Actually, opening this stuff up to 3rd parties would be a lot more work than just getting it right themselves. For 3rd party access, you'd need to develop/manage a stable API, a means of loading and securing external code, and all the management/infrastructure surrounding that whole process.
To get it right themselves, they really just need one good developer who isn't split across three-dozen unrelated projects, has used a variety of other media players before, and knows something about writing responsive software.
I get that, but the MS is now 4 years old. The promise was steady improvement, room for apps, and fairy dust.
"Every few weeks/months you get a new car experience because Tesla is always innovating." That's what everyone said.
It sounds great, and I am sure huge improvements were witnessed by early adopters, but after four years you would have thought that Tesla would have the right people in place to execute at a high level. I used to complain about the nav and browser and how it totally lacks compared to what we have on our phones. I never thought to complain about the media/audio playback because it just worked for me. Now it doesn't and I have a 3 systems that are sub par, and they are all software based.
This is not the direction technology is supposed to go. I now know, and should have known, rumors about how the next major OS upgrade is going to fix XY and Z, are really just our collective hopes and dreams of these shortcomings getting fixed, and that should have been dealt with years ago. Again, how could the beta testers have let this go out? Maybe, as others have said, it was all about adding more nags to AP to satisfy the lawyers.
I have my 3 reserved and want a refreshed S, but seeing how we are still stuck with a slow antiquated browser, questionable NAV, and poor media control in the latest cars, I think I can keep driving my 2013 until they get these things figured out.
I'd hate to see Tesla lose its impassioned user base just because they can't get these basic things corrected that would benefit every current MS and X owner. It's the little non AP things that make a big difference for everyone.