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Tesla confronts Service complaints with new AI-backed strategy

Tesla will use a new AI Agent to help expedite Service claims and improve communication with customers.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is implementing a new AI-based strategy to improve service for owners. Service has routinely been among the biggest complaints of owners, although it has improved drastically over the past few years.

Some of the complaints that Tesla has received regarding its Service platform have evidently been used to develop new strategies to not only streamline the entire experience but also to make things easier for the company, which deals with many claims each week.

As a result of complaints in the past, Tesla has used various strategies to make things better for customers. However, the latest improvement comes as a result of AI, something Tesla leans on in many facets of its business.

Tesla adds ingenious solution to app to streamline Service appointments

Tesla’s AI and IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and Vehicle Service head Raj Jegannathan said on X this week that the company is rolling out a new AI Agent specifically designed to handle service comms with customers.

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He said the new Service AI Agent will detect delays in communications between the company and the customers, monitor the sentiment of these conversations, and auto-escalate certain claims directly to leaders.

It will also allow customers to type the word ‘Escalate’ in the message center portion of the phone app after two weeks of delays. This will help customers reach higher-ups more easily and likely will eliminate the complaints that many have had over the past few years.

The company is rolling out the AI Agent in ten pilot locations to start. Its first day being active was May 8.

Jegannathan said:

“Tesla Service’s new AI Agent detects comms delays, monitors sentiment, & auto-escalates to leaders. Starts tomorrow at 10 pilot locations. In 2 weeks, type “Escalate” in ‘message center’ to reach managers. Guardrails in place to prevent abuse. We’ll keep improving!”

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Service has had a lot of interesting strategies used to improve things, but it has definitely been a weak point of the Tesla ownership experience. In a perfect world, vehicles wouldn’t need repair for anything, but that is not realistic.

Instead, Tesla has worked to expedite the entire Service experience through various strategies, including F1-style service, and a goal to fix two-thirds of repair claims within the same day.

Parts availability sometimes takes this goal out of reasonableness, but these constant attempts at improving the repair experience show Tesla is doing what it can to make things better for owners.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla confirms annoying Full Self-Driving feature has been fixed

Tesla has changed one of its driver monitoring features in a request from several owners.

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Tesla has confirmed that an annoying Full Self-Driving feature has been fixed.

We reported last week that several owners reported changes in the feature, and now we have confirmation that it has been revised by Tesla.

Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) does not require a driver’s hands to be on the steering wheel. However, eye movements and attentiveness are tracked through a cabin-facing camera, aiming to improve safety and limit loopholes in the system.

Tesla seems to have fixed one of Full Self-Driving’s most annoying features

If the system detects that your eyes are not on the road or you are not paying attention, FSD will nudge you to get them back on the road. Too many occurrences of the driver not paying attention will result in losing access to FSD for the remainder of the drive.

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However, many drivers using FSD complained that the system was too quick to alert drivers of inattentiveness. Fixing things like the HVAC temperature or even Autopilot settings on the center touchscreen would get you a nudge, which seemed unreasonably fast. Many drivers said it was a seven-second limit, but it seemed faster than this.

In my experience, FSD nudged me to pay attention to the road when I was adjusting the speed offset, which gives the vehicle permission to travel over the speed limit by a percentage. For example, a 10% offset in a 50 MPH zone would let the car travel 55 MPH.

The nudging seemed to be too fast and annoying, and many other Tesla drivers agreed. CEO Elon Musk had even noted that the nudge was too fast and drivers were right to be annoyed with it, especially considering that, in theory, it would be safer to adjust these settings on FSD and not while operating the car manually.

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Tesla took the criticism drivers had and turned it into a much-needed and notable change that has now been confirmed by Ashok Elluswamy, Head of AI and Autopilot for the company:

The change seems to be initiated on vehicles with Hardware 4. It is certainly a welcome change as the nudge was just a tad sensitive and could have been much more reasonable.

The adjustment made by Tesla came just a week after owners truly started becoming more vocal about the issue.

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Tesla bull, ARK head Cathie Wood says brand damage is not long-term

Cathie Wood of ARK Invest does not believe Tesla brand damage is a long-term problem.

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Tesla bull and head of ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, admitted during an interview with Bloomberg that she does believe the company has experienced some brand damage due to CEO Elon Musk’s political involvement. However, she does not believe it is a long-term issue.

Over the past eight months, Musk’s involvement in the U.S. political landscape has swayed some to stop supporting Tesla, others to ditch their cars, and some to boycott the brand altogether. Inversely, others have started supporting Musk, Tesla, and its products as a nod of support for what he’s done for government efficiency.

The perspective on how Musk’s involvement has impacted Tesla truly varies. Its impact has been noticeable, especially in Europe, as some countries have seen some pretty drastic declines in deliveries since the start of the year.

However, some of this can be attributed to the company’s switchover to new production lines for the updated Model Y. Some can also be blamed on economic issues, as the cost of living is still relatively high. There is no denying that at least some of the impact has come from those who simply disagree with Musk and are choosing not to buy his companies’ products.

Wood is among Tesla’s most outspoken bulls and has tremendously high expectations for the stock moving into the late 2020s and into the 2030s. In a recent interview, she highlighted the brand’s exceptional potential moving forward, but did address some of the short-term concerns, especially regarding Tesla’s perception amongst the public:

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“I think he feels he has a duty to the country to make sure we don’t ‘blow ourselves up’ with these deficits. Brand damage? Yes. I do not believe [it is long-term]. Tesla, we believe, will have a lock on the Robotaxi business in the U.S., and we believe they are going to proliferate through the United States, especially if we remove regulation from a state level to a federal level, which we believe will happen.”

Musk announced during the company’s most recent Earnings Call that he would step back from his government duties and return to Tesla in a more consistent role, as his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seemed to be winding down to a certain extent.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms time spent with DOGE will drop ‘significantly’

It was a big win for Tesla investors, as many were interested in Musk returning his focus to the automaker, especially as 2025 is expected to be a year of many catalysts between the Robotaxi launch, affordable models coming into play, production of the Semi starting at the tail-end of the year, and the Optimus robot continuing consistent development.

Wood was quick to point out that Tesla is not the only car company that was suffering with lagging sales, as a macro-level perspective on the automotive industry proves that many automakers are looking for ways to avert disaster due to the ongoing tariff war.

Tesla is still the highest-valued automaker in the world, and it has plenty of bullish points to look forward to as the year nears the halfway point.

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Tesla offers interesting promo to future ride-hailing rival’s drivers

Lyft drivers will get $1,000 in vehicle credits if they complete 100 rides by the cutoff date for the promo.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has offered an interesting promotion for its vehicles to the drivers of one of its future ride-hailing rivals as it continues to work toward the launch of its autonomous Robotaxi platform.

This morning, Tesla launched a $1,000 off promotion to Lyft drivers who plan to utilize one of the company’s EVs for ride-hailing purposes. The promo applies to all five Tesla models: the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck.

It is not offered at the point of sale. Instead, to ensure the vehicle is properly utilized for ride-hailing purposes and to prove the discount, Tesla will offer $1,000 in vehicle credits to the Lyft driver after they complete 100 trips on or before July 13, 2025. Delivery must be taken by June 30.

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It is an interesting move by Tesla because Lyft, along with Uber, will become a rival in the coming years as the companies continue to develop driverless ride-hailing platforms of their own. Lyft has partnered with May Mobility and Mobileye to develop driverless, fully autonomous vehicles purpose-built for ride-hailing.

Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi platform next month in Austin, Texas.

Tesla hints at June 1 launch of Robotaxi platform in Austin

Meanwhile, Lyft’s plans are more down the road. Earlier this year, the company said it would launch autonomous rides sometime next year.

For now, the move seems to be just another way Tesla is incentivizing consumers to buy one of their vehicles. Earlier this week, it also launched another $1,000 off promo for teachers, students, retirees, active-duty members, their spouses, and surviving spouses.

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Previously, Tesla only offered that discount to military members.

It is unclear why Tesla would be offering these discounts, but it could be more of a thank you or an act of recognition, more than anything. If it were a measure that was taken to increase demand, it would be substantially more of a discount. For example, when Tesla was trying to rid its inventory of legacy Model Y units as the new, updated vehicle was set to be released, discounts were over $5,000.

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