Tesla Model 3, Model S regain Consumer Reports recommendation, citing “improved reliability”

Joey Klender

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Posted on November 15, 2019

Tesla’s Model 3 and Model S sedans have both regained recommendations from American product testing group Consumer Reports.

The two vehicles were removed from CR’s recommendations following numerous reports of quality issues, citing stuck latches and malfunctioning doors to name a few from Model 3 owners, and issues regarding the quality of paint and trim from Model S owners. CR notes in its latest report that these issues have been and recommending both Tesla’s Model 3 and Model S based on evidence of improved reliability.

Tesla’s relationship with Consumer Reports has never been picture perfect. The Silicon Valley-based electric car maker has been the subject of numerous points of criticism from CR. Most recently, the company gave a negative review of Tesla’s new Smart Summon feature. In the past, they have criticized the Navigate on Autopilot feature and stated the Model 3 will give owners “average reliability. Despite this, following the Model 3 being readded to Consumer Reports recommendations, the company has comprised a list of the 12 most reliable luxury compact cars, and the Model 3 is ranked 5th.

The Model 3 lost CR recommendation in February 2019 after the company stated they questioned the vehicle’s reliability after there were too many reported issues with paint, trim and, body hardware. Senior Director of Auto Testing at Consumer Reports, Jake Fisher, said, “The Tesla Model 3 struggled last year as the company made frequent design changes and ramped up production to meet demand. But as the production stabilized, we have seen improvements to the reliability.”

Improvements in the quality of the vehicles made by Tesla are possible through a various array of techniques. Software issues and even some performance-related problems can be fixed through routine software updates the company releases to its owners. However, production quality issues cannot be adjusted through software and can be fixed by one of Tesla’s service centers directly. Complaints of panel gaps were increasingly popular, but a recently released report from Bloomberg that surveyed 5,000 Tesla Model 3 owners showed buyers were impressed with the company’s increasingly improved build quality.

Consumer Reports conducts its reliability survey by obtaining information on nearly 420,000 vehicles across all manufacturers. This year’s survey attracted the data of nearly 4,000 Tesla vehicles. Owners are asked about any issues they have had with their vehicles within the last 12 months. These could range from engine issues to “annoying noises and leaks,” according to the Consumer Reports website.

The improvements to both the Model 3 and Model S have allowed even Tesla’s most intense critics to recognize the reliability of the vehicle. While Consumer Reports is a neutral company that simply reviews vehicles with the information they are given by real owners, they simply could not ignore Tesla’s improvements to its vehicles. Numerous Bloomberg studies have shown that Model 3 is one of the most reliable vehicles on the road. The Model S continues to impress as well, and with Tesla releasing a more powerful Plaid variant next year, the company has no plans to stop improving upon any of its vehicles.

Tesla Model 3, Model S regain Consumer Reports recommendation, citing “improved reliability”

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Tesla registers Cybertruck trademark ahead of November 21 unveiling

Joey Klender

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Posted on November 14, 2019

Tesla has filed to register the name and logo for its yet-to-be-released “Cybertruck,” the name of its first all-electric pickup truck ahead of the vehicle’s unveiling event on November 21.

According to GenSao of the TeslaMotorClub, The United States Patent and Trademark Office website shows Tesla, Inc. submitted two trademark applications for the phrases “CYBERTRUCK” and “CYBRTRK”. Tesla also has turned in an application for the truck’s official logo according to the Patent and Trademark Office’s website, all submitted on November 6, 2019, the same day CEO Elon Musk tweeted the date of the truck’s unveiling. The unveiling event will take place in Los Angeles near the SpaceX rocket factory.

Speculation regarding the truck has been heavy, as nobody outside of Tesla’s inner-most circle has any sort of information other than some specifications Musk has released to the public, like its massive 300,000-lb towing capacity and seats that are reportedly big enough to fit Andre the Giant. Even celebrity Joe Rogan, who hosted Musk as a guest on his podcast in September 2018, texted Musk a picture he found on the internet of what the truck is rumored to look like. However, Rogan was surprised when Musk responded by saying something along the lines of, “That’s not really our truck. It’s more Blade Runner-esque.” After all, he has described the truck publically as “cyberpunk” and states it will be “pretty sci-fi”.

Tesla’s “Cybertruck” Logo, submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The truck is expected to have a base starting price of $49,000 and will pack somewhere between 400 and 500 miles of range.

The all-electric car manufacturer will be competing with some of the most popular automakers in the world, including Ford, who sold the United States most popular line of trucks in 2018, the F-Series. With Rivian’s R1T truck also beginning production in late-2020 or early-2021, Tesla will not be selling the only electric pickup truck on the market and will have stiff competition from the Jeff Bezos backed company.

Tesla registers Cybertruck trademark ahead of November 21 unveiling

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Tesla Autopilot video suggests that dogs are now recognized as pedestrian objects

Simon Alvarez

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Posted on November 13, 2019

It appears that Teslas are getting better and better at recognizing objects that are encountered in everyday inner-city driving. According to recent reports, for example, Autopilot appears to have gained the capability to recognize animals such as dogs. 

The recent observations were shared by Tesla owner-enthusiast @greentheonly, who has been studying the inner workings of the electric car maker’s driver-assist system for years. In a recent post on Twitter, the Tesla owner noted that his vehicle, which was running 19.36.2.1, was recognizing dogs as pedestrian objects. 

Tesla has not mentioned any improvements in its vehicles’ capability to detect and respond to animals on the road yet, though Mark Schey, a Model 3 owner, opted to conduct a brief test by having a dog sit in front of his all-electric sedan. Sure enough, the vehicle did detect the animal, recognizing it as a human in the Model 3’s center display. With this in mind, it does appear that Tesla’s vehicles are improving in terms of their capability to detect animals, or at least dogs, while they are operating. 

These recent observations follow reports from Tesla owners about Autopilot responding safely to animals. Just recently, a video went viral among the EV community depicting Autopilot seemingly detecting and safely avoiding a family of ducks that are crossing the road. The incident remains unconfirmed considering that no telemetry data has been provided, but it does bode well for Tesla and Autopilot’s eventual capability to react to unexpected obstacles on the road. 

The capability to detect and safely respond to animals is an important aspect of inner-city driving that Tesla must master before it could successfully fully roll out its Full Self-Driving suite to the fleet. Inner-city driving is far more unpredictable than highway driving, after all, with vehicles constantly having to deal with people, animals, and objects at any given time. If @greentheonly’s observations are accurate and Tesla is indeed working on animal detection, it would be yet another step forward for Elon Musk’s goal of deploying a fleet of vehicles that are fully autonomous. 

The proficiency of Tesla’s fleet in recognizing and reacting to objects on the road depends in no small part to the growth of the company’s Neural Network, which gets fed with real-world driving data by the electric car maker’s vehicles. As more cars provide Tesla with valuable real-world driving data with and without Autopilot, the company’s Neural Net continues to improve. Indications that Teslas can now recognize animals on the road as pedestrian obstacles are an encouraging sign that the company’s vehicles are learning, and they are becoming more proficient with every update.

Tesla Autopilot video suggests that dogs are now recognized as pedestrian objects

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