It's a piece of glass. Adding such fastening would increase the cost of assembly significantly. Double-sided tape is an industry standard. Cars costing more and less than $56k use it. It just appears that it wasn't very good tape in this case. Good double-sided tape can stick very, very well.
But at least it would be guaranteed not lead to reviews of 3 month old cars where the glass mirrors were not falling off and making the company look poorly before it even gains mass adoption.
The engineering of early macbook pros was absolutely over the top and ridiculously expensive... but Apple knew that they were buying trust with that added expense.
You can't build trust with a taped on mirror that falls off into the lap of a powerful reviewer.
>Cars costing more and less than $56k use it
I'm sure that they do... but I suspect that the brands behind them have been around a bit longer than Tesla has.
If McDonalds serves me a crummy burger for the first time in the hundreds of times that I've frequented them... I'll forgive them and go back without hesitation.
If the brand new Uncle Ricks Burger Shack pops up and sells me an overpriced, crappy burger... I'm going to tell everyone I know never to waste their money at that lousy joint. (Before they've probably even had the chance to visit and make their own decisions!)
The Model 3 was Tesla's first start in the big leagues... they should have made sure that their mirrors were not falling off after a few months of regular use... that is the only point I am trying to make.
The fact that other car companies use tape to secure mirrors is irrelevant to my argument.
This is a myth. Early Macbook Pros weren't even actually unibody, even though they were advertised as such. Instead they glued two pieces of aluminum together, which would come apart after awhile. Numerous issues with screens delaminating and such as well.
They were certainly better-engineered than their existing counterparts, but build quality at Apple has always been a third-tier concern.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_EU/Industrial-Adhes...
3) 3M Double Coated Tape 4492 is used to bond interior visor mirror glass to the plastic bezel.
To the grandparent: Your Audi likely uses double-sided tape too. :-)