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Via GCC: David Noland compares his S100D to his S85:
Life with Tesla Model S: assessing my new 100D vs old 2013 electric car
http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ssessing-my-new-100d-vs-old-2013-electric-car

As the potential heating effect of the pano roof has been much argued about, here's his take:
*Glass roof: Although I love the panoramic overhead windshield of the Model X, the glass roof of the 100D, now standard on all versions of the Model S, disappointed.

First of all, it doesn’t extend forward enough to be part of the driver’s normal field of vision. So you don’t even notice it visually.

Second, it’s so darkly tinted that it triggers no sense of airiness or brighter ambient light in the car. (It’s so dark that I was able to view the recent solar eclipse through it while wearing two sets of sunglasses.)

And finally, on hot sunny days, it literally gets too hot to touch from the inside, radiating uncomfortably downward and adding tremendously to the air-conditioning load.
 
GRA said:
Via GCC: David Noland compares his S100D to his S85:
Life with Tesla Model S: assessing my new 100D vs old 2013 electric car
http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ssessing-my-new-100d-vs-old-2013-electric-car

As the potential heating effect of the pano roof has been much argued about, here's his take:
*Glass roof: Although I love the panoramic overhead windshield of the Model X, the glass roof of the 100D, now standard on all versions of the Model S, disappointed.

First of all, it doesn’t extend forward enough to be part of the driver’s normal field of vision. So you don’t even notice it visually.

Second, it’s so darkly tinted that it triggers no sense of airiness or brighter ambient light in the car. (It’s so dark that I was able to view the recent solar eclipse through it while wearing two sets of sunglasses.)

And finally, on hot sunny days, it literally gets too hot to touch from the inside, radiating uncomfortably downward and adding tremendously to the air-conditioning load.
That certainly seems to confirm my own bias against the glass roof, although I am glad to read that it is dark enough that I might not have glare problems — I drive with visors down at all times in the daytime due to glare from remnants of cataracts. If I get another CPO S I hope I can snag one with a conventional roof ("body color" in Tesla-speak). I don't want a pano roof because it is just something else to break and I doubt that I would use it. The full glass roof figures to be hot in summer and cold in winter. The real benefit is for rear seat passengers — the pictures from inside are terrific — and for Tesla in ease of manufacturing the cars. I rarely have rear seat passengers, so no benefit for me, or a front seat passenger.
 
dgpcolorado said:
GRA said:
As the potential heating effect of the pano roof has been much argued about, here's his take:
*Glass roof: Although I love the panoramic overhead windshield of the Model X, the glass roof of the 100D, now standard on all versions of the Model S, disappointed.

First of all, it doesn’t extend forward enough to be part of the driver’s normal field of vision. So you don’t even notice it visually.

Second, it’s so darkly tinted that it triggers no sense of airiness or brighter ambient light in the car. (It’s so dark that I was able to view the recent solar eclipse through it while wearing two sets of sunglasses.)

And finally, on hot sunny days, it literally gets too hot to touch from the inside, radiating uncomfortably downward and adding tremendously to the air-conditioning load.
That certainly seems to confirm my own bias against the glass roof, although I am glad to read that it is dark enough that I might not have glare problems — I drive with visors down at all times in the daytime due to glare from remnants of cataracts. If I get another CPO S I hope I can snag one with a conventional roof ("body color" in Tesla-speak). I don't want a pano roof because it is just something else to break and I doubt that I would use it. The full glass roof figures to be hot in summer and cold in winter. The real benefit is for rear seat passengers — the pictures from inside are terrific — and for Tesla in ease of manufacturing the cars. I rarely have rear seat passengers, so no benefit for me, or a front seat passenger.
I have the same reservations. While it looks great in photos, I see little practical value from it for people in the front seat, and even those in the rear are likely to spend only a small portion of their time with their heads tilted back 30-90 deg. Most of us don't do all our driving in Yosemite Valley or Zion Canyon, and the best answer for the views in similar locations is to stop and get out of the car. Lying down in the car I could see a view advantage, but when I'm lying in the car I'm usually sleeping. I much prefer a cheaper, simpler, lighter metal roof with less effect on internal temperature.
 
For those who might be interested, I recently read " Off the Grid: My Ride from Louisiana to the Panama Canal in an Electric Car" http://skyhorsepublishing.com/titles/12145-9781510717398-off-the-grid about a 2014 drive in an S85 from McAllen, Texas to Panama via Mexico, Guatemala, el Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, shortly after the Glenneys made the first U.S. transcontinental drive in a Tesla.

Definitely an adventure rather than a practical trip, involving a constant daily search for someplace to charge overnight (L2; lots of adapters plus 300 feet of high current extension cords), plus concerns about drug gangs, kidnappers, dealing with corrupt police and military, poor roads and closures etc. The prose is nothing special and most of the photos aren't either, but one thing it did give me an appreciation for is just how volcanic Central America is. I knew it was on the Ring of Fire, but seeing photos of some of the volcanos as well as descriptions of them in pretty much every country (not just Mexico) really brought that home to me.
 
This is more generic to all Teslas, but this is as good a place as any:

Made a visit to the new Denver Service Center earlier this month. To check-in you drive right into the building and line up for processing:

26268375239_5680996816_c.jpg


^ The check-in line at the Denver Service Center. The white box with a cable coiled on the floor is one of two Superchargers for charging up cars before returning them to owners. The glass wall on the right leads to the office area where the customer service reps work. The windows on the wall in the distant center lead to the customer waiting lounge; one can easily view the work being done on the cars in the service center (most customers get Tesla loaners or rental cars rather than wait).

24192389188_9ab3301d22_c.jpg


^ A look at some of the service bays (there are more to the left of this picture). This was early — 8:15 AM — so not much work had started. A couple of hours later things were jumping, with lots of cars in the bays, some on lifts. As you can see, the entire service area has a polished white floor. It isn't like any service garage I've seen before.
 
Cold climate owners should be aware of this:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/03/tesla-recalls-123000-model-s-electric-cars-for-faulty-power-steering-bolts/


Definitely worth looking into
 
ElectricEddy said:
Cold climate owners should be aware of this:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/03/tesla-recalls-123000-model-s-electric-cars-for-faulty-power-steering-bolts/


Definitely worth looking into

Voluntary recall. All owners will be notified.
 
As has been inferred before about Tesla's OTA updates with regard to its limitations, here's an example were a processor change
was necessitated for the AP function and an OTA update, e.g. a firmware solution, wasn't possible. And this is a propriety Tesla
ECU, i.e. the AP function. So when ECUs are sourced from outside vendors, e.g. ABS/stability control, OTA updates become even
more difficult to nearly impossible. As indicated, OTA updates are available for the older AP system, but that system would not have
all the capabilities of the later system design, i.e. a newer processor and possible newer system features.

In a recent tweet, Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla Model S and Model X owners whose vehicles are equipped with older Media Control Units could be retrofitted with the company’s new x86_64-based MCU.

https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-tesla-mcu-hardware-retrofit/

Most all Tesla OTA updates are to the MCU and/or the AP functions;
https://www.teslarati.com/category/model-s/firmware/

An interesting Tesla forum discussion from 2014:
https://forums.tesla.com/de_AT/forum/forums/firmwaresoftware-updates-what-difference
 
lorenfb said:
here's an example were a processor change
was necessitated for the AP function and an OTA update, e.g. a firmware solution, wasn't possible.
That's not what it says. New cars have to so-called MCU2, which is merely newer, faster hardware. OTA updates will still occur and deliver the same features to the older cars (with the older, 6 year old MCU1 platform). Just like cars with AP1 hardware are getting new features. Where does it say otherwise?

If you want to point out negatives, there are plenty that can be picked from the bones here.
People want the new MCU2 because the touchscreen is more responsive (faster). That is, older cars are slower.
Because Tesla doesn't do model years, the MCU2 just started showing up on new cars one day. Some people are annoyed because their car didn't get an MCU2 but one delivered days later did.
 
jlv said:
New cars have to so-called MCU2, which is merely newer, faster hardware. OTA updates will still occur and deliver the same features to the older cars (with the older, 6 year old MCU1 platform). Just like cars with AP1 hardware are getting new features. Where does it say otherwise?[/b].

An overly simplistic assumption on your part, that the new processor was only for a speed enhancement and not for future features/functions
enhancements. It's not a simple re-design process to change a processor type, especially for just a speed enhancement. Tesla is thinking more
long term with Intel. Yes, some present OTAs to the MCU will continue.
 
lorenfb said:
An overly simplistic assumption on your part,
You just stated they did this because it's to enable something that can't be done with an OTA. You've no evidence of this.

I've a car with an MCU1. I've played with an MCU2. It's more responsive. It's got a newer, much faster processors. It's certainly possible it will, in the future, enable something that can't be done on MCU1. Hardware upgrades happen all the time. Tesla is on AP2.5 hardware, which has slightly more redundancy than AP2 (which my car has).

Somehow you are trying to twist this to show that OTAs are not so powerful.
 
Speaking of the negatives of OTAs:

Last week I got 2018.16 in my S. The unannounced new feature of this release is: they broke the heated steering wheel. :x It just doesn't get warm at all. Many owners reporting this after this update (myself included: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/update-2018-16.113936/). I expect a 2018.16.1 or 2018.17 soon to fix it.
 
I also reported in that thread that my center screen has the 'yellow border' issue, which I wasn't aware of before I noticed it in my car (https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/yellow-band-along-borders-touchscreen, https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/screen-discoloration.96016/).

This means I'll have to bring the S in for another service to get it replaced (under warranty). Last week, while it was in for the first year PM service, they ended up replacing the rear hatch lifters because those on my S had started to squeak and were showing rust.

I've never owned such an expensive car and I've certainly never had this many issues with one.

So there are plenty of legitimate negatives to raise about Tesla and their products. Trying to say the introduction of the MCU2 shows some failing of the OTA process just doesn't make sense to me.
 
jlv said:
I've never owned such an expensive car and I've certainly never had this many issues with one.
That said, I'm still a very happy owner (*). The car is still a pleasure to drive. Just yesterday we did a 420 mile round trip, starting in Massachusetts, through the NH mountains, up to Maine, and back home. 2 supercharging stops. We've now hit 19K miles on it.

(*) I often point out, somewhat sarcastically, that having paid as much as I did, I have to claim I'm happy no matter what. :eek:
 
I got the OTA Nav system update three days ago, which significantly improves the Nav system performance and interface. Quite pleased with it. (I have an older, pre-AP, car — AP would be useless where I live anyway — so the update is not limited to newer cars.)
 
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