Tesla owners will be given a feature that allows them to request the latest over-the-air firmware update for their vehiccles, according to Elon Musk.
Musk’s latest announcement came as a response to a Tesla owner and podcaster on Twitter. @teslatidbits stated that he spent half an hour poking around his car’s features due to Musk’s earlier references to the Tesla Easter Egg basket. The Tesla enthusiast also noted that he tried unsuccessfully to request an update for his car, especially since the new navigation and maps are currently being rolled out.
Musk responded to the tweet, stating that Tesla will be adding an option that would allow owners
We will add a feature to allow request of latest software version
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2018
Musk’s announcement was warmly received by his followers on Twitter. Tesla’s software updates, after all, could not be proactively requested by owners today, despite early myths that owners can “force” an over-the-air update to their vehicles if they were to connect to the WiFi network used by Tesla Service Centers. Other rumors have suggested that by simply connecting to any WiFi network, the vehicle will be given priority for software updates.
Despite the rumors, we know that Tesla’s software updates are released to its fleet in a gradual manner to Model S, Model X, and Model 3 owners. With the upcoming feature promised by Musk, owners will eventually have better control of when the always highly anticipated over-the-air update will arrive.
Over the past few months, Musk has announced a number of improvements for its vehicles through Twitter, and some of them are now being released. Back in December, Musk teased a navigation and maps update that would be “light-years” ahead of what the Model S and X had. These were followed up by tweets referencing better traffic navigation in March.
As recently reported, these improvements to the Model S and Model X’s navigation system are now rolling out to Tesla’s fleet. True to Musk’s words, Tesla’s new Navigation update adds improved map details and is smoother in operation.
Apart from navigation and maps, Musk had also been tweeting about improvements to the Model S and Model X’s media control units. Just recently, Tesla began introducing a new MCU equipped with a faster, x86_64-based processor, which provided a smoother and faster experience compared to the units equipped with older NVIDIA Tegra-3 chips. According to Musk, however, Tesla owners with cars that are equipped with old MCUs will be given the option to upgrade their hardware. Musk, however, also noted that a new software update is coming that will improve the performance of the older media units.
True to his word, an update did start rolling out not long after Musk’s tweet. As we covered in a previous report, Model S and Model X with Tegra-3 based MCUs are now beginning to receive an update that improves the media unit’s responsiveness and speed. True to Musk’s word, the performance of the older media units were improved by the software update.
