Tesla Model X owners finding car doors won’t shut, windows won’t close
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Hopefully they fix it soon... And get the driver's window to roll all the way up. And get the passenger side falcon wing door to close without always thinking there's an obstruction. And figure out where a piece of plastic that popped off a chair is supposed to go. And get the autopilot to stop seeing a "ghost car" (that causes it to slam on the brakes) when driving on the 10.
But, I still love that acceleration, with three car seats across the middle (because we're waiting on the recall for the rear two)!
this all sounded like normal luxo-car post purchase pain, except... that.
metro expo line downtown to santa monica opens on may 20th though, so you may be in luck while your tesla's on the lift!
This has happened in every car my family has owned for the past 20 years. Some piece of plastic appears on the floor one day and not even the dealer knows where it's supposed to go. We always keep them in the glovebox in case we figure it out some day.
Rather funny to read all the excuses. "We all expected a few bugs, like beta testing software" --- I'm not buying it. Beta testers usually don't pay six figures for the privilege.
Compare to my $2,500 secondhand Ford that has had no faults in several years of ownership. Yes it does need occasional oil and filter changes. I'll take that compared to doors that won't open or brakes that activate upon sensing ghosts.
But a Tesla is a supercar in terms of performance. No other BMW/Mercedes/Audi in the price range will touch its acceleration. It rivals a Lamborghini Aventador.
But overall you're right. Supercar isn't really the right word for Tesla.
Maybe Teslas aren't supercars, but they're instead super cars?
The average family sedan does 180km/h on there — so a Tesla at 160km/h will seem slow.
Get a Tesla on a race track with any decent mid-range car for a 200 mile race and see what happens.
Tesla's only saving grace with the Model X is that they're selling vehicles to fanboys and not serious car-shopping buyers.
Tell that to the star citizen people.
You can't say it sucks, because you spent $150k on a shitty car, and the legions of fans who don't have one will shout you down.
Don't do things like this.
I have no idea how analogous the auto design industry is to the software, but if this was the first version of a new software product I was making, I wouldn't add high risk features at launch which could jeopardize my release when my product is already groundbreaking in its primary function. I'd iterate on next years model after I had a stable base.
But, maybe the "wow" factor and the differentiation those high risk features gave Tesla was worth this risk?
Your parent has said they should not spend too much on "tangential mechanical features". Can you explain what was radical in such features?
or not
or if they do
> owners finding car doors won’t shut
Imagine you're on the freeway when suddenly a chip malfunctions and your doors open. How exciting!
How hard is it to get 30 ppl to complain about model X?
On the other hand, this is what the future is really like: in a few days or weeks, Tesla will release an update to fix this, and will probably deliver it wirelessly to every affected vehicle, and it won't be a problem any more. That's magic.
Really? After paying $140,000? I think for that price many of them were expecting (quite reasonably) that their cars would be worry free.
But ultimately I agree with you
That's right, because the person making the purchase order doesn't really feel like they are spending their own money.
This is why I believe there should always be a mechanical override for safety-critical features; locks, brakes, steering. I trust hardware far more than software.
For example, if I pull the door handle of my car, it directly activates the latch, and the only way that could fail is if something physically breaks or jams. It's not just a switch sending a signal to some "brain" in between that could just decide, deliberately or otherwise, to not honour my "I want the door to open" request.
People are often surprised to learn that, despite me making a living off software development, my daily driver is one that has exactly zero lines of code controlling it.
You're not choosing hardware over software, here - in which case I might choose differently - you're choosing to eliminate an entire link in the chain. That's always going to be a win for reliability.
I think we need a good term to describe this specific kind of trustworthiness.
I am not sure mechanical hardware is less likely to fail than software. For example, ford recalled door latches for a mechanical problem - https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015... what is worse is my friend can't get the door latch replaced on her ford because "the part's on backorder."
This is a known software problem: http://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a5-s5-rs5-coupe-cabrio-...
I.e., the future is already here and it sucks
But in the link you provided there's several comments that it happened shortly after refueling, which suggests to me a much simpler hypothesis of the root cause --- bubbles in the fuel line.
I think if this was as wide spread as you make it seem, there would have already been a recall made by VW as this is clearly a huge safety hazard.
1. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/files/FordMemo.pd...
He only got the car back when he engaged a lawyer to sue the dealer. The lawyer was happy to work on a contingency since "we have no chance of losing this one in court".
I drove a Fiat Stilo on the highway when it suddenly decided to shift to 2nd gear because a gearbox failure occurred. It was a known software error.
Gull wing doors are different though, not to mention rear-hinged doors (aka suicide doors).
My dad's first car (which he bought in 1960) also had suicide doors in the rear; that was a Moskvitch 400, which in turn was practically the same design as Opel Kadett model 1938 - the Soviets took the design, toolings and machinery from occupied Germany after WWII.
For some reason I feel like this will save a lot more lives than it will take away.
So, what's your point? That some cars are lemons? That's well understood.
The consumer reports article isn't about one car; they systematically review complaints from all kinds of owners and report a score. In this case, the overall score is below average.
Not having regen cuts 10 - 15 miles off the max range.
I'm totally sure it's the future and all that, but when I bought a new car in 2013 I got a stick shift with the most advanced electronics being pretty much the radio (and even that could be mistaken with a cassette player from 1980 if you don't notice the bluetooth connection). You know how many problems I've had with the car so far? ZERO!
By comparison, though, the 2011 Mercedes SL500 cost around $105,000 and is currently worth (depending on mileage) right around $50k. That's more typical depreciation for high end sports cars.
I take it home, and was going over the car with some friends, and one of them finds a switch on a rear passenger door: hmm, what does this do? He flips the switch, and we try to open the door from inside, and voila! The door opens. Flipped the other switch too, and the doors were functioning fine. I think I saved 20% of the cost of the car simply because the owner didn't know about child-proof switches. :D
We know what can go wrong. I've heard the arguments that "yeah, but software is less fallible than humans". Maybe, but what happens when a situation arises that requires human judgment beyond what mere sensors can provide?
And, what happens when an OTA update regresses some safety feature or conflicts with another?
It was quite amazing and for long trips on the highway and in traffic it really is remarkable. That's why people are getting excited I think.
You still have to pay attention of course and take over fully at times because the sensors don't have what they need.
These sorts of expensive problems are not unknown in top-end cars from long-time manufacturers either. The list of problems an S-class Mercedes will have over the course of its life is long, and can be very, very expensive.
So, not to say this isn't a problem, just that buyers of fancy, super-fast 'super-car' type cars do put up with a lot of maintenance issues.
An uninformed buyer would be pretty annoyed though!
On the one hand, we have random internet people saying, "This is normal!". On the other, we have a 70 year old magazine that has reported on thousands of cars (and hundreds of thousands of consumer goods) stating that the reliability is "below average" to "well below average", which implies "This is NOT normal!".
I'm going to go with the magazine...
My brother's BMW needs about 5x more maintenance than his Nissan.
Obviously, in this case, Ford ($8BB in profit) overspent to look at a leading product. I fail to see the humour.
I've heard of a whole lot of "glitches" excused away that, frankly are not particularly excusable for a car that costs more than many people's homes.
It's my understanding as an admittedly sideline spectator, that Tesla stands behind their vehicles and is always quick to address any issues. Granted, these are safety issues and should receive the fastest attention possible, but there's no indication (other than an indirect inference by one of two affected people) that Tesla is ignoring this. They can't ignore it, because they are too young to afford to.
I'm calling it a hit piece, or at the least, poor journalism for now.
These stories aren't interesting to me until you can statistically compare the incidents to the malfunctions of equivalent vehicles.
You won't believe how a flaming Tesla proves their superior safety!Except there's also a statement from Tesla: "we believe the issues with falcon wing doors are largely behind us".
That sounds like a known issue.
Not to mention Tesla offered a loaner vehicle while these issues were being repaired...
A Chrysler Town and Country.
Wah?
"Yeah, your $140,000 vehicle is in the shop due to manufacturer issues. Here's a Chrysler minivan from us while we fix it." I don't know - that to me would be more than a little insulting.
Uh, what? Read the Consumer Reports article. The Model S is also suffering from quality issues. Many of them.
(if you didn't read, this is pretty close to a synopsis of one of the affected customers quotes).
Dont worry, Tesla put CTRL_ALT_DEL right on the steering wheel just for the occasion (not a joke)
I hope this "do-fast, shiny, fix later" culture hasn't spread to SpaceX too. From what I'm seeing Musk wants to prioritize the look and feel of Dragon instead of the raw functionality that's necessary in case something goes wrong. That'd be a very, very bad idea if something were to happen. Space is not a forgiving realm.
At this point, SpaceX should have the backing of NASA and all their experience on things that could possibly go wrong. They've also done very well in unmanned flights.
The first manned flights will run into issues, but the problems they face are likely to be orders of magnitude less dangerous than their precursors.
And if you haven't forgotten, Tesla reigns over all other manufacturers for safety ratings. Trying to imply their cars are aesthetic and not functional exhibits a level of ignorance on the topic that renders your contributions essentially meaningless.
And, lastly, are you inferring this from the fact that Musk spent 5 minutes explaining that the interior was actually pleasant and modern and well-designed? From that, you jumped to the conclusion that most functionality at SpaceX was taking a backseat to the interior design? I'm sorry, have you noticed what they've accomplished? Do they seem to be slacking on core functionality to you?
Is that with the doors open or closed?