Elon Musk on Tuesday owned the widely-reported problems with the Model X. And later explained why the Model X and Model S will lead the Model 3 in technology.
Speaking at the Tesla Motors 2016 Annual Shareholder Meeting held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. on Tuesday, Musk said he accepts blame for Model X snafus.
Hubris: “This [Model X] program has been challenging. I particularly need to fault myself for a fair bit of hubris for putting too much technology all at once into a product,” he said.
Should have waited: Musk said some of the coolest tech was rushed: “In retrospect the right thing to do with the Model X would have been to take a lot of the really awesome cool things and table them for a future version,” Musk said. “So, if I could wind back the clock, I would say, ‘look we’ve got these great ideas. Things that I want to implement and other people want to implement.’ But the smart move would actually have been to table those for version 2 and version 3 of Model X instead of piling them all into version 1.”
What exactly went wrong: Which led to lots of software issues. “In particular, the software that controls the Model X and the operation of the doors has been incredibly difficult to refine and getting the complex set of sensors to work well [has been difficult to refine]. I think we’re almost there in making the doors useful. [Laughter] Actually, it’s a software problem. How do you interpret all of the data from the sensors? What should you remember? What shouldn’t you remember? How should you open the door in different circumstances? If you’re in a low ceiling or narrow situation? If the sensor is giving erroneous feedback, when is the right time to ignore the sensor?”
Dug a hole: But the new software should finally work. “Digging ourselves out the hole has been quite hard. But I think with the software release that’s going out shortly and another one that’s going out in maybe a month or so, I think finally we’ll be at the point where the doors are better than normal doors, as opposed to worse [Laughter]. So, anyone considering buying a Model X, if you order a Model X now or soon, trust me, you will love the doors. Because the software will actually be right.”
.jpg)
Should you buy the Model 3 or Model S or Model X?: The Model 3 won’t get the newest tech. “In order for us to produce the Model 3, we’re critically dependent on the revenue we receive from the people that buy the Model S and Model X. So, it’s important to bear in mind…the thing that is enabling the Model 3 to exist, is fundamentally the people that are buying the Model S and Model X today and historically. People wonder, should I buy the Model S or the Model 3? The Model S and the X are always going to be our technology leader. We’re not intentionally trying to withhold technology from the 3 but rather because it’s fundamentally more expensive when you have new technology until you can do multiple design iterations and achieve economies of scale. So, those that buy the Model S and X should know that they actually will be buying the most advanced car and they will effectively be paying for that technology to make its way to the Model 3.”
