Unknowns

[ddruz]

spatters0911, Fabulous report! Absolutely great. Thanks a million. Did the engineer give you an idea whether they are going to ditch the current cup holders altogether and relocate them as a standard feature or will anything different be an option (i.e. cost money)?

 

[Jason S]

lol, estimates were above his pay grade? :wink:

I think the December estimate given in spatters0911's report seems reasonable

Changes to the car will likely be rolled out on a rolling basis, with later deliveries coming with them intact, and likely a retrofit program for earlier deliveries. He didn't have any details on how this would occur, but felt that people receiving deliveries after December would have a more intact product.

 

[westcoast]

Thanks for the updates. Very interesting things underway.

 

[CyberDutchie]

Changes to the car will likely be rolled out on a rolling basis, with later deliveries coming with them intact, and likely a retrofit program for earlier deliveries. He didn't have any details on how this would occur, but felt that people receiving deliveries after December would have a more intact product.

Wonder what that will do to the number of people who will take the one time deferment...and the goal of 5,000 deliveries in 2012.

 

[Jason S]

Could be interesting. It'll definitely separate the people who just want to drive the car immediately from the people who want the whole luxury experience.

It doesn't appear that there is a significant downside to taking earlier delivery, other than the retrofit process being a huge workload for the Tesla Rangers.

 

[spatterso911]

spatters0911, Fabulous report! Absolutely great. Thanks a million. Did the engineer give you an idea whether they are going to ditch the current cup holders altogether and relocate them as a standard feature or will anything different be an option (i.e. cost money)?

I got the impression that they feel it's a big F-. It may be swapped for something else, but he didn't elaborate, just that the opportunity options are going to number around 3-4

 

[spatterso911]

Could be interesting. It'll definitely separate the people who just want to drive the car immediately from the people who want the whole luxury experience.

It doesn't appear that there is a significant downside to taking earlier delivery, other than the retrofit process being a huge workload for the Tesla Rangers.

Yeah, they will likely have to figure out a retrofit program for the sig deliveries and some of the production deliveries.

One other tidbit of information...

I know who got VIN#'s 9-12!

PM for information...

 

[brianman]

I know who got VIN#'s 9-12!

The delivery of 11 and 12 is news. Isn't it?

 

[dsm363]

Great report! What would

They are looking at upping the RPM limit to 18K vs 16K, but this is a hardware change, not software, so later builds will benefit. No timeline on when/if this will happen.

mean? Quicker 0-60 times? I'm getting the performance version anyway so shouldn't make much difference just wondering what the motor change would mean since it will likely happen after I get my car.

 

[AnOutsider]

Thanks for all that splatters. Some notes/questions of my own in red:

The car is undergoing the necessary engineering mods to install adaptive cruise control. It will be an add on option for the car.
*don't often use it, but happy to have it available to me. Hopefully it allows for closer tailing than the system in our Audi, but not likely given how "last-minute" it is.

The cup holder issue is front line issue right now, and they realize that the current cup holders are a no go, given that you can’t place two reasonably sized beverages in the cup holders. They want to offer 3 or so solutions that you can select from, with a modular capability for easy installation or removal.
*Hopefully this also means that the current cupholders will be

Sound system should be connected to your computer via wifi and you will be able to upload your music into the system from your computer. I was told that the guys working on this are all from Apple, using apple computers. AAC should be supported.
*Glad this was reconfirmed, since someone recently reported an engineer telling them it would be USB drive or similar for transferring music. This is the smarter solution.

The motor is designed for a top speed of about 200 mph with proper gearing.
*Meaning not the gearing on-board. Do you know if they are discussing a 2-3 gear system, or just improving the single gear?

They are looking at upping the RPM limit to 18K vs 16K, but this is a hardware change, not software, so later builds will benefit. No timeline on when/if this will happen.
*Could this go with the gearing discussion as well? If it offers more performance, hopefully older cars can get an upgrade (which may be likely since they do it with the Roadster)

They are working on an elevator system to lift the floor of the frunk in the Model X so that you can easily reach items on the frunk floor.
*That seems a bit gimmicky, no? I don't remember it being THAT deep

There will be a slower variant of the Model X (5.6 second). It will have a hitch.

The model on display now is a performance version (4.4 second). It does not have a hitch.
*Odd, you'd expect the perf to have more torque so a hitch should be OK. Wonder what the reasoning is there

 

[W8MM]

I have other unknowns I haven't seen discussed.

1) Will a Model S be allowed to go through an automatic car wash? Roadsters aren't allowed -- must be hand washed.

2) Does any of the glass in the car block radio/ radar waves? Some solar-control windshields or side and back windows have silver-based coatings that short out signals to radar detectors and RFID toll transponders.

 

[daniel]

Not sure where to post this, but since it's an "unknown" for me:

Is it known yet, now that the first Model S are out, what the annual maintenance cost is?

 

[1young1]

Very excited to hear the news about the power folding mirrors making it into the production models. Hopefully, it'll be ready by the time I take delivery in late December or January.

Does anyone know if they also plan to add a blind spot monitoring system to the mirrors in the future?

 

[qwk]

Not sure where to post this, but since it's an "unknown" for me:

Is it known yet, now that the first Model S are out, what the annual maintenance cost is?

I think it has been posted that the maintenance is free for the first 4 years or 50k miles(warranty period).

 

[spatterso911]

Responses in green:

Thanks for all that splatters. Some notes/questions of my own in red:

The car is undergoing the necessary engineering mods to install adaptive cruise control. It will be an add on option for the car.
*don't often use it, but happy to have it available to me. Hopefully it allows for closer tailing than the system in our Audi, but not likely given how "last-minute" it is.
No reason to think that ACC won't be advanced, given how easy it is to modulate the speed in the car.

The cup holder issue is front line issue right now, and they realize that the current cup holders are a no go, given that you can’t place two reasonably sized beverages in the cup holders. They want to offer 3 or so solutions that you can select from, with a modular capability for easy installation or removal.
*Hopefully this also means that the current cupholders will be
I have a feeling that once the opportunity options are finalized, we will see the current cup holders become a covered storage of similar volume to current cup holders. I remember telling the engineer that it was very awkward to have that feeling that the arm rest could slide back into my drink, something that I felt fairly easily could happen.


Sound system should be connected to your computer via wifi and you will be able to upload your music into the system from your computer. I was told that the guys working on this are all from Apple, using apple computers. AAC should be supported.
*Glad this was reconfirmed, since someone recently reported an engineer telling them it would be USB drive or similar for transferring music. This is the smarter solution.
Agreed. I say it's archaic to transfer music to a thumb drive, then from the thumb drive to the car. Personally I hope it doesn't really matter. I use an ipod in my car now, and it holds 160 gigs, so not stressed for space. Just hope the ipod integrates well, including album art.

The motor is designed for a top speed of about 200 mph with proper gearing.
*Meaning not the gearing on-board. Do you know if they are discussing a 2-3 gear system, or just improving the single gear?
He was just making note of the fact that the current gearing limits the top speed to 120-130 mph. He then said that the motor itself could actually propel the car to 200 mph given it's power. I presume it wouldn't be possible without multiple gears. I asked him about that, mentioning that it would be at the risk of slower acceleration, no? He replied "Not really, as they could use the current gear ratio to achieve top acceleration". I know Tesla bombed in their first efforts at multi-speed transmission, but wouldn't a DSG transmission work, if it could be made compact enough? Never asked that question...

They are looking at upping the RPM limit to 18K vs 16K, but this is a hardware change, not software, so later builds will benefit. No timeline on when/if this will happen.
*Could this go with the gearing discussion as well? If it offers more performance, hopefully older cars can get an upgrade (which may be likely since they do it with the Roadster)
This would be same gearing, different motor. Top speed is determined by RPM tolerances. They could achieve a higher top speed if the motor could hit 18K without issues.

They are working on an elevator system to lift the floor of the frunk in the Model X so that you can easily reach items on the frunk floor.
*That seems a bit gimmicky, no? I don't remember it being THAT deep
Yeah, I know! Surprised to hear about this, and it was not confirmed by the engineer. My wife and I went to Santa Monica and looked at the X, we both said it didn't need any kind of frunk elevator if you were an average height female (wife is 5'4").

There will be a slower variant of the Model X (5.6 second). It will have a hitch.

The model on display now is a performance version (4.4 second). It does not have a hitch.
*Odd, you'd expect the perf to have more torque so a hitch should be OK. Wonder what the reasoning is there
I think it will be thought of more like the Grand Cherokee SRT. Instead of a hitch area, it had carbon fiber.

 

[TEG]

...
Roadster HPC should be able to charge the Model S, but no mention as to whether an adapter is being developed. Only that it is capable.
...
The motor is designed for a top speed of about 200 mph with proper gearing.
...

At a recent track event they had a prototype adapter using a Roadster UMC to recharge a Model S.
As expected, it seems totally confirmed that the Model S charge port is electrically compatible with J1772 and Roadster charging as long as you can get a physical adapter to mate the two connectors.

Something to keep in mind about high top speed is that it requires sustained max power output. Heat build up becomes a problem when you do continuous high power output, so the existing cooling system might not be "up to snuff" if they provided taller gearing without upgrading other things too. The battery pack might not like providing high sustained current either.

 

[brianman]

I think it has been posted that the maintenance is free for the first 4 years or 50k miles(warranty period).

A link would be lovely, if someone has.

 

[daniel]

I think it has been posted that the maintenance is free for the first 4 years or 50k miles(warranty period).

Cool! How much after that?

 

[daniel]

And another question I was wondering about: To get the advertised zero-to-sixty time in the Roadster you have to charge in Performance mode, which is not recommended. In the Model S is there a not-recommended performance mode that gives you the advertised acceleration, and a Standard mode (like in the Roadster) which gives you less than maximum range and less than maximum acceleration, but is better for battery longevity?

 

[spatterso911]

Never saw a performance mode. The charging screen displays range mode charging and standard charging. All the videos of the performance accelerating demonstrate the advertised time, but no hint that the car was in a different setting.