Will you buy FSD before the $1,000 increase on July 1st?

[jonquiljo]

Leather of dubious quality has very long been a thing, so by itself isn't really the differentiator you make it out to be. Plus even Benz is now using faux leather parts up into their E-class. Down in the "luxury compact" range where the Model 3 swims it is common thing.

And what of the rest of the post you quote? Willing now to muster up some character and choke down some crow?

Mercedes has used vinyl instead of leather in many models for years. Porsche too. I think the Model 3 is like an upper-end “standard car”. It is definitely not luxury, but definitely not junk. Luxury is overrated anyway.

Tesla interiors are mainly tech, which is what they are selling. A bit too much plastic - but time will tell on that one. You buy a Tesla for how it drives and it’s radical design and tech. FSD ... really is independent of all of this. People generally want it or not. FSD has definitely been over-hyped, but then again — most car companies are promising better tech than you receive. $8000.? Well, I think Tesla needs to improve things a bit to charge that much.

$8000. Is also beginning to show a nickel and dime business model. Tesla’s got to sell lots of cars first. Raising prices as we dive into a deep recession/depression is not really a way to attract people. If they start dropping 100Kwh batteries into the cars - then charge for it.

 

[jimmym1981]

I think the seats in my 1996 Eclipse GSX were probably just as nice or nicer and they were leather.

Not gonna lie, probably one of my favorite cars to date. Jealousy has set in.

 

[SammichLover]

It's just odd to me. I could understand if it was a slow and quiet luxo-barge but it's not.

It's all Driving Miss Daisy. Then I flip the switch, in my head as much as the stalk upward, and Vin Diesel shows up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sublime.

** Disclamer. I've never watched a Fast And Furious movie, not one.

 

[SammichLover]

I think the Model 3 is like an upper-end “standard car”.

That is a pretty good description of what the "luxury compact" segment is. And Tesla definitely leans harder on tech features in the category than others, plus the differentiator of a spartan esthetic. They still use pretty good materials, just generally not stand-out best-in-class (outside the obvious of the display screen). Their best stuff is nearly always visually hidden, coming out in motion/use.

As for the wisdom on a price raise of the FSD? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Tesla will on a dime chop it back to $7K if they see serious erosion of conversion rates, their marketing is like that since they are their own dealership they float prices directly rather than having the middleman handle that. Or it could just be a prelude to adding monthly subscription, making the full buy high enough to raise the monthly to where they are willing to put it.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

the basic AP can't even keep car toward to left when dealing with merges in the highway. I have no confidence in Tesla in delivering FSD feature. No way.

Isn't that amazing?? This is such as simple concept that I am pretty convinced that the AP/FSD software architects have never actually driven a car in real life, or even one on a video game console.

 

[SammichLover]

Isn't that amazing?? This is such as simple concept that I am pretty convinced that the AP/FSD software architects have never actually driven a car in real life, or even one on a video game console.

The actual amazing thing is I'm extremely hard pressed to find a place where this actually happens anymore. Couldn't name one anymore. It is almost like Kwakster928 talking about times past (but maybe there's a few edge cases out there, there's a few really poorly painted lines out there).

Such as at one point on US290 heading East from Giddings there's these weird lefthand turning lanes for exit to the North across Westbound. Very odd thing to see on a 4-lane fully divided highway like that. Approaching them while in the left lane AP would get confused and think it was supposed to take the left lane (and then would slow down and beep loudly because it realized the lane was ending, lose confidence in what it was supposed to do, and demand human intervention.

But now it doesn't. It is fine with those, handles those tricky edge cases like a champ.

But I guess you wouldn't actually know anything about all this? I am pretty convinced that the you have never actually driven a Model 3 in real life, or even one on a video game console.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

The actual amazing thing is I'm extremely hard pressed to find a place where this actually happens anymore. Couldn't name one anymore. It is almost like Kwakster928 talking about times past (but maybe there's a few edge cases out there, there's a few really poorly painted lines out there).

Such as at one point on US290 heading East from Giddings there's these weird lefthand turning lanes for exit to the North across Westbound. Very odd thing to see on a 4-lane fully divided highway like that. Approaching them while in the left lane AP would get confused and think it was supposed to take the left lane (and then would slow down and beep loudly because it realized the lane was ending, lose confidence in what it was supposed to do, and demand human intervention.

But now it doesn't. It is fine with those, handles those tricky edge cases like a champ.

But I guess you wouldn't know anything about all this, leading to your comment?

I was going South on the Grand Parkway yesterday on AP, and it was doing it at every exit. One time I didn't have anyone near me, so I let it do its thing uninterrupted, and I can tell you it was a wild ride with its swerving, hard braking, and hard accelerating!

Such a useless piece of software for people that don't feel like babysitting it all day. I know some people think it's great, but they are strange.

 

[SammichLover]

I was going South on the Grand Parkway yesterday on AP, and it was doing it at every exit. One time I didn't have anyone near me, so I let it do its thing uninterrupted, and I can tell you it was a wild ride with its swerving, hard braking, and hard accelerating!

Such a useless piece of software for people that don't feel like babysitting it all day. I know some people think it's great, but they are strange.

I don't drive on GP much at the sides. Specifics of which exits, please. Because that is very unusual, doesn't do anything like that along the North side on the occasions I'm on that, and the few times nor the couple times I've gone all the way to 290 (which was last year).

P.S. "Hard accelerating"???

 

[TX_M3P+]

The actual amazing thing is I'm extremely hard pressed to find a place where this actually happens anymore. Couldn't name one anymore. It is almost like Kwakster928 talking about times past (but maybe there's a few edge cases out there, there's a few really poorly painted lines out there).

Such as at one point on US290 heading East from Giddings there's these weird lefthand turning lanes for exit to the North across Westbound. Very odd thing to see on a 4-lane fully divided highway like that. Approaching them while in the left lane AP would get confused and think it was supposed to take the left lane (and then would slow down and beep loudly because it realized the lane was ending, lose confidence in what it was supposed to do, and demand human intervention.

But now it doesn't. It is fine with those, handles those tricky edge cases like a champ.

But I guess you wouldn't actually know anything about all this? I am pretty convinced that the you have never actually driven a Model 3 in real life, or even one on a video game console.

I have used AP on 183 and I35 in Austin and I can tell you that even with the latest FW, when you are in the far right lane and it merges with an on ramp, the car does not stay to the left, it always pulls to the right. This happens every time on every merge. It's a pretty easy fix, just don't AP in the far right lane, but that doesn't mean that it's not happening. I'm still on HW 2.5 so maybe that's a factor. I have heard from friends that received the HW 3 upgrade that the AP experience is improved.

I get the fact that people are hesitant to believe that FSD is viable based on where AP is today, but I think as the SW improves from release to release we will see a lot of these things go away. Phantom breaking is another one of those things. It scares the hell out of me when it happens, but I do believe it will eventually be a thing of the past. Fingers crossed!

 

[SammichLover]

I have heard from friends that received the HW 3 upgrade that the AP experience is improved.

That could indeed be the source of some of this difference in experience? I've had HW3 for a number of months, now.

But to try understand your issue, it "keeps to the right"? Like goes in a different lane? What's the issue where the vehicle ends up?

It scares the hell out of me when it happens, but I do believe it will eventually be a thing of the past.

Maybe I've just driven so much with AP on, and I know pretty much where it'll brake defensively? Like places that have merging traffic from the left at oblique angles, it'll slow for them. Sometimes for oblique merge from the right, too.

But even when it's new, like now it'll momentarily slow for traffic light warning signs (until in realizes it isn't actually a traffic light) and that was entirely unexpected when it happened the first time. Yeah, it doesn't give me a jump-scare at all. So that's going to be a personal thing.

 

[TX_M3P+]

But to try understand your issue, it "keeps to the right"? Like goes in a different lane? What's the issue where the vehicle ends up?

So, when you are in the right lane and it merges with an on ramp, the two lanes at some point become one wide lane and eventually narrow back into a single, regular sized lane. During the merge part, when the two lanes become a single wide lane, the car drifts off to the right instead of staying aligned to the left lane line. as you would do when manually driving. It's very odd and clearly no something you see any driver do when lanes merge, and it does it on every merge, not just some (in my experience). Again, I just move left one lane and avoid the merge all together, as you mention about things you do when you know the car will hard brake on you. I think there are a lot of these types of situation where we have come up with mental work-arounds to compensate for the car doing things that most drivers would not normally do. I do believe that with each update (HW and FW) we will get closer and closer to a more natural driving experience, it's just a matter of time. Time is really what this entire thread is about. How long will it take to achieve FSD and is it worth spending some money now vs spending more money later to get it.

 

[SammichLover]

During the merge part, when the two lanes become a single wide lane, the car drifts off to the right instead of staying aligned to the left lane line. as you would do when manually driving. It's very odd and clearly no something you see any driver do when lanes merge, and it does it on every merge, not just some (in my experience).

Oh. Driving different than you would but within the rules of the road and without safety concerns is really a non-issue.

Filed under same complaint about exactly how the car chooses to center in its lane. That's an extra ironic one in lots of cases because the car actually centers the "correct" way, driver's right foot in the very center of the lane, a lot of people don't do that but it is the "correct" place. My own habit is to cheat lanes one way or another because of traffic around me, but that's really just to mitigate a potential whoops. It is just a habit I have, I'm fine with other choices made.

 

[MXLRplus]

Yeah, that's a design feature to make you weave like a drunk so you get to meet new people.
Ugh.

 

[Dan203]

Now that they've said that they'll likely offer FSD as a service at some point in the future it's even less attractive to lay out $7-$8k for it. They'd have to charge $135/mo for 5 years to break even on $8k. No way anyone would ever pay that much, so I'm guessing the monthly price of the service will actually be lower. Likely to the point where buying FSD will only be worth it if you plan to keep the car for a really long time or if you plan to use it for some sort of commercial income. (like when robotaxi goes live)

 

[electrifyme]

No way I will fork out that much for a non-existent feature.. Elon is collecting your interest-free cash to use for his development... That's Tesla's business model.. hype it up, get preorder deposits and then use that interest-free cash to develop. At 8k, that cost is ~20% of the cost of a base model!

 

[SammichLover]

They'd have to charge $135/mo for 5 years to break even on $8k. No way anyone would ever pay that much,

So you claim (with broken math*). Yet I kept hearing claims that nobody would ever pay $7K for it up front (and back at $5K and $6K, etc), too, while it has continued to been a huge cash driver for Tesla.

* $8,000 at 3% over 60 months is $143.75/month.

People in the US like their monthly payments, especially if there's a way to opt out at some point. When presented with a $8K up front price tag, and were given say the option of $145, maybe $150 monthly on a minimum one or two year term commitment? Tesla doesn't even need to spend legal fees to put a lean on that. Yeah, you'll get bites.

 

[electrifyme]

Some people should ask themselves, will they still own the car after this supposed feature is actually available? The early people paid for it and they still haven't gotten it yet.... and you gotta consider that these people may have upgraded to another model and just wasted their initial "investment" for FSD. Brilliant business model for Tesla... betting that people will upgrade and the repay for another round of this mythical FSD.

 

[birdsquared]

I just added FSD to my Model 3 yesterday, because: A) I plan to keep the car for decades, if possible, B) as a Tesla investor, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is, and I believe it will be worth the expense, C) I like being on the bleeding edge of some technology, and this edge interests me, and D) I also believe that while it may never become a truthful descriptor (that is "fully self driving"), I think that all of the added features, (both specifically promised, and those that will be added and improved over time) will make my car safer, which as the parent of a 9 year old, is a very important factor.

 

[MXLRplus]

For safety purposes, spend $2500 on a high end Defensive Driving Academy.
You'd be surprised how many people have no idea how modern brakes are used.

 

[rk20]

My guess is there will need to be some hardware upgrades to get to FSD. The price increase is meant to recoup some of those upgrade costs.