Exclusive: Tesla Model S Owners Report Widespread Software Glitch

Tesla Model S owners lit up the forums and fan clubs on the evening of September 28th all complaining that their cars were continuously resetting while being driven. The glitch seems to have taken a few days to manifest. Many owners reporting the issue had updated to the latest software version, called V8, over the past weekend, yet the problems didn’t result until today.

Owners report that the onboard 17" control screen, which controls most of the functions other cars use buttons for, would repeatedly reset. Owners are reporting that the resets occur as often as “four times in fifteen minutes” and “three times in 20 minutes.” The entire screen is reported to go blank, disabling AC, and causing GPS to make screen changes of its own accord.

Frantic owners of the $75K to $130K supercars called Tesla customer service which was overwhelmed according to owners who reported they waited a long time on hold not knowing if the issue was serious or not. Tesla has also been applauded by some who report that they were phoned back by a Tesla representative who said a fix is in the works and will be sent out soon.

Tesla is not alone in recent over-the-air SNAFUs. Lexus had a similar issue this June. Unlike the Tesla Model S, Lexus does very few such updates and does not rely on so many functions in its infotainment screen.

Update: Now 24 hours into the problem, Tesla Owners are still reporting outages and the EV-focused media have not reported the issue.