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Steve Wozniak Talks About Tesla (and gets something wrong about internet service)

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Andyw2100

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2014
6,547
2,448
Ithaca, NY
In the following article:

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Loves Tesla, Oculus Rift - NBC News

Steve Wozniac, of Apple fame, talks about his Tesla Model S, and how much he loves it. He talks about how he originally canceled his order, and how Elon Musk personally convinced him to buy one. But he mistakenly says the Model S includes "free internet for the life of the car."

That's definitely not true, right? My understanding, from reading the following, is that we get free internet through Dec 31, 2017 and then we have to pay for service.

Tesla Model S owners will receive another 4 years of free data service - TESLARATI.com

Thought the article with Wozniac speaking about Tesla was interesting anyway.
 
What I've read on several occasions is that Tesla/Elon would like to give the cars free internet forever.

They initially came with a short period (one year?) and when the first cars reached that point and everyone was discussing how much the monthly bill would be Tesla instead announced the four year plan, and Elon again said that he'd like to make it free.

Maybe Woz is remembering those statements, or maybe he knows something about the future plans.

Right now Tesla has about two years to figure something out before the first cars would start to pay, right? It'll be interesting to see what happens then.
Walter
 
As my dad would say, "don't sweat the small stuff"

It's not a question of "sweating the small stuff." Here's a guy who people are going to listen to--Wozniac. He said the car is great, and then gave only two reasons why and one of them wasn't correct. And the one that wasn't correct is related to the industry that he's best known for. In my mind, that's pretty noteworthy.

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Right now Tesla has about two years to figure something out before the first cars would start to pay, right? It'll be interesting to see what happens then.
Walter

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, based on the second article I linked to above, everyone should have internet free until the end of 2017. That article says the period runs for four years, starting January 1, 2014.
 
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, based on the second article I linked to above, everyone should have internet free until the end of 2017. That article says the period runs for four years, starting January 1, 2014.

It's four years from the purchase of the car. But if you purchased before 1/1/2014 it is four years from that date.
 
I consider it "small stuff" because really, we've bought cars in the $100k range. Is a $20/month data plan going to break the bank if it's not "free for life"?

Also, just how much value is "free internet for the life of the car" with a browser that barely works and maps that take tens of seconds to redraw the exact same local maps it's drawn thousands of times?
 
I consider it "small stuff" because really, we've bought cars in the $100k range. Is a $20/month data plan going to break the bank if it's not "free for life"?

Also, just how much value is "free internet for the life of the car" with a browser that barely works and maps that take tens of seconds to redraw the exact same local maps it's drawn thousands of times?

It's small stuff. In 4 years paying for internet for the of the car's life will be something like 0,01% of the price of the car anyway.

I'm not sure how I can be any more clear about my point.

I'm not saying that I'm concerned about the cost of the internet.

My point is that Wozniac--an influential person who people listen to--had the opportunity to inform people about the car we all love, and he chose to mention just two things AND ONE OF THEM WAS WRONG! If it's easier for you to understand my point, pretend he said, "The car is great, you get free charging for life, and the car even floats", OK?

Get it?

--Influential person with opportunity
--Makes two points
--Only one of the points is correct

My point: this was a missed opportunity.
 
Ok, my point is for people who might be considering a Model S.. who might have heard Woz.. are they really on the fence where "free internet for life" would be the deciding factor? It's just not a big deal. Maybe Woz thought that was a cool feature.. but a deciding factor for anyone in earshot of Woz? Doubtful.
 
Wozniak hasn't been the go-to guy for good info for quite a few years. It's been a really long time since has was seriously involved in anything. Don't most people know that?

You are both right and completely wrong. Woz certainly hasn't been a leading player in anything important for a long time, but he is one of very small handful of people in the tech world whose opinion is taken seriously and listened to by a great many both within and outside the industry. There was a reason Elon reached out to him personally to persuade him to buy a Tesla.
 
Ok, my point is for people who might be considering a Model S.. who might have heard Woz.. are they really on the fence where "free internet for life" would be the deciding factor? It's just not a big deal. Maybe Woz thought that was a cool feature.. but a deciding factor for anyone in earshot of Woz? Doubtful.

I'm really not trying to beat a dead horse, but you're still not getting my point.

It's not a question of whether or not "free internet for life" would be a deciding factor for someone.

Wozniac chose to talk about only two things, and he was actually wrong about one of them. I'm suggesting it would have been better if he had chosen to use something else as an example (and also not been wrong about whatever it was he had chosen.) I'm also assuming he would have chosen something reasonable, like the safety features, or the technology, and not something relatively meaningless like the cool looking logo or the frunk.

I'm suggesting that perhaps he --could-- have spoken about things that not only --did-- convince people on the fence about Tesla to get off the fence on the right side, but also might have induced people who had never really heard of Tesla or who had never considered Tesla to begin looking into it. I think we can agree that "free internet for life" was not going to do that, right?
 
I consider it "small stuff" because really, we've bought cars in the $100k range. Is a $20/month data plan going to break the bank if it's not "free for life"?

Also, just how much value is "free internet for the life of the car" with a browser that barely works and maps that take tens of seconds to redraw the exact same local maps it's drawn thousands of times?

Well you also lose the internet radio and slacker, oh and don't forget that without internet voice commands don't work. Plus the Tesla app wont work either, and without the google maps the navigation that is part of the Tech package is almost useless. When you get down to it Tesla has tied a lot of functionality of the car to it having internet access.
 
Well you also lose the internet radio and slacker, oh and don't forget that without internet voice commands don't work. Plus the Tesla app wont work either, and without the google maps the navigation that is part of the Tech package is almost useless. When you get down to it Tesla has tied a lot of functionality of the car to it having internet access.

Yeah, duh.

I wasn't implying that it was not needed... but the reasons that people might want "free internet for life" access is usually tied to the crappy browser and nav. Obviously there are many other features that depend on internet access.