Model S Specs and Standard Features

[onlinespending]

+1 !

That lame 3,000 song capacity will become an even lamer 300 song capacity. I still don't understand why Tesla choose to be sooooo cheap on this. If they are using 128 kbps at an average of 5 minutes per song for their estimates, then that means they're only providing about 16GB even for the Premium Sound Package. So does that mean the standard package comes with about 2 - 4GB with its 500 song estimate? That is inexcusable AFAIC. I can sort of understand limiting the standard capacity in an attempt to upsell the Sound Package, but 16GB? That's nothing. They really need to increase capacity to at least 64GB.

[widodh]

That lame 3,000 song capacity will become an even lamer 300 song capacity. I still don't understand why Tesla choose to be sooooo cheap on this. If they are using 128 kbps at an average of 5 minutes per song for their estimates, then that means they're only providing about 16GB even for the Premium Sound Package. So does that mean the standard package comes with about 2 - 4GB with its 500 song estimate? That is inexcusable AFAIC. I can sort of understand limiting the standard capacity in an attempt to upsell the Sound Package, but 16GB? That's nothing. They really need to increase capacity to at least 64GB.

Indeed. Nowadays a 80GB SSD retails for about $150,00

Agreed, they need to have storage which can cope with various temperatures a bit better, but it can't be that expensive. Hopefully it's a 2.5" HDD somewhere which we can replace.

[ElSupreme]

That lame 3,000 song capacity will become an even lamer 300 song capacity. I still don't understand why Tesla choose to be sooooo cheap on this. If they are using 128 kbps at an average of 5 minutes per song for their estimates, then that means they're only providing about 16GB even for the Premium Sound Package. So does that mean the standard package comes with about 2 - 4GB with its 500 song estimate? That is inexcusable AFAIC. I can sort of understand limiting the standard capacity in an attempt to upsell the Sound Package, but 16GB? That's nothing. They really need to increase capacity to at least 64GB.

I bet within a month or so someone (probably on this forum) will have opened up their dash and found the SD card that is the car's storage. Pretty much every flash memory device nowadays just has a SD controller and accepts either SD or microSD cards. It might be soldered in there but I am sure you will be able to put a 64GB one in, if you are willing to pull your dash panels off.

[heems]

Personally, I miss some kind of "Park Sensors" (Dunno the exact word in english) you know, the sensors in the front and rear bumper... It's easier to park and listen to the beeps instead of looking into the display for the rear view camera :-/...

Just my opinion

+1 This is a large car with dimensions longer than a CLS. The parking sensors at least should be in the tech package...

[AnOutsider]

Just plug in an iPod or UBS stick if it's that important. The biggest capacity Apple sells of new iPods, iPhones and iPads is 64GB and that's top of the line. It's not like they're way off base. Expecting 80GB is just unreasonable IMO.

[MitchL]

I bet within a month or so someone (probably on this forum) will have opened up their dash and found the SD card that is the car's storage. Pretty much every flash memory device nowadays just has a SD controller and accepts either SD or microSD cards. It might be soldered in there but I am sure you will be able to put a 64GB one in, if you are willing to pull your dash panels off.

With that small amount of storage, it's possible that it's just a partition on a chip-down single NAND flash device (not an SD card).

We'll see as soon as someone has the guts to take their Model S apart (not me!)

It's a much different design, but what do Roadsters use for storage for the logs and other data?

/Mitch.

[dsm363]

Whatever they do I hope it's easily upgradable by Tesla during the annual service. Maybe they could offer an upgrade (at a profit for Tesla) when bigger storage is cheaper.

[onlinespending]

Just plug in an iPod or UBS stick if it's that important. The biggest capacity Apple sells of new iPods, iPhones and iPads is 64GB and that's top of the line. It's not like they're way off base. Expecting 80GB is just unreasonable IMO.

Do you realize the kind of margins Apple makes on those 64GB iPads? A lot, and far more than the 16GB ones. Why? Because the flash memory chips are very inexpensive for them. When you pay $199 for a new 16GB iPod Touch, you're paying for a lot more than the flash memory. The cost of 64GB of flash memory in bulk is peanuts to Tesla. Perhaps they do need automotive grade flash ICs, but it's still quite inexpensive.

You should expect more than 16GB from the Premium Audio Package. It's way off base when you consider the cost of solid state memory, even at a capacity of 64GB. And suggesting that I should simply use a USB stick because Tesla decided to be cheap on this is not an acceptable solution. What if Tesla decided to cut costs by not including a GPS on-board? But they did have the provision to "tether" a Bluetooth GPS device to it. I'm sure you'd find that pretty unacceptable and a big oversight on the part of Tesla.

[AnOutsider]

Do you realize the kind of margins Apple makes on those 64GB iPads? A lot, and far more than the 16GB ones. Why? Because the flash memory chips are very inexpensive for them. When you pay $199 for a new 16GB iPod Touch, you're paying for a lot more than the flash memory. The cost of 64GB of flash memory in bulk is peanuts to Tesla. Perhaps they do need automotive grade flash ICs, but it's still quite inexpensive.

Of course, my point is that in general, people are running around with 8-16GB of music storage on their devices, so it's not unreasonable to see Tesla offer similar. Does anyone have a list of what other manufacturers offer? When I had my GLI I upgraded to the touchscreen headunit (yes, they existed before Tesla) that had 10GB, 3 for maps and then like 6GB for music. I never filled it.

What if Tesla decided to cut costs by not including a GPS on-board? But they did have the provision to "tether" a Bluetooth GPS device to it. I'm sure you'd find that pretty unacceptable and a big oversight on the part of Tesla.

Utterly ridiculous comparison, and I don't even think I need to explain why.

[Warrenbonz]

That lame 3,000 song capacity will become an even lamer 300 song capacity. I still don't understand why Tesla choose to be sooooo cheap on this. If they are using 128 kbps at an average of 5 minutes per song for their estimates, then that means they're only providing about 16GB even for the Premium Sound Package. So does that mean the standard package comes with about 2 - 4GB with its 500 song estimate? That is inexcusable AFAIC. I can sort of understand limiting the standard capacity in an attempt to upsell the Sound Package, but 16GB? That's nothing. They really need to increase capacity to at least 64GB.

Personally I would much prefer 300 quality recordings than 3000 poor ones. The flac capability is most important in my mind related to the USB sticks that I plan to connect to the stereo with additional music. While I am confused and dissappointed by the tiny harddrives Tesla is offering if it is easily solved with a USB stick I will forget about it very quickly. If FLAC is not supported for the USB sticks Tesla's audio system really NEEDS to support WAV. If the audio system doesn't support, at a minimum, a "normal" quality music format it would be insane in my opinion. (many, including myself, do not consider aac truly lossless as it sounds noticeably inferior to the original file. FLAC is indistinguishable from the original to my ears and to many professional recording/mastering engineers) A car as cutting edge as The Model S should have an option to play high resolution audio in my opinion, although I do recognize that this desire can not be at the top of Tesla's priority list at this point. Since I have managed to get myself all riled up now I want to say that the audio system in the Model S at the Dania Beach store didn't sound very good to me a all. One issue I have with it is that the volume only goes to 11. While that is a fun idea it needs more "steps in between". As it works now the volume goes from too soft to too loud. They need to add .5's between each step if they want to keep the max at 11 so the volume level could be more finely tuned. Also, the overall sound was not very good to my ears. I hope it improves. This isn't the car for an aftermarket stereo. All this being said I am very excited for the Model S but may be very disappointed in the stereo .