Elon Musk spent part of his weekend replying to individual Tesla customers’ requests on Twitter. The electric car company CEO responded to several customers requesting updates to the automatic seating, headrest, and steering wheel settings for Tesla driver profiles.
Tesla is known for customer satisfaction; Consumer Reports gave it a 91 for owner happiness and rated it an 87 overall which is currently best in class. As any Tesla owner will tell you, part of the experience is knowing that you’re driving something different. And that feeling follows everything Musk does. Including engaging on Twitter in a way that’s more “developer” than “CEO”.
Good point. We will add that to all cars in one of the upcoming software releases.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2017
And just like that, a Tesla owner is partially responsible for some of the content of an impending Tesla over-the-air-update. Which is cool. Musk wasn’t finished, however, as the following day he continued responding to Tesla owners in his refreshingly candid manner.
Yeah, it should probably automatically adjust to the user config of whoever is closest to a given door when the handle is touched
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2017
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In the future we can only dream that every car will automatically adjust to whoever is closest to a given door handle, drivers and passengers. When he’s not brainstorming on Twitter he’s revealing the plans he already has to fix things:
Yeah. That's been on the future feature list for a while. Need to make sure rain sensor doesn't false positive or drain battery.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2017
And when Musk gets a good-natured admonishing he knows how to reply with the proper contrition:
Will do. Also, we need to make it a lot easier to adjust the headrest.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2017
Totally agree. This was a foolish oversight.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2017
He often represents himself on social media in a way that makes us feel connected to him in a way other CEOs can’t, or won’t. He gives us glimpses into his mental health, and his plans, and it never feels like you’re talking to a guy who has a team of lawyers advising him.
There are few people as passionate about the future as Musk, which might explain why he spends his weekend looking for problems to solve.
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