Bets on When 6.0 Update will be Released...

[dtich]

. While some of what you mention would be cool, I think TM is going for better function first, as they should. They have done some incredible upgrades that can be downloaded at home while you sleep. I also think that it would be smart to concentrate on 2-3 major changes in firmware with each release and getting it right versus flooding us with lots of changes that cause major issues. Just one person's opinion

er, i didn't mention anything, i just posted this cool pic of the dragon control surface. for fun.

i myself am perfectly happy to sit back while tm get the work done they need to get done, i'm in no rush. love my car everyday, so no problem. anything else is gravy at this point. (ok, fix the damn podcast skipping problem, but you know, other than that....).

my bet is also that tm is totally revamping the security model for the firmware and rejiggering module networking a bit, and that's what's taking so long. fine by me.

 

[Lump]

I just had an ugly thought...hope its not real.

Its being delayed until the Model X debut & that way v6 will be shown off as a spectacular new feature instead of simply giving Model S an update that has taken a tremendous amount of work.

 

[iffatall]

I just had an ugly thought...hope its not real.

Its being delayed until the Model X debut & that way v6 will be shown off as a spectacular new feature instead of simply giving Model S an update that has taken a tremendous amount of work.

I had that very thought occur to me the other day. But then I figured it is very unlikely Elon will say the update will be out very soon, if he already has it in early 2015 rpadmap (Model X release). As much as I hate Tesla's time estimates being horribly underestimated, I still trust when Elon says 2 weeks, he really believes it can be done in 2 weeks.

 

[DrComputer]

It's not coming out too soon since the beta testers don't even have it yet (I'm not one of them).

 

[NigelM]

It's not coming out too soon since the beta testers don't even have it yet (I'm not one of them).

Ummm, word on the street is that beta testers do have it (I'm not one of them either though). They might not like it and it may go back for further refinement so it still may not be out soon.

 

[seanahan]

I just had an ugly thought...hope its not real. Its being delayed until the Model X debut & that way v6 will be shown off as a spectacular new feature instead of simply giving Model S an update that has taken a tremendous amount of work.

Seems unlikely, from an engineering perspective. Best to get the software update out the door to Model S customers who can test and debug it, before launching it in the brand new car.

Also note that they are likely developing features which will not be seen until version 7.0. They probably have a software feature roadmap which is at least a year out, if not further, and then a laundry list of potential software features extending out indefinitely far.

The real question is, for software feature which affect the driving and/or safety components of the car, how rigorous is the testing process? I assume it's extremely rigorous, and takes months to meet all the safety requirements. For non-driving features, such as nav, sound, etc., giving out to beta testers earlier seems reasonable, since if it crashes their sound system, it won't injure them in any way.

 

[wk057]

The fact that we have a car that gets new free features regularly is great in itself. Even if it takes a couple of years, and then you get an update that adds a couple small things.... that'd be great. Still better than any other car.

So no whining!

 

[Gizmotoy]

Seems unlikely, from an engineering perspective. Best to get the software update out the door to Model S customers who can test and debug it, before launching it in the brand new car.

Agreed. Like it or not, the X is a huge risk/opportunity for Tesla. A big chunk of their stock price is speculative based on the X being a success. No reason to risk "Big Model X Software Issues Found" headlines when they have a built-in fleet of testers (us Model S owners) available to them.

 

[dsmith2189]

Seems unlikely, from an engineering perspective. Best to get the software update out the door to Model S customers who can test and debug it, before launching it in the brand new car.

Also note that they are likely developing features which will not be seen until version 7.0. They probably have a software feature roadmap which is at least a year out, if not further, and then a laundry list of potential software features extending out indefinitely far.

The real question is, for software feature which affect the driving and/or safety components of the car, how rigorous is the testing process? I assume it's extremely rigorous, and takes months to meet all the safety requirements. For non-driving features, such as nav, sound, etc., giving out to beta testers earlier seems reasonable, since if it crashes their sound system, it won't injure them in any way.

probably waiting for the hackathon in china to complete before sending 6.0 out the door, so they can patch any holes found.

 

[mmcmonster]

Features I would love:
1 - Google Maps traffic integration w/ passive Waze support (you can add your traffic data to Waze but not tag things, you can see tags created by others).
2- Music Playlist support
3 - Sort Location Favorites by name, distance from current location, date added
4 - Geofence so that the car raises to highest position when you approach your house so that you don't scrape up the driveway if your driveway has a dip
5 - More information saved as part of the driver profile. My wife likes Creep on, I hate it. ;-)

And that's what I thought of in a couple minutes.

 

[Shumdit]

Features I would love:
1 - Google Maps traffic integration w/ passive Waze support (you can add your traffic data to Waze but not tag things, you can see tags created by others).
2- Music Playlist support
3 - Sort Location Favorites by name, distance from current location, date added
4 - Geofence so that the car raises to highest position when you approach your house so that you don't scrape up the driveway if your driveway has a dip
5 - More information saved as part of the driver profile. My wife likes Creep on, I hate it. ;-)

And that's what I thought of in a couple minutes.

Elon did mention 6.0 would let you name your car. Big whup...
I hope that's not the "feature" that's going to be the main bullet point of the 6.0 release!

 

[Mike_Schlechter]

Bump; any insights on this from TMC connect or anywhere else?

 

[dsm363]

Bump; any insights on this from TMC connect or anywhere else?

Nothing was mentioned at TMC Connect about this.

 

[iadbound]

The speculation on 6.0 is very interesting. Obviously, everybody has a long list of items that they would like to see, and I doubt any two lists would be an exact match. My theory has been as follows with respect to a major future upgrade that I believe will come prior to the launch of Model X, whether it turns out to be 6.0 or not:

Key Assumption -- Model S owners are blazing a trail with respect to in-car software updates. Tesla couldn't possibly have accommodated every owner's software wish at the outset, and it probably still can't now. However, with the Model X, Tesla must recognize that its target audience will not be exactly the same. The newer audience is going to be expecting a more complete product on the media and interface side. Simply put, the software will need to do what their old car did, but 10 times better. In addition, reviewers and other influence makers will not be inclined to go easy on Tesla on what will be its third product. Tesla got a pass on the Model S because it was upgradeable, the media options were still very good, and the car was otherwise amazing. But Tesla's luck will probably run out if Model X isn't a complete package that will get even better over time. With that in mind, here's what I think/hope is coming:

1. Tesla will roll-out a complete mobile phone integration scheme. Obviously Model S can handle a variety of mobile phones and it is quite versatile. However, Tesla needs to build out the software so that mobile phone integration is nearly seamless. Not only does the Model S need it to stay competitive with CarPlay equipped vehicles and other similar systems, but for Model X its a must have because the new buyers will be expecting something full featured and better because, after all, it's a Tesla not a [brand of your choosing with a full featured phone integration system that is still ugly and clumsy]. On a side note, I believe that Tesla will do this better than other manufacturers, and we won't even miss CarPlay.

2. Tesla will significantly improve voice commands. As part of the mobile phone improvements, Tesla will need to offer things like voice-based messaging. The needed improvements in voice recognition will hopefully be translated into a natural language command and control system for all car functions.

3. The Model S will become geographically sophisticated. Various rumblings here have suggested geofencing and other clever initiatives that Tesla might enable. I can't begin to figure out all the permutations in this area, but I think Tesla will be working hard to make its cars geographically relevant and intuitive. Obviously the big area is traffic rerouting, but it could easily extend to EV specific trip planning issues, such as elevation changes, wind speeds, etc. Obviously, services and shopping information can be geographically tuned.

4. Tesla will expand the applications available. There is no end to the applications that Tesla could develop, integrate or allow through approval of third-party software. It seems to me that Tesla will increase its number of home-grown applications before Model X comes out. At that point, Tesla will try to develop a third-party development process so that the offerings are more robust by the time Model III arrives.

5. Tesla will offer far more customization than just naming your car. As virtually any setting in the car could be tied to a driver profile, it seems likely, and probably easy enough, to simply tie almost every setting in the car to the driver profile. Obviously, the next step might be customizing the behavior of certain functions like climate control, media, locking and unlocking, charging, etc.

This missive may have strayed off topic. Moderators, please move to a new thread if you think it's wise.

 

[HillCountryFun]

iadbound: Nice speculation...it will be very interesting to watch the rollout happen!

 

[NigelM]

The speculation on 6.0 is very interesting.
<snip>
This missive may have strayed off topic. Moderators, please move to a new thread if you think it's wise.

There's bits of speculation all over the place but as it's only speculation I'm not going to move it. Based on real snippets, and Elon pronouncements here and there, what we pretty much know is that v6.0 will take into account real-time traffic conditions, there should be some cosmetic changes to improve navigation also and (rumored) a map update via WiFi, there should be some new app functions such as charging notifications (although I wouldn't be surprised if they don't roll-out all app versions at once, e.g. I could see them starting with iPhone and doing other versions later), and car naming (which I personally don't care about at all).

The big deal about v6.0 (as Tesla/Elon has stated previously) is supposed to be the real-time traffic integration; of course this is only relevant for folks who have the Nav option. Although iadbound has a fascinating list, I hope we're not setting our dreams too high above the reality to come.

 

[BlueTan85]

If every car had a unique ID, akin to a Twitter @username, only a Tesla @carname, that would open the doors to some interesting possibilities at the SuperChargers. Assuming the SuperChargers were "sentient" and could recognize a car's @carname. (Yes I understand that at a lower level, the VIN or some other hidden unique ID might be used machine-to-machine, but a @carname would be visible and . . . human.)

For example, if @fluffball is 10 miles from a busy, crowded SuperCharger, perhaps the car could "reserve" a slot in the queue, and the Tesla Cloud could manage the queue while the car is en route. When it got there, @fluffball would have say 90 seconds to plug in to one of the reserved chargers, and if someone else plugs in, the car might tell them, sorry, this isn't reserved for you yet, charge won't happen until [2] other cars in the queue get charged first.

In order to possibly prevent ensuing warfare, perhaps only one or two of the charger slots could be designated Express Slots, by reservation only, requiring the car to have a unique name, and the driver to have signed up in the minutes prior to arrival. And of course, the software should allow the driver to automatically sign up for any charger queues as they get within X miles of the charger locations.

(And it goes without saying that the Tesla Cloud should manage, in real time, any ICE situations in any charger slots, and adjust the queue as needed.)

 

[Peter_M]

I'd really like to see some improvements in "basic" navigation.

A new bridge opened near me a few weeks ago. When I attempted to navigate a route that went over it, I saw that the bridge wasn't there on the centre console or on the dashboard (so naturally it didn't plot a route over the bridge), the year-old road approaching the bridge was there on the centre console but not on the dashboard, and the centre console was showing traffic happily driving across the bridge. :smile:

This strange system with two databases - Google Maps for the centre console and another (Navigon?) for the dashboard and route calculation - seems way too complex. Google Maps is perfectly capable of calculating good turn-by-turn directions and its database seems to be the most up-to-date, so why not use it for everything?

The other thing I would really like to see is multi-destination routes. We need this to plan a route that goes by a charging station, or that's a little longer but slower to extend the range.

 

[iadbound]

There's bits of speculation all over the place but as it's only speculation I'm not going to move it. Based on real snippets, and Elon pronouncements here and there, what we pretty much know is that v6.0 will take into account real-time traffic conditions, there should be some cosmetic changes to improve navigation also and (rumored) a map update via WiFi, there should be some new app functions such as charging notifications (although I wouldn't be surprised if they don't roll-out all app versions at once, e.g. I could see them starting with iPhone and doing other versions later), and car naming (which I personally don't care about at all).

The big deal about v6.0 (as Tesla/Elon has stated previously) is supposed to be the real-time traffic integration; of course this is only relevant for folks who have the Nav option. Although iadbound has a fascinating list, I hope we're not setting our dreams too high above the reality to come.

I wouldn't be surprised to see that my very long list is done over 2-4 major software updates not one. I still think Tesla has to get the phone integration squared away before Model X. On the other hand, Tesla does seem to think big, so maybe they will shock us all. :smile:

 

[AlMc]

I wouldn't be surprised to see that my very long list is done over 2-4 major software updates not one. I still think Tesla has to get the phone integration squared away before Model X. On the other hand, Tesla does seem to think big, so maybe they will shock us all. :smile:

Based on previous releases I would agree with this sentiment. I have a laundry list of things I would like to see, as do many others here and over on TM forum. However, I am OK with them slowly rolling these things out, and getting them right. It is still the only car I have ever owned that gets better over time.