I wouldn’t buy Tesla again but I’ve never experienced software issues in mine. Although some of the menus could be re-arranged for clarity, it’s otherwise clear and responsive. The app is great and the third party apps are even better. I’ve not heard positive things from VW or MG owners in terms of software either. Is there any good alternative to Tesla in this domain?
I was recently shopping for a new car and looked at Volvo. We've had a Model Y for a few years now and when the Volvo salesperson proudly showed us how the truck height could be set by holding the button, I asked "is that a global setting or does it remember where it is when you set the height?"
The salesperson looked at me like I was crazy and confirmed it was global (the Y remembers what the proper height is at various locations using the GPS). It's frustrating to me that Teslas have fit and finish issues (though they get better) and there are some parts of it that I think are made cheaply (paint for example), but the software on the Tesla is miles ahead of anything else.
I'll never buy anything other than Tesla (mainly for FSD) but some of the software can use some work. Apple Music sometimes can't connect, it saturates your internet uploading telemetry if you let it, and probably the worst thing is that the maps don't cache. Kind of awkward to have a robust off-roading vehicle with unusable maps when you actually go off-roading.
Tesla software in theory was generally pretty class leading. Certainly some downsides with their homegrown infotainment vs a car with Carplay/Android Auto though.
What I did not enjoy when I was one was the number of functions that are buttonless and require touchscreen UI. Additionally every 1-2 years they'd do a major version upgrade that moved said functions somewhere around the screen, sometimes into a sub-menu.
So I couldn't do stuff by touch without looking, and they'd periodically break my quick glance muscle memory with releases. Stuff like - adjust air vents, adjust wiper settings, front/rear defrost.
VW software is a monstrosity from everything I've heard.
BMW has struck a decent balance of features, reliability, and having BUTTONS. I also have a HUD in mine and it's nice having instrument cluster display plus HUD to avoid really having to look away from the road at all. The number of cars that require glancing at the central touchscreen for lots of stuff is nuts, and a fad I hope fades away.
Less bells & whistles than Tesla tries to accomplish, but it just works. Which is.. what I want in my car. Infotainment has native XM radio & Spotify, plus CarPlay & Android Auto.
Less updates, and sometimes they don't quite work OTA, but I don't really care.
When I had a Tesla, everything was on the touchscreen including the speedometer and various critical controls, and I had 2-3 full reboot black screen while driving incidents of the system.
Was it neat that Tesla shipped new features regularly, sure. Were most of them half baked (summon) or stupid (farts, Netflix).. yes. The incremental "oh neat" for me was outweighed by various driver critical touchscreen-only controls moving around the screen release to release.
On my BMW I think the infotainment may have rebooted on me maybe once, but it has an independent dashboard instrument cluster screen & HUD which were not impacted.
And the BMW has way way more buttons so I do not have to care about the screen, including on the steering wheel and controls on the drivers right side arm rest. So again I can drive without distractions.
The other thing worth mentioning is the driver assist system that Tesla is supposed to lead on but.. eh, not really. After 4 years of Tesla Autopilot releases constantly changing behavior, frequently not for the better, it was nice to have a predictable ADAS system from BMW.
While Tesla pumps will pile on about how FSD is not AP and 2022 is not 2025, I just do not buy anything they or the company says after 4 years of daily experience with the product. A product that mostly works most of the time but then has unpredictable behavior and erratic regressions is not helpful.
I'd guess Rivian SW is good, because Volkswagen's SW got so bad they hired Rivian to rewrite it for them. (That contract is the only thing keeping Rivian afloat right now.)
Rivian software is pretty meh. I've never had a safety critical failure while driving, but have had multiple other issues including being trapped in the car unable to exit until after a reboot. Worse -- rivian has no mechanism for reporting software issues. If you don't want a service appointment (which is available in 3 months!) then don't bother reporting it.
I don't know if I can ever buy a non-Tesla car again (unless its a truck).
I'll check out Rivian next time though, as those look pretty damn good. Like you, I don't know of any other brands that are competitive enough for me. I want to like other car UX's but once you have a smooth UX its hard to go back to sluggish ones.
Whether or not that is true (I suspect you just made that up), no other businessman alive in America has made politics such a part of their personal brand.
That is possible, yes. I think it is a fair point.
But I also understand that people want to somehow publicly show their opinions about Elon Musk. Or others.
For some, a public social media post is enough. Others want to do so with their wallet. Which, unlike a typical person's social media post, has the potential of catching, albeit indirectly, Elon Musk's attention. Which is their goal.
So I would not dismiss or make fun of the people who want to do it this way. I would not call it "virtue signaling" either if it is done with a genuine goal to publicly point out that some of Elon Musk's opinions are problematic or even dangerous.
These people are most likely not doing it because they want to "look like" they have a problem with such opinions. They do it because they genuinely believe that such opinions are harmful.
I’m kind of pointing out the hypocrisy in that if you’re not buying a Tesla because of Elon, then I’d hope you’re also boycotting all Israeli products, because you know, a little thing called a genocide is happening. If not, then I find it weird and I’m calling it out.
It might not be hypocritical. People do not have the mental capacity to follow and react to every crisis everywhere with the same level of engagement. They typically react more to the topics which they can closely relate to because they are part of their daily lives.
People in the US drive cars. And they follow the US politics. So it is in my opinion only natural that their reaction to issues concerning cars and the US politics would be more on their radar when it comes to coming up with public and loud reactions.
Does that mean that they do not care about e.g. the war in Gaza? Absolutely not. If asked, they will probably give a very critical opinion about it. But they are not out protesting for it to stop every week because it does not concern them directly. It is not hypocrisy, in my opinion, it is just natural selection of what is more and what is less important in a daily life of an individual.
It's one thing to have terrible political views. It's quite another to join the government and lead a crusade to (illegally?) slash and burn government agencies.
And while it's not ok to have terrible views, I can at least summon a token minimal level of respect for someone who keeps quiet about them, vs. someone who needs to yell them over and over, as loud as possible, for everyone to hear.
