Tesla really has amazing software. if their hardware was anywhere near as good, they'd win over a lot of us folks who prefer legacy automakers for the more traditional aspects of a car (interior, ride comfort, build quality, cabin noise).

Audi really needs to start taking the software side of things much, much more seriously.

 

Tesla really has amazing software. if their hardware was anywhere near as good, they'd win over a lot of us folks who prefer legacy automakers for the more traditional aspects of a car (interior, ride comfort, build quality, cabin noise).

Audi really needs to start taking the software side of things much, much more seriously.

Honestly, I think Tesla's software is quite overrated. I'm approaching 5 years of ownership on my Model 3 and while certainly they do a number of things well with the software, there are also quite a lot of things that I've become less and less tolerant of, and they've made a number of things worse over the years too.

I am more than happy to give up things like the camping mode, dog mode, the mobile app, and the nav system to get carplay, and not putting important controls on the screen with small touch targets, and often buried in menus that you have to dig through while looking at the screen.

Even if the software was perfect, though, I'm no longer interested in a quick-acceleration minimalist econobox, and that's a LOT harder for them to address than the software issues.

But yes, VW and Audi also have a lot of crap to answer for.

 

Volkswagen Group Fired Diess Because Of Software Unit Fiasco

The Porsche and Piëch families that control Volkswagen Group plotted Herbert Diess's ouster while he was on a US trip last week, Bloomberg reports.

insideevs.com

 

Interesting article--it makes me hopeful that we will get better software out of Audi.

 

My girlfriend has travelled in a lot of Teslas (various models) with her work colleagues over the last few years and she says that my e-tron is so much more refined and luxurious inside. I myself have no comparison as I've never been in a Tesla, but I'm happy to take her word for it. She also commented how much quieter my e-tron is, especially on motorways. I don't feel like I'm missing out on any Tesla features.

Also, this appeared in my Google news feed today:

‘Elon Musk, please help us’: Tesla owners start hunger strike over quality issues - National | Globalnews.ca

'We believe that if Elon Musk is made aware of our troubles, he will solve the situation,' the Norway hunger strike participants and Tesla owners claimed.

globalnews.ca

 

1 year after selling Tesla Model S/Buying Sportback 55:
The Tesla Supercharger network
Over the air software updates
The App
Some of the software trinkets: Camp mode etc.

Everything else, I like the Audi better.

 

I made the same switch, almost 2 years ago, from a 2015 Model S 70D to a 2023 e-tron Sportback. And I have the same reactions on all those same points.
I also think the Tesla service model is probably better. I have only used my local Audi dealer a couple of times for service, for routine stuff (recalls, one scheduled service, nothing broken yet) -- but Tesla service people seem to know more about the cars and most service can be done by the mobile technicians, which is a great advantage. And I expect that I will find Audi service to match its reputation of being very expensive. We'll see....
Oh, and one small thing that the Audi app does that the Tesla app did not do -- you can download your travel data, which I enjoy doing. I keep track of my energy efficiency like I used to track my fuel consumption back in my gas/Diesel car days. (Yeah, I am an engineer and like to do that kind of stuff!) So, one point for Audi.

 

As we have both in the family, some of the things are advantages, but with an *.

RE the built-in NAV, for me, the 'killer app feature' is being easily able to send any address from my phone to the car, and have the car navigate to it. The actual nav maps and routing I've found roughly comparable. Also, in the Audi, we use ABRP because of the charging network. For my MY, I can also use ABRP, but only by the 'add-on' screen I added. For the Audi, that's not a thing with the built-in NAV without the overpriced connectivity upgrade, but works well enough with Android Auto and Google maps/ABRP.
RE the camera system, the thing I also like in the MY is the built-in dashcam function that captures the last X seconds of camera footage when you honk your horn. The Audi cameras are good - but don't have the integration to 'remember' the 'near-crash experiences' in traffic.
RE SC access - plug-and-charge is the way it should work, and the SC have been very good in the FL trips we've taken with the MY. So far, with EA, the Audi has that as well, but it's remarkably slower to start the charge session than the SC, and has flaked out on a couple of occasions. In the grand scheme of things, a minute or so difference isn't all that much, but it seems longer. Other brands for charger access have been consistently inconsistent which is annoying.
RE the voice recognition - I have found that both work well enough for me, but they have different command vocabularies, which is a pain when going back and forth. Some commands that Tesla does the Audi gives the equivalent of 'huh? Say WHAAAT?', like 'navigate to Morse museum in winter park'. My work-around is to use the phone voice command and Android Auto.
RE proximity sensing - well, you got to be careful, in that Tesla uses cameras exclusively, and you do get a parallax problem for things that move in front of you, like pets. It works OK, but has limitations and over-reliance can get expensive. Given the nature of the sensors, I find that I trust the Audi ones more in most parking circumstances because of the Tesla limitations.