[QUOTE=This reinforces to me that we REALLY need a thorough, thoughtful, comprehensive owner's manual for this car
My wife and I have a 85-kwh S that we picked up at the factory Dec. 15, and went through our own adventure with rebooting the screen's electronics and a 12v battery service warning - with a Catch 22 twist.
About three weeks ago I took the car from our garage in the East Bay, in broad daylight, and noticed the touchscreen was still in night mode. I got that fixed via control settings even though it was so dim it was hard to be sure what I was doing. Then I noticed the radio wouldn't work. The turn signals flashed, but no clicking noise. My iPhone wouldn't connect. I rebooted, hoping for the best. It went back to normal for a while but problems recurred four or five times, nearly every day. The 12v battery warning joined the chorus. I called Tesla service. As usual, the response was quick and friendly. The rep assured me the 12v was a faulty fault warning and not to worry about that. He expedited that the 4.2 update be pushed to the car. He told me that several owners were having similar problems and that the fresh software fixed most or all of it.
The next day, on using the clock-timer function atop the screen, I saw that the update would be installed at 2 a.m. the next day. Great! Except the next day it was still promising it for the day after that. After a couple of time, I waited till evening when we wouldn't be driving again - then ordered it to update right now. After the two minute countdown a brief notice told me that the update could not be installed because the 12v battery - which was supposed to be FIXED by that update - was too low to do whatever its job is during the installation.
By this time it was the weekend. Last Monday I phoned again. The rep in Palo Alto got me to service in Fremont, where an engineer remotely went in, confirmed that the battery actually is sound, and did a deep reboot of the car to clear the warning. I tried another immediate installation of version 4.2. It worked. An hour or so later we drove the car. It appears completely healed of its memory losses and other inanities.
This car, so complete and by a rookie company so soon after development began, is an industrial triumph. Plus, for us, it provides local jobs. I know these bugs would drive me crazy were it a standard lux. automobile, but it is not a standard car at all. Early adopters gotta expect bugs. All in all, still loving the beast. (Brown, 19" wheels, no pano, non-Performance, still quicker than I need but enjoying the thrill). And yes the floor mats are not up to snuff we don't have the ordered parcel shelf yet, no manual yet and no J1772 adapter. I'll wait. About 2300 miles on it already. Next week I'm off to a supercharger station so see how that works, have lunch with a pal, and drive back home. Whee. As our son told us, we are driving the future.