a disruptive technology to end them.

Pssst, hey Elon......

 

[augkuo]

Pssst, hey Elon......

How does Tesla get our data logs without a cellphone plan?

 

[smoothoperator]

How does Tesla get our data logs without a cellphone plan?

Tesla does have a cell phone plan for Roadsters and communicates via GSM...This is why the official Tesla App will not require a separate cell phone plan.

 

[vfx]

Tesla does have a cell phone plan for Roadsters and communicates via GSM...This is why the official Tesla App will not require a separate cell phone plan.

Starting with car #501

 

[cinergi]

I would but am no longer investing in the Roadster as it will be replaced with the Model S.

 

[markwj]

I would but am no longer investing in the Roadster as it will be replaced with the Model S.

I think you've just nicely paraphrased Tesla's position as well

 

[tennis_trs]

I think you've just nicely paraphrased Tesla's position as well

Except, since a small number of motivated owners was able to very quickly create such a cool tool/toy for the car, it seems stupid that Tesla didn't bother throwing a couple people and "a few bucks" at it and do it long ago. [In "very quickly" I'm not counting the time for reverse engineering commands/status, but Tesla wouldn't have had that hurdle to deal with.]

 

[markwj]

I'd summarise the results as:

#1 Cellular issues (either too much money or too much hassle) - about 67% of responders listed this.
#2 Just don't need this - about 24% presumably consumer cars
#3 Waiting for the Tesla solution - about 19% here

(P.S. I know these don't add up - it is a multi-choice poll so these are percentages of voters not percentages of votes - but you get the idea)

Privacy, warranty and complexity concerns made up the rest - and were surprisingly (to me, at least) low.

There were zero concerns about the initial cost of the system.

Putting out a wild guestimate, based on the number of roadster owners who responded to the other poll on roadster ownership, and that numbers I know, I'd guess perhaps 50% of the people here have OVMS/Tattler, and 50% don't. If that is to be believed, perhaps 30% to 40% of all owners don't see a need or sufficient value for cellular connectivity in their cars, and 60% to 70% do. That is for TMC users, and I really have no idea how that could be extrapolated to the wider ownership community. Fair summary?

Assuming a hassle-free cellular plan could be provided (something like the Tesla plan where you pay up-front and don't even know about it), it would be interesting to know where that threshold was. Obviously, at US$1/year ongoing cost concerns would evaporate, but how about US$10/year, US$100/year, US$1000/year, etc?

Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded to this. It really has been most enlightening.

 

[hcsharp]

I'm a lot like SByer. I want one but no cell phone access at my house or work (too many mountains in the way). I know how to build/program these kind of things so it would be fun to add wifi but I have too many irons in the fire right now. A higher priority is to build a 7-segment speed display to install above the steering wheel. OVMS almost does this with the LCD but I can't read that very well.

I want the features, and I've got a tattler, but it's sat on a shelf for a couple of months now, waiting for me to get time to put the latest stuff on it.

- Can't get a decent plan from AT&T. And certainly not in a decent way. Our family plan is on a corporate discount, which means most of the web tools for changing account level and features work. Which is a royal friggin pain in the ass. It's 2012 for #&^$ sake! Hire some non-moronic web monkeys! They want me to call?!?! I don't have a phone at my desk, why would I?

- At work, most parking is underground. No signal. At home, it's in the garage, and it's in an AT&T near-dead spot. So, flaky in the places where the car spends 99% of it's time. In both places, WiFi would work.

- At work, charging is ChargePoint. I can pretty much tell how far along charging is from the Android ChargePoint app.

I do believe the OVMS architecture is more correct (put as much server-side as possible!), and have thought about getting one, but just haven't gotten to the point where it's worth it considering yet - I'm about 5 months of projects behind at home. I would if AT&T and futzing with the plan wasn't such a royal pain in the ass. All cell phone companies hate on their customers, sigh. I hope somebody comes up with a disruptive technology to end them.