Tesla, we need to talk about our dysfunctional relationship.

I can't remember when it dawned on me that electric vehicles are the future. However, I do know that back in 2012, I started to admire the ambitious plans of Tesla. The Bloomberg Risk Takers series got me hooked, and the early coverage of the Model S sparked the wish to own this car. Well, I didn't have the money.?

In December 2013, I managed to get the first drive in the Model S and left the shop telling the Tesla employees that they should call me in three years or so – hoping that I would be able to afford such a car.?

Like clockwork, they called me three years later. After another test drive with my girlfriend (now wife), I took the plunge and ordered my own Model S.

I do not regret the decision, but it leaves me disappointed today. Before we get into the details, let me make one thing clear.

I want Tesla to succeed.

I want all automakers to transition to electric drivetrains because the advantages are obvious. I'm concerned that if Tesla continues on its current trajectory, it might stimulate the transition to sustainable energy but won't be a relevant force anymore once that transition is completed.

Since the production ramp-up of the Model 3, reviews of frustrated customers and quality issues became evident. I'm putting my experience on the record because part of me wishes that Tesla recognizes these issues and fixes them fast by focussing on quality control, customer support, and system design. Arguably these topics are far less sexy when compared to 0-60 acceleration times or autonomous driving. However, customers, especially those excluding the early adopter fanbase, won't be as forgiving as Tesla's customer base over the past eight years.?

In the beginning, the Model S drove like a whirlwind and brought immense fun and comfort into our lives. The car got a tiny bit better with every single software update for the first two years - it felt safe and reliable.

I allowed about a dozen friends to drive the Tesla for a day or weekend. I became an unofficial sales rep of the company. The product was that good. Technical tricks like preheating the car in the winter or cooling in the summer, opening the trunk, or honking the horn remotely even when the vehicle was in a different country left most of my friends and family in awe back then. They've witnessed the manifestation of the future.

However, after a bit more than two years, the car started to be less reliable. The navigation system stopped working correctly because of a lousy internet connection. The issues seemed to worsen with every update: The screen became unresponsive and blacked out several times.

For the past 12 months, I relied on my mobile phone for navigation when driving: The system currently only calculates routes to previously added destinations or works as supposed to when I use my phone's hotspot to improve the car's connection.?

I made several appointments with Tesla. They replaced the SIM card at least once and emptied the car's cache. The issues persisted, though, and they didn't have the time or the willingness to investigate further. I couldn't connect to the car via the Tesla app reliably while all the other issues persisted. I brought the vehicle once again for a full-service appointment, but the problems persisted, and again no one cared. Moreover, the support became agitated and told me that I should update my car more regularly and that fixing these issues would be up to me.

As more and more electronics find their way into our cars, factors like quality control, customer support, and system design become even more critical. German automakers are still ahead of Tesla in this regard (fight me in the comments).?

With the increasing complexity in these electronic systems, technical issues will inevitably arise - this won't change going forward. However, the main question is, how do you design a system advancing the technology itself while ensuring that these issues don't put anyone in danger?

I guess it starts with simple things.

Back in January this year, I was driving to the mountains with my 2-year old daughter. At a pit stop, I checked the duration of the latest software update and initiated the update by mistake.?

Here's an exemplary update screen for reference:

Setting a time for the update as well as the update duration compete for my attention.?

During the update, it is impossible to control the heating functions of the car. Winter in Switzerland made sure that the inside temperature dropped significantly within minutes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to cancel the update. I called Tesla to ask if they could cancel it remotely - they are not able to. We left the car to warm ourselves inside a nearby office. No harm done.

You can't abort a software update on your phone either, I know. Plus, Tesla states in a light grey on the screen that you won't be able to control the car during the update (see image above). I did not know and did not see the fine print. However, having the fine print in an additional confirmation modal before the update or an improved interface might have kept me from initiating it in the first place.?

Here's a quick mock that would have forced me to read top to bottom, therefore decreasing the chances of pushing the wrong button:

These things start to add up and can lead to very unpleasant experiences

For us, it happened after driving the car for five years, on Saturday, 18th of September 2021.?We're expecting our second child on the 20th of October 2021, and my wife and my daughter made a trip to Lauchringen, Germany, to do some last-minute baby shopping. It was a hot and sunny day in Switzerland and Southern Germany. The car stood in the parking lot for quite some time and was already quite heated. To lift our daughter into the child seat with a belly that screams eight months pregnant, my wife put the key on the front seat and buckled our daughter. She closes the door and walks around the car to initiate cooling and drive off. Pre-cooling the vehicle wasn't an option anymore as her Tesla app wasn't working reliably as well.?

During the roughly 5 seconds it takes her to walk around to the driver's door, the car shuts itself down entirely and closes itself in the process. She pushes against the door handles but no reaction. She tries to unlock the car via the app, but it doesn't connect. Worried about our daughter fainting in the car, she gets help from two shop employees and calls me. Her voice immediately tells me that something is off. I try to open the car remotely with my Tesla app but no luck. The car wouldn't budge.

I called Tesla, hoping that they would be able to access the car remotely somehow. Once I tipped through their automated caller system somewhere at the branch of yes it is an emergency or accident, a recorded voice told me to call my insurance company instead. Seriously.

Back in 2018, an actual person would answer your phone calls, but somewhere along the path of getting more and more vehicles out the door, Tesla dumped the emergency support.

I called TCS to ask if they knew about a way to open the car in an emergency. Apparently, breaking a window and reaching the handle from inside is the only way to open the car in such a situation.

Initially, our daughter managed to get her arms out of the seat belts and tried to reach the door handles. Unfortunately, she did not achieve to open the safety lock of the child seat and was just a few inches short of reaching the door handles.?

As the heat in the car kept rising over 15-20 minutes, our daughter started to become pale and soaked in sweat. One of the shop's employees organized a hammer by now and smashed the driver's window, the one with the biggest distance to our child. They got her out.

The police and ambulance arrived a minute later. The emergency doctor checked our daughter in the ambulance. ADAC states that 15 minutes in direct sun or 46° Celsius in the car can become deadly for children and pets. The whole situation was dangerous. The police recorded a temperature of close to 50° Celsius in the vehicle.

Tesla promotes its cabin overheat protection features and advertises its Dog Mode with an admittedly cute dog sitting in the car. Cabin overheat protection was enabled in our car but didn't do anything.

While you should never leave the key inside the car, the whole episode was clearly a malfunction. You're supposed to be able to push the door handles to open it in this situation. We've also regularly changed the batteries in our key fobs, so that wasn't the root cause either. Overall this is not supposed to become a root cause analysis. Although, I have to admit that I did some research and found similar experiences of other Tesla owners. However, I'm not considering parting ways with Tesla because of this malfunction. Something similar might happen in a German, Scandinavian or Asian car as well.?

I'm upset with Tesla because of the way they reacted afterward

Trying to fix the broken window as quickly as possible was of utmost importance to us. We have to be ready for the birth of our second child and need a functioning car to get to the hospital. Hence, I asked Tesla for an appointment summarising the above story and asking for a callback. They called.

They called to tell me that I needed to get the window fixed somewhere else. They did not care about the well-being of their customers at all. How hard is it to show some empathy? Again, they did not care about the root cause or try to understand what went wrong either. They closed my service appointment the next day.

No comment, nothing.

I'm tremendously thankful for the outstanding employees of the baby shop. They not only supported my wife in this dire situation but went at length to take care of my family, clean the broken pieces of glass out of the car, and tape the broken window afterward. I hope that Tesla will fix their issues fast and that other customers are as lucky as we were - or even more careful when using their cars day-to-day.

Being an early Tesla owner inevitably means that you have to fight countless arguments with petrol heads. I had to listen to too many uninformed opinions about Tesla and EVs. By now, the facts of the EV trend speak for themselves. Eventually, the petrol heads will get it as well. However, they will also use stories like this one as ammunition to reinforce their opinion about Tesla and tie it synonymously to electric vehicles in general.

So if more and more of these issues decrease the adoption rate of electric vehicles overall, it will be on you, Tesla - partially at least. When your overall system design puts people in danger, any dire consequences will be on you - fully.?

I urge you, start to prioritize quality control, customer support, and system design over the equity story.