Model S Software/Firmware Updates

[dsm363]

I agree. It's a cool upgrade but definitely still working the bugs out.

[metafor]

Seriously, guys?! Many of us don't have the car itself

Lol, the "I wish I had your problems" theme is a slippery slope when we're talking about people buying ~100k cars

[Zythryn]

Seriously, guys?! Many of us don't have the car itself

Many of you will never know the hardships we endured...
{old man impression}Sonny, back in MY day we had to actually push the Model S handle to get it to extend!{/old man impression}

I kid, I kid! But it really is amazing and you guys will love it!

[contaygious]

Lol, funny how just a week ago we thought the auto extending handles might never come and now my car will have them already working when I pick it up.

[ckessel]

It's great Tesla can make update that affect core elements of the car, but the ex-medical software engineer in me is a bit horrified. We had to pass FDA clearance on every software release to prove we'd do no harm. Tesla is making changes to how the car actually drives, the motor, the regen, etc. Some of that is literally in the realm of life critical safety. God forbid a bug occur where some race condition causes the "creep" feature to floor the accelerator. And before anyone says "that won't happen", first I'm a developer and I can assure you it's tremendously hard to prove it won't (whole realms of research exist on such things), and second I refer you to classics on how this stuff occurs such as the Therac-25 where obscure bugs literally killed people.

Updates that are just UI stuff, I'm good (which is the vast bulk of this 4.0 update, except a "throttle control" bit). Updates that affect actual motor/drive/steering functionality, I really want the government to come up to speed and regulate those releases the same way they do other safety critical devices. Can you imagine airline software updated that way? Air traffic control? Pacemakers? Even if I have faith in Tesla, there needs to be independent checks and balances on critical software changes.

[Zextraterrestrial]

Lol, funny how just a week ago we thought the auto extending handles might never come and now my car will have them already working when I pick it up.

The handles are awesome! Everytime you walk up to your car when people are staring at it and they look at you wondering if it might be yours? then the handles just magically pop out! Priceless!

In rain they help a bit too

I finally read the update and drove another 250 miles today and like the new style of energy screen very much. I did a range charge and had 315 Miles Ideal pretty awesome car I say. She treats me well - how did I get so lucky?

Is the car a little faster now with the new throttle response?? I'm breaking traction a little easier at the bottom in straight line and 25 mph range and the roads were dryer today

[brianman]

... car ... a bug occur where some race condition causes ... to floor the accelerator.

"Officer, it's hard to explain. Tess turned into Christine. I promise it wasn't me that floored it."

I wonder if I can get away with that one a couple of times.

[widodh]

"Officer, it's hard to explain. Tess turned into Christine. I promise it wasn't me that floored it."

I wonder if I can get away with that one a couple of times.

We joke about it, but he has a valid point.

I work in software development and I know anything can happen.

We once had an issue where a really rare and weird follow-up of events let to the removal of 100k e-mail accounts... We also never saw that one coming.


Sent from my phone, so my apologies for typos.

[brianman]

I joke because it amuses me, and hopefully others.

That doesn't take anything away from his completely valid point that software is (usually) complicated to get right and marrying it to a missile... err, spaceship... is uniquely terrifying if you don't have confidence in the designers, coders, testers, etc.

[ken830]

I fully agree 100%. Even if it means that updates come much less frequently. I was originally under the impression that only UI software could be updated remotely.

It's great Tesla can make update that affect core elements of the car, but the ex-medical software engineer in me is a bit horrified. We had to pass FDA clearance on every software release to prove we'd do no harm. Tesla is making changes to how the car actually drives, the motor, the regen, etc. Some of that is literally in the realm of life critical safety. God forbid a bug occur where some race condition causes the "creep" feature to floor the accelerator. And before anyone says "that won't happen", first I'm a developer and I can assure you it's tremendously hard to prove it won't (whole realms of research exist on such things), and second I refer you to classics on how this stuff occurs such as the Therac-25 where obscure bugs literally killed people.

Updates that are just UI stuff, I'm good (which is the vast bulk of this 4.0 update, except a "throttle control" bit). Updates that affect actual motor/drive/steering functionality, I really want the government to come up to speed and regulate those releases the same way they do other safety critical devices. Can you imagine airline software updated that way? Air traffic control? Pacemakers? Even if I have faith in Tesla, there needs to be independent checks and balances on critical software changes.