We are a small software company, producing web apps. We almost never get any bugs reported from the field, and if we get a regression bug there is blood on the carpet here I can tell you ...
Nah, Tesla's Infotainment QA is shite. Absolute shite. Regression bugs, in particular, are unforgivable, easy enough to build automated regression testing, we are small but even we have knocked that one on the head. I got an Intern in for the Summer (more than 10 years ago ...) and that was his job. Once built we've just kept it up to date with new regression tests as we add anything. A good proportion of the Tesla bugs I have seen should never have happened - when the 3-slider graphic-equaliser was changed to 5-slider it lost its setting every time the car was put into park. There wasn't a single person that reported that this didn't happen to them. That got through QA? In a big company for whom software is important? I mean "That actually, really, got through Tesla QA" Sheesh! There's a Reddit thread from someone who used to work in Tesla Infotainment, the chuck-it-together and stick-it-out-there culture is truly astonishing.
Mind you, count your blessings that you didn't buy an iPace. If you thought Tesla QA was bad try reading the iPace forums. Absolutely no mention of problems by anyone who had a pre-production drive - that includes plenty of Journos who probably never tested anything properly, but also plenty of folk like Bjorn who did give it a good test (and he's a software engineer after all ...). So must have been poor quality QA in a rushed-out-the-door-for-launch throw-together. Chuck in a decent sprinkling of hardware faults too ... Now all Jags held-back at the port waiting for parts and/or better software and plenty of USA punters going to miss out on this year's tax relief as a result. Master stroke in the game of self-foot-shooting
The other aspect is the cost. If software breaks in the field it is a priority to fix it, so all-hands-to-the-pump and whatever they were working on ... well the schedule for that goes straight out of the window, and with it all your credibility for whatever delivery promises you have made to customers. I'm seriously surprised that Tesla WANTS to keep incurring that cost ... and lousy PR ... each time.
In V9 can you "charge now" at a GPS location that has scheduled charging? Only way I have found to do it is to turn the schedule off - which means I have to remember to turn it back on afterwards, otherwise next time I park it will charge at peak rate. Used to be able to just press "Charge Now" which overrode the schedule ... just that once and then reverted to schedule next time. So unless I'm missing something that's yet another regression bug ...
I have been frustrated that the EasterEggs have all been bug free - even the dancing-doors-and-light-show for the Model-X ... but much else is buggy and/or late ... but lately I have come to wonder if EasterEggs have a different purpose - once upgrade-malaise sets in, and punters stop being in a hurry to upgrade (mine rarely upgrades, except when it is in for service, I no longer bother to endure waiting for several weeks for anyone from Support to get around to replying to me ...). No idea why, it picks up WiFi parked at home every evening, Service said there was nothing wrong with it; it did download V9, but only once 99.3% of the fleet already had it ... anyway, if upgrade-malaise IS a thing maybe EasterEggs are to encourage people to get onto latest-version. Much easier to support the fleet if noone is on a legacy version ... I wanted the Reindeer upgrade last Christmas (for a specific kids-in-car event ...) but it didn't download until February ... so I was pissed about that ... but this year everytime I have people in the car I say "
Look at this", press the MIC and say "Ho Ho Ho" ... so its also a very real marketing gimmick, in particular the EasterEggs you are more likely to show people, rather than ones that you yourself would use/enjoy. Yup, I reckon when "Emissions Control" arrives I will be demo'ing that to all and sundry ... and I'll be able to have a jibe at VAG at the same time ... perfect!
Summary of recent conversion on i-Pace forum:
"Why would you want OTA, you just get buggy software" (
clearly aimed in our direction ...)
i-Pace owner : "Less buggy software would be nice"
Ex-Tesla owner : "My P85+ is now X (
i.e. lots) Years old, and has the latest software. Its as if I went out and bought a brand new car. No new hardware of course, but it has all the same software features as a brand new P100D"
i-Pace community "<silence>"
Ho!Hum! Merry Christmas everyone - said Scrooge!
