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3G Pricing - Speculation
- Thread starter riceuguy
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- Model S User Interface
The title of this thread is quite misleading. There's nothing remotely official (even 1% official, whatever that means) about it. For all we know, some developer pulled a placeholder number out of their proverbial a** and put it in their code and moved on.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Al Sherman
It's about THIS car.
I'm definitely already doing this. I have no 3G at the house at all. When I type in an address, the car knows and I select it and hit navigate.When I get into 3G coverage it draws the map and works as advertised.
I typically agree with your level headed posts Bonnie but I respectfully disagree with this one. Connectivity is one of the exciting features of this car that I was told about and looked forward to for the more than three years I waited for the car to arrive. I'm disappointed with how it's worked so far and I'll be more disappointed if that poor level of execution comes with an unreasonably high monthly fee. The car without connectivity is not as cool as the car I thought I was buying for $108,000. Paying $30/mo for the connectivity it has would not be cool either. I can't just shrug and say "fine, I just won't pay for it". That's not the Model S I signed up for in 2009. And btw, how did something like supply of wireless data get worse between 2009 and 2013??
Finally, I don't find blaming AT&T to be acceptable. In the end, AT&T is a subcontractor to the experience Tesla is responsible for delivering. If Tesla is selling me the car and the experience, its their responsibility to deliver it to me. Blaming AT&T is no more acceptable to me than if they blamed a vendor for shoddy leather on the seats.
Let's be real here. I paid the better part of $4000 for a Nav system package. I EXPECT to get a Nav package that WORKS without additional fees, just like every other car brand on the planet. I don't care about Slacker, XM and Google maps or Album cover artwork. If I need that stuff, I should be willing to pay for it. I paid for and I am entitled to decent Nav that works. Not that tiny piece of crap picture scrunched into the left side of the instrument cluster, but a real working screen. I rarely type in addresses. I want to look at the surroundings and figure out which streets to take in un familiar surroundings. $30/ month is outlandish and just plain deceitful. I continually asked employees at various Tesla stores how this system would function without 3G and they made up a variety of answers. Never got the same story twice. The gist of it was that the screen would still function like a "normal" Nav system. It doesn't even do that now with 3G since you can count on 3G coverage even in a major city! Here is my solution to the problem. Costs $150 at your local Best Buy and works significantly better than the stock system as well. What do you think this image is going to convey about Tesla and their marvelous machine?
Let Tesla load the maps into memory or even on a USB stick so the car can access them like a traditional DVD system. This way we could at least get car direction up which the current system can't do. I'm not concerned about the maps being updated daily. I never changed DVD's more often the every 5 years with other cars. I live in a stable area, the landscape doesn't change that fast any longer. There has got to be a simple and fair solution other than taking on fee after fee.
If the Tesla is so simple that it doesn't cost much to maintain how come it costs $600/year (which comes to $50 per month) for routine service? I have owned 20 vehicles before this one. BMW's, SAAB, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Mini, Fiat and a variety of others and NONE of them ever cost an average of $600/year for total service during the first 4 years/50000 miles of ownership. Maybe I got to $250/year on a few occasions. I don't want to hear about this being a $100k car and what do you expect. It is available as a $50k car and everything still applies. ($54k with Nav). Add to $50/month for service a nice fat $20/month for Vampire drainage and another $30 to keep your Navigation functioning in a mediocre fashion and we hit $100/month. I don't care how much money you make, we are getting stuck and we shouldn't accept it lightly. What's next, another $15/month to pay Apple for connection rights for our iPods. BTW, every other car on the planet accepts iPods either digitally or through an analog connection. Our BT connection is junk and doesn't work on an iPod which is the most common media storage medium in the world. Oh yes, we still don't have WiFi as advertised in the sales brochures. Look Gentleman and Ladies, it has been over 9 months since this car was released and it is high time these issues get solved. Yes the car drives wonderfully and it meets or exceeds my expectations in those areas easily. That does not excuse the FACT that it is more in line with a $30k Korean or Japanese car in its execution of creature comforts and non-driving features. Where the hell is my parcel shelf? I can make one myself in an afternoon. What is the big problem with a sheet of plywood with some fuzz on it? It doesn't even connect to the lift gate like every other auto brand does.
Clearly I'm irritated by the recent news of an impending 3G charge. This rant does make me feel better but I am serious about my feelings that we are getting screwed. I know it is a brand new technology and I willingly signed up to be inconvenienced while things are being perfected but these are ancient technologies we are talking about and there should be no problems at least matching equivalent cars.
Damnit, I'm going to go drive somewhere.
Let Tesla load the maps into memory or even on a USB stick so the car can access them like a traditional DVD system. This way we could at least get car direction up which the current system can't do. I'm not concerned about the maps being updated daily. I never changed DVD's more often the every 5 years with other cars. I live in a stable area, the landscape doesn't change that fast any longer. There has got to be a simple and fair solution other than taking on fee after fee.
If the Tesla is so simple that it doesn't cost much to maintain how come it costs $600/year (which comes to $50 per month) for routine service? I have owned 20 vehicles before this one. BMW's, SAAB, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Mini, Fiat and a variety of others and NONE of them ever cost an average of $600/year for total service during the first 4 years/50000 miles of ownership. Maybe I got to $250/year on a few occasions. I don't want to hear about this being a $100k car and what do you expect. It is available as a $50k car and everything still applies. ($54k with Nav). Add to $50/month for service a nice fat $20/month for Vampire drainage and another $30 to keep your Navigation functioning in a mediocre fashion and we hit $100/month. I don't care how much money you make, we are getting stuck and we shouldn't accept it lightly. What's next, another $15/month to pay Apple for connection rights for our iPods. BTW, every other car on the planet accepts iPods either digitally or through an analog connection. Our BT connection is junk and doesn't work on an iPod which is the most common media storage medium in the world. Oh yes, we still don't have WiFi as advertised in the sales brochures. Look Gentleman and Ladies, it has been over 9 months since this car was released and it is high time these issues get solved. Yes the car drives wonderfully and it meets or exceeds my expectations in those areas easily. That does not excuse the FACT that it is more in line with a $30k Korean or Japanese car in its execution of creature comforts and non-driving features. Where the hell is my parcel shelf? I can make one myself in an afternoon. What is the big problem with a sheet of plywood with some fuzz on it? It doesn't even connect to the lift gate like every other auto brand does.
Clearly I'm irritated by the recent news of an impending 3G charge. This rant does make me feel better but I am serious about my feelings that we are getting screwed. I know it is a brand new technology and I willingly signed up to be inconvenienced while things are being perfected but these are ancient technologies we are talking about and there should be no problems at least matching equivalent cars.
Damnit, I'm going to go drive somewhere.
1. Bear in mind that there are two nav systems. The traditional one that shows up by the speedometer and the Google one in the display. The traditional one does not require connectivity.
2. As this is really speculation about the price, now is not the time to get irate. With luck the price and the WiFi connectivity will be announced at the same time. (This is also speculation).
3. I never thought that the connectivity would be free when using something other than WiFi.
4. ATT was chosen because it's a largest GSM network in North America. GSM was chosen because it's universal. Apple did the same thing when the iPhone was first introduced. It's no surprise that Tesla would follow their example.
2. As this is really speculation about the price, now is not the time to get irate. With luck the price and the WiFi connectivity will be announced at the same time. (This is also speculation).
3. I never thought that the connectivity would be free when using something other than WiFi.
4. ATT was chosen because it's a largest GSM network in North America. GSM was chosen because it's universal. Apple did the same thing when the iPhone was first introduced. It's no surprise that Tesla would follow their example.
The Traditional one is small and stupid. To my knowledge, it doesn't show up unless you type in an address. That is not Traditional. Traditional means a working map with car location that always is operational displaying READIBLE street names! I didn't pay $4000 for an 11" screen to have a tiny picture hidden behind the steering wheel that only works when driving to a specific address.
carrerascott
FUEL FTR
Until something official is announced, this is all moot. Maybe they'll say $30 a month or $100/year. Maybe not. We just have to wait and see. Once they announce, if it's stupid, we can all voice our outrage toward Tesla and Elon. Email the New York Times (lol). Get the word out that this car that we're saving money on gas with, is costing us over $1000/year in REQUIRED service and cellular that pretty much makes the car un-special if you don't get it.
Tesla needs word of mouth recommendations to survive. If I till people now that not only do they have to pay $90-$100k for the car, then they also have to pay $1000/year for service and cellular, or $2400-$4800 for service plans on top of the car price -- these things are going to stop selling themselves.
I'll wait to hear the official word, and react accordingly.
Tesla needs word of mouth recommendations to survive. If I till people now that not only do they have to pay $90-$100k for the car, then they also have to pay $1000/year for service and cellular, or $2400-$4800 for service plans on top of the car price -- these things are going to stop selling themselves.
I'll wait to hear the official word, and react accordingly.
Hopefully the Tesla can be added to AT&T's mobile share plan which will reduce the incremental cost to existing customers. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is not likely to be the case. Of course, everyone's commentary is purely speculative at the time, but at least Tesla is getting lots of feedback in advance of rolling out their actual Internet plan.
mknox
Well-Known Member
FWIW, we'd be extremely fortunate in Canada to get unlimited 3G for as little as $30 / month :frown:
My iPod doesn't work in either of our other cars without an extra device. That might come as a software upgrade to the S (and it's been stated or implied it will) but not on my other two cars, I promise you. I find it quite comfortable (so much better than my other half's SUV). My other half's parcel shelf also doesn't connect to the lift gate. The bluetooth works perfectly for me. I could go on, but the point is, a few delays in minor features don't bother me, being charged for something I expected to be charged for and that I could do the math on myself (I have an iPhone and iPad with AT&T...), navigation that works fine for me with or without 3G . . . none of that bothers me. Glass half full over here. But I'm glad you let off some steam and I hope you're enjoying your drive!
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spatterso911
P100DL - Raven
The last sentence totally wins as the perfect Tesla ending to a well-drafted rant. I love the double entendre!
Sent via Tapatalk
I think the general consensus of this thread is the following:
1) $30/month for 3G AT&T is too steep and many of us have connectivity issues. Slacker skips, etc.
2) given all the advanced technology in this superbly designed vehicle, if 3G is our only option, this is a step backwards and very disappointing to all of us.
3) however, $30/month would be acceptable if it were 4G LTE instead
4) many of us, including myself, would choose to use our own wifi hotspots instead, on our own plans, and permanently tether the car through our mobile hotspots either wirelessly or wired using the USB and keep the hotspot in the car. This is the most preferred option.
GeorgeB, and/or any other Tesla employee that is reading this, your customers have spoken. please listen to us on this one.
1) $30/month for 3G AT&T is too steep and many of us have connectivity issues. Slacker skips, etc.
2) given all the advanced technology in this superbly designed vehicle, if 3G is our only option, this is a step backwards and very disappointing to all of us.
3) however, $30/month would be acceptable if it were 4G LTE instead
4) many of us, including myself, would choose to use our own wifi hotspots instead, on our own plans, and permanently tether the car through our mobile hotspots either wirelessly or wired using the USB and keep the hotspot in the car. This is the most preferred option.
GeorgeB, and/or any other Tesla employee that is reading this, your customers have spoken. please listen to us on this one.
I threw the 1GB out there, not saying that is the limit on the subscription. Heck we dont even know if this price is official yet, so I'm not saying there is a limit on the account. I put the 1GB out as a rough estimate of the bandwidth that a typical person could even use on the 3G access in the MS. I doubt that anyone would end up using more than 1GB (if anything it would be very very few people) per month via the MS' 3G connection, given the limitations of the browser and inability to stream media besides Slacker and TuneIn music. That an nav information, basic browsing (of course not while driving, no one is going out to their car just to browse), and the data connection to send logs (I'm even including that). 1GB is liekly the upper limit anyone would ever touch. So I'm saying we'de be paying $30 per month for 1GB of last gen bandwidth. Stupid price. Heck those are "no prepaid data" data prices. "Over your limit overage data" prices. "Go to another country and roam" data prices. Well maybe not that last one. But you get the idea.
And as for "low cost to own cars", I throw this out there. I've had my Volt for 18 months. Total cost of maintenance service, OnStar, SiriusXM in that time? $0
And as for "low cost to own cars", I throw this out there. I've had my Volt for 18 months. Total cost of maintenance service, OnStar, SiriusXM in that time? $0
So you want it for free? For the life of your car?
$30 a month for one year is $360 a year
8 years of $360 is $2800
That seems like a reasonable amount for Tesla to absorb?
Now take that $2880 times this year's production only:
$2880.00 times 20,000 cars is 57 million dollars ($57,600,000) annually for Tesla.
To complete that thought, 8 years times $57,600,000 is more than $460 million dollars.
$30 a month for one year is $360 a year
8 years of $360 is $2800
That seems like a reasonable amount for Tesla to absorb?
Now take that $2880 times this year's production only:
$2880.00 times 20,000 cars is 57 million dollars ($57,600,000) annually for Tesla.
To complete that thought, 8 years times $57,600,000 is more than $460 million dollars.
NigelM
Recovering Member
Shiver GTimbers! I'm shocked that this is causing such a commotion. I'm sure that the original point of this thread (a possible $30 charge for 3G) is not the real issue for most here. I bet it is the combination of that along with the recently announced costs for maintenance and extended warranty that is making everyone feel like they're getting squeezed for every dime that Tesla can get. That is certainly a more valid complaint than making a big deal over some insignificant charge for 3G. I for one think that Tesla really needs to explain exactly what they are doing during that yearly check that justifies the expense, especially after all the hype regarding how little maintenance would need to be done. It may very well be legitimate but we won't know unless the process is explained. All that being said, I love the car and have had little to no issues with the 3G, slacker, nav or anything else.
20000 cars now, but each year is another 20000 cars (or more). Prolly closer to 200 million dollars at 8 years out, but I get the point too.
