Firmware Bug Reporting to Tesla

[green1]

Multiple posts extracted from the Firmware 7.1 thread.

I have already sent a bug report to the mother ship.

Please tell me you wrote an email, or made a phone call, and didn't just use the "bug report" voice command. It seems nobody actually looks at those.

 

[Footbag]

Please tell me you wrote an email, or made a phone call, and didn't just use the "bug report" voice command. It seems nobody actually looks at those.

Green1, I found a road in town here where 60km/h was routinely detected as 50km/h (and thus restictions kicked in trying to go 61 or greater). I did a bug report along with an email to the servicena address. I was a bit saddened to see their response of "we will forward your concern to your local service center". As if service centers have any ability to directly process such an issue. I do hope it is just a boilerplate response and/or my SC then forwards it on to someone else.

 

[green1]

Green1, I found a road in town here where 60km/h was routinely detected as 50km/h (and thus restictions kicked in trying to go 61 or greater). I did a bug report along with an email to the servicena address. I was a bit saddened to see their response of "we will forward your concern to your local service center". As if service centers have any ability to directly process such an issue. I do hope it is just a boilerplate response and/or my SC then forwards it on to someone else.

I have submitted dozens of bug reports like this through both the voice controls and by email. I'm getting similar responses. I am going to keep inundating them with examples because they have asked for me to do so, and because I honestly believe that they don't really believe the issue is real unless they get tons of complaints. I am also waiting for this particular issue to be reported resolved before I leave 7.0

 

[Andyw2100]

Green1, I found a road in town here where 60km/h was routinely detected as 50km/h (and thus restictions kicked in trying to go 61 or greater). I did a bug report along with an email to the servicena address. I was a bit saddened to see their response of "we will forward your concern to your local service center". As if service centers have any ability to directly process such an issue. I do hope it is just a boilerplate response and/or my SC then forwards it on to someone else.

I have submitted dozens of bug reports like this through both the voice controls and by email. I'm getting similar responses. I am going to keep inundating them with examples because they have asked for me to do so, and because I honestly believe that they don't really believe the issue is real unless they get tons of complaints. I am also waiting for this particular issue to be reported resolved before I leave 7.0

I think you guys should definitely follow up with an email along the lines of:

"I reported x location as having a misidentified speed limit y weeks ago. The Tesla software identifies this as a 50 km/h road when it is actually a 60km/h road. Since the software is now limiting speed based on this incorrect information, getting it corrected when errors are reported has to be a priority. Can you please describe the system that is in place that allows for these errors to be corrected? I wouldn't be asking, but so far it appears there may not be one.

Thanks."

We really need to hold Tesla accountable for being able to get these errors corrected when they learn about them.

 

[green1]

I think you guys should definitely follow up with an email along the lines of:

"I reported x location as having a misidentified speed limit y weeks ago. The Tesla software identifies this as a 50 km/h road when it is actually a 60km/h road. Since the software is now limiting speed based on this incorrect information, getting it corrected when errors are reported has to be a priority. Can you please describe the system that is in place that allows for these errors to be corrected? I wouldn't be asking, but so far it appears there may not be one.

Thanks."

We really need to hold Tesla accountable for being able to get these errors corrected when they learn about them.

My emails have been very much along those lines. I have told them that with the restrictions in place in 7.1 I refuse to update until they resolve this issue. I have asked repeatedly what systems they have in place, their only reply is that they're forwarding it to my local service centre. The service centre however has not contacted me. They also keep telling me to continue to submit examples.

I believe the system they currently have in place is "tell the customer you're taking them seriously and hope they eventually go away"

 

[Andyw2100]

My emails have been very much along those lines. I have told them that with the restrictions in place in 7.1 I refuse to update until they resolve this issue. I have asked repeatedly what systems they have in place, their only reply is that they're forwarding it to my local service centre. The service centre however has not contacted me. They also keep telling me to continue to submit examples.
I believe the system they currently have in place is "tell the customer you're taking them seriously and hope they eventually go away"

That really is ridiculous.

It's pretty clear the local service center can't update the information contained in the firmware.

The only way forwarding the issue to the local service center would make sense would be if the idea is that they need to confirm your report, and then, once confirmed, they can report that back to the mothership so the change can be made.

I can certainly understand your frustration.

 

[msnow]

My emails have been very much along those lines. I have told them that with the restrictions in place in 7.1 I refuse to update until they resolve this issue. I have asked repeatedly what systems they have in place, their only reply is that they're forwarding it to my local service centre. The service centre however has not contacted me. They also keep telling me to continue to submit examples.

I believe the system they currently have in place is "tell the customer you're taking them seriously and hope they eventually go away"

Yes, this is pretty much what happens to me too. As an example I asked why I hadn't received the map update that was going around here and that was followed up with the above recited form mail indicating the Service Center would look into it. That was followed by a call from the SvC who told me there was no map update. I sent them the links from this site and then they came back with some vague response that it was not really something they could distribute so I would have to wait. In short I still think sending the emails is a good thing because both Tesla and us have records of the interaction to refer to but it's clear they don't have their act together yet but they're trying.

 

[BertL]

Yes, this is pretty much what happens to me too. As an example I asked why I hadn't received the map update that was going around here and that was followed up with the above recited form mail indicating the Service Center would look into it. That was followed by a call from the SvC who told me there was no map update. I sent them the links from this site and then they came back with some vague response that it was not really something they could distribute so I would have to wait. In short I still think sending the emails is a good thing because both Tesla and us have records of the interaction to refer to but it's clear they don't have their act together yet but they're trying.

I agree it's important to officially report every error, and I hope all owners do the same -- not just assuming Tesla knows it's a problem or a concern -- even if it's being hotly discussed here.

The one thing I would suggest is even if a problem is presented to a SC, or the national tech line says to do so, I have ZERO personal expectation the SC can resolve any software problems other than reload code, reboot my MS, or perhaps call or escalate someway back to the next higher-level of support -- a software problem isn't going to get fixed by a SC. The SC is the customer-facing team that has to take customer's grief and make the best of the situation with what is within their control. While they and even the 800-number Tech Support agents can bend over backwards perhaps when it is a hardware issue -- SCs are not programmers or engineers, nor are they people that can make changes to Navigon mapping databases, or reprioritize where engineering spends their time shooting software bugs or improving software capabilities. SCs follow directions as to what they can and cannot do, and try to accommodate customers within those constraints -- as is the case with any similar service team.

I guess since I spent all of my professional career in various technical support roles, I just try to keep a bit of perspective -- and even when I do report a bug to the SC that ends-up as "a firmware bug with no ETA for resolution", I follow-up with a business like email to NA Tech Support in hopes that one of those two methods will get mgmt attention that CAN cause something to be resolved if enough people complain about the same thing. I may be overly optimistic as other posters here on TMC have told me before. I agree it's a ridiculous duplicate step a customer may feel like they need to do, but as an owner who has already paid over $115K to Tesla, I have little other alternatives except post repetitive gripes here on TMC that doesn't accomplish anything except get me on more user ignore lists -- or perhaps that I likely won't buy another Tesla one day if my service expectations continue to be less than I expect. The one thing all of us can do is have our business-like elevator speech ready on a couple key points needing improvement, should the opportunity ever arise to be in the same room as Senior Tesla Execs for a Q&A, or with the Press who may have more pull effecting Tesla's focused direction than at least some Owners feel is appropriate for their continued satisfaction and loyalty to the brand.

 

[MarcG]

[...] email to the servicena address. I was a bit saddened to see their response of "we will forward your concern to your local service center". As if service centers have any ability to directly process such an issue. I do hope it is just a boilerplate response and/or my SC then forwards it on to someone else.

+1 here for another issue. Seems like a default answer, which also doesn't make sense to me.

 

[msnow]

+1 here for another issue. Seems like a default answer, which also doesn't make sense to me.

I think what they are *trying* to do is make your Service Center the face of all support issues to the customer. Unfortunately for us, many of our issues can only be solved at a higher level and due to Tesla's lack of transparency we are not sure what, if any, trouble tickets are opened, escalated or reported on internally.

 

[MarcG]

Right, and this method adds unnecessary load to an already overwhelmed service center network.

 

[Andyw2100]

Some of you guys who live near your service centers seem to have pretty close relationships with some of the people at the service centers. Could any of you ask them flat out what they are supposed to do when they get a report of a highway that has the wrong speed associated with it? Because if the answer is what I fear it may be, they are probably as frustrated by the situation as we are, but in less of a position to do anything about it.

 

[BertL]

Some of you guys who live near your service centers seem to have pretty close relationships with some of the people at the service centers. Could any of you ask them flat out what they are supposed to do when they get a report of a highway that has the wrong speed associated with it? Because if the answer is what I fear it may be, they are probably as frustrated by the situation as we are, but in less of a position to do anything about it.

^^^ THAT is my personal opinion as well. I'll be interested in other's thoughts.

I don't have a close relationship with my SC personnel, as I'm happy to have only been there a total of 4 times in nearly 6 months since taking delivery and that's including my delivery day and a quick seat belt inspection ...but, my impression as I was lightly probing this was the SC personnel were very well intentioned towards me as a customer, but also good corporate citizens that wouldn't be super transparent (like they should), and they were basically stuck with their ability to document certain problems, research them (again) once a technician got involved, and then discuss the result (all over again for the umpteenth-time) with the customer to hopefully satisfy them as much as they could, and then move on. All I could think of the last time I was there in December, was if I was still leading a technical support organization, how much I would have loved to have replicated a couple of the service advisors ability to handle customers with a smile and make me feel as good as I could, despite the challenging situation they were in not being able to do a whole lot on some things, and not being overly transparent with their personal feelings (as I would expect them to be if they were part of my team and wanted to keep their job, but not perhaps if I was a disgruntled customer or investigative reporter). To make up for it, I felt the SC went over and above dealing with the hardware items they could impact.

 

[donv]

Do you think they actually send those reports to the service center? Tesla's not stupid-- what is the service center supposed to do about it?

I suspect "we forwarded your concern to your local service center" should be translated to "we put your report in our junk mail folder."

 

[msnow]

Do you think they actually send those reports to the service center? Tesla's not stupid-- what is the service center supposed to do about it?

I suspect "we forwarded your concern to your local service center" should be translated to "we put your report in our junk mail folder."

No. That's what they are doing now. The last three issues I've opened to [email protected] have resulted in an email and phone call from my local service center. Admittedly they couldn't help but that's what they are doing.

 

[Andyw2100]

Do you think they actually send those reports to the service center? Tesla's not stupid-- what is the service center supposed to do about it?

I suspect "we forwarded your concern to your local service center" should be translated to "we put your report in our junk mail folder."

No. That's what they are doing now. The last three issues I've opened to [email protected] have resulted in an email and phone call from my local service center. Admittedly they couldn't help but that's what they are doing.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think there really is much of an organization or system in place that allows for a group of customer service / techs at a centralized location to deal with anything, including things like this that might best be dealt with this way. Instead almost everything is kicked back to the local service centers. That may be appropriate for many issues, but not for all of them. For some, like these mapping issues, it's just a complete waste of the SC's time and our time as customers.

If I'm correct that Tesla doesn't have a centralized group that can actually resolve some issues on their own, they should. Or if they have one, but it is very small, perhaps it should be expanded. I know if you call in with an error while driving, someone at the mother ship can see the error message, etc., so there must be at least a small staff in place that has access to the right tools to deal with some of this stuff. Why not expand that staff and their duties signifcantly, and in so doing free up time for the service centers that are already ridiculously overworked, and are only going to become more overworked and understaffed as the Model Xs start rolling out in quantity?

There are a great many problems that don't require physical contact with the car to resolve. The service centers should never have to hear about those.

 

[green1]

It's hard for me to tell if they've actually forwarded my report to the service centre or not. I've made a dozen or so reports, that have all been "forwarded to your local service centre" however I have never received any communication from the service centre about it. That said, I haven't pestered them either as I know there's absolutely nothing they can do. And that may be why they haven't called me too, because it's nothing they can do anything about.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

It's hard for me to tell if they've actually forwarded my report to the service centre or not. I've made a dozen or so reports, that have all been "forwarded to your local service centre" however I have never received any communication from the service centre about it. That said, I haven't pestered them either as I know there's absolutely nothing they can do. And that may be why they haven't called me too, because it's nothing they can do anything about.

I have no way of knowing if things work like this but I could see (would like to see?) a system wherein all complaints/reports are forwarded to your local Service Center where they review and make the decision on whether or not they should call you to make an appointment to bring the car in or they realize it is more likely a system wide software bug and the Service Center forwards it on to the correct people within Tesla.

Mike

 

[Andyw2100]

I have no way of knowing if things work like this but I could see (would like to see?) a system wherein all complaints/reports are forwarded to your local Service Center where they review and make the decision on whether or not they should call you to make an appointment to bring the car in or they realize it is more likely a system wide software bug and the Service Center forwards it on to the correct people within Tesla.

Mike

This is where you and I (surprisingly for once) disagree.

I'd much rather see the centralized location decide whether or not something can be handled without sending it to the service center, and if it can be handled without service center involvement, then handle it. The only things that in my mind should make it to the service center level are things that will definitely require hands on the car to resolve. The service centers are already so over-worked that in some cases it takes months to get an appointment. This situation is only going to get worse when the Model X starts hitting the streets in real numbers. I'd like to see Tesla take things the service centers can't really help with anyway completely off their plate, and let them focus on the the things that only they can do--physical work on the cars.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

This is where you and I (surprisingly for once) disagree.

I'd much rather see the centralized location decide whether or not something can be handled without sending it to the service center, and if it can be handled without service center involvement, then handle it. The only things that in my mind should make it to the service center level are things that will definitely require hands on the car to resolve. The service centers are already so over-worked that in some cases it takes months to get an appointment. This situation is only going to get worse when the Model X starts hitting the streets in real numbers. I'd like to see Tesla take things the service centers can't really help with anyway completely off their plate, and let them focus on the the things that only they can do--physical work on the cars.

Fair enough - I can live with that too (as long as the issues are being investigated and not ignored). But if the reports are true that "...everything is being forwarded to the Service Center..." then I'd like to believe there is still a path for issues to get to the correct place for resolution. I have a good relationship with my local service manager and I have sent him software reports before that he has forwarded on up the chain for further review.