Tesla's Rapid Software Update Is Great, but Hides More Fundamental Problems

From article ____ What worries me is that customers that buy the Model 3 won’t know what to expect from their cars on any given day. Tesla’s internal processes seemed to be geared toward shipping early and shipping often, which is the Silicon Valley software approach. Despite the updates being great, the safety critical nature of systems like braking and driver assists means that the threshold for a minimum viable product must be much higher than it is at Facebook, Google or Snapchat.

When I see Tesla responding in this way, and continuing to struggle with achieving consistent performance with AutoPilot, it’s an indicator of lax internal controls for product reviews and releases. Tesla has done an admirable job of making over-the-air updates viable and improving the crashworthiness of its vehicles. Now it needs to do a better job of engineering and validating the fundamentals of basic systems like the brakes as well as all the various ancillary systems that still seem so inconsistent on the Model 3.