Last week, Elon Musk tweeted in a series of updates that Tesla would be attempting to service two-thirds of customer requests “same day.”
One of the many benefits of owning an electric vehicle is the lack of service required. According to Autoblog, of the top 5 most common car repairs – oxygen sensor replacement, inspection of loose fuel cap causing engine light, catalytic converter replacement, mass airflow sensor replacement, and spark plug replacement – none of them are even possible on an electric vehicle. Nonetheless, due to a range of issues, Tesla has had a consistent problem with servicing its ever-growing group of customers’ needs. Musk is set out to change this, and owners should have many reasons to be optimistic!
Working on Tesla North American service.
Goal is 2/3 of cars receive same-day service, no wait.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2022
Looking at Tesla’s service problem, it is multifaceted and often self-feeding in nature. To start off, quality control at Tesla has been a known problem, with customers experiencing everything from missing badges to paint issues to panel gaps. All of these issues must be serviced, and much of this service will be done at one of the company’s service centers.
Quality control (QC) service requests, when combined with normal service load, mean that Tesla service centers’ availability is often impaired. Tesla Motors Club forum even has a thread dedicated for service center wait times. This means that customers may be forced to wait longer periods before service, and if the service is not done 100% correctly the first time, the service center doesn’t have the capacity to bring them back immediately.
This lack of availability is compounded by Tesla’s lack of service centers as a whole, some states having only single-digit numbers of service centers available. This means that the service centers that do exist are responsible for a larger number of vehicles. And while independent service centers exist commonly throughout the US, many refuse to work on Tesla products or any electric vehicles for that matter, even when they have the capability to do the work. Once again, this forces more service requests to Tesla service centers.
Credit: Tesla
Finally, because new car QC requests are often covered by Tesla at no cost, this incentivizes customers to go to service centers for free work instead of going to independent shops that may be able to help them.
These problems have not been ignored by Elon Musk, and since 2018, Tesla has addressed many of these concerns. Most predominantly, since 2018, the number of service centers and the area that they cover has increased drastically. Looking at a map of 2018 and comparing it to now, areas such as New England, the Pacific Northwest, and the South have all seen massive increases in capacity. Tesla aimed to open one new Service Center per week in 2021, and, in general, the automaker has experimented with many different specialized service programs.
-
- Map of Tesla service centers in the US as of 2018.
-
- Map of Tesla service centers in the US in 2022
This is combined with an increase in capacity in Tesla’s mobile repair teams, who can often address service requests before the customer has to come to a service center. And in more recent news, Tesla has even made their repair manual free for customers to access, allowing more repairs to be done outside of service centers.
Another obvious change consumers have seen is an improvement in QC. Even according to JD Power’s rankings of brands by initial quality, from 2020 to 2021, Tesla has reduced the number of “problems per 100 vehicles” from 250 in 2020 to 231 in 2021, a number that is competitive with brands like Audi (240) and VW (213).
Service centers themselves have also been changed over the past 4 years with the inclusion of F1 style pit lanes that allow customers to be more quickly addressed and hence allow the service team to address more requests in a day.
Nonetheless, many have been concerned that these changes have not been enough to fix the Tesla service issue. Leading many to think about what could be done to improve the situation. A couple of options have been put forward by industry professionals and Twitter users alike. One such suggestion has been the expansion of the Tesla START program, a program that teaches individuals how to work on Teslas and then places them with a full-time job at a Service Center location across the country. Currently, the program is offered at eight colleges across the country: Rio Honda Community College in Los Angeles, Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, Shoreline Community College in Seattle, Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, Suffolk Community College in Selden, New York, Miami Dade College in Florida, Texas State Technical College in Waco, Texas, and Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
Overall, the changes made in the past 4 years should give Tesla’s current and future customers much to be optimistic about. QC has improved, the speed of service operation has increased, service manuals are free and open to anyone, and the number of service centers has increased. The only question is, what is Elon Musk planning on implementing next to improve Tesla’s Service department?
What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com
News
Tesla gamifies Supercharging with new ‘Charging Passport’
It will also include things like badges for special charging spots, among other metrics that will show all of the different places people have traveled to plug in for range.
Tesla is gamifying its Supercharging experience by offering a new “Charging Passport,” hoping to add a new layer to the ownership experience.
While it is not part of the Holiday Update, it is rolling out around the same time and offers a handful of cool new features.
Tesla’s Charging Passport will be available within the smartphone app and will give a yearly summary of your charging experience, helping encapsulate your travel for that year.
It will also include things like badges for special charging spots, among other metrics that will show all of the different places people have traveled to plug in for range.
Tesla has just introduced “Charging Passport,” a new yearly summary of your charging.
• Charging badges: Iconic Charging badge (for visiting places like the Tesla Diner, Oasis Supercharger, etc), Explorer badge, green saver badge, etc.
• Total unique Superchargers visited
•… pic.twitter.com/c1DHTWXpj7— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 8, 2025
Tesla will include the following metrics within the new Charging Passport option within the Tesla app:
- Charging badges: Iconic charging badges for visiting places like the Tesla Diner, Oasis Supercharger, etc., Explorer Badge, and more
- Total Unique Superchargers Visited
- Total Charging Sessions
- Total Miles Added during Charging Sessions
- Top Charging Day
- Longest Trip
- Favorite Charging Locations
This will give people a unique way to see their travels throughout the year, and although it is not necessarily something that is needed or adds any genuine value, it is something that many owners will like to look back on. After all, things like Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay have been a great way for people to see what music they listened to throughout the year.
This is essentially Tesla’s version of that.
With a handful of unique Superchargers already active, Tesla is also building some new ones, like a UFO-inspired location in New Mexico, near Roswell.
Tesla is building a new UFO-inspired Supercharger in the heart of Alien country
News
Tesla launches its coolest gift idea ever just a few weeks after it was announced
“Gift one month of Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which allows the vehicle to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal intervention.”
Tesla has launched its coolest gift idea ever, just a few weeks after it was announced.
Tesla is now giving owners the opportunity to gift Full Self-Driving for one month to friends or family through a new gifting program that was suggested to the company last month.
The program will enable people to send a fellow Tesla owner one month of the company’s semi-autonomous driving software, helping them to experience the Full Self-Driving suite and potentially help Tesla gain them as a subscriber of the program, or even an outright purchase.
Tesla is going to allow owners to purchase an FSD Subscription for another owner for different month options
You’ll be able to gift FSD to someone! https://t.co/V29dhf5URj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 3, 2025
Tesla has officially launched the program on its Shop. Sending one month of Full Self-Driving costs $112:
“Gift one month of Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which allows the vehicle to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal intervention. All sales are final. Can only be purchased and redeemed in the U.S. This gift card is valued at $112.00 and is intended to cover the price of one month of FSD (Supervised), including up to 13% sales tax. It is not guaranteed to cover the full monthly price if pricing or tax rates change. This gift card can be stored in Tesla Wallet and redeemed toward FSD (Supervised) or any other Tesla product or service that accepts gift card payments.”
Tesla has done a great job of expanding Full Self-Driving access over the past few years, especially by offering things like the Subscription program, free trials through referrals, and now this gift card program.
Gifting Full Self-Driving is another iteration of Tesla’s “butts in seats” strategy, which is its belief that it can flip consumers to its vehicles and products by simply letting people experience them.
There is also a reason behind pushing Full Self-Driving so hard, and it has to do with CEO Elon Musk’s compensation package. One tranche requires Musk to achieve a certain number of active paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.
More people who try the suite are likely to pay for it over the long term.
News
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
Tesla said recently it plans to launch Robotaxi in Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Dallas.
Tesla has expanded Robotaxi app access once again, but this time, it’s on a much broader scale as the company is offering the opportunity for those outside of North America to download the app.
Tesla Robotaxi is the company’s early-stage ride-hailing platform that is active in Texas, California, and Arizona, with more expansion within the United States planned for the near future.
Tesla said recently it plans to launch Robotaxi in Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Dallas.
The platform has massive potential, and Tesla is leaning on it to be a major contributor to even more disruption in the passenger transportation industry. So far, it has driven over 550,000 miles in total, with the vast majority of this coming from the Bay Area and Austin.
First Look at Tesla’s Robotaxi App: features, design, and more
However, Tesla is focusing primarily on rapid expansion, but most of this is reliant on the company’s ability to gain regulatory permission to operate the platform in various regions. The expansion plans go well outside of the U.S., as the company expanded the ability to download the app to more regions this past weekend.
So far, these are the areas it is available to download in:
- Japan
- Thailand
- Hong Kong
- South Korea
- Australia
- Taiwan
- Macau
- New Zealand
- Mexico
- U.S.
- Canada
Right now, while Tesla is focusing primarily on expansion, it is also working on other goals that have to do with making it more widely available to customers who want to grab a ride from a driverless vehicle.
One of the biggest goals it has is to eliminate safety monitors from its vehicles, which it currently utilizes in Austin in the passenger’s seat and in the driver’s seat in the Bay Area.
A few weeks ago, Tesla started implementing a new in-cabin data-sharing system, which will help support teams assist riders without anyone in the front of the car.
Tesla takes a step towards removal of Robotaxi service’s safety drivers
As Robotaxi expands into more regions, Tesla stands to gain tremendously through the deployment of the Full Self-Driving suite for personal cars, as well as driverless Robotaxis for those who are just hailing rides.
Things have gone well for Tesla in the early stages of the Robotaxi program, but expansion will truly be the test of how things operate going forward. Navigating local traffic laws and gaining approval from a regulatory standpoint will be the biggest hurdle to jump.
Tesla gamifies Supercharging with new ‘Charging Passport’
Tesla launches its coolest gift idea ever just a few weeks after it was announced
