Tesla Weekend Social - Decrypting the Cryptic Message

[GoTslaGo]

Thanks for the posts! I just found my RSVP email in my spam box tonight, so missed the April 16-17 options. May try to go to the end of the month, or at least encourage my wife to go. Someone has to take the kids to their various weekend activities....

 

[supratachophobia]

Oh, BTW, we had an X at ours...

 

[Urgo]

I was at the Raleigh NC event on Saturday and I'm glad I went! I wasn't really too sure what to expect and it felt like most people were in the same boat there. The summon demo took all of five minutes but the conversation slowly expanded past there and I actually learned one thing about auto pilot I didn't know before. Anyway all in all I don't think I'd go to these every other week, but once a month I think it would be pretty fun to stop by and hang out with other Tesla owners in the area and maybe learn something else new!

 

[K_style]

Attended the Sunday Social here in San Diego (UTC) today. Similar to earlier report, 60+ attendees, Starbucks coffee & Danish, a number of Tesla folks from the Store, a 5-10 minute thank-you and intro to Summon in the store, but then we adjourned to the 2nd level of the rear parking structure (above where the MS test drive vehicles are), and had perhaps a 20 minute further demonstration of Summon on a MS that was already there, ready-to-go. The Tesla folks were well prepared, helpful, and taking a myriad of questions from owners on subjects from A-Z.

Not a lot of new info for me personally, but there were surprisingly only a handful of us that raised our hand when asked "who has used Summon" at the beginning of the morning. As much as I frequent TMC and try to keep up with what's going on, the event really drove home an important point to me -- there is a large population of Owners than don't keep up with capabilities being enabled like some of us that frequent TMC do, and a lot of those Owners appear to perhaps update their firmware, but I don't think read the release notes or try any new capabilities once they drive away from taking delivery, or unless an Advisor at a Service Center direct them to. I know I talked to 3 different owners about how to use Summon and a number of other things I considered basics anyone who had spent any time looking at options on the 17" would perhaps have some clue about. These sort of Socials may be a way to try and get the word out to those folk. It seems to be an interesting challenge for Tesla! especially as the owner demographic continues to expand.

Interesting to me was that the MX sitting in the showroom alongside a P90D seemed to be the hit. It was jammed before, during and after the event before the store officially opened with MS owners wanting to check it out, sit in the seats and watch those falcon wing doors do their thing. I admit, I was one of them oogling the new ride, since it's the first physical MX I've seen -- but I wasn't into taking a selfie with the MX like several others were. :;

Same situation here. Went to Sunday event in Palo Alto, CA. Surprisingly only a few people have experienced Summon nor "auto parking assist":. I haven't even taken delivery for my MS and I even done all of new features.

It was pretty boring and demo didn't even start till half hour past 10:00am.

My guess is majority of Tesla owners drive the car like any other ICE car. They are not really "up to date" to utilize maximum potential of Tesla vehicles.

 

[ecarfan]

I was at the Burlingame CA Service Center event on Sunday. Great turnout of local Tesla owners and potential Tesla owners. Got to answer lots of questions from interested people. Tesla personnel demonstrated perpendicular AutoPark between my Roadster and an X. That was exciting. ;-)

I met a fellow Roadster owner there, think his name was Bob, he was going to email me but I never got his email. Bob, if you see this, please contacted me using the "Conversation" feature on TMC.

 

[NikLivs]

I also just attended the event in Sunnyvale. My experience was much like some of those above as far as seeing how few have actually used it.
In addition to the demo by Tesla, I got a chance to show a couple folks the real world application of it when a model X tried to pull in to charge at the destination charger there. The spaces are pretty tight and I showed how it can be used to pull into and out of such parking spaces.

This may become the norm as more and more Teslas hit the road with the model 3. I suspect that this feature will be used to minimize the parking requirements for chargers.

That said, the highlight for me was meeting others and sharing modifications and experiences of our vehicles.
I got a chance to meet TeslaTap and a few others. All in all a great event and I look forward to more of these events in the future.

I also plan to attend more of these in the future. I didn't get too much information out of the Tesla staffers, but had a blast chatting with Pale Hearse, FlatSix911 and TeslaTap. I learned a ton! Can't wait to start applying the mods I saw to my X.

 

[JenniferQ]

I am attending the one in San Diego tomorrow, May 8. I received a phone call this evening confirming and asking me if I wanted to get a trade-in value while I was there? So, wth? She obviously had no idea that I had just bought my current Tesla in Oct '15 or that I had two Model 3 reservations made on 3/31/16. To me this is a basic fail in the marketing/customer service department. I almost don't even want to go. Sounds to me as though all they are after is new customers. Guess if I wake up, I'll go; and if I decide to sleep in, then 'Meh." Or am I overthinking this new company and what it should be doing with its current customers vs what it's capable of?

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Maybe they'll have koolaid?

 

[JenniferQ]

Maybe they'll have koolaid?

Haha! Think I heard it's overrated Starbucks coffee. Maybe I should take my own?

 

[Edmond]

I am attending the one in San Diego tomorrow, May 8. I received a phone call this evening confirming and asking me if I wanted to get a trade-in value while I was there? So, wth? She obviously had no idea that I had just bought my current Tesla in Oct '15 or that I had two Model 3 reservations made on 3/31/16. To me this is a basic fail in the marketing/customer service department.

It could be a basic fail of an individual not having their sh*t together and checking.

 

[BertL]

I am attending the one in San Diego tomorrow, May 8. I received a phone call this evening confirming and asking me if I wanted to get a trade-in value while I was there? So, wth? She obviously had no idea that I had just bought my current Tesla in Oct '15 or that I had two Model 3 reservations made on 3/31/16. To me this is a basic fail in the marketing/customer service department. I almost don't even want to go. Sounds to me as though all they are after is new customers. Guess if I wake up, I'll go; and if I decide to sleep in, then 'Meh." Or am I overthinking this new company and what it should be doing with its current customers vs what it's capable of?

Jennifer, when I attended last month, there were a couple noticeably newer-to-the-location personnel doing the standard showroom check-in process, taking addresses, emails, etc for marketing purposes -- even though we had all pre-registered. Once one of the more senior folks (doing the speaking) saw why the line was so long and slow, he shut all that down. My take is something like that may have occurred with the confirmation call you received, but also, don't forget that Tesla only makes money off of new car sales (accessories, caps and T-shirts don't count for much), so IMHO as nutty as it may be to you and I that just took delivery, some amount of pushing or at least nudging even relatively new owners to buy a new vehicle is something that we should expect from Tesla. There are enthusiasts here on the forum that have had 3 or more Tesla's already from their sig lines, so, Tesla asking everyone and providing MX test drives as I've heard occurred at some events, may not be that bad of an idea from Tesla's POV. Keeping Tesla's production line busy is critical to achieving QTQ results and Elon's YE profitability commitment, as M3 is a very long ways away. (Not to sidetrack this thread, but to lend credibility to that, it's interesting to me e.g. that new MX orders today can get a June delivery, given the significant backlog that was there not that long ago. Hummm.)

BTW, there wasn't hot Starbucks at the UTC event last month. There were two types of pre-bottled Frapacinno available -- some on ice, some not. Sorry I'm gonna miss meeting you once again at the event today. I've got cookin' and baking to do for my mom's Mother's Day brunch before everyone comes over early afternoon. Happy Mother's Day!

 

[fballatore]

I read where Elon is hopeful to allow your Tesla to drive you to the airport or other location, drop you off, return to your garage, plug itself in and return to pick you up when you schedule it. Tesla seems to be thinking long term for autopilot.

I had an early Parrot drone that lost wifi contact and just flew away, never to be found. I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to trust my almost $100k car to drive home by itself...

 

[Model S M.D.]

Has anybody been to the most recent Tesla social where they discuss the following topic:

"We look forward to seeing you this month as we take a closer look at Trip Planner. "

I'm assuming this is aimed at Tesla owners who don't even know what EVtripplanner is, let alone the onboard Tesla Trip Planner?

 

[RogerHScott]

it's interesting to me e.g. that new MX orders today can get a June delivery, given the significant backlog that was there not that long ago. Hummm.

Are you implying that this suggests a slackening of demand? M3 deliveries have been getting much shorter in the recent past but I don't think that implies any slackening of demand. In both cases I think the're just getting better at planning and manufacturing.

 

[Boatguy]

I wasn't able to attend the events this weekend, but if anyone learned anything about Trip Planner, like when they'll add waypoints, it would be great to hear an update.

 

[bswn1]

Went this weekend, not nearly as many attendees as last time which I'm assuming is due to the holiday. Nothing new or revolutionary revealed.

 

[ecarfan]

Has anybody been to the most recent Tesla social where they discuss the following topic:

"We look forward to seeing you this month as we take a closer look at Trip Planner. "

I'm assuming this is aimed at Tesla owners who don't even know what EVtripplanner is, let alone the onboard Tesla Trip Planner?

Yes, I went to a Tesla Social event today where that was the topic. Frankly, I was disappointed in the event. The speaker simply made a few general remarks about the nav software, using the flat screen on the wall in the showroom as a visual aid. But the screen didn't show the in-car trip planning, it showed a map of the US Supercharger network. So there was no discussion of specific trip planning features in the in-car software.

I don't know who the talk was aimed at, but for owners who have used the onboard trip planning software, I heard nothing of interest.

Fewer than half the number of people showed up compared to a month ago at the same location.

I felt sorry for the presenter. He wasn't given the tools to do the job. Tesla should have figured out a way to display the in-car nav software on a big screen in the showroom. Then there could have been an interesting presentation showing how the trip planning software worked.

 

[Pale Hearse]

I will be attending the social up in Rocklin on the 22nd.
Hopefully they take feedback as well as instruct. It's always fun to hang out with others if for no other reason than to see what they have done with their cars.

 

[Maximus8]

I will be attending the social up in Rocklin on the 22nd.
Hopefully they take feedback as well as instruct. It's always fun to hang out with others if for no other reason than to see what they have done with their cars.

See you there

 

[brianman]

She obviously had no idea that I had just bought my current Tesla in Oct '15 or that I had two Model 3 reservations made on 3/31/16. To me this is a basic fail in the marketing/customer service department. ...

Or, she's just covering her bases. Some folks might be interested in a swap for the design refresh.