Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

No Power Folding Mirrors for the Model S in the future.

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I suppose for now they have enough to do with ramp up, and they'll probably do more vertical integration before they consider adding more features. Once production runs smoothly, they'll become more open-minded, but for now I guess they are busy working towards having a properly running company.
 
At some point, Tesla will need to offer more "luxury" features - if they want to continue attracting new buyers. Right now, there are enough "early adopters" to take as many Model S as Tesla can produce. But to achieve their goal of 20,000 next year, they will likely need to attract a larger group of potential buyers - people who are replacing $50K+ cars - and who are used to having some of these basic "luxury" features - that have been available for many years.

On the other hand, does Tesla need to offer every feature available on the latest Lexus, BMW or Mercedes? No! Many of those features are "cool" but probably not very useful. For example, my LS 460 has the automatic parking feature. It's cool to demo this to people the first time. But it's not really practical to use in real-life, because it takes time to line up the parking box on the display and tell the car exactly where it needs to park - and you can't take that much time sitting in front of a parking space...

When my turn comes up to commit to my Model S order - I will compare it to other cars in the same price range - and will verify that I'm willing to trade off the long-range EV and other unique Model S features vs. the "luxury" features available in comparably priced cars (including features in my 6 year old LS).
 
I'm sufficiently surprised by the response 1young1 received, juxtaposed to what I was told previously, that I am inclined not to wholeheartedly believe either story at this point. Perhaps financial concerns have affected future features, or we were just flat out lied to by people representing themselves as "the engineer on this project or that project". Perhaps the new policy at Tesla is to "under promise/over deliver" when it comes to new or proposed features of the cars that people are inquiring about. Or perhaps it doesn't exist until it exists, as we have seen with rear LED lighting and visor vanity lighting. For that matter, we may never see lighted vanity mirrors or the myriad other things we have been led to believe one way or another are coming down the pipeline. I am disappointed in the increasing number of compromises that are being dealt as time goes on. As AO said "best car in the world, remember?" I hope that meant at least better than a $20K Kia Forte which, by the way, has front and rear stowable cup holders, lighted visor vanity mirrors, adequate rear trunk lighting, map pockets with bottle holders, and power folding side mirrors.

I'm inclined to believe neither as well. There may be no official plans for it right now as they are trying to get out of the gate, but I can't believe that they would unilaterally dismiss these common "luxury" items for future releases or other models.

(maybe Kia should make an electric car.)
 
Last edited:
Not sure the reason for your snarky comment but I'm just sharing the new information which I think a lot of people would be interested in hearing about. And yes, while Tesla has never officially indicated that they would introduce power-folding mirrors, they have to some degree indicated in the past that this would be a feature that they would be including in the future. IIRC, even George B. has said in the past that this was something they are working on. One of TMC posters, I believe it was Spatterso911, posted back in July in the "Unknown" thread (post #120) that he spoke to the engineer that was working on the power-folding mirrors and was told it was going to be part of the car.

Whoa. I was trying to figure out what confirmation you were looking for, since that was your question. It seemed (and seems) a reasonable response to the post. Ftr, I've never heard anyone at Tesla even refer to power-folding mirrors. That doesn't mean you didn't hold that conversation with them - but surely I'm allowed to ask what additional confirmation you're looking for if you already received confirmation from Tesla.

Had you asked if anyone else had been told this by Tesla previously, I wouldn't have asked. Sorry you took that as snarky.
 
meta lesson learned: We should not fight over the contradicting bits of information that any Tesla sales reps are throwing to us.

on the mirror subject:
Why should Tesla allocate any resources towards advanced mirrors, while they are lobbying the DOT to allow cameras (as seen on Model X). If the lobbying doesn't come through, Tesla would be without a fallback solution - which is a sensible approach for a startup company with limited resources.
 
meta lesson learned: We should not fight over the contradicting bits of information that any Tesla sales reps are throwing to us.

on the mirror subject:
Why should Tesla allocate any resources towards advanced mirrors, while they are lobbying the DOT to allow cameras (as seen on Model X). If the lobbying doesn't come through, Tesla would be without a fallback solution - which is a sensible approach for a startup company with limited resources.

That's assuming they still plan to do that. We have no indication of that, and indeed, the latest X's have been seen without camera mirrors. It should also be fairly easy to source these from Mercedes. I guess time will tell on this one.
 
Can someone explain to me why one would want side mirror cameras or a rear view mirror camera in an otherwise normal automobile and why Tesla would invest in such a technology? (I did not think the rear view out the hatch was that atrocious.) I can understand in a van/truck or possibly an SUV to have a rear view camera, but not side view cameras.
 
Can someone explain to me why one would want side mirror cameras or a rear view mirror camera in an otherwise normal automobile and why Tesla would invest in such a technology? (I did not think the rear view out the hatch was that atrocious.) I can understand in a van/truck or possibly an SUV to have a rear view camera, but not side view cameras.

Improved aerodynamics.
 
I don't recall reading anything from Tesla about folding mirrors, but I was told by their sales people that folding mirrors would be on the car. I was told over the past 3 years that the Model S would include lots of things, which so far, have turned out to be inaccurate (being kind to Tesla).
 
Can someone explain to me why one would want side mirror cameras or a rear view mirror camera in an otherwise normal automobile and why Tesla would invest in such a technology? (I did not think the rear view out the hatch was that atrocious.) I can understand in a van/truck or possibly an SUV to have a rear view camera, but not side view cameras.
...the twenty-first century coolness factor?:biggrin:

As much as I am a curmudgeon on some things, I also am willing to trust in the foresight of forward thinking creative types. My initial reaction is the same as you Kevin, but perhaps the cameras would do double duty in that they would be incorporated as input devices for future computerized systems.

Cheers =)

ps. To paraphrase Henry Ford, "If customers were asked what they wanted, they would have said Bigger Mirrors!"
 
Had you asked if anyone else had been told this by Tesla previously, I wouldn't have asked. Sorry you took that as snarky.
Sorry Bonnie but your post did have a very slight snark factor. But after re-reading it I realized why; you didn't include an emoticon for confused: :confused:. I think that would have cancelled out any hint of snarkness. (is that even word?)
 
Last edited:
Can someone explain to me why one would want side mirror cameras or a rear view mirror camera in an otherwise normal automobile and why Tesla would invest in such a technology? (I did not think the rear view out the hatch was that atrocious.) I can understand in a van/truck or possibly an SUV to have a rear view camera, but not side view cameras.

Not just aerodynamics, but probably helps reduce/eliminate blind spots as well.

I made this point to a few people at Tesla, and they agreed, which is that of all the cars that should have power-folding mirrors, the Model S (and really, any wide EV) should because unlike a regular ICE car, I NEED to park this car in my garage. Right now I just park in my driveway and don't use my garage for a car (very common in Florida), but as discussed in previous threads, I'm planning on putting the car into the garage for charging, and would love the convenience of the additional 6 inches of space to pull into the garage. I can't be the only one with this issue, so it seems like on odd thing to have considered and rejected. Again, this definitely isn't a "perfect" car, but definitely not a dealbreaker either from my perspective.
 
That's assuming they still plan to do that. We have no indication of that, and indeed, the latest X's have been seen without camera mirrors.

I believe that's because those Model X's are being driven on the road, and the cameras aren't DOT legal yet.

As to the question of why cameras over mirrors - in addition to style and efficiency, cameras can offer low light night vision and dynamic HDR reducing glare from headlights without dimming everything else. Reflective glass has outlasted it's usefulness.
 
I believe that's because those Model X's are being driven on the road, and the cameras aren't DOT legal yet.

As to the question of why cameras over mirrors - in addition to style and efficiency, cameras can offer low light night vision and dynamic HDR reducing glare from headlights without dimming everything else. Reflective glass has outlasted it's usefulness.

Well as a cyclist I think that glass still has some advantages.

First it is 2 way. I can see you sitting in the seat, and tell if you are paying attention or can see me.
Second it works when there is no power, or when the car is off.
 
How significant?

Quite a bit. Each mirror takes at least one horsepower to push through the air at 60 mph, maybe more in an areodynamic car like the Model S.

Is this implying that there would be structurally no "mirror" attached to the door and that the view would be from a screen inside the car?

There would be a small camera where the current mirror is.

Note that Audi has displayed prototypes of this same kind of system.