Tesla is losing me

[Cosmacelf]

The latest UI disaster has a media partial screen that won't go away. No matter how many times I swipe it down (takes three swipes to get rid of it), it just comes back the next time I get in the car.

I've got both a gate and a garage door, and I back into my garage (thank you Falcon Wing doors). So the auto drop down works the gate, but as soon as I am ready to hit the garage door on the drop down, the drop down disappears. So I have to bring up the drop down again. And then the drop down obscures my back up camera when I'm backing into the garage. How does Tesla test these UI changes, once for the easiest use case and pronounce it good to go?

When the falcon wing doors on my X only open partially and I hold the door sill button to make it open all the way, it emits a really loud BEEP right at my ear from the falcon wing door speaker. I don't need the frigging beep, I'm holding the stupid switch.

The front console that came with my X is a design disaster. You can actually lose items in areas that aren't meant to be reachable.

Why no single pedal stopping? Most other EVs are doing it. Even GM has it with the Bolt.

A fart app? Seriously? I'm actually embarrassed now to talk about my car for fear of being asked to defend Tesla's software priorities. Don't get me wrong, I thought the ELO Model Xmas easter egg was awesome. But you've just gone over the edge, Elon.

 

[StealthP3D]

The latest UI disaster has a media partial screen that won't go away. No matter how many times I swipe it down (takes three swipes to get rid of it), it just comes back the next time I get in the car.

I've got both a gate and a garage door, and I back into my garage (thank you Falcon Wing doors). So the auto drop down works the gate, but as soon as I am ready to hit the garage door on the drop down, the drop down disappears. So I have to bring up the drop down again. And then the drop down obscures my back up camera when I'm backing into the garage. How does Tesla test these UI changes, once for the easiest use case and pronounce it good to go?

When the falcon wing doors on my X only open partially and I hold the door sill button to make it open all the way, it emits a really loud BEEP right at my ear from the falcon wing door speaker. I don't need the frigging beep, I'm holding the stupid switch.

The front console that came with my X is a design disaster. You can actually lose items in areas that aren't meant to be reachable.

Why no single pedal stopping? Most other EVs are doing it. Even GM has it with the Bolt.

A fart app? Seriously? I'm actually embarrassed now to talk about my car for fear of being asked to defend Tesla's software priorities. Don't get me wrong, I thought the ELO Model Xmas easter egg was awesome. But you've just gone over the edge, Elon.

There's no doubt, Tesla's are not for everyone. Fortunately, they retain their resale value better than most cars so, if you decide it's not for you, it's not as big of a hit as you might take with an Escalade or something.

Personally, I can see how the software updates have continually made our Model 3's better since we picked up the Long Range one in May. I like the new features and the Auto-Pilot just keeps getting more capable. But, yeah, there's nothing wrong with selling and moving on, there is actually a shortage of used Teslas out there.

 

[markb1]

There's no doubt, Tesla's are not for everyone. Fortunately, they retain their resale value better than most cars so, if you decide it's not for you, it's not as big of a hit as you might take with an Escalade or something.

Personally, I can see how the software updates have continually made our Model 3's better since we picked up the Long Range one in May. I like the new features and the Auto-Pilot just keeps getting more capable. But, yeah, there's nothing wrong with selling and moving on, there is actually a shortage of used Teslas out there.

I don't think my 6-year-old Model S has held it's resale value very well. But regardless, when Tesla issues an update that removes functionality that I've grown to depend on, that's just not acceptable. And that they've spent any resources at all on a fart app is just insulting.

 

[StealthP3D]

I don't think my 6-year-old Model S has held it's resale value very well. But regardless, when Tesla issues an update that removes functionality that I've grown to depend on, that's just not acceptable. And that they've spent any resources at all on a fart app is just insulting.

When I said Teslas have good resale value, I was speaking relative to other brands. But, yeah, the cars with older AutoPilot are not in as high of demand.

 

[markb1]

When I said Teslas have good resale value, I was speaking relative to other brands. But, yeah, the cars with older AutoPilot are not in as high of demand.

My main point was to take issue your bogus "love it or leave it" argument.

 

[Jim Holder]

The latest UI disaster has a media partial screen that won't go away. No matter how many times I swipe it down (takes three swipes to get rid of it), it just comes back the next time I get in the car.

It is no doubt annoying that the maximize/minimize setting is not kept between sessions, but until they fix this (if they ever do) I found you just have to touch the music icon and it minimizes easily.

 

[StealthP3D]

My main point was to take issue your bogus "love it or leave it" argument.

I'm not saying that, just pointing out that you have options and shouldn't feel bad about exercising them. Nothing in life is perfect, you pick what you want to use/not use.

 

[StealthP3D]

It is no doubt annoying that the maximize/minimize setting is not kept between sessions, but until they fix this (if they ever do) I found you just have to touch the music icon and it minimizes easily.

That's how I've been doing it from day 1.

 

[xyeahtony]

The fact you complain about the fart app shows you dont know how to enjoy a car. Enjoy whatever you purchase in the future.

 

[Mobile Ranger]

Just use auto open/close so you don't have to manually press it?

 

[P100D_Me]

A fart app? Seriously? I'm actually embarrassed now to talk about my car for fear of being asked to defend Tesla's software priorities.

As a programmer myself it annoys me to see this too. I'm hoping for the day when the MCU somehow goes open source (100% chance this will never happen).

 

[bob_p]

The software has bugs - and it is frustrating that Tesla has enough time to implement easter eggs like farts or Atari games, and we aren't able to get some of the obvious bugs fixed - like the long standing problem with the media player frequently forgetting the currently selected source/song/position.

A number of the OP's complaints are obvious bugs or design flaws with the software.

The media player popping up every time you enter the car is clearly a mistake - and something Tesla should eventually get around to fixing. Though it should be easy to get rid of by just tapping the media player icon at the bottom of the display. [The V9 software isn't consistent in closing windows - some are removed by tapping the icon, some by dragging downward, and some by tapping an "x".]

Losing the backup camera when you use the homelink pull-down menu is also an obvious mistake.

While it may not do anything - after owning Tesla vehicles for almost 6 years, when I do encounter these issues, I still report the bug back to Tesla - usually by using the "report bug" voice command.

It is surprising obvious bugs and design flaws get into the broadly distributed software releases. This probably means Tesla's small group of handpicked beta testers either aren't representative of the owner community OR the group is too small to effectively test new releases - both are likely true.

Since Tesla has a large number of customers who want to help Tesla make the software better, what they should do:

• Open the beta testing program to everyone, to allow owners to "opt in" or "opt out" of testing
• Provide a mechanism to report bugs and track the progress for resolution (something most software organizations can do)
• And - provide the ability for owners to "rollback" a software release to the previous stable release, should an unacceptable problem be discovered in the latest official or beta release

Now that Tesla is moving beyond the "early adopters", who've been pretty patient with Tesla's software quality, to a larger number of owners who just want the software to work - it will be interesting to see if Tesla (finally) gets around to implementing quality improvements in their software development and testing process.

 

[jelloslug]

I don't think my 6-year-old Model S has held it's resale value very well. But regardless, when Tesla issues an update that removes functionality that I've grown to depend on, that's just not acceptable. And that they've spent any resources at all on a fart app is just insulting.

You don't think it has held it's resale value compared to what?

 

[Lasttoy]

Resale is only revalant to the place and market. Whats great in LA wont work in Detroit.
On the sw updates. Since rev 9, my car has become a sw nightmare. Been to SC many times. It took 6 hours last time to fix sw bugs.
I just dont understand releasing a sw revision with so many bugs, just down right negligence.
And not taking a survey of what we wanted to see changed , added, improved.
Teslas karma has gone all to hell lately for all of us.
Dont get me wrong, i love my S, but not the company and SC.

 

[gnuarm]

This is the sort of thing that I have been pointing out about Tesla that will make the difference in the next two to four years. To date, most of the buyers were excited about having such a unique car they didn't mind some annoyances. But Tesla is working to reach a wider range of buyers now and will need to appeal to a more mass market. For the next few years, even though there will be many new EV introductions, the market will be all about Tesla because of the charging network. But as the competing charging networks grow that will be less of a differentiator. If Tesla hasn't figured out how to make cars that appeal to the mass market by then, the combination of marketing savvy and economic clout of the big iron manufacturers will swamp Tesla in a sea of competition. Big iron is not so nimble as a small startup like Tesla, but once they get rolling, they know how to design, manufacture and most importantly SELL any type of car they want.

Selling EVs is not really about the cars. It's about the buyers, the buyers that big iron has been selling to for many decades. Tesla has been selling to a small pool of techies (not an insult, I'm one too) that can't sustain the market in the face of competition from the rest of the car makers and buyers. From here on out Tesla will adapt to the larger market, or die.

I don't know what that means in terms of the fart app.

 

[RayW]

It's amazing how many owners give Tesla a pass on the obvious bugs because their car now makes fart noises.

The cool-aid is strong, but does cause a hang over eventually.

BTW -- lost my Navigation for a day after the 48.1 install... it magically reappeared when I arrived home and no longer needed it.

 

[jelloslug]

It's amazing how many owners give Tesla a pass on the obvious bugs because their car now makes fart noises.

The cool-aid is strong, but does cause a hang over eventually.

BTW -- lost my Navigation for a day after the 48.1 install... it magically reappeared when I arrived home and no longer needed it.

Fans of any manufacturer will overlook lots of things if the car is still what they think it is. It's not just a Tesla thing.

 

[msvoyager]

i love my S, but not the company

Unfortunately I have to fully agree...

 

[Fellsteruk]

I agree it’s crap to release SW with bugs personally not really seen any in the past 4 months of which I’ve been an over.

Oh and I love the fart Easter egg

 

[P100D_Me]

• Open the beta testing program to everyone, to allow owners to "opt in" or "opt out" of testing

• Provide a mechanism to report bugs and track the progress for resolution (something most software organizations can do)

Spot on, when you say anything on here against Tesla's software stability a common response is 'well they are a tech/software company so you need to expect bugs'. Like you said most software organisations have end user driven bug tracking facilities that ensure they get looked in to and hopefully fixed.
Tweeting to the head honcho of the company is not how it should be done.