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Okay, I have results to report! I'm afraid I can't call them definitive. I dropped into the Menlo Park showroom again today hoping to try out my USB stick of music and the water bottle, only to find that the white car that was there this weekend was gone! It is apparently in Vegas for an event of some kind.
The red Beta didn't have a working audio system, but it did have cup holders, at least. The water bottle does fit, and I believe it is the maximum diameter that will fit. This is a bottle I bought at a bike shop, and it fits the standard bottle rack on my bike.
Now, why do I say that these are not definitive results? The fit of the bottle was pretty snug at the bottom, and my bottle tapers (see photo attached). It's possible that a square-bottom bottle like the second one in your photo in the Opportunity Console thread would not fit. I believe a friend has one of those, so I will try to borrow it before Saturday's event!
I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of the bottle actually in the cup holder (I will get one this weekend if I can). I foolishly left my phone in my car when I went in, and I was there right at closing.
So, I hope this is at least helpful. It seems like most of the bottles in your photo would fit okay, if somewhat snugly.
Dr Computer pointed out that while the eleven is humorous, it did not make for enough refinement of volume settings. Perhaps they could make it 111 by adding in tenths between whole numbers and keep the joke.
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SCW-Greg
Active Member
With VIN 50 on our showroom floor, we had the sound system cranked waaay up, I mean loud (with my own stick)... and then we pumped the bass EQ all the way - with songs that had extreme bass. At the volume levels we were pushing, most speakers would have started to distort, but these didn't. It was amazing how it could handle what we were pushing it to do. Also had music with live performances, with good high-ends to test, and mid range too. And the sound was everything as described in previous posts, which mirrors your description in the Inifiniti. I've heard great sound systems before, but this one is at the top. Note: As mentioned half a dozen times already, you've got to confirm that fade and balance are set to zeros (dead center), to get the best out of this though.
I did briefly, yes, at the Palo Alto event. It puts a sort of arrow icon at your present position. I also entered a destination into the nav system so I could see the nav display up by the speedometer. It's really slick how it all works. Once you have a destination set, you get a scrolling list of all the turns on the 17" display, and tapping one of them shows you that turn by re-centering the map and (I think) zooming in. It's definitely the nicest nav system I've ever seen. The only concern I have is that the maps are slow to load over the 3G. I hope the actual tech package will have the maps cached on the hard drive. And/or that we'll get LTE for faster access. Having had it on the iPad now, 3G is painful.
MikeK, Thanks kindly. Are you describing the navigation system that comes with the Tech Package or what one can expect on the basic standard car? I'm trying to determine what kind of navigation system comes without the Tech Package. My understanding has been it would be similar to Google maps on the iPhone but a comment over on the Tesla forum from an actual Model S owner has me wondering. Thx.
I don't believe there are any owners yet that don't have the Tech Package. It's not optional for Signature. I'm not sure about whether Founder vehicles can opt out of Signature "mandatory options" though.
CyberDutchie
Active Member
SCW-Greg, thanks for the report, very encouraging! With the performance you describe, combined with the unique 17" display UI, I believe Tesla's $950 for the sound studio package is a steal!
Tommy
Member
I am thinking this is one option that Tesla is NOT maintaining it's margins on; they maybe even doing at cost. Why? Too many after-market audio upgrade "experts" that have never worked on an all electric car that would butcher the wiring/components of the Model S. Tesla doesn't need that warranty headache. The sound quality being reported so far certainly is worth more than $1k in aftermarket parts/labor.
chmod a+wrx
Member
I know how things go when we report back to us what Tesla store reps say, but one told me that there is no difference in the navigation, only that the one included with the tech package will have 7 years of free map updates. I wasn't clear on the other aspect: that the tech package will have verbal turn-by-turn navigation. The latter seems silly to have only in a tech package since the average phone and dashboard navigator has turn-by-turn instructions.
contaygious
Active Member
There is no turn by turn on non tech nav voice or next to speedometer, It's just iPhone google maps basically and you need a 3G plan. The tech nav is much faster since the data is cached and has turn by turn. I don't want or need to pay for Internet plan with tech package and a 4g phone hotspot with wifi on the car.
chmod a+wrx
Member
Honestly, I'm not sure, I'm sorry. It's whatever was on the Catalina White car at the Palo Alto event. I think it's fairly safe to say that none of the software is quite final yet, especially on the test drive cars, so I'm not sure how representative what we saw was.
The car I played with did have spoken directions (it announced the next turn once I entered a destination), and it did put the little map up in the display next to the speedometer. However, the loading of the maps looked like Google maps on an iPhone or iPad -- loading in individual tiles, somewhat slowly. (The car was indoors and I have no idea what kind of network connection.) If the nav system includes "seven years of free map updates", that implies locally-stored maps, which is not what I think I saw. Also, I think there was a recent announcement of a license that Tesla had signed with Google for map data.
So, perhaps what I saw was an in-progress effort, with the navigational features in place, but with over-the-air maps in place of the local storage. I think with fast, local maps, this nav system will set a new standard.
My understanding is that, for Signature at least, Tesla has temporarily sidestepped this question by including the first year of connectivity with the purchase of the vehicle.
AndyM
Member
brianman is correct.
also, I have heard from a Tesla store manager that there's a low rate that will be available from the carrier, something like $18/month, for a data plan. I can't recall if this was the "share the car's wireless connection with WiFi to devices nearby" or "the cost for the data plan for the car." We shall see.
