I bought a 6 digit car...not a video game.

[Haxster]

It seems that every other recent update has to do with some enhancement to games or other entertainment distractions.

I'd really like Tesla to prioritize updates to vehicle operability...better navigation, autopilot, internet browser, or user interface (how about a trunk release button on the main menu, a favorite phone numbers list, or better stereo usability and configurability?).

 

[zanary]

Haha. I bought it for the scratchpad and the fart machine. .

Tesla’s get you from point A to Point B in style.

 

[Wol747]

Could not agree more.
Musk is risking the Tesla brand if it continues to be video-game oriented rather than transport-oriented.
Tesla's honeymoon period won't last forever however good the cars may be.

 

[bktiger86]

Sad to say but I totally agree. Where is my enhanced summon? I bought this car in 2017 and they were suppose to release the enhance summon back in Christmas 2016. 3 years later and we just have farts and a sketchpad. My buddy and I call our cars "scammed cars." But yet we still love the car.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

While I do agree I think we need to look at it from a different perspective.

Tesla doesn't spend any money doing traditional marketing, and instead they what I'd consider new media to market their cars.

This new media is largely driven by silly things like games, and fart apps. It's also likely to be very different teams that work on it so I don't think it's taking away talent from the other features.

Like the new racing game was developed outside Tesla as far as I can tell.

 

[ucmndd]

It amazes me how many grown, ostensibly successful and intelligent humans still bitch about this like it’s an either-or.

Study after study shows allowing developers to spend a little time on creative or “fun” stuff INCREASES productivity and job satisfaction.

So, seriously. This argument is old and tired. Move on. A German brand might be more to your liking. Those cats are serious AF. No fun allowed.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

A German brand might be more to your liking. Those cats are serious AF. No fun allowed.

I can't even imagine how annoyed German automotive engineers are at Tesla. Here is this car kicking the crap out of their sales; yet one of its most talked about features is a fart app.

It's like the entire world went nuts.

Oh, wait. It did.

 

[tranzndance]

Perhaps a car with no soul would be more to your liking.

https://electrek.co/2019/07/17/elon-musk-tesla-competition-soul/
Musk also argued that competitors make many cars with “no soul”:

“And the overarching goal is, what can we do to make you fall in love with this car? And I think the biggest thing about Tesla and the cars that we make is that this is not designed by a soulless corporation. There’s not like some finance spreadsheet or something like that with some market analysis. There’s none of that. Obviously we need to bring in more money than we spend, but at the end of the day we want to make a car that we love, that hits us in the heart, that makes you feel. And how many of these cars, they have no soul.

He added:

“They make all these cars that have no soul or no heart, and they wonder why nobody feels anything for them. Why should they?”

 

[P100D_Me]

Study after study shows allowing developers to spend a little time on creative or “fun” stuff INCREASES productivity and job satisfaction.

As a software developer myself I agree, Easter eggs and 'fun' stuff keep a person sane but there is a time and a place.
When the software has become the unstable glitchy sludge it is then now is NOT the time for play.
The problem I think it is the culture, the German example you gave is they want perfection but Tesla wants headlines, not boring things like fixing bugs and making functions work 100% of the time. The Germans seem mindful that they are 'playing' with a $100K prestige car, Tesla treats updates like a $5 phone app.

Musk: “They make all these cars that have no soul or no heart, and they wonder why nobody feels anything for them. Why should they?”

The emotions I feel when I look at my yellowing screen, gitchy MCU operation, internal rattles, yeah that emotion is indeed very different to that I've felt punching through the gears with an angry V8 up front.
As John Lydon once asked "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated"?

 

[darxsys]

Perhaps a car with no soul would be more to your liking.

Elon Musk explains why auto industry hasn't caught up with Tesla, says competition has 'no soul' - Electrek
Musk also argued that competitors make many cars with “no soul”:

“And the overarching goal is, what can we do to make you fall in love with this car? And I think the biggest thing about Tesla and the cars that we make is that this is not designed by a soulless corporation. There’s not like some finance spreadsheet or something like that with some market analysis. There’s none of that. Obviously we need to bring in more money than we spend, but at the end of the day we want to make a car that we love, that hits us in the heart, that makes you feel. And how many of these cars, they have no soul.

He added:

“They make all these cars that have no soul or no heart, and they wonder why nobody feels anything for them. Why should they?”

Imo, this is complete horseshit. The car I will fall in love with is a car whose MCU never crashes. Or crashes once a year max. It's a car with usable UI and buttons that make sense. It's not a playstation/fart cushion on wheels. Couldn't care less about nonsense like that.

Also, claiming that cars such as Porsche, Audi and BMW don't have soul is pure arrogance and nothing else. To me, Model 3 has exactly zero soul. It's a generic EV with a terrible front end, that will probably be driven by millions on top of that. Not very unique. Heck, I owned a VW GTI as my first car. If they could put a battery in it, it would beat Model 3 in soul and other departments any day.

 

[neroden]

What darxsys said. I'd love a car where the MCU didn't crash, the UI was well-thought-out (like the v6 and earlier UI, before they ruined it), and where the audio app worked as well as Audacious does on Linux. Basically where everything just *worked*.

Instead, the software developers have been fooling around while basic functionality breaks.

 

[Ofarlig]

Perhaps a car with no soul would be more to your liking.

Elon Musk explains why auto industry hasn't caught up with Tesla, says competition has 'no soul' - Electrek
Musk also argued that competitors make many cars with “no soul”:

“And the overarching goal is, what can we do to make you fall in love with this car? And I think the biggest thing about Tesla and the cars that we make is that this is not designed by a soulless corporation. There’s not like some finance spreadsheet or something like that with some market analysis. There’s none of that. Obviously we need to bring in more money than we spend, but at the end of the day we want to make a car that we love, that hits us in the heart, that makes you feel. And how many of these cars, they have no soul.

He added:

“They make all these cars that have no soul or no heart, and they wonder why nobody feels anything for them. Why should they?”

I agree with him, the problem is that if you try to get people to fall in love with a car at some point you need to start delivering usefulness as well. The feeling of love will turn sour quickly when you have problems and Tesla isn’t there to help or might not even honor the warranty. Or when the infotainment/AP gets buggy after an update and so on. It might feel quirky at first but after a while it just gets annoying.

Selling a car based on ”soul” means the feelings can turn equally strong but negative if your product offering isn’t up to it long term.

 

[Chuq]

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Imo, this is complete horseshit. The car I will fall in love with is a car whose MCU never crashes. Or crashes once a year max. It's a car with usable UI and buttons that make sense. It's not a playstation/fart cushion on wheels. Couldn't care less about nonsense like that.

Also, claiming that cars such as Porsche, Audi and BMW don't have soul is pure arrogance and nothing else. To me, Model 3 has exactly zero soul. It's a generic EV with a terrible front end, that will probably be driven by millions on top of that. Not very unique. Heck, I owned a VW GTI as my first car. If they could put a battery in it, it would beat Model 3 in soul and other departments any day.

None of those things are really what makes a person fall in love with a car.

Love isn't something that makes logical sense.

If it did no one would fall in love with Italian cars. Yet, they're some of the most beloved automobiles.

I'm a huge fan of Jeeps, but Jeeps are atrocious vehicles when it comes to UI or reliably. If you have a Wrangler you're lucky to have it not leak.

None of the German cars I've had were stellar in terms of reliability. The Porsche Cayman I had rattled so much on the drive home from the dealer that I really thought about driving it off a cliff.

I still loved all the German cars because they had something about the way they handled.The Cayman was the pinnacle, and then I switched to Tesla because there wasn't anywhere else to go except Italian. So I debated a lot between Italian, and Tesla..

With Tesla I think it changed a bit.

it's less about falling in love with an automobile, but with a temperamental piece of technology.

Where one day it will work beautifully, and the next day it will want you dead.

Then there are the nights before a pending upgrade that's like the night before Christmas. Sometimes Santa would come, and sometimes he wouldn't.

Back when I had my Model S I determined it was the best experience I ever had with a car. I was thankful for that experience because it was before it became mainstream.

Everything is so much easier now, and now all that it brings is really taken for granted.

Which is fine because that just means it succeeded.

Going forwards I expect things like the Porsche Taycan to have more soul in terms of driving. Where Tesla will be more about trying not to drive, and technology outside of pure driving (like Sentry Mode, Dash cam, etc).

The funny thing is what I find myself really eying is the Rivian.

I might just fall out of love with my Jeep, and in love with that.

 

[Xenius]

Sorry that the car you bought is getting free updates over the air that you don't want. I feel for you, I really do.

 

[steve1313]

Tesla is a tech company that makes cars, not a traditional car company.

I want new "meaningful" features too, but I'm willing to bet that every update has more than just games and farts. There's most likely updates to the key features like FSD that we don't see, but are still being improved upon and operating in the background in shadow mode to report results back to Tesla.

 

[Big Toys]

Perhaps a car with no soul would be more to your liking.

How about a car with no rattles?

 

[Haxster]

Well... my 10 minutes of edit time for the original post ran out before I was about to add that the games could be useful for killing time while waiting for the car to juice up at a SuperCharger. Of course, others in the car would be on their own.

 

[Ostrichsak]

If I had no software issues at all I wouldn't say a single negative thing about games and farts. While known problems persist ANY resources wasted on video games and farts is wasted resources that could be directed towards addressing persistent problems.

 

[ucmndd]

If I had no software issues at all I wouldn't say a single negative thing about games and farts. While known problems persist ANY resources wasted on video games and farts is wasted resources that could be directed towards addressing persistent problems.

Again, this is only true if you completely disregard everything we know about employee productivity, morale, and the expense of turnover.