Fit and finish - Since we have only been exposed to betas, we can't really determine the fit/finish qualities of the car. I am hopeful that it meets or exceeds what we see on higher end sedans like M-B, BMW, and Audi, but only time will tell. I believe it will be far more integrated in appearance than the roadster, since it has been developed from vehicle inception.
I agree: I am hopeful that the fit and finish will rival its direct competition. Admittedly, I was too absorbed in taking in other aspects of the brief drive at the Beta event in San Jose, so I didn't really pay sufficient attention to the quality of the materials first-hand when I had a chance.
Nevertheless it has me worried because so far, all I have is this hope that it will be better than what we've seen to-date.
Design - Leather in the Model S is Nappa leather, which is very durable and provided you use proper cleaners/conditioners should hold up quite well to elements and daily wear. That said, it's nigh impossible to prevent creasing and stretching in most soft leathers like Nappa without meticulous owner care.
Of course leather develops a natural patina with use. What has me worried are signs of a patina appearing "too quickly." I put that in quotes because I honestly have no idea how much seat time these cars have seen. For all I know, they are subjected to non-stop brutal use. But assuming they see a couple hours a day of seat time, the wear and tear seems disproportionate.
I wish I could easily find some decent non-press photos of the seats to confirm my memory of this. I don't dismiss the possibility that my worry has been unreasonably magnified by bad memory.
Media console - The resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels
(source =
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAKrVajjThg )
which should be more than adequate for future uses and exceeds current high definition requirements. No one will be doing 4K resolution screens in automobiles in the next 10-12 years. OLED is far too expensive to make an automotive solution for without pricing the car out of reach. The lighting is sourced from the car batteries so it has much better energy available than on a laptop, so the brightness far exceeds that of laptop screen. This is pointed out frequently by Elon as a side benefit to his screen tech being in an EV. The monitor fails, however, on glare and fingerprint retention, and I am hoping some kind of matte finish or oleophobic substance is used. Matte finishes can always be applied by an aftermarket supplier (profit opportunities anyone??) just like with any cell phone or tablet.
On this one, I don't agree. I've always found the phrase "high definition" to be a disappointing vagary thrown about by marketers.
Indeed, today, OLED would be too expensive to manufacture at 17". Indeed, today, no one is making displays with over 200dpi at 17" for less than tens of thousands of dollars. But in two or three years, who knows? I suspect I will replace my current desktop monitor (2560x1600) with a 4k monitor in a couple years' time. What can I say? I love pixels. My worry is that there's no such "upgrade" path for the Model S' multimedia hardware.
Let me reiterate: there's nothing Tesla should or really could do about this. I'm just saying it's a little worrisome to know that the interior will look dated in 3 years' time simply because we are more forcefully pushing automotive interiors into the timescales of computer hardware.
To a lesser extent, the LCD screen in my wife's Acura TL demonstrates this point. The navigation system looks positively obsolete next to her Galaxy Nexus phone. The Acura's screen is probably roughly 800x600 at 7 or 8 inches and comparatively dim at maximum brightness (again, when compared side-by-side with the Nexus' OLED screen). At least it has a matte surface, though, so it's not reflective.
Perhaps some day, there will be a resurgence of after-market upgrade options thanks to this progression of the interior having so much in common with traditional computer hardware. I just don't have any illusions the Model S will enjoy that sort of thing during the span in which I will own the vehicle.
User interface responsiveness - This is software dependent, and in many of the beta examples, was not well executed, but in the videos provided by our esteemed forum members who attended the San Jose event, the responsiveness was very crisp/brisk and seemed pretty robust/reliable. Poor performance is just an update away. This thing is driven by a Tegra 3 processor, which is quad core and has more than enough processing power to drive the display. The display in the instrument panel is powered by it's own Tegra 3 processor as well, with ethernet communication between both processors so that they can share display information. Having the visual pulse and having brisk/robust responses is ideal. Even better IMHO would be to have a slight audible tone as well, but that is highly subjective.
I certainly hope that I am pleasantly surprised by a smooth, responsive user interface. I was at the San Jose event but didn't take any video. I remember feeling that the UI seemed a little sluggish. Let me clarify something: a little sluggish on day 1 is fine. A little sluggish on day 300 could become infuriating. The more times I have to deal with a frustrating half-second pause, the less I tolerate it. So I have learned to realize that if my instinct is to rate a UI as, "Eh, could be better, but not bad," I need to consider what it will be like a year down the road.
When I first got my Motorola Droid 1, I thought, "This is okay; I can deal with this." A year later (and admittedly one OS upgrade later), I was cursing it for being unresponsive. It's laughably slow with Android 2.3.
Touch-screen control - This is hotly debated, and my response is that the steering wheel has tactile controls and control/scroll wheels for control. How well this is integrated to the touchscreen to control functions without touching the panel is anybody's guess. It has not been demonstrated to my knowledge. But it was discussed by Elon in a prior video as a way to duplicate many of the controls of the touchscreen, so you have a fallback system that maintains safe driving habits once you conquer the learning curve required to master it. In my personal experience, voice control is one of the most underutilized features of modern cars, yet it does allow the driver to preserve line of sight on the road while managing some task in the car. For instance I have a friend who only recently discovered that they could use voice commands to program navigation and operate the radio. they have had the car for 4 years already! If people would spend more time mastering this feature, there would be less gripe about ergonomics of the instrument panel.
You're right that several functions have been given alternative inputs via steering wheel controls and otherwise. My point was that I worry that there will be one, two, or possibly several routine functions that the designers didn't realize should have redundant inputs. I have this nagging feeling that I will come to dread the need to navigate some sequence of touch-screen menus to do something routine and tedious.
We have an AT&T U-Verse subscription in our house. When my wife and I want to toggle the state of closed captioning, the UI requires something on the order of 12 button presses because (although the remote has several unused buttons), the designers didn't see it fit to map that to a button.
User interface designers make mistakes. So I worry about that with the Model S especially since so many things that would traditionally be controlled by hard buttons will have those hard buttons deleted. A mistake with a hard button just means I may need to reach a little further. A mistake with a touch screen could mean I find myself spending valuable seconds clicking through menus.
Whew.
Reading this over, I fear one could think I am a bitter critic. To clarify, then: I am desperately waiting for my Model S. I simply was sharing the worries I've had since the OP asked.
