[TheBolivianNavy]

I've owned a Model 3 for over a year. It's ok. I had a rough idea of what I was getting into but the amount of "software" problems I've run into...

Every software update breaks something. The rear view camera sometimes just blacks out, requiring a soft reboot of the car. Side cameras will just stop working in the middle of a drive. The radio sometimes doesn't work. Requires soft reboot. Speaker volume levels randomly maxing out. Phantom breaking on empty highway on a perfectly clear day. Trunk randomly opening in the middle of the night (seriously, multiple times). It's in a garage but wtf Charger door cycling non-stop with nothing connected. Fix? Soft reboot.

Every time I've had to contact Tesla for anything (buying the car/service issues/wall charger issues) the people have been friendly but unbelievably disorganized.

It's a fun car to drive but there are some serious issues.

[userbinator]

Your post reads like the old "if Microsoft made cars" joke --- I never thought "reboot the car" would become a reality. Maybe you just got a lemon, but looking at the general state of the software industry, I'm also not surprised. I could understand bugs in more "advanced" features like autopilot and such, but what you're describing mostly sounds like simple functionality that should've been perfected long ago. One would hope that automotive software is held to a higher standard.

[darknavi]

> One would hope that automotive software is held to a higher standard.

I do wish it crashed less but it is worth noting that if the media unit crashes the car is still functional (gear shifting, driving, blinker, etc.).

[Judgmentality]

If we're talking about the Model 3, wouldn't you also not be able to know your speed since the speedometer is on the center console? I feel like that's pretty significant for most drivers.

[URSpider94]

The main cluster reboots in 30 seconds or so, so you’re not without the speedo for long. The speedometer isn’t a safety-critical feature over that time period.

[Judgmentality]

It is if you need to know the speed limit during that 30 seconds and it causes you to get into an accident. I've strongly felt like Tesla drivers were the biggest assholes on the road, and things like "how fast I'm going doesn't really matter" is a pretty good confirmation of that.

[URSpider94]

I have never been in a situation as a driver where I needed my speedometer to prevent me from having an accident. I also am perfectly capable of maintaining a steady speed for the 30 seconds it takes the car to reboot. I expect most drivers are. You can determine the speed of your car pretty accurately by looking at how fast you’re moving by objects outside of your car.

It’s perfectly legal to drive in a car without a working speedometer, and many people do.

[lostmsu]

The irony here is that Tesla probably runs Linux.

[darknavi]

One thing that fixed a lot of the "need a reboot" issues I was having was turning off Sentry mode at home. This allows the car to actually "deep sleep" where as before my car was humming along 24/7.

Maybe it's a placebo, but it seemed to help!

[DennisP]

So the car needs sleep? Their AI might be further along than we realize.

[hooloovoo_zoo]

I wish sentry mode didn't exist; the flashing headlights are a nuisance feature.

[darknavi]

As an owner I love Sentry mode (especially if you set up some automations to offload it and merge the video streams).

I wish the blinking lights was configurable though.

[mynegation]

That would drive me up the wall. I mean, until recently I have driven 16-year old car with no cameras at all, but once you have something and it stops working, that is extremely annoying. Especially in the car, that makes you think - if that small thing does not work, what else should I expect to malfunction? Uncomfortable thought.

Also - not sure if it true - I heard that most Tesla controls are touch screen, and as a person who does not want to take eyes off the road, that probably would not work well for me. I could do almost everything during driving in fractions of a second without looking, purely with muscle memory.

[darknavi]

> Also - not sure if it true - I heard that most Tesla controls are touch screen, and as a person who does not want to take eyes off the road, that probably would not work well for me. I could do almost everything during driving in fractions of a second without looking, purely with muscle memory.

Mostly true. Depending on which model you have you'll have varying level of controls on the steering wheel. (Think media control, whipers, cruise control, etc.) You also have decent support for voice commands, but I find that way too cheesy.

It's definitely not for everyone but I prefer the touch screen/clean dash look over traditional "cockpits".

[TheBolivianNavy]

The touch screen controls are mostly ok. I'm a huge proponent of knobs and switches as well but I've mostly been able to make due.

The two biggest issues with touch screen controls for me are windshield wipers and temperature.

You can turn on the wipers on the left hand stalk which is good for when some truck splashes your windshield and completely blinds you. The automatic wiper sensor is...not great.

I find the temperature controls hard to use without taking my eyes off the road. And the number of times I've accidentally turned on heated seats while trying to change the temperature...why on earth is that button so prominent?

[yuppie_scum]

Is yours a model year 2020 or an older used one you got last year? I haven’t really had any software issues and certainly no “phantom braking” over a i molar time period on a 2020. The Spotify integration initially sucked but has vastly improved with later updates.

My main quality complaint is the road noise. The tires just howl and the wind is loud at highway speeds. I wish I’d waited a few more months and I could have gotten the double pane glass.

Regardless it’s been a great car.

[TheBolivianNavy]

2020. Phantom breaking is real and incredibly scary. I've heard reports that it is more likely near overpasses but every time it's happened to me I've been on an empty eight lane highway (thanks COVID traffic) with no overpasses in sight. I find myself rarely using autopilot in traffic because if it phantom breaks, I'm going to get rear-ended.

[darknavi]

Phantom breaking mostly occurs near overpasses/signs above the road. AFAIK it's from radar false-positives.

[yuppie_scum]

Mine will sound the warning beep sometimes when cresting hills or approaching a temporary steel plate in the road, but it doesn’t actually brake.

[mysterydip]

"soft reboot of my car" is a phrase I never thought I would hear.

[swiley]

I've had the ECU in my corolla get into a weird state where a bunch of systems in the car stopped working. I had to pull over and restart it.

[xiphias2]

I just bought a Sony A90J TV for more than $4000, and I had to reboot it on my first day of usage, because it got stuck inside an application (Google TV based, Android TV was so much better so far).

[vardump]

I have a Samsung Q80T TV and even though I use it fairly rarely, maybe once or twice per week, I need to reboot it fairly often due to a hanging app.

Learned pretty quickly to long press remote control power button...

[jusob]

I've had a model 3 for 1.5 years, I've never had such issues.

[ramenmeal]

I'd like to see some non-anecdotal numbers comparing tesla's software issues to other brands/models.

[King-Aaron]

Anecdotal, but my take with my cars:

2006 Toyota Caldina GT-Four - 0 software issues

1993 Mazda mx5 running a Haltech Elite 750 ECU - 1 software issue after a firmware update

My conclusion from that: 100% increase in problems with a car that has software updates. Which is about on par with any other device with a computer :)

[derekp7]

On my Ford Sync 3 system, when I plug my phone in to use Android Auto the GPS sometimes goes haywire (the map keeps spinning in random directions like the car is drifting at sea out of control). Rebooting the phone doesn't fix it, only pulling over, turning the car off, and opening the door (so the infotainement system shuts down completely) fixes the issue. Based on this, I'm assuming that Android Auto gets its GPS from the car's GPS unit when plugged in, as the car GPS would have a better signal than the phone sitting down in the cup holder. If the phone isn't getting GPS signal from the car, then something the car is doing is seriously jamming the phone's GPS signal until the infotainment system gets rebooted.

[yogenpro]

Obligatory "If Microsoft Made Cars" joke:

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/pnw/microsoftjoke.htm

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon." In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.

For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off."

[ck2]

Paying full price to beta test a car for free while they work out the bugs on the fly and hope they don't break more things seems like a really bad purchase idea?

Not that gas cars are much better but is the "happiness" that people don't have to go a dealer and the fix is magically downloaded? Or something more than that?

Personally it would freak me out that every single thing is tracked and saved and sent to who knows who, forever. People like to argue there's no such thing as privacy but oddly they still have shades on their windows.

[darknavi]

It's the whole package:

- Charge at home

- Remote app access to preheat/cool in your garage without the risk of exhaust killing you

- Extremely fun to drive

- Very quiet

- Autopilot

- Software updates (as noted, this can be a bad thing too, but mostly good)

- Very techy with many apps to connect to the car for stat tracking/automation flows

- No haggling with a car salesman. You pay what you pay online, that's it