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Updated - Interior Lighting

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Would these work? This wouldn't be ideal but I'd imagine they wouldn't get used much. Maybe there is a 12V to whatever plug this uses that could power it and you'd simply disconnect it when you didn't need it. Kind of a hack though.
Ribbon LED Strips
ribbon-led-connections-example.jpg


No longer needed! See below.
 
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There are still map lights near the rear view mirror so I don't think lighting up the front seats will be an issue. Or are you only talking about the rear seats?

I was talking about the rear seats. From the look of things, the removed rear map lights were the only source of overhead lights for the rear occupants. I intend to use the Model S as a family car, with my baby and wife seated at the back. The rear lighting is helpful for my wife who needs to look for things in the diaper bag, etc. The suggestion of using a smartphone to light up the place is ridiculous. People need to realize not everyone have the same smartphone usage habits. Not everyone filly charges their phone or even have it accessible. My wife for example puts hers in her purse. It is amazing how much crap she can cram into those things!
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Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks to everyone throughout this thread who had faith in us that we were doing the right thing. Your support is always greatly appreciated.

So, what’s going on… This thread started as the result of a change to our website specs page and a response from one of the Tesla Team about rear seat reading lights and the desire to increase visibility for tall customers. The following highlights exactly what we’ve been working on.

The beta Lighted Vanity Visor that first showed up in Model S was not acceptable to us from an appearance, function or size standpoint. So we rejected it and immediately started working on another version. In the meantime, we started delivering cars. We did not want to be delivering cars without Lighted Vanity Visors when our webpage specs said otherwise…so we changed the specs page to be more accurate at that moment in time.

The removal of 2nd Row Reading lights from the specs page is also an “accuracy of the moment” issue. We removed these from the specs page because we were working on another initiative that might impact what type of light we could use in the back seat for a reading light. Basically, we found a way to potentially add a few millimeters of additional headroom in the back seat. As part of that initiative, we didn’t know for sure if we would be able to use the same light fixture, or even the same type of reading light going forward…so we deleted it from the specs page to be more accurate at the time.

Both of these issues are temporary issues, and for those of you who have been following us for a while, you know how we operate. When something doesn’t meet our expectations, we dive right in to fix it. We work hard to find the best solution possible, then we implement it. We try to keep all information as up to date as possible, but in today’s world, that sometimes causes problems from a communication standpoint. Nevertheless, we always feel as though it is better to be as accurate and up to date as possible, even if it makes things a little tougher for us from time to time.

You will soon see another change to our specs page. You will see the addition of 2nd Row Reading Lights. We have been able to accomplish what we set out to do with the rear seat headroom, and will be able provide reading lights in the same place as originally planned. We focused first on the headroom adjustment because that is more complicated within the car itself, then we focused on the lights and placement. To avoid any further questions about what will happen next, let me be perfectly clear... there will be a few early cars delivered that do not have 2nd Row Reading Lights. However, we will be happy to install them in the future (at no charge of course). The wires are already in place so this is not a major event.

You will not see the Lighted Vanity Visor back on the specs page for a little while longer because we are still working on getting the form factor and functionality exactly the way we want it. It will be lighted, it will have a mirror, and it can easily be retrofit into all cars. In fact, we will be encouraging everyone to get the retrofit.

So just to be clear, all cars that get delivered are set up to have reading lights in 2nd row seats and Lighted Vanity Visors. Those that don’t have the latest and greatest when they receive their car can have these items retrofit at no additional cost.

I hope this helps clear up all questions regarding this issue. Please understand, we are very, very serious about everything that goes into Model S. We are doing all we can to make every millimeter count while still listening to what our customers and future customers want. We are going to have lights in the right places, a shelf that was asked for by customers in the console area, and a lighted visor mirror that you can look into and smile. And when all is said and done, that is what we are really striving for…you smiling.

GeorgeB
 
Firstly, thanks George for updating us! As you have probably gathered, we're starving for information as we impatiently wait for our wheels.

A request: In the future, could edits to the Specs page that involve removing or "weakening" a feature be accompanied by either a short blog post or a notation on the spec page (or a linked page) about the rationale for the change and what the "plan of record" (i.e. an abbreviated form of the above)? It would go a long way in both avoiding the forum drama and building brand trust and loyalty.
 
Thank you George for the much needed clarification.

And just in time too....a financial analyst emailed me asking very specific questions about my order Sig #1246. I have not yet responded to him, however I think I'm going to end up recommending to him to buy TSLA while it's down and before the ramp up in car production. Then hold the position over the ramp up and reassess your position in the following quarter and sell into the strength unless you see further room to go based on sales, cancellations, warranty issues, etc. Then put deposit for Model X....

I feel more satisfied and less irked now that Tesla has answered something that I find important to me. There's always room for improvement, and this is a good start at addressing the six issues (now four) that are important to me. Thanks again.
 
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George, I posted something similar in the other thread, but to reiterate:

Thank you. This is the type of thing that will set Tesla apart from the other auto companies. Not the lights...but this simple blog post is the kind of thing that restores my faith and makes me want to tell friends to go to a Tesla store and buy.
 
So just to be clear, all cars that get delivered are set up to have reading lights in 2nd row seats and Lighted Vanity Visors. Those that don’t have the latest and greatest when they receive their car can have these items retrofit at no additional cost.
Does Tesla make the folks receiving cars aware of things like this in the works? I'm glad Tesla iterates fairly rapidly, but the downside is the difficulty in knowing exactly what comprises a Model S at any particular point in time...which of course leads to rampant speculation on obsessive fan sites. It also means it's hard to look at a model on the floor today and know if it's reflecting what you'd be buying.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think it's important info to make available to folks that have to lock in. Probably also good to have on hand when a reviewer tests the car for an extended period and really looks hard at these little features.
 
Thanks to GeorgeB for the clear and unambiguous answer! I hope, in the future, that this sort of information can be shared more readily. For instance, if ddruz's contact at Tesla had been able to simply share exactly this information, I doubt very much that the thread would have gone beyond a few postings because everybody would have understood and appreciated what Tesla was doing.

Happy to hear the news, and I will now go back to obsessing over my color choice. :)
 
As always, thanks again George for the active communications. I admit, it would be if clarifying this didn't always have to fall to you as I'm sure you are busy with many other details and responsibilities. But as you can see, a little communications could go a long way in avoiding meltdowns among the masses :)
 
My thought, if these were always a known feature, despite unsatisfied with the current lighting solutions, wouldn't it have been better to leave the feature posted... and explain any car not wearing the lights, was just an interim car while the fix comes? Would this audience be more at peace than the opposite? Like the stink this thread created?
 
My thought, if these were always a known feature, despite unsatisfied with the current lighting solutions, wouldn't it have been better to leave the feature posted... and explain any car not wearing the lights, was just an interim car while the fix comes? Would this audience be more at peace than the opposite? Like what the stink this thread created?

Customers are fickle beasts... It's very likely a "no win" situation for Tesla.
 
Customers are fickle beasts... It's very likely a "no win" situation for Tesla.
While sometimes that's true, it's often more about customer variety than customer fickleness.

For example, I would have strongly preferred they did what he suggests...
wouldn't it have been better to leave the feature posted... and explain any car not wearing the lights, was just an interim car while the fix comes?
... but I'd want the "explain" to be in a public and persistent place -- like a blog post or "release notes"-type thing that doesn't "vanish" but is reliably available. It doesn't need to be anything with fancy formatting. Just simple text like the readme.txt files of old.
 
Thanks to GeorgeB for the clear and unambiguous answer! I hope, in the future, that this sort of information can be shared more readily. For instance, if ddruz's contact at Tesla had been able to simply share exactly this information, I doubt very much that the thread would have gone beyond a few postings because everybody would have understood and appreciated what Tesla was doing.

I don't know. The situation described by GeorgeB is rather nuanced and those kind of details are likely muted as they get passed down the line. Like I said above, sounds like things are in flux, and with so much going on, that's a lot to keep up on.