Was it said that upgrades would be retrofitable?

You need to distinguish between firmware upgrades and hardware upgrades.

The former will be available to all cars but some new features won't work in all cars. The latter are not usually available to older cars.

Negative. They will not have it available for older models. The most you can do is regular park assist sensors.

I do recall some mention by Elon or one of the higher ups that you would essentially be able to refresh your car with all the latest and greatest. But I think the D did that idea in. No way that's going to be retrofittable.

I have a few upgrade parts. hardware like the frunk latch is different and they added some trim/ weatherstripping parts to the rear liftgate.
Also newer visors
lots of other 'hardware' parts that are unseen have been upgraded too

I think it was when George was around that 'hardware upgrades included' was said. (with the prepaid service)

I was under the impression that when sensors were released for autopilot, there would be a way to retrofit it (just like parking sensors). My owner advisor even suggested that it "probably" will happen(I don't fault him for that). It's a painful lesson.

I have a P85. I am hoping in a year or two, I'll be able to find a used D with around a 10k-15k difference in price from my car. Maybe when the model X comes out. I often thing about taking 80k for my P85, and getting a 85 with the sensors, but I just love the faster acceleration. The worst part about it all, is whenever I complain about it to people, they look at me like I am crazy. First world problems

I know that they are (were?) retrofitting the power folding mirrors for a couple grand.

I'm hoping there's a way to retrofit my P86 with the new Recaro Nex-Gen front seats.

I believe Elon Musk expressed a sentiment a year or two ago that Tesla will make future improvements retrofittable to older cars whenever practical. In the case of autopilot, it's simply not practical. You'd have to change the headliner and windshield, sonic punch holes into the quarter panels, swap out the old braking system for the new braking system, install all of the new components with their respective wiring and harnesses, etc. The cost to do so would be prohibitive, would eat up the service center's time, and could lead to problems if every aspect of the retrofit is not done to exacting specifications.

When I ordered my car in early 2012 and received it in early 2013, Tesla actually had it in writing on their web site that "hardware and software" updates would be available, but only to those who bought the pre-paid Service Plan. There is lots of discussion on this in other threads, so no need to re-hash here, but the fact is that this language was removed some time ago.

I think the upgraded titanium shielding is a good example of a retrofit they gave everyone (for free I believe? this was before I was an owner).

Obviously, like with all cars, if they have to do a safety recall they will. But as we've seen with ignition switches and stuck accelerator pedals... usually car companies wait until there are massive incidents or they are forced to act by government safety agencies.

In this case, Tesla just basically said "We can do this better, we should do it better" and gave everyone a free retrofit. Even though the rate of incidents did not indicate this would be a 'serious' problem for owners.

So, when it comes to matters of quality/safety, I would not be surprised to see them act on that idea again.
When it comes to matters of convenience or just "cool new featuers"... it won't be free. I just hope they look into reasonably priced retrofits for those without taking a markup.

Zextraterrestrial said:

Also newer visors

Click to expand...

Did you really get the new (larger) visors? I think it was in the earnings call that Elon himself mentioned that those will be for all older cars too, right?

Just looked it up:

[SUP]Elon:There are a few things that are important, like we've made a pretty big improvement to the seat comfort. That's important, particularly the next generation seats that they can order with the P85 D. Those are a huge improvement. The sun visor. There's all these silly things that have -- the sun visor by the way will be offered to all existing Model S owners as well, because I think the sun visor we came out with in the beginning was not great.

This one is actually bigger and properly blocks the sun, it's got a great mirror. Importantly, the [strident] sticker that is normally on sun visors has been minimized and moved to the left and no longer also includes the warning in French. That sticker drives me crazy. So it's a way better sun visor. But there's sort of steady stream of improvements. Is there anything you want to?[/SUP]

This is a commonly misunderstood topic.

Hardware upgrades were mentioned, but someone somewhere took that to mean that all cars would be eligible for all improvements, and that they were included.

Those people were living in a fantasyland. Tesla is not a charity--they are not going to keep upgrading cars ad nauseum, nor did they ever promise to do so. If they did Tesla would have folded long ago.

They have provided hardware upgrades when necessary (such as the change to the handle design, if the original handles were causing problems), the titanium battery extrusion, and other things, but no official at Tesla ever said we'd be getting anything like power folding mirrors, parking sensors, or mobileye cameras added to cars for free...or for a cost, for that matter.

Todd Burch said:

This is a commonly misunderstood topic.

Hardware upgrades were mentioned, but someone somewhere took that to mean that all cars would be eligible for all improvements, and that they were included.

Those people were living in a fantasyland. Tesla is not a charity--they are not going to keep upgrading cars ad nauseum, nor did they ever promise to do so. If they did Tesla would have folded long ago.

They have provided hardware upgrades when necessary (such as the change to the handle design, if the original handles were causing problems), the titanium battery extrusion, and other things, but no official at Tesla ever said we'd be getting anything like power folding mirrors, parking sensors, or mobileye cameras added to cars for free...or for a cost, for that matter.

Click to expand...

^^^^ This.

Improvements for existing components that are causing a problem will be upgraded to the latest hardware, also things promised at the time you purchased your car (e.g. the sunscreens if you ordered at the right time) are also provided--this sometimes takes a bit of research and a couple of emails. Hardware for new functionality won't be. There have been some exceptions, such as folding mirrors, twin chargers, and rear facing seats, but they are quite costly compared to purchasing them at build time. Your best action plan is to never visit any of the Tesla forums after you purchase the car if your personality requires the latest and greatest and your wallet says no

I believe they said some features would be made available if it were technically possible and made business sense. Upgrading a signature car to autopilot hardware and dual motor is probably possible but would require a few hundred hours of labor ( a guess of course). Cheaper and better to buy a new car. Some components like parking sensors and folding mirrors have been made available but at great cost.

For reference, the current language is...

Tesla Service includes everything needed to keep your Model S in great condition, from an annual inspection to 24 hour roadside assistance and necessary hardware upgrades. Our goal is not to just fix things, but to make your car better than it was.

Click to expand...

Tesla Service includes:
...

• Service related hardware upgrades

Click to expand...

Tesla Service | Tesla Motors