Musk Sends ‘Note of Deep Gratitude’ to Tesla Owners

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent Tuesday “a note of deep gratitude” to Tesla owners for “taking a chance on a new company that all experts said would fail.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/945712432416137217

After acknowledging the laborious efforts of the Tesla team, Musk asked his Twitter followers what the company can do to further improve.

What suggestions would you offer to Musk and the Tesla team?

 

[lunitiks]

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Provide timely, transparent frequent status updates on current status of unfulfilled existing promises that are late, especially ones you take money for. E.g. Enhanced AP and FSD differentiating features.

Never make any new promises, especially ones you take money for. E.g. Enhanced AP and FSD differentiating features.

 

[prairiegirl]

All I want is for my Slacker account to work again. Worked fine til it didn't, now I can't get back in. Talked with three different SC staff and noone can figure it out.

 

[BinaryField]

Provide timely, transparent frequent status updates on current status of unfulfilled existing promises that are late, especially ones you take money for. E.g. Enhanced AP and FSD differentiating features.

Never make any new promises, especially ones you take money for. E.g. Enhanced AP and FSD differentiating features.

Too late.

Comments on AP2: Elon Musk on Twitter.
Comments on navigation update: Elon Musk on Twitter
Comments on browser update: Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Too late.

Elon Musk on Twitter

After "silky smooth" we get "blowing me away". For some reason that feels less comforting to drive.

 

[cpa]

My suggestion would be to say what you mean and mean what you say.

Everything else is just fluff or hype or . . . .

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Apparently Musk promised a whole host of new features:

Elon Musk talks upcoming Tesla updates and features in latest Tweetstorm

So more promises continues to be the deal. I get it, promises are good for hype and hubris. Transparency on existing statuses would be so much more welcome for existing owners, though.

 

[lunitiks]

Apparently Musk promised a whole host of new features:

Elon Musk talks upcoming Tesla updates and features in latest Tweetstorm

So more promises continues to be the deal. I get it, promises are good for hype and hubris. Transparency on existing statuses would be so much more welcome for existing owners, though.

Oh my lord, he’s promising app pre-heating steering wheel and rear window. Peeing my pants here. FINALLY!!!

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Oh my lord, he’s promising app pre-heating steering wheel and rear window. Peeing my pants here. FINALLY!!!

My recommendation is that Tesla just deliver these things once ready. That's so much better than a continually growing list of promises that isn't getting checked anywhere near the rate as the promises accumulate.

On the bright side, the Q4/2016 promised new browser was mentioned again today. Apparently it will be slower at first, whenever it appears in Q4/2016.

A lot of the stuff Tesla actually does would be SUPERB were it not for unfulfilled and excessive promises and money taken for them. (As well as some other questionable moves like performance limiters.)

The product itself is excellent. Let it speak for itself. That's my suggestion.

 

[lunitiks]

 

[BinaryField]

My recommendation is that Tesla just deliver these things once ready. That's so much better than a continually growing list of promises that isn't getting checked anywhere near the rate as the promises accumulate.

This feels like par for a lot of software companies these days. (And I believe Elon Musk himself said that he views Tesla as a software company in addition to being a car company.) They dump their half-finished products onto the market to grab cash and then promise to fix / complete them later via patches delivered over the internet. Video game developers are most notorious for this. You hear phrases like "early access", "pre-order beta", etc... All consumers are doing is paying to be beta testers instead of being paid. Unfortunately, this will continue for a long time because people pay into it.

 

[DriveMe]

I think Tesla’s biggest and most annoying problem is perhaps the easiest one to correct: Customer Service!

Calls are not always returned. Emails are either ignored or replies may take days. Sales people and Delivery Specialists are hard to catch. Once you do get in touch with someone, they are always helpful and friendly. But it shouldn’t be so difficult to get to someone. And judging by the posts in this and other forums this problem is rather widespread among many Service Centers.

I know employees are busy and the company is growing quickly. But this is the kind of problem that should be easy enough to address through administrative measures: stress the importance of the quick response in your training materials, monitor customer communication, make sure that all emails and calls are replied within a given timeframe: hours, not days. At least have secretaries reply if the sales people are too busy. That will go a long way in improving customer satisfaction and making the purchase and ownership a more pleasant experience!

 

[larmor]

After "silky smooth" we get "blowing me away". For some reason that feels less comforting to drive.

At least there is no mention of being blown into another dimension...

 

[Carl]

Hey, how great would that be! All trolls (and all moderators who accept trolls) blown into another parallel universe! They could have their fun over there, and we could continue here with what is, imho, the most civilised forum of the whole Internet, with intelligent people writing intelligent things and addressing other members' opinions with respect.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

addressing other members' opinions with respect.

IMO your insinuations and wishes are at odds with addressing others with respect.

how great would that be! All trolls (and all moderators who accept trolls) blown into another parallel universe

 

[LosAltosChuck]

I tweeted a response to Elon suggesting that he lift the veil on the company's progress by publishing their milestones/timelines for upcoming features, allowing especially those of us who paid for these features to know what is actually happening. These near random releases with no heads up, and no advance information regarding changes does not instill confidence. Providing transparency into actual progress would go far to building loyalty and confidence (along with delivering on those commitments, of course.)

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I tweeted a response to Elon suggesting that he lift the veil on the company's progress by publishing their milestones/timelines for upcoming features, allowing especially those of us who paid for these features to know what is actually happening. These near random releases with no heads up, and no advance information regarding changes does not instill confidence. Providing transparency into actual progress would go far to building loyalty and confidence (along with delivering on those commitments, of course.)

Thank you very much.

And indeed to avoid the issues with forward-looking promises, all this transparency IMO has to revolve around is current status. What is the development status today, what is in the release available today and so forth. Transparency, maybe blog posts by engineers and great release notes, not hyped tweets and positive-only shorthand.

That would go a long way into building trust IMO.

 

[LosAltosChuck]

Thank you very much.

And indeed to avoid the issues with forward-looking promises, all this transparency IMO has to revolve around is current status. What is the development status today, what is in the release available today and so forth. Transparency, maybe blog posts by engineers and great release notes, not hyped tweets and positive-only shorthand.

That would go a long way into building trust IMO.

Exactly. Plus, if he would allow individual engineers some public visibility that way, he might actually improve retention.

Real, objective progress reports, including the good and the bad, would be an awesome and innovative move on Tesla's part.

 

[TaoJones]

Transparency and accountability get my vote.

Especially given the inverse correlation thereof with instances of wholly unsubstantiated pipe dreams about features that simply don’t exist and aren’t likely to for years (see FSD per Elon’s recent tweet).

In other news, the LoC (Library of Congress) will no longer catalog every public tweet (opting instead for great restraint in that endeavor). Kind of a bummer since Elon’s tweets, in total, are better than most.

A mechanism to make owners whole who bought into past marketing statements and reversals (supercharging, option of the 100kW battery, AP, et cetera) would be nice.

And yes, release notes with every release. Oh be still me widdle heart.