I put the words "NO NEW NEWS on the M3 Update" in the title, because I'm tired of viewing videos and news reports about "M3 Highland secrets revealed," based on vapor. Lets be real. Nobody really knows much of anything on the internet based on reality. All these YouTube Tesla "experts" show the same black "secret" new M3 spy pictures with different headlights, and the rest of the vehicle is covered with a car tarp. All these pundit wannabe's imply that they are breaking a hot news story about the updated M3, when they really don't know diddly, and are trying to justify their existence.
I own a 2023 M3, and quite frankly, it is relatively perfect except for a few glaring deficits.
(1) Simply put, a car of this caliber should have a set of basic gauges in front of the driver. I assume that Tesla was trying to same money, by not having an instrument panel in front of the driver, like every other vehicle (land, sea, air, and outer space) in existence. I notice that the more expensive Tesla vehicles have gauges, and I doubt if deleting them saves that much money. You can added various aftermarket instrument gauge packages for between $200 to $600, which means it really costs $50-$100 in parts. The other reason not to include dash-mounted gauges, as I recall, was that Tesla engineers thought no one would be driving their own cars anymore due to the perfection of Full-Self-Driving software. How's that working out? I pay for the FSD software, but it is far from perfected. To me it doesn't make driving simpler; I find that it requires more attention, because the FSD software keeps making stupid mistakes at non-standard intersections. In my own M3LR I have installed the Hansshow 10.25" Instrument Display with front camera and the Sixth Element Knight Rider Dry Carbon Steering Wheel with the open upper aspect of the wheel, and the view is spectacular.
(2) There should have been a front camera originally installed in all the vehicles, because people like to know when they are running into those parking lot concrete curbs, staked into the asphalt with exposed rusty rebar rods. Not all of us drive monster trucks with 2 feet of clearance (or 0.61 meters for metric countries). I have added front and rear cameras to older cars, so I am familiar with the prices of the necessary parts, and I know it is not expensive. As I recall, there was a US motor vehicle regulation passed a while back that mandated OEM back-up cameras in all vehicles starting in 2014, to prevent blindly backing up and injurying little children. All the car manufacturers cried that they couldn't include back-up cameras, because no one would be able to afford to purchase new cars anymore. Let's face it, they just didn't feel like doing anything tp prevent injuries until they were forced.
(3) You really need a 360 degree camera set-up, whether you called it a surround camera or bird's eye view. Parking spaces are tighter and tighter every year. If you want the try to decrease the number of door dents from other cars, you need to park in the center of the parking space, even if the other person is not as considerate as yourself. And speaking of cameras, the Tesla vehicles have an almost great rear view camera except that it gives profound fish-eye distortion. Some aftermarket cameras electronically straighten the image so the distortion is minimized in wide-angle cameras. Pioneer has marketed such a camera for many years (approx. $200). I hope I haven't offended any fish reading this comment. I believe that Mercedes has a motorized rear camera which rotates to lessen the distortion, but I would imagine that it's a rather expensive option.
(4) Tesla should have just left the perimeter (U/S and Radar) sensors in the cars. Tesla states that their data shows most people didn't use them, so they were removed. REALLY????? What date backs this up? After six months they finally modified the software somewhat to partially duplicate the sensors functions, but it is really not the same. Everyone knows it, But Tesla refuses to admit it. I'm not sure it was a great place to save money.
So, I realize I carry no weight in the automotive industry, but common sense is common sense. My suggestions for an updated M3 would be as follows:
(1) Put in a set of gauges in front of the driver (slam dunk)
(2) Put in a 360 surround camera system (slam dunk -- seems to be possibly planned)
(3) Put in a front camera, close to ground level (slam dunk -- seems to be planned)
(4) Fix the rear wide-angle camera distortion
(5) Stop wasting time on dancing lights with music as well as fart noises.
(6) Do you really need another version of red paint? This would be the fourth version throughout the years. I have an Acura RDX in Phantom Violet Pearl. It was a nightmare to fix a scratch.
There was an old descriptive abbreviation used at Hewlett Packard (Hp) referred to as "NIH." Some of you might think this refers to the National Institutes of Health, but at Hp it meant "NOT INVENTED HERE." So that if we didn't invent it here, it can't be of any good. Sometimes you just have to listen to other people (in addition to Sandy Munro).
I own a 2023 M3, and quite frankly, it is relatively perfect except for a few glaring deficits.
(1) Simply put, a car of this caliber should have a set of basic gauges in front of the driver. I assume that Tesla was trying to same money, by not having an instrument panel in front of the driver, like every other vehicle (land, sea, air, and outer space) in existence. I notice that the more expensive Tesla vehicles have gauges, and I doubt if deleting them saves that much money. You can added various aftermarket instrument gauge packages for between $200 to $600, which means it really costs $50-$100 in parts. The other reason not to include dash-mounted gauges, as I recall, was that Tesla engineers thought no one would be driving their own cars anymore due to the perfection of Full-Self-Driving software. How's that working out? I pay for the FSD software, but it is far from perfected. To me it doesn't make driving simpler; I find that it requires more attention, because the FSD software keeps making stupid mistakes at non-standard intersections. In my own M3LR I have installed the Hansshow 10.25" Instrument Display with front camera and the Sixth Element Knight Rider Dry Carbon Steering Wheel with the open upper aspect of the wheel, and the view is spectacular.
(2) There should have been a front camera originally installed in all the vehicles, because people like to know when they are running into those parking lot concrete curbs, staked into the asphalt with exposed rusty rebar rods. Not all of us drive monster trucks with 2 feet of clearance (or 0.61 meters for metric countries). I have added front and rear cameras to older cars, so I am familiar with the prices of the necessary parts, and I know it is not expensive. As I recall, there was a US motor vehicle regulation passed a while back that mandated OEM back-up cameras in all vehicles starting in 2014, to prevent blindly backing up and injurying little children. All the car manufacturers cried that they couldn't include back-up cameras, because no one would be able to afford to purchase new cars anymore. Let's face it, they just didn't feel like doing anything tp prevent injuries until they were forced.
(3) You really need a 360 degree camera set-up, whether you called it a surround camera or bird's eye view. Parking spaces are tighter and tighter every year. If you want the try to decrease the number of door dents from other cars, you need to park in the center of the parking space, even if the other person is not as considerate as yourself. And speaking of cameras, the Tesla vehicles have an almost great rear view camera except that it gives profound fish-eye distortion. Some aftermarket cameras electronically straighten the image so the distortion is minimized in wide-angle cameras. Pioneer has marketed such a camera for many years (approx. $200). I hope I haven't offended any fish reading this comment. I believe that Mercedes has a motorized rear camera which rotates to lessen the distortion, but I would imagine that it's a rather expensive option.
(4) Tesla should have just left the perimeter (U/S and Radar) sensors in the cars. Tesla states that their data shows most people didn't use them, so they were removed. REALLY????? What date backs this up? After six months they finally modified the software somewhat to partially duplicate the sensors functions, but it is really not the same. Everyone knows it, But Tesla refuses to admit it. I'm not sure it was a great place to save money.
So, I realize I carry no weight in the automotive industry, but common sense is common sense. My suggestions for an updated M3 would be as follows:
(1) Put in a set of gauges in front of the driver (slam dunk)
(2) Put in a 360 surround camera system (slam dunk -- seems to be possibly planned)
(3) Put in a front camera, close to ground level (slam dunk -- seems to be planned)
(4) Fix the rear wide-angle camera distortion
(5) Stop wasting time on dancing lights with music as well as fart noises.
(6) Do you really need another version of red paint? This would be the fourth version throughout the years. I have an Acura RDX in Phantom Violet Pearl. It was a nightmare to fix a scratch.
There was an old descriptive abbreviation used at Hewlett Packard (Hp) referred to as "NIH." Some of you might think this refers to the National Institutes of Health, but at Hp it meant "NOT INVENTED HERE." So that if we didn't invent it here, it can't be of any good. Sometimes you just have to listen to other people (in addition to Sandy Munro).
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