Speed Assist and Lane Departure Warning

[hockeythug]

We all agree that the continuous roll-out of new software features are one of the attractions of this car vs. the "old way".
It stands to reason, that we should accept changes to the hardware side gracious as well, and try not to feel cheated out of anything. A thought to remember, is that the "receivers" this time around, will miss the next batch of new hardware features.

We are still better of with this manner of roll-out than most other car owners.

I could see this being a problem with the mass market Model 3. If they are not going to pre-announce somewhat major hardware upgrades and your car is built the day before the new hardware is implimated I could see more negative reaction than what is seen on here in our little bubble.

 

[mariwing]

Now, the blind spot detection - this is the one feature I want to most. I assume the sensors and indicators are both located in the side mirrors. Shouldn't that be an easy option to upgrade? Just the two mirrors and some extra wiring, or I am wrong?

I think that the sensors you assume are extra parking sensors are for blind spot detection. On my Volkswagen this was at least the case. Same sensors on the Volkswagen are also used for automatic parking. Of course the TMS implementation could very well be different.

 

[All Your Bases]

I could see this being a problem with the mass market Model 3. If they are not going to pre-announce somewhat major hardware upgrades and your car is built the day before the new hardware is implimated I could see more negative reaction than what is seen on here in our little bubble.

Hopefully the Gen. 3 will be designed/planned for easier HW as well as SW upgrades, but no one can fully foresee, what will come up during a models lifetime. And maybe there will come a change in the way new additions are announced. One of the difficulties today is the long wait between ordering and production start. If the car goes into production shortly after order confirmation, you will know what you get.

 

[hockeythug]

Hopefully the Gen. 3 will be designed/planned for easier HW as well as SW upgrades, but no one can fully foresee, what will come up during a models lifetime. And maybe there will come a change in the way new additions are announced. One of the difficulties today is the long wait between ordering and production start. If the car goes into production shortly after order confirmation, you will know what you get.

I agree. Once the order to delivery time move closer together I think this will be a non issue.

 

[chickensevil]

Ok, realistically the speed assists can be crowdsourced and be pushed to drivers that do not have that feature (or just used the GPS data for it).
The extra front parking sensors are nice, but not really a "safety" feature.
Line departure is definitely nice, especially on long trips. I understand that this will be difficult and expensive to retrofit and it just doesn't make sense.
Now, the blind spot detection - this is the one feature I want to most. I assume the sensors and indicators are both located in the side mirrors. Shouldn't that be an easy option to upgrade? Just the two mirrors and some extra wiring, or I am wrong?

If you just want Blind Spot detection I recommend you just get an aftermarket solution. It won't be integrated with the car's touchscreen, but any decent installer can make it integrated well enough with the car that it fits nicely. The aftermarket option is also quite cheap.

 

[LAGrove]

Does anybody have a picture of the side view mirrors to see if they have the blind spot detection symbol integrated. Most cars have that have BSD have this. Some add BSD symbols on the inside door panel. Just wondering if these are included in the batch of sensors or if this is something that still has to be added even before software activation.
Thanks

 

[chickensevil]

Does anybody have a picture of the side view mirrors to see if they have the blind spot detection symbol integrated. Most cars have that have BSD have this. Some add BSD symbols on the inside door panel. Just wondering if these are included in the batch of sensors or if this is something that still has to be added even before software activation.
Thanks

Would they have to put it in the mirror? Why not light up your dash? Audible cues and alerts on the dash should be more than enough I would think.

 

[LAGrove]

Would they have to put it in the mirror? Why not light up your dash? Audible cues and alerts on the dash should be more than enough I would think.

True, just trying to see if any of the current sensor updates include blind spot detection. But in reality most people check their side view mirrors so if TSLA implemented this feature it would be nice to have it in or near the side view mirrors as well as a warning in the dash. For instance, Mercedes has an audible alert as well as flashes in the mirrors.

 

[chickensevil]

True, just trying to see if any of the current sensor updates include blind spot detection. But in reality most people check their side view mirrors so if TSLA implemented this feature it would be nice to have it in or near the side view mirrors as well as a warning in the dash. For instance, Mercedes has an audible alert as well as flashes in the mirrors.

Right, I get that, and have seen that in cars, I was just suggesting that it could be that they choose not to stick it in the mirrors, so a lack of something on the mirror doesn't mean that the hardware isn't there to activate it and make it useful. Although, it would be nice if they did stick it in the mirror as well.

 

[Tedkidd]

Next, heads up display!!

 

[svp6]

Next, heads up display!!

+1!

 

[breser]

I totally get that none of us are entitled to this. But it takes a really takes a huge amount of the joy out of getting the car. In my case my order got moved up by a month from Late October. I was given the option to delay my order at that time. Had I done that it's obvious I would have gotten the feature. Even then I think my car missed this feature by moving through the line 2 days before the feature was added.

But hey lesson learned. I'll be treating Tesla like Apple. Don't bother to order anything until right after they announce new features.

 

[pzz]

I totally get that none of us are entitled to this. But it takes a really takes a huge amount of the joy out of getting the car. In my case my order got moved up by a month from Late October. I was given the option to delay my order at that time. Had I done that it's obvious I would have gotten the feature. Even then I think my car missed this feature by moving through the line 2 days before the feature was added.

But hey lesson learned. I'll be treating Tesla like Apple. Don't bother to order anything until right after they announce new features.

That's right, just like any other tech company - order after a new product is announced so we won't be in that situation again. The only problem is that this is not a $1,000 computer, but a $100,000 car - that's why it hurts even more.
If I was not impacted, I would also say that this is not big deal, but it actually is for those who missed the new features by 2-3 days. I still cannot get over it. I still have hope that after they officially announce the new features, they may do something for existing owners (slim chance, but I still hope).

- - - Updated - - -

I totally get that none of us are entitled to this. But it takes a really takes a huge amount of the joy out of getting the car. In my case my order got moved up by a month from Late October. I was given the option to delay my order at that time. Had I done that it's obvious I would have gotten the feature. Even then I think my car missed this feature by moving through the line 2 days before the feature was added.

But hey lesson learned. I'll be treating Tesla like Apple. Don't bother to order anything until right after they announce new features.

Btw, what is the exact date they started the production with the new features and where can I see when my car was produced? Thanks!

 

[dsm363]

What about Signature customers who loaned them $40,000 for three years who missed the P85+ upgrade by 6 months? What about people who missed the driver assistance update by 29 days? 60 days? I understand the frustration but you got the exact car you ordered. There really is no way for Tesla to announce features like this and not hurt sales. They don't have a dealership lot to dump last year's model. each car is built to order.

That said I'd be upset if I missed it by 2 days too but you still got an awesome car. Don't let this ruin your joy of getting it. If those missing features were deal breakers because they were missing then ordering the car without them might not have been the way to go.

 

[breser]

What about Signature customers who loaned them $40,000 for three years who missed the P85+ upgrade by 6 months? What about people who missed the driver assistance update by 29 days? 60 days? I understand the frustration but you got the exact car you ordered. There really is no way for Tesla to announce features like this and not hurt sales. They don't have a dealership lot to dump last year's model. each car is built to order.

That said I'd be upset if I missed it by 2 days too but you still got an awesome car. Don't let this ruin your joy of getting it. If those missing features were deal breakers because they were missing then ordering the car without them might not have been the way to go.

But that's fundamentally not true. I did not get exactly the car I ordered. I ordered a car with reversed stalks (happen to be happy about this) and who knows whatever changes they made. I made the Apple comparison but the truth is if you order an Apple device and they release a new revision of it, you get exactly what you ordered. Even when they do things like just upgrade the processor and the memory. If that was the case the sting would be a lot less. But in this case there are people that ordered at the exact same time as me, they got the features I didn't. They most certainly did not get the car they ordered, they got more. On top of that there have been several people who have said their Owner Advisor had given them a heads up and told them how much to delay their orders by in order to get these features. So in a lot of respects this situation feels fundamentally unfair.

These features weren't deal breakers for me. I ordered the car with no intention of getting them, so I'm not expecting that Tesla do anything about this whatsoever. But I do think this is an utter failure on their part with handling the rollout of a new standard feature. The correct way to handle this is to add this as an advertised feature and cars that were confirmed after it was advertised get it, those that were confirmed before it don't. The only difference is in logistics management of the parts ordering on the part of Tesla. This would resolve the 29 days and 60 days people as well. Because you really would be getting exactly the car you ordered and so would the guy who ordered at the same time as you. This isn't a problem with new options like the P85+ since they have to introduce them first before people can order them (at least I'm not aware of Tesla just upgrading people from P85 to P85+ when that option came out). As to your comment about Signature owners, I don't see how that has anything to do with this, they got Signature cars, that was part of the deal.

The whole experience after I confirmed my car till I received the car was pretty miserable. My DS wouldn't return my calls, I had to chase them the very few times I needed to talk to them. The last time I spoke to my DS he said that the delivery was on schedule but that it might be delivered a day late. Never heard from him after, had to call (the service center, because again my DS wasn't answering the phone) an hour before my delivery to find out I'd be picking up the car. At delivery they knew nothing about the sensors at all. I'm explaining this because quite frankly, the communication was pretty bad on the part of Tesla leading up to the delivery. I think some of this is related to a mad dash to hit their numbers for Q3. But at what cost?

Before I ordered I read nothing but of how amazing their customer service was, how they took care of owners incredibly well. My delivery experience makes me wonder if I didn't jump on this band wagon too late. That this is now just yet another company that only cares about making Wall Street happy. So it has absolutely soured the experience for me. I wouldn't say it ruined it and you're absolutely right I got an awesome car. But nothing anyone can say to me is ever going to unsour this delivery experience. The new features are just one more bad part of the delivery.

 

[chickensevil]

It has long been stated their communication sucks and your comments here underlie that perfectly. And plenty of people have had far from amazing delivery experiences myself included (took delivery in March so this isn't a recent trend) and plenty of people have stated problems before myself. Most of it boils down to communication.

That said, I don't know about your service center but mine has repeatedly bent over backward to make anything wrong right and to be very helpful and quick to resolve any issues.

Still the best car company I have ever dealt with.

 

[Todd Burch]

<SOAPBOX>

Sigh. Guys, life ain't fair. For those that just missed out, I sympathize with your disappointment at just barely missing the cutoff. When I got my car, I just missed out on some things and felt a little bummed. But there is NO solution that Tesla can implement that is fair for everyone and at the same time practical from a business standpoint, short of having the car increase in price virtually forever (which, I suppose, is also not practical from a business standpoint).

I got my car in Dec. 2012. Shortly thereafter, they introduced Rev B battery packs, enabling 120 kW Supercharging. I was "stuck" at 90 kW. Then they added power folding and heated side mirrors. Improved lighting. Better floor mats. A higher-resolution display console. Improved 19" OEM tires. Offered painted brake calipers. Improved the door handles dramatically. Cold weather package. Parking sensors. Free parcel shelf. Headliner options. And tons of additional items I'm not even thinking of.

The car will always get better. For the most part, you're complaining to people that don't even have the features you have on YOUR car. But don't worry. The people that are getting the "unfair" advantage now will get "screwed" when the next thing comes, and I'm sure we'll hear about it.

Point is, the car will always get better. Technology improves. Life moves on. If you wait for the latest features, you'll never buy. There's always a faster computer coming out right around the corner.

Nobody got LESS car than they agreed to purchase. Granted, some people got a little more car than they expected. They got lucky. Some people win the lotto, some don't. Some have successful businesses, others don't. Some people sit on their butt and become rich and famous (Paris Hilton?), and other good people bust their butt and just barely get by.

Be thankful that you get to drive this car at all. Sorry, but the whining here gets tiring. It happens EVERY time this car gets better (which is...always). Seriously. Just be thankful and move on.

My two cents...no offense intended to anyone in particular, but this thread has transitioned from talking about the new sensors to post after post of "I got screwed". Sorry, but maybe there's a better thread for that.

I'm not a sexy supermodel. Hey, I got screwed too!

</SOAPBOX>

 

[brianman]

(a) I did not get exactly the car I ordered. I ordered a car with reversed stalks (happen to be happy about this) and who knows whatever changes they made.

...

(b) But in this case there are people that ordered at the exact same time as me, they got the features I didn't. They most certainly did not get the car they ordered, they got more.

IMO...
If you're unhappy about (a), you have a legitimate beef that you should discuss with ownership@. If "those other people" are unhappy about (b), they have a legitimate beef that they can discuss with ownership@.
If you're unhappy about (b), you do not have a legitimate beef.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Tesla had language about battery size back when. It said something like "order the configuration you want, rather than hoping for upgrades later".

If you put in your order for something, and got something different that is undesirable to you -- then don't take delivery.

If you put in your order for something, and got exactly what you asked for then you have no right to complain -- regardless of what anyone else on the planet ordered or got.

 

[mknox]

I got my car in Dec. 2012. Shortly thereafter, they introduced Rev B battery packs, enabling 120 kW Supercharging. I was "stuck" at 90 kW.

I can top that. I got my car in March of 2013 with an A-pack and know personally of two others who got their cars before me in February with B-packs.

 

[brianman]

Sigh. Guys, life ain't fair. For those that just missed out, I sympathize with your disappointment at just barely missing the cutoff. When I got my car, I just missed out on some things and felt a little bummed.

Your first sentence has nothing to do with your 2nd and 3rd sentences. While life is sometimes inconvenient, there's nothing "unfair" here.