[Gregor]

I added the car's wi-fi to my AT&T family plan (10gb) about 3 weeks ago. Today I got a text from AT&T saying I had gone over the data limit.
I went digging into my account and saw that the car had used up 5.3gb of data during that time. Only thing is... I only had my phone connected to the car for about 20 minutes over the weekend. -- The other half drives the Ascent, I drive the Outback. She uses the UBS cable to connect to the car. She hasn't even bothered to test out the wi-fi on her phones, so it's not automatically connecting to update apps or anything like that because she's never entered the password. I only added it for trips and watching movies on the iPad... and only did that during the free trial period.
I'm fairly sure the iPad isn't connecting to the car because my garage is 3 floors down and I've never been able to connect to the house wi-fi down there through the concert floors.
So now I'm wondering if anyone has seen any heavy spikes in data usage from the car all on its own... I'm not sure if it's constantly checking for updates or what, but something is using data. We've gone in and turned off the wi-fi instead of letting it run whenever the car is on.
Thoughts?

 

[Robert.Mauro]

The car itself uses minimal data via the AT&T network. With my phone continuously connected when driving, and over 3,000 miles of connection time a month (100 hours?), I hit about 3GB a month usage.

Maps and updates should only download using the household wifi and not the AT&T data or wifi hotspot.

Can you see a breakdown of what device(s) on your AT&T account are using the data?

 

[zulater]

I believe it can use the ATT cellular data to download data *if* you connect it to itself.

I'm at 3.6GB with all our phones connected. Wife drives and kids play on phones.

 

[Gregor]

Phone #1 used a bit over 2gb
Phone #2 used a bit over 2gb
The car used a bit over 5gb
I'm at a complete loss as to what it was doing to go through that much data. Outside of a 20 minute period last Sunday, nothing was connected to the car's wi-fi.
(shrug)

 

[Gregor]

I believe it can use the ATT cellular data to download data *if* you connect it to itself.

I'm at 3.6GB with all our phones connected. Wife drives and kids play on phones.

I can see that happening... but I don't recall having set it up to do that. Guess I'll have to go back into the settings and check that.

 

[Dandy]

Phone #1 used a bit over 2gb
Phone #2 used a bit over 2gb
The car used a bit over 5gb
I'm at a complete loss as to what it was doing to go through that much data. Outside of a 20 minute period last Sunday, nothing was connected to the car's wi-fi.
(shrug)

I am following. A bit off topic, but it may come around to be something similar. Our daughter, a couple of months ago, changed from an LGV10 to an Apple iphone8. Her date usage we generally around 1, but sometimes up to 2 GB a month. Since her iphone8, she is using 4-5 GB a month. We are planning a trip into Verizon to see what is going on. I am thinking that there is something in her specific phone that is causing the issue, maybe it is the same with the Cell receiver in your car. Our daughter has always been aware of her usage, if she goes over 2 GB, she pays for the extra (we haven't charged her with the new phone) she even turns off her cell data when at home to assure she uses the home wi-fi. Again why we think there is something wrong with that specific device.

 

[Gregor]

Perhaps I'll email SOA ask what the expected data usage is if nothing is connected to the car's wi-fi... is it hitting the internet on its own to check for updates...

 

[norway]

Perhaps I'll email SOA ask what the expected data usage is if nothing is connected to the car's wi-fi... is it hitting the internet on its own to check for updates...

It shouldn't be, and Starlink/MySubaru traffic should be separated out as well.

Over ~2.5 weeks we used the 1GB trial, with both our phones connecting every time we got in the car and usually using AA. There are a lot of settings in phones to do more data heavy stuff (automatically) when connected to WiFi, and sometimes USB power.

 

[pilot1226]

If you connect to the wifi in the car, things on your phone think it is connect to a Wifi network. So, if you do automatic updates, they will download because they think they're on a standard wifi network - not a "Personal Hotspot" type one.

For example, when I need to download a critical application and I don't have wifi access, I'll have another family member turn on personal hotspot, I connect my iPhone to the hotspot (wifi), and then it tricks the phone into downloading the app.

Also if any of the phones are streaming video or audio, it will look like the "Car" is using the data even though it's getting pushed through to the device.

 

[Nemesis099]

If you connect to the wifi in the car, things on your phone think it is connect to a Wifi network. So, if you do automatic updates, they will download because they think they're on a standard wifi network - not a "Personal Hotspot" type one.

For example, when I need to download a critical application and I don't have wifi access, I'll have another family member turn on personal hotspot, I connect my iPhone to the hotspot (wifi), and then it tricks the phone into downloading the app.

Also if any of the phones are streaming video or audio, it will look like the "Car" is using the data even though it's getting pushed through to the device.

This right here is probably the culprit. This happened to me with my cell phone and my kids connecting to the hotspot with their tablets. They connected and then the tablets went into update mode and downloaded a 1GB update. If you left the car wifi on your phone would automatically connect every time you get in the car and probably downloaded some updates or upload photos if you have that set up.