Options & Pricing page updated (2012/01/12)

[AnOutsider]

They are, but just looking forward. What will you need in 5 years, or 10? I know some folks change cars as often as they change their underwear, but I tend to drive mine into the ground (or very nearly so). Will we be storing video content? If there is cloud access and I can download new albums and songs as I want to listen to them, then less storage is fine.

Yea, maybe 256 is reaching, but half that isn't exactly crazy.

Half is acceptable IMO. I'm on my computer (handling music and video files) for a living. My main drive is at 139GB free of 582 total GB of space. That's programs, dropbox, music, videos, email etc. My entire iTunes library (music, video, audiobooks) clocks in at 31 days worth of content and 49.06GB of space.

Ya, 256 is a bit much.

 

[dsm363]

Hopefully, whatever they choose is upgradeable by Tesla. When the 256GB flash drive is cheaper in 5 years, you can pay Tesla to upgrade it at your next service for example.

 

[WhiteKnight]

Why couldn't someone plug a 64 GB USB thumb drive (or 2TB HDD for that matter) into one of the four available USB ports?Or store all your media in the cloud and stream it via 4G?

 

[dsm363]

Why couldn't someone plug a 64 GB USB thumb drive (or 2TB HDD for that matter) into one of the four available USB ports?Or store all your media in the cloud and stream it via 4G?

Good idea. Also, it looks like it will already talk to your home network via WiFi so really, rotating your song selection would be pretty easy making having your entire song catalog a little less important.

 

[Todd Burch]

I don't think Tesla has thought this storage space thing through.

They earlier talked about 16 GB and related that to storage for 3000 songs... That comes out to (ballpark) 5 MB per song. For most songs, that's an MP3 quality of 128-192 kbps. I don't know about you, but especially with an outstanding sound system, even at 192 kbps there's going to be noticeably poorer sound quality than 256 or 320 kbps. Personally, I think I'd need at least 256 kbps minimum to be happy with MP3 sound quality on the Model S sound system.

Given that the touchscreen will involve:

-Cache of maps from Google (Tech Package) (possibly 300 mi radius with high detail)
-Music with cover art (256 kbps minimum to avoid compression artifacts showing up easily in sound quality)
-Graphic intensive apps (its a beautiful display, after all!)
-Videos available for playback while parked(?...Hope so, although I haven't heard *anything* about video playback). Why have a gigantic beautiful high-contrast display that can't be used for watching movies or TV shows (while parked?) I could easily see having to wait in the car for 30 minutes for something and pulling out an episode of (insert TV show here) to pass the time.

I'd say 64GB is an *absolute* minimum...128-256 GB would be more reasonable IMHO.

Frankly, 16 GB is an absolute joke. If Elon's aiming for the best car on the road in the eyes of techies, he isn't going to reach that goal with 16GB.

 

[Norbert]

Personally, I think I'd need at least 256 kbps minimum to be happy with MP3 sound quality on the Model S sound system.

I always record in lossless which is usually 700 - 1000 kbps. (And I do hear the difference

 

[ljbad4life]

I'd say 64GB is an *absolute* minimum...128-256 GB would be more reasonable IMHO.

Frankly, 16 GB is an absolute joke. If Elon's aiming for the best car on the road in the eyes of techies, he isn't going to reach that goal with 16GB.

I do believe there are 4 usb ports where one could plug in a 2 TB hdd and really have lossless audio at high bitrates, movies out the wazoo.The 16GB is better reserved for apps. 16GB is a bit on the small size, 32 might be the sweet spot and 64 is plenty. Remember streaming music

Yes techies would love more storage, but techies also loves radar cruise control, lane keep assist, self parking, electric sensitive privacy glass for the panoramic glass roof, the list goes on. At some point compromises have to be made, but think that Tesla could up the storage easily.

 

[Todd Burch]

I do believe there are 4 usb ports where one could plug in a 2 TB hdd and really have lossless audio at high bitrates, movies out the wazoo.

Assuming they support playing from plugged HDs...but I don't want the inside of my car looking like a server room .

 

[WhiteKnight]

Assuming they support playing from plugged HDs...but I don't want the inside of my car looking like a server room .

But at least it would have 24 hour climate control!! :biggrin:

 

[ljbad4life]

Assuming they support playing from plugged HDs...but I don't want the inside of my car looking like a server room .

Plug and play usb device is anything from a smartphone to a usb hdd. So if you can plug in a smartphone and play from it's internal storage there is little difference than a portable hdd. A portable hdd and an ipod classic are the same size. So I assume then if you plug in your ipod/iphone your car then looks like an apple store