This is great news for people who own an aging S or X. I have a 2017 Tesla and the screen started spazzing out on me a while back but I drive pretty often. I willfully purchased an upgrade that solved the problem as the new screen (MCU) doesn't have the same architecture that caused the failure. I'd be nice to be compensated for my willful upgrade but at least other people can stick it to Tesla.
I LOVE the car and will stick to it that it's the best car I've ever owned but it has its flaws and hopefully this recall teaches Tesla a lesson.
It’s mind-blowing to me that a 3-year car is considered aging.
Anecdote time: my parents bought a secondhand 93 Toyota Corolla that I inherited and drove until 2011. They continued using it until 2018, and got rid of it. It was still running. A few plastic internals had failed and the engine was rough, but still going. It easily had another 5ish years on it.
I have a 2004 Land Rover Discovery 3 with 220k miles on it, all of the systems in that car still work, even the ancient screen with all of its functions is still absolutely fine.
Teslas seem to be on the same path as smartphones - even if the original hardware doesn't get any slower as such, the experience gets worse and worse and worse with updates, to a point where a car that's less than 10 years old is now uncomfortable to use. It's a tragedy.
That's the problem though: car interfaces shouldn't "look modern", they should provide access to features in a maximally safe and ergonomic way. Tesla seems to be going in the exact opposite direction, mirroring the trend of web and mobile technologies.
They should also work predictably and consistently. When I’m in an emergency going 70 miles per hour or stranded by the side of the road at 3AM, I don’t want to have to worry about whether I’m running Car2.0 or Car2.1 where they changed where the hazard light button was.
I owned a FIAT Punto for 13 years, did 250-300k kilometers with it and only replaced it because I had two kids and baby seats were a pain in the ass on a 3 doors model.
Still worked like a charm, and it wasn't a particularly fancy model or brand.
I hope GP just used "aging" meaning "not brand new", it would scare me deeply if we started replacing cars the way we do smartphones.
Average age of a car in the US is at least over 10 years I think. And probably 15 years before it's scrapped. Most wouldn't be with their original owner though.
That's about 49300 miles a year, or about 200 miles a day if you drive five days a week, 50 weeks out of the year. That's a lot of driving. What has pushed you to be driving so much?
I have a twenty year old Honda and a six year old Toyota and both feel amazing. The Honda doesn't feel new, but it doesn't have any problems. All I have to do is change the oil.
It shouldn't be; depending on source, average length of new car ownership in the US seems to be somewhere in the 7-9 year range, and average length of car ownership (including cars bought used) seems to be ~4 years, and average car lifespan seems to be around 15 years. A car 3-4 years from new shouldn't be “aging”.
That's likely what's happening. Owner buys it new, uses it for 7-9 years. Goes to the used market, where it gets 4 years. Maybe a second turn on the used market, and then it gets sold overseas. I hear the Middle East is a big consumer of used cars from the US.
Also, "aging" is going to be heavily influenced by socioeconomic group. For some people, aesthetic damage to the paint or interior is enough to qualify as aging. Other people are more interested in the functionality, and other people are interested in whatever drives. I have friends that consider a 3 year old car to be aging, and I have friends who drive 10 year old cars and think they're just fine.
I do think Teslas (and electric cars in general) are going to have an impact on the used car market, especially on the cheaper end. These batteries don't have tremendously long lifespans, and a replacement often costs as much as a cheap ICE car.
I'm curious if there's going to be any profit in repairing electric cars with new batteries to sell them in Mexico or other parts of the globe, or if we're basically just going to be cutting off part of the used car market. The social impacts of developing countries losing access to a relatively cheap supply of vehicles could be bad.
Average for modern cars is 20+ years, hence the 2021 change in odometer reporting regulations. It used to be 10 years before that based on older studies.
To keep the meme bubble Musk's created alive and justify the market cap as well as personal buying decisions, it is neccessary to create a conversation where a Tesla is always the default, the "normal".
Thus: A three year old car is "aging", the steering wheel falling off is no reason to complain [0] and buying a two-ton sportscar is the ultimate pro-environment move.
This isn't about market cap. It's about people doing mental gymnastics and adjusting expectation to feel like they got a fair deal or didn't get screwed. People make all the same excuses every time a Tacoma frame rusts out or the 3.4 eats a timing set.
The group you are describing are the ones who bought the car. The one I am describing are the ones who are holding Tesla shares/options and doing mental gymnastics how Tesla is still undervalued and will moon forever.
I'm afraid we have done long ago now. BMW estimates that 90% of buyers won't keep their car for longer than 3 years. They are rolling out a subscription model for features based on that fact - so you buy the car which has all the functions built-in from factory, but then pay an annual fee to unlock them. Fancy heated seats? You get a 7 day free trial, after that it's a paid unlock. Same with adaptive cruise control, adjustible suspension, sport driving modes, etc etc. Tesla might have pioneered this model but BMW is taking it all the way. And they have the gull to say it actually saves their customers money so it's a preferred option.
Well, apparently companies love these - it means that work vehicles can all be bought in "basic" cheapest spec, but if the employee driving them wants fancy gadgets, they can pay for it from their own pocket! What's not to like?? /s
In the article it states that the memory is burned every time a car is booted up and put in drive, that means if you drive many times each day,it's going to burn up faster than if you say, drive from LA to Vegas once a month. This is according to the Feds research.
Understood, but how many miles are we talking about here? I know plenty of cars with smaller touch screens that last the lifetime of the car (100k+ miles).
I LOVE the car and will stick to it that it's the best car I've ever owned but it has its flaws and hopefully this recall teaches Tesla a lesson.