Discuss: Legacy Tesla Model S and Model X to Receive Actually Smart Summon and Potentially Sentry Mode Live Access

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Rfried4987

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Tesla has confirmed that it will continue to support feature updates on Legacy vehicles, and will bring Actually Smart Summon to Legacy Model S and Model Xs… Read More
This is tremendous news!

Legacy S & X owners really haven't had much to write home about with almost every update post 2020 only going to New S and X... but also EVERY Model 3 and Y.. even Model 3 2018. As a 2018 Model S owner, it has been very frustrating, especially given these were luxury cars and Tesla not offering a workaround just wasn't an answer.

I do get that the video coming from the cameras was in a Raw format vs just an ethernet output, which means an additional encoding would need to be done with something like ffmpeg or Gstreamer (or whatever runs best off the mcu2), which could potentially put a video lag on the output... but still if implement correctly would only be a few seconds. For something like Live Sentry the lag is irrelevant.

Given this update... maybe they can also implement...
1) Vision Autopark
2) Blind Spot Cameras
3) Weather Forecast (I can't believe this was too complex!!)
4) Lightshow (I know just something you rarely use, but we know its capable given the X had it in an easter egg)
5) Parental Controls
 
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RNHurt

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@Rfried4987, agreed! I'm pretty excited that Legacy owners are getting something substantial; it seems like forever that we received an update that was full featured.

I also agree that several of the past features should be available to Legacy owners:
  • Weather Forecast - yes, yes, yes
  • Maps (Traffic Lights, Construction Warnings, etc.) - I fail to see how our cars couldn't handle this
  • Lightshow!!! OMG! I really want to make my MX dance in new, fancy ways!
 

Rfried4987

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@Rfried4987, agreed! I'm pretty excited that Legacy owners are getting something substantial; it seems like forever that we received an update that was full featured.

I also agree that several of the past features should be available to Legacy owners:
  • Weather Forecast - yes, yes, yes
  • Maps (Traffic Lights, Construction Warnings, etc.) - I fail to see how our cars couldn't handle this
  • Lightshow!!! OMG! I really want to make my MX dance in new, fancy ways!
I think they haven’t touched the map screen at all on these cars, which weather and map updates would function on. So far it has been a choice by Tesla to prioritize the new cars over the older ones from the second the refresh came out. Since then, no update to that car came out later on to the legacy cars. This would be the first time.

Your car should get the Easter egg light show though, it was on the X originally, which is why the absence of the app is so puzzling.

I’m not sure if Tesla got the memo but it’s extremely important they continue to roll out features to older cars (obviously if it’s hardware limiting that’s different) because no one wants to buy a car they know will be obsolete a few years later… which means people would then only lease Teslas or go to other brands like Lucid and Rivian, especially early adopters like those who purchase an S or X were.
 
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RNHurt

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Your car should get the Easter egg light show though, it was on the X originally, which is why the absence of the app is so puzzling.
Yup, I have the original light show but it is not customizable like it was in my 2020 MY.

I’m not sure if Tesla got the memo but it’s extremely important they continue to roll out features to older cars (obviously if it’s hardware limiting that’s different) because no one wants to buy a car they know will be obsolete a few years later… which means people would then only lease Teslas or go to other brands like Lucid and Rivian, especially early adopters like those who purchase an S or X were.
I agree. Then again, when you purchase a Toyota or Chevy you don't really expect it to get new features. I know that Tesla sort of brought this on themselves by spoiling us with free updates, but I can see where they could just say "no, we're not updating those old cars anymore". Did Tesla actually promise to keep pushing updates / new features to older cars? Even if they did I'm not sure it's really enforceable. That said, I think the Genie is out of the bottle and not supporting older vehicles would be a bad signal for future purchases and it would be in Tesla's best interest to keep the updates coming as fast and often as possible. Especially for the S and X "premium" vehicles.
 

Rfried4987

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Yup, I have the original light show but it is not customizable like it was in my 2020 MY.


I agree. Then again, when you purchase a Toyota or Chevy you don't really expect it to get new features. I know that Tesla sort of brought this on themselves by spoiling us with free updates, but I can see where they could just say "no, we're not updating those old cars anymore". Did Tesla actually promise to keep pushing updates / new features to older cars? Even if they did I'm not sure it's really enforceable. That said, I think the Genie is out of the bottle and not supporting older vehicles would be a bad signal for future purchases and it would be in Tesla's best interest to keep the updates coming as fast and often as possible. Especially for the S and X "premium" vehicles.
The issue with your comparison to Toyota or Chevy is that Tesla is a technology company first, so they are driven by their software, not their hardware, hence the FSD. A more accurate comparison would be comparing Tesla to Apple. Apple just released iOS 18, which they didn't just make available on the iPhone 16, they rolled it all the way back to iPhone 11 / XS/ XR... still most think that they don't go back farther is to make you buy a new model. An iPhone XS / XR is from 2018 which is ancient in terms of phones. Most car owners who purchase their cars will keep them 10-15 years. Tesla can't just abandon these buyers after a year because newer tech came out they chose to prioritize instead.
However the best example I can think of is a 2020 or early year 2021 X or S wasn't getting new features, while a 2018 Model 3 was which was a much less expensive vehicle. The new features weren't hardware prohibitive as your X has the Light Show in that Easter Egg. It was just a choice by Tesla.
 
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RNHurt

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The issue with your comparison to Toyota or Chevy is that Tesla is a technology company first, so they are driven by their software, not their hardware, hence the FSD. A more accurate comparison would be comparing Tesla to Apple. Apple just released iOS 18, which they didn't just make available on the iPhone 16, they rolled it all the way back to iPhone 11 / XS/ XR... still most think that they don't go back farther is to make you buy a new model.
I see your point. I have an iPhone 13 and just received the iOS v18 update and it made me very happy to be an Apple customer.

However the best example I can think of is a 2020 or early year 2021 X or S wasn't getting new features, while a 2018 Model 3 was which was a much less expensive vehicle. The new features weren't hardware prohibitive as your X has the Light Show in that Easter Egg. It was just a choice by Tesla.
I didn't realize that legacy M3 vehicles were still getting a lot of these updates. That makes me happy for the M3 owners but it's very frustrating knowing that the "premium" thing you purchased is not getting comparable support as some other less-premium things.