I bought a 6 digit car...not a video game.

[robg]

Because many of the problems have extended out over years now and several updates with no fix in sight. This is why I used the term "persistent" several times because it's an important word in this conversation. It's not like a bug just surfaced with the latest update and is already being fixed in the upcoming update. (But even if it was a small bug that just presented in the latest update that just means more man hours should have been applied to testing and debugging prior to release rather than making us the test mules.) This is stuff that they can't seem to get right over several updates and yet waste man hours on coding and testing fart apps and video games that do NOTHING to fix the actual problems people are having.

Stop diverting resources to BS when the meat and potatoes of what you're selling requires attention Tesla!

I think the easter eggs started as a lark (probably Elon's idea given his goofy personality), but then they realized it was generating tons of free marketing for them, so they kept doing it (and now with a business case behind it).

Overall, I think Tesla's approach to software development is very cynical and reminiscent of VW's "perceived quality" campaign they began about 15 years go. VW realized that if they used nicer plastics/materials in places that customers would notice in the showroom (along with having tight panel gaps), customers would assume the rest of the car was high quality thus allowing them to skimp on parts that you can't see.

Tesla's infotainment system makes for a great demo in the showroom. You're dazzled by the size, speed and crisp graphics. Ha- wow - it even has a "fart app" and video games! If it has that it must be able to do everything! Only when you start digging in and actually using it do all the underlying problems (bugs, missing features, and usability issues) become noticeable. When I test drove a Model 3 several months ago, I happened to ask about several audio/phone integration features that I'm used to on my BMW. The sales guy said "yeah...this (gesturing to the screen) isn't really tesla's strength". Which, of course, is very true but runs counter to the narrative that they've created for themselves and sold to the general public.

On a very cynical level, this approach makes sense for them as Elon has decided to prioritize growth above everything. So, with limited resources, he invests in the "sizzle" necessary to sell cars to new customers. I don't know how that plays out when/if the company survives long enough that it needs to court repeat buyers. But, for now, it's clear they're going all out on a growth above all else strategy.

Keeping Wall Street happy aside, I wonder if this approach makes sense given that they have achieved/or are close to achieving sufficient volume for profitability. Only if Elon's wildest dreams come true, and they manage to flip the switch to enable Model 3s to become a fleet of robotaxis, does it begin to make sense. He's just optimistic and crazy enough to believe that so maybe that's his reasoning behind pushing for so much growth.

 

[SO16]

Look. The games and fart apps were done to show that Tesla can be different. To appeal to the younger generation (FUTURE BUYERS!!!). And it’s working. It may not be for YOU! If this is their marketing tactics (which would be a fraction of average advertising costs), then so be it.

Would it be great if we could choose our display layout, had text to voice, bug fixes and some other features? Sure. And I think EVENTUALLY that will happen.

Never buy anything on “future capability” if you are that dead set on having it as that may not come to fruition.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I can buy that argument -- sort of, and reluctantly, for the Easter eggs. they mostly seem to be small bits of software, so I can imagine they might have been done "on the side" by someone whose main job is something else.

But i do not buy that argument for the video games. They are clearly much bigger pieces of code. Developing and integrating those was not somebody's side task to relax and have fun for just a little while, something to blow off steam. I suspect they represent a substantial cost to Tesla, either in labor or in purchased services or licenses, or all of the above. Tesla is losing money, hand over fist. With limited resources, I would still rather have them spending their money and engineering talent on fixing stuff like the audio system that people have complained about for years and never seems to get fixed, or any number of other things that owners would want -- not on video games.

The only game that isn't fairly easy to implement "emulator" stuff is Beach Buggy Racing. It wasn't developed by Tesla, but by a company called Vector Unit.

Tesla rolls out Beach Buggy Racing 2 game to its cars - Roadshow

You disagreed with my post where I pointed out that it was developed outside Tesla. I'm not entirely sure why. Now maybe you disagreed because obviously it took money to bring it to life on the Tesla, and that money Tesla could have spent elsewhere.

On that point I completely agree in that there are lots of other ways Tesla could have spent that money or simply not spent it at all.

But, the thing is that both you and I are missing critical information. That critical information is what drives sales. Sure we can speculate, and we can claim that Nav features like waypoints would sell more cars but we have nothing to back that up. It's something I'd much rather have than some silly game.

Over time I've recognized just how popular Tesla vehicles are with breeders. err, I mean young families.

So I imagine various things that appeal to "families" are things Tesla will use their limited resources for. So that means silly things like the fart app, and video games.

Where things I'd rather have are put on the back burner.

Now we do need to separate easy to implement games, UI, nav type features from things like Enhanced summons. Lots of people will complain about how long enhanced summons is taking, but I think that's one of those things where only specialty people can really pull it off. So we just have to wait. I don't see it as something Tesla can just throw more resources onto.

What frustrates me about Tesla isn't the various games or easter eggs taking resources. What frustrates me is how reluctant Elon is at partnering up with a company to develop USEFUL features. As an example the Beach Buggy game was developed by a third party, and Elon was okay with that. That's why it happened so quickly, and it was likely fairly inexpensive comparatively to features developed in-house. It's also why it works.

So why can't we have the same thing for Nav, UI, etc? Because Elon tries to vertically integrate so much.

That's great to have control over everything, but it also means slower development time. It also means more bugs as it's newly developed stuff versus proven out things. As an example Sentry mode is a cool feature, but is still buggy as all hell. It's noticeable with the image corruption that is typically seen in one of the repeater cameras.

 

[mvotb]

Sorry that the car you bought is getting free updates over the air that you don't want. I feel for you, I really do.

They can take their free updates and shove them. V9, wrecked MCU functionality on S and X, but we have useless apps. Yippee, and most of things that people have been complaining about for years have never been fixed. Is that strategy working?

Registrations of new Model S sedans in the second quarter plummeted 54% to 1,205 in California, according to the Dominion Cross-Sell report, which compiles data from state motor-vehicle records. The Golden State is a strong indicator of demand as Tesla’s largest U.S. market, representing 40% of Model S registrations in the country last year, according to auto-sales tracker Edmunds.com Inc.

Hmmmm

 

[Chaserr]

LNever buy anything on “future capability” if you are that dead set on having it as that may not come to fruition.

I think you have it confused, we aren't looking to the future we'd just like the past. New useful things would be better but just getting what we used to have is the first step. Things have been downgraded for years.

 

[Wol747]

I don't have much idea about how the computers talk to each other but if this was an aircraft system I'd be very leery if the entertainment package had ANY connection with the FBW , FMS etc. And for a car that might someday use its systems for FSD I would rather not have it farting around (joke) but working reliably 100% of the time.

 

[SO16]

They can take their free updates and shove them. V9, wrecked MCU functionality on S and X, but we have useless apps. Yippee, and most of things that people have been complaining about for years have never been fixed. Is that strategy working?

Registrations of new Model S sedans in the second quarter plummeted 54% to 1,205 in California, according to the Dominion Cross-Sell report, which compiles data from state motor-vehicle records. The Golden State is a strong indicator of demand as Tesla’s largest U.S. market, representing 40% of Model S registrations in the country last year, according to auto-sales tracker Edmunds.com Inc.

Hmmmm

I am familiar with V8 and V9 and I have MCU 1. Sure, you don’t have quite as much control over the screen layout and maybe turning off climate control takes an extra 2 seconds (if you don’t use the steering wheel for it), but it isn’t “that” bad. At least now you can have 3 things up at once depending on the app. Maps, rear camera and music which is exactly what I use. Would I like the ability of to pick exactly the apps running I want and where I want them placed on the screen, sure. But not to the point of OMG, ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!! Some people just are too overly dramatic.

As far as the drop in sales of the S/X in Q2, why is anyone surprised? Lots of people were holding out for a “refresh” and it didn’t become really available until the later part of Q2. If you are going to buy a really expensive car, wouldn’t you wait a supposed few months until the latest version is about to come out based on some speculation by the media? It will be interesting to see how sales do for Q3 since the Raven will have been out the entire quarter. If sales are still way down, then “maybe” you have something. But it’s also not apples to apples comparison compared to a year ago. The shorter range S is no longer available which may price some people out and the performance 3 is very reasonably priced.

 

[SO16]

I think you have it confused, we aren't looking to the future we'd just like the past. New useful things would be better but just getting what we used to have is the first step. Things have been downgraded for years.

Some things have regressed, yes. But I don’t think to the level that some make it out to be.

 

[T_E_S_L_A]

Y’all are depressing the crap out of me. I’m expecting to pick up my brand new Model S in one week and now wondering if this was all a big mistake.

 

[SO16]

Y’all are depressing the crap out of me. I’m expecting to pick up my brand new Model S in one week and now wondering if this was all a big mistake.

Pfft. No. The “regression” is truly minor. And mainly for people used to V8 on older MCU 1 vehicles.

 

[Twiglett]

Y’all are depressing the crap out of me. I’m expecting to pick up my brand new Model S in one week and now wondering if this was all a big mistake.

Ignore the get off my lawn curmudgeons
You will love your car.
Some folks like to imagine that development of “useful” features is somehow slowed down by “fun/useless” features.

 

[Ofarlig]

Y’all are depressing the crap out of me. I’m expecting to pick up my brand new Model S in one week and now wondering if this was all a big mistake.

I think v9 is amazing, much better and its faster on my MCU1 than v8 was as well.

 

[Big Toys]

Y’all are depressing the crap out of me. I’m expecting to pick up my brand new Model S in one week and now wondering if this was all a big mistake.

The battery, motor and suspension are great. The rest of the implementation is to be determined. The company sucks. In that order.

 

[Ostrichsak]

I am familiar with V8 and V9 and I have MCU 1. Sure, you don’t have quite as much control over the screen layout and maybe turning off climate control takes an extra 2 seconds (if you don’t use the steering wheel for it), but it isn’t “that” bad. At least now you can have 3 things up at once depending on the app. Maps, rear camera and music which is exactly what I use. Would I like the ability of to pick exactly the apps running I want and where I want them placed on the screen, sure. But not to the point of OMG, ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!! Some people just are too overly dramatic.

As far as the drop in sales of the S/X in Q2, why is anyone surprised? Lots of people were holding out for a “refresh” and it didn’t become really available until the later part of Q2. If you are going to buy a really expensive car, wouldn’t you wait a supposed few months until the latest version is about to come out based on some speculation by the media? It will be interesting to see how sales do for Q3 since the Raven will have been out the entire quarter. If sales are still way down, then “maybe” you have something. But it’s also not apples to apples comparison compared to a year ago. The shorter range S is no longer available which may price some people out and the performance 3 is very reasonably priced.

Very ironic that the three items you list have all been plagued with bugs over the last several updates that have persisted into the next update and have yet to be fixed. You of all people should want your three favorite apps to function the way they once did which is to be expected that when an update is pushed out it's been tested and polished prior to pushing it out. Instead we're left with a maps app that uses so many resources to process the code it crashes the browser and slows other apps, a rear view camera that regularly splits in half with the bottom on the top and the top on the bottom and a music streaming service that will regularly only play partial songs and randomly skip to the next song. But hey, we got farts!

Again, without even getting into the things that were promised for future, I can make a STRONG case for misappropriated resources that have led to a decrease in the features we had/paid for.

 

[trm2]

Study after study shows allowing developers to spend a little time on creative or “fun” stuff INCREASES productivity and job satisfaction.

The problem is we are still waiting on productivity, increased or otherwise.

 

[diplomat33]

It seems that every other recent update has to do with some enhancement to games or other entertainment distractions.

I'd really like Tesla to prioritize updates to vehicle operability...better navigation, autopilot, internet browser, or user interface (how about a trunk release button on the main menu, a favorite phone numbers list, or better stereo usability and configurability?).

Agree 10000%. I don't see Audi or GM adding games to their cars.

Come on Tesla! Focus on FSD, navigation, hands free texting, etc...

 

[Chaserr]

Pfft. No. The “regression” is truly minor. And mainly for people used to V8 on older MCU 1 vehicles.

Tesla is downgrading Long Range cars to Standard Range with software updates. They're downgrading Performance by removing Performance with software updates. These are not "truly minor" it by far the single biggest regression of any car ever. They're stealing $35700 worth of paid upgrades using OTAs and not even telling owners that it will happen in the patch notes. I don't know why you want to hide these problems but they're substantial criminal issues perpetrated entirely through software downgrades masquerading as OTA updates. The latest versions of V9 released TODAY are the cause of these problems. The farther back you go the more features Tesla had, but updates pushed this instant are downgrading people so much they're removing the value of an entire car with these new updates.

 

[SO16]

Very ironic that the three items you list have all been plagued with bugs over the last several updates that have persisted into the next update and have yet to be fixed. You of all people should want your three favorite apps to function the way they once did which is to be expected that when an update is pushed out it's been tested and polished prior to pushing it out. Instead we're left with a maps app that uses so many resources to process the code it crashes the browser and slows other apps, a rear view camera that regularly splits in half with the bottom on the top and the top on the bottom and a music streaming service that will regularly only play partial songs and randomly skip to the next song. But hey, we got farts!

Again, without even getting into the things that were promised for future, I can make a STRONG case for misappropriated resources that have led to a decrease in the features we had/paid for.

I haven’t experienced the extremely slow maps crashing the browser (since I don’t use the browser.). It did install the large map update recently and I read some horror stories on here where it wouldn’t install and cause major slow downs. I thought about disabling my WiFi before it finished the download but I decided to let it go. I didn’t have to use the vehicle the next day after install. But the following day, I held my breath and everything seemed okay. Maybe they retracted it? I have MCU 1 and it isn’t super instantaneous. But certainly quick enough. (Under a half second when flipping screens.)

The music just ties into my phone and plays my playlist or I use streaming. Do I wish the radio didn’t turn on after a phone call? Sure.

I did like the camera up top and maps down below. But is it enough to keep me up at night? Hardly.

I do agree they should focus on bugs and real enhancements as well. And I do wish they would fix the “dancing cars” too. But I’m not going to lay down and die if they also have a person working on putting in other goofy things.

 

[Droschke]

I want new "meaningful" features too, but I'm willing to bet that every update has more than just games and farts.

New "meaningful" features? They need to fix all the broken features.

I updated to 2019.24.2 yesterday. Disastrous! Every screen tab showed up with the scrambled fonts. This was after multiple rebooting, car offing, all that gymnastic BS you have to go through each time to get a hosed up MCU behave nice again. I finally gave up.

This game stuff is just a distraction. It is definitely attractive to the new owners till the honeymoon ends with all sorts of real operational issues they need to deal with. Been there, done that ...

 

[SO16]

I don't see Audi or GM adding games to their cars.

Uh true. But then again, none of us bought a Tesla because they did the same things as Audi and GM. Perhaps some are regretting that decision based on this thread.