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I have a Model X coming soon (vin 48xx). I have always thought the doors were silly. A needless extravagance. My wife is worried she will be embarrassed using them, especially in our inner-city neighborhood.
I can not tell you how much my mild discontent for these doors has turned into full blown contempt. As an investor, it infuriates me that Tesla pushed forward to produce them. I know they serve a benefit, but it seems to have come at a massive cost to the company. I too believe that these doors will go down as one of the automotive Industries top-10 blunders. I do not expect Tesla to be producing these a few years from now.
These doors are not worth the occasional ego stroke they provide when they attract positive attention. Yes, I realize I do not have the car yet. I hope my actual experience makes me look back at this post and say I was wrong. But for now, this is simply upsetting. I would *pay* for the option of regular doors.
I can not tell you how much my mild discontent for these doors has turned into full blown contempt. As an investor, it infuriates me that Tesla pushed forward to produce them. I know they serve a benefit, but it seems to have come at a massive cost to the company. I too believe that these doors will go down as one of the automotive Industries top-10 blunders. I do not expect Tesla to be producing these a few years from now.
These doors are not worth the occasional ego stroke they provide when they attract positive attention. Yes, I realize I do not have the car yet. I hope my actual experience makes me look back at this post and say I was wrong. But for now, this is simply upsetting. I would *pay* for the option of regular doors.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
I think people are blowing this a bit out of proportion. It's a new product, and this is the first real world implementation. Not to downplay it too much...it could certainly end up being a horrid financial mistake for the company...but these are early days yet. They seemed to have gotten a "handle" on the early issues with the presenting door handles.
Do we know where the sensors are located? Is the trim at the bottom of the door plastic or metal? Are the sensors down there? Elon said they invented sensors that can see through metal. If that is true, it seems they need to add a couple to the part of the door where the paint damage is located on the car on page 7.
I agree, the doors are probably the chief reason why I haven't confirmed my reservation. To me they kind of take what is probably the best single all-around car out there in terms of functionality and almost kind of distract from that, but then again the doors are supposed to be pretty practical in use so I don't know. I actually think they are really cool, and eventually I wouldn't be surprised if they become as common as sliding doors on minivans, I noticed Ford just copied them with a concept vehicle. But as a youngish person were I live (if I was in LA or San Fran it would probably be normal), a Tesla already feels like a pretty flashy car it and the falcon doors multiply that by a good margin. People seem to make a lot of assumptions by what they see you driving, which is wrong, but still it happens. My understanding is the point of the X was pretty much to bridge the time between the s and when the 3 could be made, if they were just trying to get it into production asap they wouldn't have done the doors. Will be interesting to see if the y has these doors. I would guess that they won't be as big a problem for Tesla as the title of this thread might suggest though, at this point a lot of problems can be fixed by software updates. Hope you enjoy your X, I'm sure the doors will be a minor annoyance compared to not having to go to gas stations the safety and other benefits.
systemcrashed
Please Reboot
Pleas excuse the roughness of the sketch, but this helps illustrate what is happening and how it can be mitigated. Additional sensors added to the B pillars (possibly behind the glass) where my black "X" is in the center vehicle. As you can see the existing sensors are reporting no obstacles so the doors keep going until they hit the beam. Easy fix, not enough for me to hate the door design but then again we live in FL where we park outdoors with plenty of space. Ease of entry for the family is the real benefit.
Oh boo frickin hoo....sell your stock and don't buy the car....no one's putting a gun to your head
Problems like these are worrisome, new or not. I suspect that's why the S refresh didn't get auto powered doors yet. They have work to do on their sensors.
It'd be great for the FWD to become an option, similar to pano roof. There were plenty of problems with the pano early on, but the desire from customers kept the pano in play, and now it's the majority.
Personally I don't like the pano and prefer body color roof, but I'm the minority in this case. FWD should have the same trial and see what prevails. Imo I think it'd be on its way out if they tried it this way.
Sliding mini van doors would be great.
It'd be great for the FWD to become an option, similar to pano roof. There were plenty of problems with the pano early on, but the desire from customers kept the pano in play, and now it's the majority.
Personally I don't like the pano and prefer body color roof, but I'm the minority in this case. FWD should have the same trial and see what prevails. Imo I think it'd be on its way out if they tried it this way.
Sliding mini van doors would be great.
systemcrashed
Please Reboot
Leave the FWDs on the MX, make an electric minivan with minivan doors. This is a 7seater crossover SUV not a grocery getter. If the design doesn't fit a persons lifestyle they shouldn't try to force it. The MX is attractive to people bc of its technology, it obviously cannot fulfill the role of two entirely different automobile classes perfectly.
If you don't think it's a grocery getter, then what is it? It certainly isn't a real SUV in that it forgets almost anything that puts "Utility" in SUV. Most people wanting a 7 seat SUV want some way to carry gear. They don't want to have to actually remove a seat to carry a simple pair of skis since they can't go on the roof. They want to be able to put a cargo box on the roof with their camping gear while their bikes are on a hitch rack. IMHO this car fails miserably at being a SUV.
So if it's not an SUV and it's not a grocery getter, what is it? The touting of the FaWDs on the website seems to suggest grocery getter to me. Look how easy it is to get the kids in their seats in the grocery store parking lot!
I'm one of the many who have canceled their reservation after a very disappointing Meet X experience. Bummer. Like many above if they offered a version with traditional doors I'd put an order in tomorrow.
systemcrashed
Please Reboot
I think you're confusing the crossover SUV (BMW X6) with SUV (Honda Pilot etc.). There is a certain sportiness to crossover SUVs that is not there in a typical standard sized SUV, that was the point of my previous post. Without getting too argumentative here, the thread is about the failure of the FWD to detect an obstacle above it. IMHO I think the FWD will improve and evolve and you will see it copied by other manufacturers.
This recommendation shouldn't be overlooked. I've said before that auto-raising locations for air suspension should be crowdsourced as well. If I need to raise my Model S at a certain point, others probably do as well. This could expand on that a bit. I like the idea, though it doesn't generalize as well as fixing the sensor "blind spot" or whatever might have caused this.
K-MTG
Sunshade Captain of TMC
Just thinking...
Something as simple as an icon that appears during daylight hours when the brightness falls outside. Unless you push the icon, the doors will stop opening at ~6.5'. This is the lowest parking ceilings I've seen. The door must be jogged from that point on (button held),
Daylight is way brighter than parking garages or house garages.
This is something that might be as simple as a reflash?
Something as simple as an icon that appears during daylight hours when the brightness falls outside. Unless you push the icon, the doors will stop opening at ~6.5'. This is the lowest parking ceilings I've seen. The door must be jogged from that point on (button held),
Daylight is way brighter than parking garages or house garages.
This is something that might be as simple as a reflash?
In this particular case, and in the other case in this thread, I think it would have avoided the issue. I've told my wife to use it whenever she's somewhere with a low ceiling. You have the option to open the doors from the touchscreen when you put the car in park, and there is an umbrella and a full open icon. So in those cases, the driver can control what the passengers do by beating them to the door controls.
systemcrashed
Please Reboot
After watching umbrella mode on video, I believe the doors open wider but lower, in a tight garage this might not work out. I think a good rule of thumb is to be very cautious in garages that have a vertical clearance warning as you enter the garage. I looked through the manual and did not find an open door clearance value. I don't have my X yet so cannot measure it.
mkspeedr
Member
In the age before forums I remember the introduction of minivans. The word of mouth horror stories of kids slamming their fingers in the those stupid, unnecessary cargo van styled doors almost prevented my family from buying one.
Now sliding minivan doors are one of the best minvan features.
Now sliding minivan doors are one of the best minvan features.
For you and anyone else on here upset prejudging the doors before they start using them with kids in car seats (who they were designed for, soccer moms and dads)...please hold your opinions until you start using them.
If you don't have kids (or kids in car seats) I could see not making good use of them and feeling disgruntled about the delay it has caused in production. However, this SUV may not be for you if you aren't a soccer mom/dad...this car was designed for moms with kids. They actually held focus groups early on in the design a few years ago with moms to figure out what they would like or get most utility from with the X.
OR
If you are embarassed to be an early adopter of new superior technology (that's right, these doors are in fact SUPERIOR in functionality and style to any other car door) in public then you have no business buying or owning a Tesla at all and please give up your reservation to someone else in line who will appreciate this incredible piece of machinery for what it is in its entirety on day 1. Wait a couple years until you feel "safe" that the general public is aware and accepting of the FWDs by the true early adopters who aren't as worried about what other people think of them.
I owned an S since 2013, upgraded in 2015 and then took delivery of my Sig X this past January. There have been some hiccups that I've had to go back to service on a couple of occasions already to get fixed BUT this car is STILL by far the best product I have or ever will buy by a long shot. Maybe if I didn't have 3 kids under the age of 4 I wouldn't be as enthused about it but I think I would still like even without kids.
Having kids in car seats make these double-hinged falcon wing doors PRICELESS in terms of functionality. So much so that I am very accepting if they have a few kinks in them to be worked out by service once in a while for the first few months as I'm an early adopter and expected that.
Using these FWDs is not something you can appreciate really until you start using them the first few times to load or unload your kids and have that 'iPhone moment' of "wow! I didn't know it could be so easy and almost fun to get my kids in or out of the car like this"....opened up a new world in our family life as makes us almost look for excuses to do things with our kids that require me to load and unload them in the X multiple times when we used to avoid going anywhere with all 3 kids unless we absolutely had to bc it was a headache before loading/unloading them in the S or the other cars/SUVs we've had, even better than a minivan.
FALCON WING DOORS ARE AMAZING AND AWESOME FOR SOCCER MOMS OR SOCCER DADS!
FWDs CAN ALSO BE AWESOME FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT SOCCER MOMS/DADS
Attention TMC member: PORFIRY
If you are so quick to 'dislike' this post I would appreciate to know you reasoning. Is it because you don't like that it was designed for soccer moms? Or that you think the FWDs look stupid perhaps? Just am asking for a reason from you or any of the other many people on this thread who I'm sure may dislike the truth of my post above (the truth can hurt, especially when it involves change)
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