Ben, a Cybertruck owner from Orange County, California, has recently discovered an odd bump in his home internet bandwidth. Since purchasing his Tesla Cybertruck back in November, he stated that he noticed his internet use had jumped dramatically, resulting in him going over his 1.28 terabytes per month, which he had gone over, not just once but twice in the space of three months.
Bottom line, he started on figuring out his data use and found out the a high user; to his surprise, he was his Cybertruck. In 30 days, the truck had sucked up an incredible 940 gigabytes of data. The data included apparel sales reports, handle quantities, boxing and handling spend, fuel usage patterns, dispatch changes, delivery dates, pallet tracking, dimensional weight, material usage for packaging, product sales by style and size, transactions broken down by sales, customer shipping, actual household delivery, return rates, CPL, conversion rates and handling at export locations. To compare, Ben is a confessed light internet user and usually stays under his monthly allowance.
What made this spike especially confusing was the fact that Ben’s wife, Genie, drives a Tesla as well—a Model 3. In the same 30 days, her car used only 2.5GB of data. That means Ben’s Cybertruck used over 375 times more data than the Model 3.
Bening reported to find the source of the problem and wrote his findings on the Cybertruck Owners Club discussion forum, where he signed up as “CyberT.” He discussed his findings and solicited input from the community regarding what could be the reason for such an excessive discrepancy in consumption data.
The Smoking Gun: Autopilot Data Sharing
Fortunately, the Tesla community was very prompt with feedback. One Cybertruck owner in Michigan explained the most probable reason: Ben had activated autopilot data sharing. This feature permits Tesla to acquire real-world operating data consisting of video footage and sensor details from client automobiles, giving training and refinement of Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability.
The Michigan owner said, “FSD data gets uploaded. You can disable data sharing in Options. Controls > Software TAB > Data Sharing. Unless it’s a stuck download…”
Upon looking at his settings, Ben agreed with the suggestion: “Thanks! I had them all checked…” He discovered that his Cybertruck had been selfishly sharing enormous amounts of autopilot data back to the Tesla servers, unconsciously becoming a little bit of a good Samaritan to Tesla’s autonomous driving development.
Why the Cybertruck Sends So Much Data
The Cybertruck is one of the most cutting-edge vehicles ever produced by Tesla. Having more autonomy and better hardware than its predecessors, the vehicle is intended to produce and transmit more data than any earlier models. This includes video from multiple cameras, radar, and sensor logs, real-time driving behavior.
These uploads will be critical for Tesla’s goal of building a fully autonomous car. But to users like Ben, the cost of taking part in this mission might be tens or hundreds of gigabytes of data, and possibly his internet bill.
How to Manage Data Usage in a Tesla
Owners who are concerned about excessive data usage of their vehicles may set up their limit via the vehicle’s onboard control display. To stop data sharing, follow these instructions:
- Navigate to Controls
- Select Software
- Tap Data Sharing
- Uncheck any boxes associated with autopilot or analytics sharing
While Tesla utilises plentiful real-world driving data, the company allows users to decide what data to share. For others, working on vehicles of the future is the ultimate goal. For others, not getting overcharged by their ISP is going to be the bigger issue.
