Anyone else not care about video games and farts in their car?

[skitown]

 

[Needsdecaf]

But, yeah, deep down inside, nearly everyone wants one, at least of those who have experienced one first hand. Even if they say they don't. And "fart mode" brings a little levity to the situation. It's brilliant marketing.

I’m curious, do you genuinely believe this?

By the way, I know what sour grapes is. and not denying it at all. Just stating that’s 100% not what this is, sorry.

 

[03DSG]

I think the Easter eggs are hilarious especially Emission Testing Mode. IMO it completely sets Tesla apart from every other legacy manufacturer with their heads stick in the sand. Its why I love Tesla. Very refreshing!

 

[Uncle Paul]

I understand what the OP is saying, but the line of logic he is using could apply to any specific Tesla driver.

Making the car so fast is a waste of engineering is a waste because I only drive consivertively.
Why waste money of a stereo I never turn on.
Who needs heated seats. I live in a warm climate.
Why put of turn signals that I never use.
Why make the seats so nice when a simple box would work.
Headlights are a little brigher than they really need to be. Wouldn's a bit dimmer ones be a bit cheaper as well.
Why such big wheels and tires. My 1964 Corvair had much smaller wheels and worked great.
Why not make it a stick shift...i prefer to shift myself and have better control that way.

Of course this is tongue in cheek. Most every car come with features owners could do without, however the package is the package. As Joel Olsen says before preaching about salvation...I like to start with something funny.

Elon has a sense of humor, and it shows a bit in his cars.

I also feel that currently Tesla are aspirational vehicles for many, but not really toys for the rich. Think they make a statement.

 

[Atari2600]

The games bring back memories so I like them. I remember playing Lunar Lander when it came out in 1979 and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. One of my kids has a thing about "who farted" so I like that as well. I know Bob Lutz would never allow stuff like this and I'm thankful people like him have no say at Tesla.

 

[Uncle Paul]

I remember meeting Bob Lutz and though of him as a legend, but time has moved on, and he has not changed much.

Getting to be more of a curmudgeon than ever.

He had a lot of opinions about the auto industry. Some got support and others were dismissed.

Kind of like Lee Iacocca. He saved Chrysler with K-Cars, the Mini van and Jeep, but ended up making electric bicycles and Urban golf carts

 

[StealthP3D]

I've been doing New Years with the same 4 couples for 20 years. We rent a house and cook, eat/drink for 2-4 days. One of them is a nurse and she's a real crack-up. She loves the website with photos of oddly dressed Walmart Shoppers (visible butt cracks, etc) and any kind of poop/fart humor. Those are her two specialties that always get her laughing inexplicably hilariously and she is going to be in absolute stitches when she hears "Emissions Testing Mode" on the Model 3.

OK, gotta go practice up so I can introduce her to it properly! I think Elon needs to micro-manage these fun updates a little more. I can't figure out how to run "Romance Mode" at the same time as "Fart Mode"! That would make it twice as funny and was a real oversight.

 

[Jedi2155]

Whats the first thing I show to people when I try to show off the car? Besides the giant screen thats obvious, its not the acceleration, but what can you do with this giant screen?

That's right, all the little easter eggs and apps they put in the car. That gets people to smile and sells the car far more than the other aspects. It might seem pointless to many but I definitely think it adds appeal to the car.

It takes 3-10 minutes to get on the road and show off the acceleration but only takes a few seconds to let some farts loose...

 

[eli_]

I think the easter eggs are the perfect project for engineers who are new to Tesla or interns and are just cutting their teeth on making changes to the firmware. It's low risk and its no big deal if they screw it up and it never ships, and it's not like messing around with important stuff like BMS or inverter controls.

 

[malcolm]

Would "sensible" and "more worthwhile" upgrades have generated anything like the same level of discussion threads/posts on this site, let alone online articles in the auto media?

This thread and others like it are the reason for these "frivolous" apps.

They're working as intended.

 

[tccartier]

Maybe I don’t get it. I don’t play video games in my car. I dont own any gaming consoles at home either. Yes, my kids have them but I don’t get why this is being added to a car. Seems like they could make better use of their time then calibrating which seat will have a fart sound. Maybe at 52, I’m too old to get the humor. I’d rather have a look at the stock market or breaking news. Actually, I use my phone for that. Am I alone here?

Without going into any great detail I have to say I couldn't agree more. It's useless nonsense when I can't get simple things like the actual date or day on one of my displays, I'm dealing with repeated media system hangs and glitches.

For those that insist that it did not cost me anything and just move on, I would stato "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". However little time was spent coming up with this crap it could have been utilized coming up with something that would actually fix some of the nagging bugs and glitches that many have complained about for quite some time,.

I'm not averse to a little good-natured fun, but do I really need whoopee cushion and farting sounds in my car to the exclusion of something useful such as the date on my screen?

 

[forkee]

i'm pretty sure these are just "proof of concept" leftovers. like way back when they were coding seat sensors, they had the computer make a beep sound whenever someone would sit in it for confirmation, then they just changed it to fart sound and made it accessible from the screen.

it's easy to make changes or add easter eggs because it has no effect on the day to day actual on road experience; it's just there for fun. there's no backlash or regulation on them. make any simple change to the driving UI and some people might get mad or blame tesla for causing them to crash, etc. and next thing you know they get sued over a simple change.

i'm sure they are addressing more functional issues but may need to verify program stability and make sure any reworkings don't affect the rest of the electronics (hence why easter eggs are multiplying freely because they are segregated in their own little "basket").

 

[Kutu]

I would certainly give up farts for SCV!

 

[RossBrindleyAU]

Well now, that is some fine double-speak!



It's simply a personal observation of people I know who love the idea of an insanely quick, good handling electric car but can't afford any new car, let alone a Tesla P3D. A $70K car is viewed by many to be impractical, excessive, wasteful, and more. They still want one but will make up excuses why they really don't want one. But you can see the lust in their eyes, it's unmistakable.

"Sour grapes" was recognized by Aesop, a former Greek slave, over 2,500 years ago and is far more common than you might know. People of 2,500 years ago had the same human characteristics of modern humans. The "sour grapes" phenomenon is also well documented in modern human psychology so I'm not sure why you would deny something that is so well recognized.

But you are correct, I over-stated the situation when I said "nearly everyone wants a Tesla". You see, those who CLAIM they don't want one can't be counted because "wanting" something is very personal and can only be determined by asking someone whether they "want" something. Someone afflicted with "sour grapes" will clearly say they DON'T want it.

But, yeah, deep down inside, nearly everyone wants one, at least of those who have experienced one first hand. Even if they say they don't. And "fart mode" brings a little levity to the situation. It's brilliant marketing.

I think you will find that this was not from my post.

 

[StealthP3D]

I think you will find that this was not from my post.

My apologies, not sure how that happened when I was quoting from Needsdecaf. I would fix it but the editing window has expired.

 

[vikefan]

Disagree. Of course the effort on games and Easter Eggs takes away from something else! Developers don't work for free, even if it is for something "fun." The idea that it only takes a few hours to create one of these Easter Eggs might be true, but it might also take only a few hours to fix some of the nagging problems in the audio app that have caused thousands of complaints for several years! Or to fix any of a number of other issues people have identified with their cars.
No, I do not buy the argument that these types of effort are effectively "free" and don't undermine the effort available for other work. It is all work, and there are only so many hours in the day. They might be more fun to do than than fixing issues with the USB player, I will grant you that.

I work in the video game industry and have for the last 15 years, all of those years being spent at two of the biggest and most well known game developers in the world. My experience in this arena is quite extensive, and I can tell you with absolute, 100% certainty that you’re utterly wrong.

First of all, yes, developers do work for free. Many of us make games in our spare time for fun, and while it’s quite rare for someone’s hobby game or mini-game to make into our company’s products, it’s not unheard of.

Second, tech companies are often very willing to pay their employees to occasionally work on things that have nothing to do with their actual job (and recent research shows that making this a regular activity is beneficial to employees & companies in the long run). In fact, our company specifically promotes an official version of this very concept three times a year. We call them hackathons, which actually is a thing at many tech companies, where people from all over the company can self organize and work on something — anything they want — for a 48 hr marathon session.

Third, in the tech world, there is no such thing as someone who can work effectively for an entire 8 hr day. You are quite mistaken if you think that if only someone didn’t spend a couple hours adding one of those Easter eggs, they’d be fixing all sorts of bugs. There’s not a 1:1 ratio here. Programmers (as do all humans, but coders specifically) need breaks to be able to maintain long periods of flow time (an actual tech term if u care to look it up). What they do to recharge their brains does not in any way diminish their productivity, but in fact enhances it.

Fourth, it’s quite wrong to simply assume that the people who made these games are the same people or teams who would work on all of the things you care about anyway. Tech companies have different teams working on different things. The person who made X Easter egg may not be on the team who develops the UI for example and so affects their potential for output even less so than as I described above.

Fifth, I don’t have the source code to these eggs of course, but from someone who knows a thing or two about how games are made and delivered, I would guess it’s likely that Tesla spent more time QA’ing these games than actually coding them.

 

[vikefan]

I'm not averse to a little good-natured fun, but do I really need whoopee cushion and farting sounds in my car to the exclusion of something useful such as the date on my screen?

See my post above. You’re using the False Dichotomy fallacious argument. These Easter eggs do not exist “to the exclusion” of anything else. You’re making a baseless assumption and then using it to buoy your viewpoint.

 

[M0DEL³]

I'm not averse to a little good-natured fun, but do I really need whoopee cushion and farting sounds in my car to the exclusion of something useful such as the date on my screen?

Or a reliable - web browser - that didn't require regular rebooting to keep functioning. I agree with the core premise that Tesla developer priorities are misplaced with the Easter Eggs.

 

[tccartier]

See my post above. You’re using the False Dichotomy fallacious argument. These Easter eggs do not exist “to the exclusion” of anything else. You’re making a baseless assumption and then using it to buoy your viewpoint.

They do in my car! And I don't have a date on my display. so to me the end-user I have nonsense on my screen and I don't have things that I could actually use that used to be there.

 

[dhrivnak]

Maybe I don’t get it. I don’t play video games in my car. I dont own any gaming consoles at home either. Yes, my kids have them but I don’t get why this is being added to a car. Seems like they could make better use of their time then calibrating which seat will have a fart sound. Maybe at 52, I’m too old to get the humor. I’d rather have a look at the stock market or breaking news. Actually, I use my phone for that. Am I alone here?

I agree maybe I would find this funny if we had audible blind spot detection. Or if I did not need to reboot once a week to get my sound back. Or if my wife’s phone would reliably connect. For us the issues are a MUCH higher priority than a game.