Photo: @ArcticSolace via @Teslascope on X
Tesla rushed the 2023 Holiday Update to market, allowing some nasty bugs to go through its quality control undetected. However, when owners complained about the issues, Service Center employees refused to acknowledge the problems and asked for money to fix them.
As many people know, software can be a magical solution to many problems, or it can be the problem itself requiring a magical solution. As the pioneer of software-defined vehicles, Tesla has been praised for its software updates, which add new features and solve bugs without requiring a physical presence in a service center. This is something that Volkswagen EV owners only dream of, as even software updates are done at a dealership.
Tesla's over-the-air (OTA) updates have been mostly trouble-free, enhancing the functionality of the cars without much fuss for the owners. However, software is software, and bugs are an inherent part of it, as Tesla owners discovered this month. However eager they were to test the new features in the 2023 Holiday Update, Tesla owners had to grapple with bugs. Tesla appeared to struggle more than ever to fix the issue, with no less than six bug-fix updates to the Holiday Update.
One of the factors that may have made the 2023 Holiday Update less stable than Tesla owners were used to was the inclusion of the Autosteer recall fix. This might have put pressure on Tesla's software team to offer the fix as soon as possible. As it often happens, rushing things also let some problems slip unnoticed. Hilariously, Tesla was forced to essentially "recall" the Autosteer recall fix.
Among the issues reported by Tesla owners were FSD Beta disappearing from their vehicles, false positive alerts that the 12-volt battery was dead, and problems with the Auto wipers. To add insult to injury, the update 2023.44.30.5.1 was supposed to fix issues with all previous updates under the 2023.44.30 branch but failed to install on thousands of customers' cars. Considering all this, you'd expect Tesla to acknowledge the problems and offer a goodwill gesture to its customers.
In the case of many Tesla owners who vented their frustration on social media, it was actually the opposite. One of them shared that their problems started with the 2023.44.30.2 update, when Autopilot, FSD, and other driver assistance systems would not start anymore. They also received various warning messages, including "Dl_a175Cruise control unavailable" and "APS_w160Software update required."
Reddit user u/aaaviciii booked a mobile service appointment but hours later was told a firmware fix would be pushed to their vehicle. Unfortunately, the fix did nothing to solve the issues, and the service center rep told them they needed to check the car in person. The next day, they got notified of a new software update, 2023.44.30.5.1, which the service team also recommended. Still, the problems persisted.
Things got weird as a Tesla rep later denied in a voicemail that the issues had anything to do with the software updates. He even tried to make the car's owner responsible for the FSD disappearance, saying the FSD was suspended allegedly after several strikes. Since this doesn't explain why cruise control or basic Autopilot were broken, the owner disputed this claim and was told to bring the car in service for a diagnosis. However, this would have cost him $255, supposedly because their 2018 Model 3 LR RWD was out of warranty.
The outraged owner found out there are countless Tesla owners with similar issues, yet the Tesla rep claimed this was not related to a known problem. Many were told absurd things that obviously had nothing to do with their issues, refusing to accept that Tesla's software updates screwed things up. At this point, nobody knows whether this is simple incompetence or Tesla staff being evil. Hopefully, Tesla will acknowledge the issues and fix them free of charge for everyone.
Tesla's over-the-air (OTA) updates have been mostly trouble-free, enhancing the functionality of the cars without much fuss for the owners. However, software is software, and bugs are an inherent part of it, as Tesla owners discovered this month. However eager they were to test the new features in the 2023 Holiday Update, Tesla owners had to grapple with bugs. Tesla appeared to struggle more than ever to fix the issue, with no less than six bug-fix updates to the Holiday Update.
One of the factors that may have made the 2023 Holiday Update less stable than Tesla owners were used to was the inclusion of the Autosteer recall fix. This might have put pressure on Tesla's software team to offer the fix as soon as possible. As it often happens, rushing things also let some problems slip unnoticed. Hilariously, Tesla was forced to essentially "recall" the Autosteer recall fix.
Among the issues reported by Tesla owners were FSD Beta disappearing from their vehicles, false positive alerts that the 12-volt battery was dead, and problems with the Auto wipers. To add insult to injury, the update 2023.44.30.5.1 was supposed to fix issues with all previous updates under the 2023.44.30 branch but failed to install on thousands of customers' cars. Considering all this, you'd expect Tesla to acknowledge the problems and offer a goodwill gesture to its customers.
In the case of many Tesla owners who vented their frustration on social media, it was actually the opposite. One of them shared that their problems started with the 2023.44.30.2 update, when Autopilot, FSD, and other driver assistance systems would not start anymore. They also received various warning messages, including "Dl_a175Cruise control unavailable" and "APS_w160Software update required."
Reddit user u/aaaviciii booked a mobile service appointment but hours later was told a firmware fix would be pushed to their vehicle. Unfortunately, the fix did nothing to solve the issues, and the service center rep told them they needed to check the car in person. The next day, they got notified of a new software update, 2023.44.30.5.1, which the service team also recommended. Still, the problems persisted.
Things got weird as a Tesla rep later denied in a voicemail that the issues had anything to do with the software updates. He even tried to make the car's owner responsible for the FSD disappearance, saying the FSD was suspended allegedly after several strikes. Since this doesn't explain why cruise control or basic Autopilot were broken, the owner disputed this claim and was told to bring the car in service for a diagnosis. However, this would have cost him $255, supposedly because their 2018 Model 3 LR RWD was out of warranty.
The outraged owner found out there are countless Tesla owners with similar issues, yet the Tesla rep claimed this was not related to a known problem. Many were told absurd things that obviously had nothing to do with their issues, refusing to accept that Tesla's software updates screwed things up. At this point, nobody knows whether this is simple incompetence or Tesla staff being evil. Hopefully, Tesla will acknowledge the issues and fix them free of charge for everyone.
This issue was able to be resolved via a power cycle although resulted in an influx of service appointments and calls, as well as causing confusion for those impacted.
— Teslascope (@teslascope) December 22, 2023
To avoid further vehicles from encountering this, Tesla pulled the update and released .5.1 and .6 updates.
Tesla has pushed a patched version of the 2023.44.30.5.1 which resolves the failed install issue.
— Teslascope (@teslascope) December 23, 2023
If your install failed earlier, you’re safe to retry once it is pushed to your vehicle, typically within 30 minutes to 2 hours. https://t.co/9T5gxqRXrL
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