It makes me sad to say this...
Unfortunately, at this point I would not be able to recommend that any of my friends or family purchase a Tesla. We are three years into production, but Tesla still appears to be for beta testers only and not for those who want a finished, polished product. My business partner would never accept a navigation system that did not perform on par with her existing Lexus navigation system. My brother-in-law would not accept a Trip Planner that did not work well enough to rely on for determining when and where to charge. We live in the real world where we look for real solutions, not in a bubble where "just okay" is good enough.
Tesla lost me in a big way after Elon's idiotic and embarrassing "end to range anxiety" press conference. The last 12 months of software updates, with essentially no focus on polishing existing features, has left me disillusioned and questioning Tesla's focus and how it is being managed. The reality of Autopilot is that Tesla is catching up to existing auto makers, not blazing a new trail of its own. Self-parking, summoning, and auto-steering are all features that have been offered by other makers. The only feature Tesla has that others don't is automated lane changing. Other than that, BMW has already beaten Tesla to market with these features. Tesla has no first-mover advantage in anything anymore. I will note that BMW's software is NOT in beta and is release-level.
After two years I still love my car and how it drives, and service has been excellent, but in everything else my overall experience has been disappointing. Once you get beyond Tesla's electric drive train, you quickly realize that Tesla is far from a technological leader. In fact, it's quite a bit behind everyone else. BMW has already implemented gesture controls into its flagship vehicles, which is superior to a touch interface in terms of distractions. Tesla can't even give us a decent navigation system or provide a function as robust as EVTripplanner - a tool that was created by a student and is barely being maintained anymore. But even that is better to what Tesla came up with.
I have nobody to point to at Tesla other than Elon Musk for being ultimately responsible for the state of stagnation with the car's core software. Either Elon is spending too much time at SpaceX and not enough time at Tesla, or he is a terrible, awful manager who doesn't know how to properly delegate tasks and hold members of his team accountable for what they create. Given the horrible state of communications at Tesla for years despite multiple hires and executive turnover, the one common thread is Musk himself. There's nobody else visible enough at Tesla to hang this on but Musk.
The fact that Model X uses the same gimped navigation, trip planner, and media system as Model S should be alarming to the Tesla faithful. Even with its newest crown jewel that Tesla is taking extra time to perfect, nothing is happening on the software front to fix the core software and bring it up to par with the rest of the industry. Based upon this track record, I have dim hopes for Model 3. Tesla will most likely continue down this path and expect its Model 3 customers to cut it some slack, forgive the shortcomings of a new product, etc. I hope that's not the case, but if it is, Tesla and its shareholders are in for a major reality check.
It's my opinion that Tesla's Board of Directors needs to put Musk into more of an advisory/visionary capacity and should hand over the day-to-day functions of CEO to a more skilled and competent manager who can actually finish what he or she started.
Do I also need to bring up the Roadster 2.0 update, as in where is it? Maybe best not to go there.
Look at the garage auto open/close function as a prime and recent example of Tesla's failures. This feature was released but it doesn't work at all. Apparently nobody at Tesla actually tested the feature in any real world conditions before it was released. Who approved this feature being ready? Who tested it? NAMES! But we will never know. All I do know is that Tesla's software team is showing a propensity for incompetence. It's likely that the incompetence is coming from upper management, but ultimately it reflects back on the software team because they are going to be the ones blamed for the terrible state of software. This may offer one glimpse into why Tesla is losing talent to the likes of Apple and others.
About a year ago we were laughing at the horror that was Fisker's software interface, comparing it to the beautiful and functional Model S interface. Then we got version 7 which essentially "Fiskerized" a lot of what we thought was superior in version 6, and even lost some important informational feedback. Look no further than the speedo/instrument cluster to validate Tesla's software issues. Autopilot drivers, even though they may not be using Autopilot, are forced to watch a video game on their speedo instead of getting useful and valuable feedback as provided by the version 6 circular dial. Anyone with average intelligence would understand that the Autopilot interface is only useful when Autopilot is enabled, so use one mode without Autopilot and use another mode with Autopilot. Even those who are not paying for Autopilot are being forced to use the Autopilot interface - which is essentially useless for them.
I have tweeted my concerns to Elon Musk and encourage others to do the same. Unfortunately, short of a negative high profile media piece, I don't believe Tesla is going to change its focus. Has anyone noticed that Elon Musk no longer attends enthusiast gatherings? In 2013 we often saw him in front of enthusiastic throngs of owners and supporters, fielding their questions and offering his insights. The last time I remember seeing anything like this was at the last annual shareholders meeting. Tesla cannot even keep its own web site updated with regard to the executive management team, take a look:
Management | Tesla Motors
Only two people listed - JB and Elon. If you were an investor, wouldn't looking at this page scare the hell out of you? One does have to ask, on many levels, what on earth are Musk and Tesla thinking. Or are they?
), which makes it easier for Tesla to make me happy... 
