Tesla seeks customer feedback for continuous improvement and innovation
Tesla
Following the lead of Airbnb's CEO, Tesla turned to Twitter to ask for owner feedback with a simple question: "What should Tesla improve?" The tweet quickly gained traction, with over 8.7 million views and 24,000 responses.
Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO asked for input on Twitter last week. Elon Musk noticed, tweeting: This kind of interaction with users is awesome. Other companies should take note. One of his other companies did take note, Tesla. We've curated some of the top suggestions that could pave the way for Tesla's continuous improvement and innovation.
Users Offer Insights for Enhancing Tesla Ownership Experience
Improve service times and location site counts: Customers emphasized the need for faster service times and more service locations, making the Tesla ownership experience more convenient. They also called for more accessible human support to assist with their needs.
Make Full Self-Driving (FSD) transferable: Many users suggested making FSD transferable between vehicles, offering added value and flexibility for Tesla owners who may upgrade or change their vehicles in the future.
Add 360° bird's eye view: Respondents proposed the addition of a 360° bird's eye view feature to improve the parking experience, providing added convenience for Tesla drivers maneuvering in tight spots or navigating unfamiliar parking areas.
Enhance referral program: Users expressed a desire for a more robust referral program, which could offer even greater incentives for Tesla enthusiasts to promote the brand within their networks.
Address sensitive wipers in FSD Beta: Several customers noted that wipers in the FSD Beta version are overly sensitive, activating even when it's not raining. They suggested that Tesla address this issue in future software updates to enhance the overall driving experience.
Will Tesla Share Top Suggestions, Following Airbnb's Lead?
Tesla's decision to seek customer feedback has garnered a massive response, showcasing its commitment to listening to its user base. Airbnb recently tweeted some of their most mentioned suggestions, demonstrating transparency and a proactive approach to addressing customer concerns.
While Tesla has not yet followed suit, it would not be surprising if they take a similar approach in sharing the most popular suggestions with the public. This would not only demonstrate transparency but also highlight Tesla's dedication to acting on customer feedback. The connection between Elon Musk and Twitter, given that he owns the platform could potentially further encourage Tesla to utilize Twitter as a tool for engagement and communication with their customers.
The Importance of Customer Feedback for Continuous Improvement
Tesla's quest for feedback and its potential to share top suggestions emphasize the value of customer input in driving a company's growth and development. By actively seeking opinions and engaging with users, Tesla and Airbnb exemplify how successful companies prioritize customer satisfaction and leverage feedback to stay ahead of the curve in their respective industries.
As Tesla continues to expand its product lineup and global presence, customer feedback will remain a critical component of its innovation strategy. If Tesla does decide to share the top suggestions on Twitter, it will further solidify the company's reputation for being responsive, adaptive, and committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience.
In conclusion, the decision to gather suggestions and the possibility of sharing them with the public not only strengthens Tesla's relationship with its customers but also sets a positive example for other companies to follow. Engaging with users and acting on their feedback is a powerful approach to fostering innovation, continuous improvement, and overall success in today's rapidly evolving business landscape.
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Tesla has finally released their 2024 Impact Report, and it's filled with impressive new data on the company’s environmental and safety progress. However, the biggest news is the clear and concrete roadmap it provides for the next generation of Tesla products.
For the first time, the report provides specific timelines for Tesla to begin volume production of the purpose-built Cybercab and the ramp-up of the Semi factory. This year’s report shifts from documenting past achievements to defining Tesla’s next phase, with a focus on autonomy and industrial transport.
Upcoming Vehicles
The most significant new items in the report are timelines for Tesla’s anticipated future vehicles.
Next, Tesla is ramping up production of the Semi, following the completion of limited production runs used for testing. This development is closely tied to the ongoing construction of the new Semi Factory, which is nearing completion. Tesla expects this to be one of its largest markets going forward and one of the most impactful. Industrial trucks doing the last 200 miles of delivery account for 16.4% of US vehicle emissions, despite making up only 1.1% of vehicles on the road.
In terms of the Affordable Model, Tesla has mentioned that they intend to launch more affordable products in 2025 and address a key segment of the market. They did not elaborate on this further and seem to have missed the previously provided self-imposed deadline for the first half of 2025.
At this point, we’re unsure whether Tesla will actually launch a distinct and more affordable model or whether it will introduce cut-down versions of the Model Y, as rumored.
Safety
The report supports Tesla’s future plans with some impressive new data points that demonstrate the impact their technology is having.
First, Autopilot (and FSD) has achieved a safety record nearly 10 times higher than the US national average in terms of miles per incident. The data shows one accident for every 6.77 million miles driven with Autopilot (or FSD) engaged, compared to the national average of one accident per 0.70 million miles.
The report also highlighted the Cybertruck’s recent 5-Star overall safety rating from the NHTSA, marking it one of the safest vehicles on the market, especially for a truck. The best part is that Cybertruck holds the lowest overall probability of injury and the lowest rollover risk of any pickup truck ever tested by the agency. Skeptics have always complained about lacking crumple zones, but the results prove otherwise, with Tesla building crumple zones as part of the gigacast.
Sustainability
In terms of sustainability, Tesla’s growing fleet helped to increase the amount of reduced and avoided emissions by 60% year over year, to 32 million metric tons of CO2e. While that’s a small number when you compare it to a full country, it is still a significant impact, especially in cities where pollutants have already decreased due to the ownership of EVs.
Tesla also mentioned that 99% of their recalls reported in 2024 were resolved using OTA updates, saving owners a trip to the Service Center or a trip by the Tesla Mobile Rangers, all in the name of sustainability and reduced costs.
Impactful Report
Tesla’s 2024 Impact Report is actually one of the most forward-looking publications to date. It puts a clear roadmap of Tesla’s future goals, while also tying them into the sustainability and safety goals achieved last year.
We can’t wait till 2025’s report - because it’ll be even better with this year’s deployment of Robotaxi. You can read all 200+ pages of the impact report here.
Tesla has officially begun internal testing of its awaited virtual queueing system for Superchargers. The news was shared by Tesla’s Director of Charging, Max de Zegher on X.
The Tesla Charging team has begun pressure testing the new feature and is planning for public pilots as their next step. While most users won’t experience heavy congestion at Superchargers, for those who do, it could be a real pain point. Virtual queues are designed to make it easier to charge at congested Superchargers by having a digital queue, rather than relying on owners to remain in line with their vehicles.
Virtual Queues
When we originally delved into Tesla’s plans to introduce a virtual queue system, it seemed obvious that the virtual queue would replace the current “Wild West” first-come, first-served system of vehicles trying to get pulled into a stall. This process will likely have two key integrations.
First up is integration directly into the vehicle software for Tesla vehicles. This means that when you’re navigating to a Supercharger that’s busy and virtual queuing is enabled, you will be automatically placed into the virtual queue upon arrival.
Then, your position in line is displayed on-screen and provides an estimated wait time, allowing you to relax, eat, or take a bathroom break without worrying about your place in line. Finally, once a stall becomes available and it’s your turn, you will receive a notification on your vehicle’s screen, as well as on the Tesla app, directing you to the open stall that will presumably only allow your vehicle to charge. We imagine that there will be a grace period for owners to pull up with their car. If that doesn’t happen within a certain period, the next car will likely be offered the charger.
The second integration is in the Tesla app for non-Tesla drivers. As Tesla continues to install Magic Docks and open Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs, more and more traffic comes to the world’s most reliable fast charging network. That means that Tesla also needs to manage expectations and queue times for non-Tesla vehicles, likely through a similar process, but done over the Tesla app instead.
The Devil’s in the Details
A simple “first-in, first-out” queue sounds great, but Max noted that it is easy to exploit things with bad actors. What prevents a driver from joining a queue remotely to reserve a spot, ignoring a notification, or trying to hop into an unreserved spot?
Well, Tesla should be able to manage these fairly easily, but they still require technical effort to implement. That means GPS geofencing for those attempting to join a queue, a short countdown timer for those late to take their spot, and a lockout for those who try to skip the queue are all needed.
What’s Next?
As Tesla has just started internal testing of this feature, it likely means that public-facing user interfaces and flows aren’t quite ready yet, but the underlying functionality is. It also means that Tesla is working to refine the little details to make the process as smooth and as easily accessible as possible.
While no pilot locations have been announced yet, it seems likely that Tesla will launch the pilot at some of the most notoriously busy Supercharger sites to gather testing data in the near future, once internal testing is complete. That means holiday travel routes or major highways, likely in California first, before rolling out elsewhere.
Virtual Queuing is a fantastic tech-first solution for the Supercharger network that helps transform that experience into a more calm and orderly process. Additionally, establishing a fair system that allows both Tesla and non-Tesla EVs to access will likely improve the overall experience. Along with the pilot program for dynamic Supercharger pricing that incentivizes people to use less-congested Superchargers, these changes should improve the Supercharger experience.
While Max mentioned it was designed for “those rare cases with a wait”, that tends to be the experience in larger cities further North, especially in New York, Michigan, or within Canada, where the few smaller Supercharger sites in big cities tend to be heavily congested. These queues will make the experience smoother for everyone involved, so we’re looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.