As far as I know, only 1 person has died from use of autopilot and it’s questionable whether that was even a defect in autopilot. In the end like cruise control, you’re still responsible to take over in case something goes wrong.
I misspoke. I’m familiar with both. Fully autonomous driving is years from being reality in the mainstream, like you describe. What I was referring to is autopilot/super cruise which is a precursor to autonomous driving. I’ve heard how excited people are for this, you included I believe. I don’t see the fanfare though if it’s simply a glorified cruise control system at this point.
So, if reports are to be believed, these screens HAVE died/malfunctioned at this point, while in warranty. If a screen dies on my car, it’s a nuisance, but I can still control all vital systems in the car to drive it safely. If it malfunctions (and I’ve read someone had to reboot his 10 times while driving…how is this not a distraction), it is a critical point of failure in a Model 3. Likewise, if they are dying in warranty, they’ll surely die outside it too.
The screen itself isn’t “horrible.” The fact every major system including the lowly wipers are tied to it is horrible. Arguably, yes, you could drive home with just a steering wheel and a pedal. Better hope you don’t live in a city that has more rain than sun though. Better hope you’re not far from home, or you remembered to plug in last night, and need to know how much juice is left. Hope it’s not too hot/cold. Hope that cop is understanding when you tell him your story after you’re breaking the limit.
Feel bad for that guy in the back seat roasting his nuts on the recently activated heated seats.
2 AP-related deaths. Pretty sure I linked an update to this story earlier in this thread where it was confirmed by Tesla AP was active.
“Significant percentage”
[citation needed]
I’m not saying defects are ok—I’m saying it’s not a big concern. My last BMW had a touchpad that didn’t work right off the factory floor and a seat heater that failed 2 months in. I used the warranty and never had a problem again. Oh well!
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It is a critical point of failure, just like a gas engine or tires. All cars have critical parts of failure.
What’s your point again?
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Screen/user experience in general. Here we go:
Market researcher Strategy Analytics published a review focused on user experience and found that the Model 3’s touch screen is “exceptionally difficult to use while driving”
NYMag (mostly positive review btw) -
But if there are plenty of problems I brought on myself, there are still some parts of the Model 3 that baffle me. Touchscreens are fantastic when I’m holding one in my hand or lap, but shunting so much of the basic functionality in a car to a touchscreen feels dicey. For example, adjusting the max speed on the cruise control currently requires tapping small plus or minus signs on the left side of the touchscreen. But without any tactile or physical buttons, you have to take your eyes away from the road to make sure you’re hitting the right spot.
Adjusting side-view mirrors requires a few taps on the touchscreen and is a few too many menus deep. Windshield wipers are supposed to kick in automatically in the rain, but they didn’t kick in during light snow, meaning I needed to swipe on the touchscreen and then tap to start them up
Green Car Reports (calls 3 quality terrible/appalling, says owner reported phantom touches) -
Before we were even able to visit the owner, the car had to go back to the Tesla service center to have the central touchscreen replaced.
You know, the one required to control virtually any aspect of the car except for turn signals, headlights, and wipers?
The Drive (its AP criticism mainly derived from the fact the 3 only has the 1 center display -
Unfortunately, the Model 3’s Autopilot implementation currently sucks.
CNET video (When asked to describe the Model 3’s UI experience in 1 word, the reviewer simply replies “Awful”) -
I can swap a tire and go on my merry way after a brief delay. I’d argue an engine has a much better track record than a software driven tablet, especially when new. Furthermore, it doesn’t HAVE to be a critical point of failure…Tesla designed it that way though. Why recreate the wheel when a button would’ve worked fine, and eliminated that potential.
Neither of these things would’ve prohibited you from activating other functions of the car. You could drive for months without these items and not blink an eye.
You are beating a dead horse. Yes we know that the sole all-in-one tablet is a point of contention and head scratcher. Those who are buying the Model 3 are well aware. I agree there should have been a redundant system but let us see the actual failure rates…
Perhaps I am, but I was also replying to @ssspinball, not randomly dropping a statement. He’s got his opinion, just like others, and I have mine.
Because software is mutable and single display enables the car to be upgraded and have features added over time. The same way your computer or phone get better over time. A hardware button is forever.
If I recall correctly from earlier, that isn’t of value to you, but there are many that find that extremely valuable. Considering cars are usually the second most expensive thing a person owns in their life, are often kept for years, and are basically computers with wheels at this point, I’d argue that cars without this ability are severely lacking. Who wouldn’t want their Automatic Emergency Braking algorithms to be improved for free, automatically, without having to buy a new car? That’s amazing! (Yes that one doesn’t need a touchscreen specifically, but many have been UI related)
That said I agree Tesla really took this approach to the extreme and I can see why it would be off-putting. I expect it to be be a somewhat jarring change even to those that are into cutting edge tech.
It’s not of value to me because I lease, and don’t buy. My next car is going to be updated automatically for me, and I can live with the lack of updates in that amount of time. Fair point.
At some point, however, that hardware is going to be obsolete, and won’t be able to be updated. The hardware in the Tesla you buy today is already on the down curve the minute you drive off after signing your name. Updates are great, I’d agree there, but they’re only as good as the hardware that supports those upgrades. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe Tesla way overbuilt the various onboard computers to shield this from happening, but I also can’t see Tesla calling all it’s vehicles back in 5 years to be retrofitted with hardware upgrades to support download patches if they didn’t.
It seems clear that the Model 3 was designed with full self driving in mind.
Unfortunately for Tesla and its rabid fans, FSD is still not close to being deployed, despite Elon’s tweets of “FSD definitely coming in 3-6 months” every year.
When FSD (or at least level 4-ish autonomous driving) is successfully implemented, I’m sure most of the Model 3 design choices will make sense. Until then, the Model 3 experience is considerably compromised.
Tesla will try and OTA patch things to satisfy dissatisfied owners, but it will be just that, a patchwork effort, till FSD is deployed.
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If you want to talk about severely compromised, I’ll point you to the Bolt EV that is unable to tell it’s owners where the nearest so-far uncommon CCS charger is, because it doesn’t have Nav even as an option! 
You could argue that it makes sense for an automaker to offload software development of its infotainment system to a 3rd party.
I actually tested this out recently. With AA and Google Maps (or Waze) already loaded, I go “Hey Google, where is the nearest fast charging station?” and it popped up routing to the nearest stations, including the actual EVgo station that should be listed as being closest to me.
How does Android Auto perform in the Model 3? …oh wait.
Yeah, it’s less important if you lease but at least in my experience, even replacing the car with a newer model year often doesn’t change much about the software with most manufacturers. You need to wait for a model generation change or you’ll get the same software as 3 years ago. Most are still operating in the mindset where changes aren’t needed until a model refresh, even though software changes don’t technically require that.
I’d argue that having a safety feature like the AEB algorithm improved 6 months after purchase is objectively better than waiting even 2 years for a short lease to expire.
Agree on the hardware aging, but then Telsa has been updating the Model S since 2012. I think 6 years of updates shows a rather stellar (and unexpected) track record.
Bloomberg says only 30% of reservation holders who were invited actually configured their car. So if this holds true, the 400k reservation could transalte into 120k sales only.
Add in the people that are pissed off about the vaporware model, and those who are mad about the fed credit going away, or those who will simply change their mind because something more to their liking is coming/tired of waiting, 400k seemed like a stretch from the outset.
The General is planning on doing OTA updates in the near future via Onstar. What those updates entail is anyone’s guess at this point (infotainment vs drivability). The Bolt is supposedly ready, but hasn’t been activated yet. Others are working on it as well, so it’s a matter of time, I guess. It would be nice, admittedly, if they could flash my ECM/PCM OTA if having a drivability problem vs wasting time at the stealership. Luckily it’s been a rare occurrence for me.