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Comment by hatsunearu | Hacker News Reader

Here's a brand new crazy idea: have a local caching server at the Tesla dealership and pump out OTA updates just there?

I mean FFS, downloads through a local server over WiFi is gonna be way faster than downloading through the internet over WiFi anyways!

And the servers are cheap, not to mention they probably already have spare computing power at a dealership to get this working!

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Here‘s a better idea: install this „server“ (you‘ll probably not need much more than a Raspberry Pi sized machine) into every Supercharger. Car will have to park there anyway for some significant time, there‘s electricity already and it‘s Tesla property anyway so they don‘t come across as being cheap. Elon, are you listening? :D

And thinking twice about it, you won‘t even need Internet at the Supercharger, either. With some clever cryptography and signing, you can use the existing Tesla fleet with the newest updates loaded as a P2P network on wheels... „Want to get the newest maps? Sure, just take a long-distance trip any time soon...“

Surely you would want internet at a charging location just so you can monitor it remotely.

Superchargers are connected, but probably don't have the hardware to act as a WiFi hotspot. Teslas, on the other hand, do have WiFi, so if they acted as Tesla-only hotspots when idly charging, I guess they could redistribute their stored firmware updates to other charging peers.

I like how you think :)

Indeed, like a useful virus spreading about the Tesla fleet. Nice emanations.

Now, how about making the cars into delivery servers for other nearby cars?

I wouldn't like the potential additional security implications of this. Cryptographic signing should cover _most_ attack surfaces, but not all.

Just buy every US electrical substation and deliver the maps data via grid-wide powerline ethernet.

At that point you might as well buy everything and remodel it until you can stick with the old map.

They don't have WiFi at their charging stations?

Can here to suggest this ;-)

If you think about it, even that's expensive. You need a computer, server, software, installation, times 1200 Supercharger stations (dealerships aren't available in a lot of places).

Tesla has only 200k cars on the road. 5 gigabytes of data download off peak is pennies.

The showrooms I know of LA aren’t close enough to where you can park to enable this. They are built in more walkable areas such as outdoor malls.

They already do this! (Well, they install via a tethered laptop, but same idea). Any Service Center appointment gets you the latest firmware.

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