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To me, the real takeaway here is that weve reached a moment in which the car has turned into a gadget, and were seeing the good and bad that comes with that. A lot of the flaws Broder brings up, Gadgets, such as discrepancies between the cars estimated range vs. the actual range, come down to software issues. The same can be said for many of the gripes from Model S owners, who have seen their 17-inch touchscreen display act funny or their motorized door handles not work quite right.

Teslas software is good, but its not working perfectly. The company is issuing Tesla vs the New York Times Cars Are Now Gadgetsover-the-air updates that fix many of these problems. One day your door handle doesnt work. The next day it does. Its also been issuing updates that, for example, suddenly allow the cars to charge much ster than they could before by taking advantage of new Tesla supercharging technology. This is a strange new world for car owners.

Some people are willing to live in this st-moving, imperfect world. Here in Palo Alto, the Tesla Model S has become a common sighting. This is a place full of early adopters who dont mind paying extra for the latest and greatest gadgeteven if it has some glitches. Tesla only needs to sell about 20,000 people on this premise for the Model S to be wildly successful.

Moving forward, though, the company will have to do much better if its to make follow on vehicles like the Model X mainstream. The public wants amazing gadgets but is less tolerant of the types of issues the Model S has seen so r. So heres Teslas real moment to prove its more Apple and Silicon Valley than Detroitand to show the world what technology mettle its really got.

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Were used to buying cars that at best stay static over time but usually get worse. The Model S seems more similar to the iPhone. It has the chance of getting better (at least for a while) as flaws get fixed and new features arrive.

But lets be clear. The Model S has pushed automotive innovation forward by leaps and bounds. It offers space, speed, and safety in a package that outstrips rivals while also introducing a whole new set of computing and fuel technology. You dont have to stretch to compare the Model S to ) iPhone in terms of a device changing the rules of engagement in its respective field. And lets all remember that the iPhone has come with its antenna,new york asian escorts map, screen, and other fundamental issues.

Guys like Broder and many of the Tesla owners obviously want to see the Model S act as billed. And Musk has said the car is not meant to be some grand beta experiment in which people pay $100,000 to serve as Teslas guinea pigs.

Broder, in a series of posts, has argued that he followed Teslas instructions and that the car simply did not handle the cold weather of the Northeast well. He also claims to have been testing not really the Model S itself, but rather the network of free, supest charging stations Tesla has started putting up around the country. This is how Broder explains away the baffling circumstances in which he didnt charge the car while spending the night at a hotel.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk waves in front of the Model S at the Tesla ctory in Fremont, Calif.

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Photograph by Paul Sakuma/AP Photo

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The tit-for-tat squabble is entertaining. Musks data-heavy beatdown, especially, is great reading.

Late Wednesday night, ) issued its much-anticipated response to a scathing New York Times review of its all-electric Model S sedan. In a blog post, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk used data logs gathered from the car to accuse reporter John Broder of outright lies. Broder, for example, complained about freezing inside the car, since he had to turn the heating system off to save electricity and keep driving. Balderdash, says Musk: The data show the cabin had an average temperature of 72F for the majority of the trip.