Blog Musk Responds to Requests for Rain-Sensing Wipers, Disco Mode

On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked followers for suggestions to improve Tesla’s product offerings. And, he quickly agreed to implement a few of the suggestions.

For instance, he replied to a request for remote operated heated windows, seats and steering wheel by saying to expect the feature in the company’s next software update.

https://twitter.com/x/status/945727563187421185

Rain-sensing windshield wipers seem to be on the way too.

https://twitter.com/x/status/945814723521417217

Better maps and navigation are coming, as Musk mentioned last week.

https://twitter.com/x/status/945749747129659392

He said major browser upgrades are coming to all cars in a few months.

https://twitter.com/x/status/945729852874694656

Musk also mentioned that the company may give more attention to Tesla Energy products in 2018.

https://twitter.com/x/status/945728690507231232

Musk even seemed receptive to a request for a “Disco Mode” that syncs that car’s music to lights, saying the idea “sounds like good, cheesy fun .”

 

[RaeW]

Can you enlighten me as to what are those are other data points? I mean besides "I have a strong feeling" comments from TMC members crossing their fingers, or other completely unsubstantiated speculations. So far the only hard data I got is:

1. Tesla promised automatic wipers for 12/2016.
2. Tesla did not deliver.
3. Elon tweets it's "coming soon" multiple times through the year, along with "silky smooth" and other AP2 features
4. Auto-wipers still not there months later
5. Tesla removed automatic wipers as a feature from their website and Model S/X/3 (3 never had it to start)
6. Elon tweets "it's coming very soon"
7. Plenty of examples out there of Elon tweeting soon and not delivering years later (using this simply as a data point indicating pattern, not a gripe)

What factual data am I missing?

What am I missing? My 2015 S has automatic (rain sensing) wipers!

 

[fasteddie7]

What am I missing? My 2015 S has automatic (rain sensing) wipers!

Autopilot 2 cars do not have the same sensor suite, and owners of these vehicle are waiting for a software update to allow the Tesla vision cameras and algorithms to “see” rain to activate the wipers

 

[whitex]

What am I missing? My 2015 S has automatic (rain sensing) wipers!

My 2015 has them too. My wife's 2017 on the other hand only has the Elon vapourware version of it since we got it a year ago. They removed the perfectly working sensor without a backup plan because Elon was sure they'd have the camera one working in December 2016. He was wrong.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

@whitex

8. The resident hacker finding, following and reporting on several iterations of rain-sensing neural networks on AP2 cars, which suggest maturing. We have plenty of details, down to how the car reports existence of rain and how that has changed over the year.

9. The Karpathy factor: Tesla admitted to issues in their NN design and finally started using the re-design in .40, suggesting the floodgates for other features might open soon, now that they seem to have gotten the NN design working better. The camera-based blind-spot detection is another one where the resident hacker has provided compelling data points about an impending release.

10. A Tesla exec in (was it?) Netherlands discussing a big update to AP around the end of year.

11. Elon had been quiet for a long time, suggesting he realized the need to shut up. What changed? One thing that could have changed is he knows a major update is coming soon, that would make his word look a bit better.

Look, as said, this is an inexact business. None for the above is a guarantee of anything. It is a constant re-weighing of our own neural networks and judging probabilities.

I'm not even sure why I'm explaining this, because I am not really trying to convince you of this. If you find it unrealistic, that is certainly a very valid opinion. There are no exact answers to future or rumor analysis.

Perhaps what I'm trying to convince you of is that there is method to my madness at least. IMO it provides useful views on product changes, and has hit the mark on several big occasions, but that does not guarantee anything in this particular case.

I fully agree Tesla and Elon have been announcing things that didn't happen for the past year(s). That is taken into consideration in my thinking too.

@verygreen add to the details if you wish.

So, the auto-wipers came. My initial analysis here:

Rumor summary: Blind-spot cameras, Rain sensing, Level 3, Big battery, Interior/HUD #17

 

[lunitiks]

Everybody now, in the hood:

 

[whitex]

So, the auto-wipers came. My initial analysis here:

Rumor summary: Blind-spot cameras, Rain sensing, Level 3, Big battery, Interior/HUD #17

NICE! Can't wait to see how well it works whenever it shows up on my wife's car (from experience, it could be tomorrow, but it could be a month from now). I still think they could have done way better had they kept the old sensor, let people use it, AND use that old sensor to train the camera based one or at the very least verify how well it works (log correlation between the old sensor readings and the new camera based sensor indications) - with so many cars on the road putting on millions of miles and therefore so much training data, that would have been neural network training wet dream!

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I still think they could have done way better had they kept the old sensor,

Agreed... not to mention having had a solution for the past year. And redundancy.