It's Time!

[napabill]

Seems to me that those of us who have been around TMC for a while and are early adopters of the wonderful Model S, have always looked forward to the next big positive announcement/firmware update. I remember, and have repeated it to others often, that the worse your MS would ever be would be the day you picked it up. Well, of late, not exactly. All the updates over the past 6 months it seems have been regressive. My original MS had "sleep." My original MS had a lowering suspension at speed. My original MS allowed for 40 amp charging in RV parks. My original MS had the promise of Supercharging to the extent it was available, 90kW then, 120kW now. If you were among the first 2,000 MS's, not so much. Where is all the good news? Come on TM, it's time for some good news! Give us something we weren't expecting on the positive side.

And a Happy New Year to all.

...Napabill

 

[islandbayy]

Seems to me that those of us who have been around TMC for a while and are early adopters of the wonderful Model S, have always looked forward to the next big positive announcement/firmware update. I remember, and have repeated it to others often, that the worse your MS would ever be would be the day you picked it up. Well, of late, not exactly. All the updates over the past 6 months it seems have been regressive. My original MS had "sleep." My original MS had a lowering suspension at speed. My original MS allowed for 40 amp charging in RV parks. My original MS had the promise of Supercharging to the extent it was available, 90kW then, 120kW now. If you were among the first 2,000 MS's, not so much. Where is all the good news? Come on TM, it's time for some good news! Give us something we weren't expecting on the positive side.

And a Happy New Year to all.

...Napabill

Curious why you cant charge at 40 amps?

 

[Jason S]

Curious why you cant charge at 40 amps?

The charging mechanisms are much more picky about voltage fluctuations now. I haven't seen it myself since I guess my charging points are well wired, but others have seen it and RV parks are sometimes a bit suspect.

 

[napabill]

Curious why you cant charge at 40 amps?

Newest firmware version, .57, is very finicky about the quality of the line. Automatically stops it back to 30 amps. Never did before.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Seems to me that those of us who have been around TMC for a while and are early adopters of the wonderful Model S, have always looked forward to the next big positive announcement/firmware update. I remember, and have repeated it to others often, that the worse your MS would ever be would be the day you picked it up. Well, of late, not exactly. All the updates over the past 6 months it seems have been regressive. My original MS had "sleep." My original MS had a lowering suspension at speed. My original MS allowed for 40 amp charging in RV parks. My original MS had the promise of Supercharging to the extent it was available, 90kW then, 120kW now. If you were among the first 2,000 MS's, not so much. Where is all the good news? Come on TM, it's time for some good news! Give us something we weren't expecting on the positive side.

And a Happy New Year to all.

...Napabill

If I were an early adopter I'd be upset about the 90kW vs 120kW charging.. especially if I was paid up on the service plans which on the website mentions "hardware upgrades"... The other stuff isn't as big of a deal.. I'd rather drive my car at a safe riding height to avoid road debris, and I'd rather have my charge continue at a reduced rate rather than stop in the middle and not notify me. Personally, I do think that the newest update should've included some sort of notification that it reduced the charge amps at some point during the charge.... at a minimum on the screen in the car... although better would be an email or text notification of some sort stating that it had to reduce the amps because of power fluctuations or quality.

 

[KenEE]

...I'd rather drive my car at a safe riding height to avoid road debris....

Since random debris can be any random height, changing the height of the suspension doesn't change the safety at all. Now that it is higher, larger debris can get under there and possibly cause issue.

For each height the car can be, there is debris that will, and debris that will not, cause issues.

 

[apacheguy]

Seems to me that those of us who have been around TMC for a while and are early adopters of the wonderful Model S, have always looked forward to the next big positive announcement/firmware update. I remember, and have repeated it to others often, that the worse your MS would ever be would be the day you picked it up. Well, of late, not exactly. All the updates over the past 6 months it seems have been regressive. My original MS had "sleep." My original MS had a lowering suspension at speed. My original MS allowed for 40 amp charging in RV parks. My original MS had the promise of Supercharging to the extent it was available, 90kW then, 120kW now. If you were among the first 2,000 MS's, not so much. Where is all the good news? Come on TM, it's time for some good news! Give us something we weren't expecting on the positive side.

And a Happy New Year to all.

...Napabill

I hear you. As an early Sig, I used to really look forward to firmware updates with great anticipation and excitement. I was a little disappointed with the way TM silently took away low suspension mode, but this is something I ultimately understood and am willing to give them time to sort it out and eventually return this feature back to us.

Now, Supercharging. Hmm, yeah about that. Suffice it to say that I'm really ticked about that one and am nowhere near satisfied with Jerome's "tough luck" response. I know that not everyone agrees with me, but Tesla misled me time and time again and I was absolutely under the impression that my car supported 120 from the day it was delivered.

Happy New Year.

 

[Grendal]

Keep in mind that Tesla and the Model S has been under attack for a while now. They've had to make some defensive maneuvers to fight off the threat. I expect something positive to come down the pipeline soon. You did get the parking sensors that were requested. Lots of new Superchargers have come on line lately. Newer cars will always have improvements over the older versions too.

Any ideas for possible announcements? What would make the Model S experience even better?

 

[Vger]

Any ideas for possible announcements? What would make the Model S experience even better?

In Munich, I believe, Elon talked about a new nav/energy monitoring system with direct compensation for altitude changes, weather, and automatic routing to superchargers, etc.

THAT would start the year off really fine!

 

[Adrian]

I hear you. As an early Sig, I used to really look forward to firmware updates with great anticipation and excitement. I was a little disappointed with the way TM silently took away low suspension mode, but this is something I ultimately understood and am willing to give them time to sort it out and eventually return this feature back to us.

Happy New Year.

Wait, what? How did this happen?

 

[Yggdrasill]

It was a PR-thing after the most recent fire. So that they could tell the media, investors, owners and the public that they had taken immediate steps to avoid further fires.

But the suspension settings will become user-selectable in an update not too long into the future. (My guess is that they will wait until after the conclusion of the NHTSA fire inquiry.)

 

[Mayhemm]

Now, Supercharging. Hmm, yeah about that. Suffice it to say that I'm really ticked about that one and am nowhere near satisfied with Jerome's "tough luck" response. I know that not everyone agrees with me, but Tesla misled me time and time again and I was absolutely under the impression that my car supported 120 from the day it was delivered.

So they've actually confirmed early cars can't supercharge at 120KW? That sucks! I was under the impression that the 120KW thing was something that they had in the pipe from the beginning (like battery swap) and thus all cars with supercharging enabled would support it. They certainly didn't include an exception for older cars when they announced it!

Any ideas for possible announcements? What would make the Model S experience even better?

Already a large thread on this topic:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/9995-Model-S-Software-Firmware-wishlist

Wait, what? How did this happen?

Don't know for certain, but this may not be included in the European firmware (yet).

 

[chickensevil]

So they've actually confirmed early cars can't supercharge at 120KW? That sucks! I was under the impression that the 120KW thing was something that they had in the pipe from the beginning (like battery swap) and thus all cars with supercharging enabled would support it. They certainly didn't include an exception for older cars when they announced it!

Any chance for a link on this, this is the first I am hearing about this. When they announced the new feature (120KW) back in June, they said that it would work for all customers (no upgrade required), so when did this change?

 

[apacheguy]

Wait, what? How did this happen?

5.8 took away low mode by disabling it from the Controls screen. There was no mention of this change in the release notes.

Any chance for a link on this, this is the first I am hearing about this. When they announced the new feature (120KW) back in June, they said that it would work for all customers (no upgrade required), so when did this change?

Precisely. That is why we are all so upset. Link:

Older Tesla's limited to 90kW super charging

 

[highedu]

Air suspension lowering is only temporarily taken away folks. Elon said that it will be coming back in January as a user selected option via software update.

On the issue of early sigs without the ability to charge at 120kwh...if the numbers impacted are small would make sense for Elon to just do the upgrade rather than letting the most supportive individuals create noise.

 

[mjtgroup]

This is a repost but I believe relevant here:

"We, Model S owners, really need to clarify when it is appropriate for Tesla to make updates that impact our ability to use our cars as purchased. There seems to be a troublesome trend, of late, of pushing downloads that many of us personally deem reactionary. I would propose that all future updates be fully disclosed, as to the content and purpose, with the ability of the owner to opt out.

Alas, it appears that our "Big Brother" is overly protective at times."

 

[Gizmotoy]

Since random debris can be any random height, changing the height of the suspension doesn't change the safety at all. Now that it is higher, larger debris can get under there and possibly cause issue.

For each height the car can be, there is debris that will, and debris that will not, cause issues.

If it were only Model S on the road, sure, but it's among the lowest cars on the road. The higher it rides, the more likely it is that someone else will have the misfortune of hitting that debris first. Essentially you're looking at the probability of being the first car that sits low enough to impact a given object. The higher you are, the better the chances someone hits it before you.

Letting an owner choose to take on that risk if they want is a good move. Hopefully they make that change soon.

Any chance for a link on this, this is the first I am hearing about this. When they announced the new feature (120KW) back in June, they said that it would work for all customers (no upgrade required), so when did this change?

81 pages... have fun!
Older Tesla's limited to 90kW super charging

 

[772]

@mjtgroup

Well, think about this way... anything serious that happens to your car (e.g., fir3) affects Tesla in a big way. I understand that people want to be able to control what gets patched and what doesn't on THEIR car, but in the case of safety, it seemed reasonable enough to temporarily patch out the dynamic lowering feature until they further investigated the fir3 incidents.

 

[ken830]

I have VIN in the mid 8,000 and I can't charge above 90kW!

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Regarding firmware updates, I'm inclined to taking the bad (turning off auto-lowering marginally qualifies) and the so-so (iffy sleep-related fixes) with the good (maps with track-up, WiFi, higher supercharging rate - yes, for those of us that it worked for).

The fact that every update makes the car feel fresh and new is phenomenal! I know we, as the owners of the property that we have purchased, have certain rights to preserve/protect what we have but, living in a cave with candles and off the grid, so to speak, is no solution either.

I'm not inclined to seeing it as a Big Brother situation as Tesla is trying to execute at break-neck speed to give us current owners new features - for free! - while mitigating risks to the company and by extension, support and serviceability to all owners. All this while trying to continue to grow, produce more cars, new models, expand service and supercharging footprints notwithstanding fighting the vultures (NADA, Big Oil, wayward tow hitches, John Petersen ) off all at the same time.

napabill and others, IMO, you do have a legitimate gripe about the 90 kW supercharging issue and deserve a new pack or some such resolution. This is more egregious than the unstated supercharging enablement fee for very early 60 kWh orders such as mine that Tesla/GeorgeB eventually did the right thing about and waived.