Tesla officially starts offering $2,500 infotainment upgrade

Tesla is officially starting to offer an infotainment upgrade (MCU1 to MCU2 upgrade) to owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles.

It’s hard to argue that there’s any native car infotainment system better than Tesla’s, but the first generation has slowed down, and the units are quite a few steps behind Tesla’s second-generation MCU.

Several major recent software upgrades have introduced a lot of new features that require more computer power that older Tesla vehicles don’t have.

Some owners have been requesting a way to upgrade the computer, which CEO Elon Musk said is possible, but Tesla wouldn’t let its service center do it.

Now the automaker has created an official infotainment upgrade program with a page on its support website:

Upgrade your Infotainment system to access new features, as well as a more advanced and smoother user experience. Owners of Model S and Model X built March 2018 or earlier will be eligible to purchase an Infotainment Upgrade, enabling access to some of our favorite features like video streaming and an expanded Tesla Arcade, in addition to a more responsive and faster touchscreen experience.

The upgrade costs $2,500 (plus applicable tax including installation), but owners cannot request it right now. Only people Tesla is itself reaching out to will be offered the upgrade, starting with people who have Autopilot 2.5 hardware and the Full Self-Driving package, and then they will expand to others:

The owners who pay $2,500 to get the new computer will receive the following features and performance improvements:

On the negative side, they will lose access to AM, FM or Sirius XM radio since it’s not a feature that Tesla built into the new computer as it moves toward music streaming.

Also, some of the features are linked to Tesla’s $10 a month “premium connectivity” package, which many owners of older Model S and Model X vehicles already have.