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Telsa's Musk takes EV ideas: Cloud driver profiles, smarter sunroof, more

By Chris Davies/

Elon Musk continued his one-man Tesla support hotline service this weekend, fielding requests and complaints from EV owners for features they'd like to see in the next OTA firmware. The outspoken billionaire has frequently used Twitter as an open house for ideas and feedback, with many of the suggestions making it through to future firmware updates. This time around, Musk is tackling some of Telsa cars' more frustrating foibles.

For instance, one owner suggested it would be useful to have the car automatically move the driver's seat back, and pull the steering wheel away, when the vehicle is parked. That would make for an easier exit and entrance, as well as avoid excess wear on the lower portion of the steering wheel from rubbing against it. Sure enough, that idea got the Musk thumbs-up.



It's not the only power-seat possibility that Musk fielded. Another owner petitioned for headrest position – which can be adjusted up and down – to be saved in the customizable presets. Sure enough, the Tesla CEO said it was another good idea, and went on to concede that it should be made easier to adjust that position anyway.



Indeed, it was a good runway into Musk revealing another personalization feature Tesla has been working on. The automaker plans to move its driver profiles into the cloud, meaning that each could effectively follow owners around to any vehicle. One possibility, Musk said, was that things like seat position and such would be automatically set when a recognized person touches the driver-side door handle, presumably pulled down on-demand from the cloud settings store.



It's something Cadillac has already discussed doing with its next-generation CUE infotainment platform. While it might seem strange to think of one driver having access to multiple cars from the same marque, Cadillac is thinking of its BOOK subscription-based lease program, which allows drivers their pick of the automaker's line-up for a fixed monthly fee.

Tesla, of course, is also working on a car share program of sorts. Part of Musk's "Master Plan", the program would see owners adding their vehicle to a Tesla-only scheme where others could pay to use it when it's ordinarily sitting idle. Down the line, when self-driving features are enabled, the goal is to have the borrowed cars drive themselves. Before then, though, it would mean settings from one car to the next would be synchronized so that it always felt that you were getting into "your" vehicle.

Some of the other suggestions seem quite pedestrian in comparison, though would arguably address a far more frustrating issue. One owner, who forgot to close his sunroof while leaving his Tesla in a parking lot, asked if the car could learn to automatically close the roof to avoid coming back and finding it flooded. That, Musk said, was something Tesla had been thinking about for a while, though wanted to make sure it didn't inadvertently drain the battery in the process.



The most unusual feature asked for? That has to be unlocking the car using facial-recognition, since the B-pillar already has a camera built in. Musk conceded it was certainly possible, though said it wasn't a priority at this stage.



Now, it's worth noting that many of these things are behaviors that are already done as a matter of course by luxury (and even just "premium" vehicles), which you could argue Tesla is simply late to the game with. Still, the Californian automaker leads the industry in its willingness to push out new features – some of which are significant changes in functionality, like Autopilot – as a matter of course. When these new changes might roll out is unclear, with Tesla generally not giving a public roadmap of updates.

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