Owners of specific Tesla car models have complained of an annoying performance restraint that prevents the full use of "Ludicrous Mode," a feature that allows acceleration of zero to 60mph in just under three seconds. The carmaker said the reported performance bug indeed exists but at the same time issued an assurance that a fix is on the way.
The Tesla vehicles affected by the bug so far, according to CNET, are the P85D and the P90D, which received a paid software update last March. Following the OS bump up, owners of the mentioned cars, which Tesla designed to provide performance-level experience, have reported that Launch Control and Max Battery Power Mode settings no longer work for them.
As the functionalities were required to activate Tesla's Ludicrous Mode, the P85D and P90D mentioned in the report have encountered performance glitch.
In a statement issued by the company, Tesla has acknowledged that the recent OS upgrade resulted to a bug on some models, admitting that "these settings were inadvertently removed from some vehicles during a UI update, and we are in the process of restoring the functionality."
"This change was in no way meant to limit the performance of any vehicles, and we're sorry for any inconvenience to affected customers," the carmaker clarified.
Originally, Tesla has allowed car owners to engage full-power mode but only when Launch Control and Max Battery Power Mode have been activated simultaneously. The company described the setup as a necessary compromise to keep the system's powertrain from wearing out too soon.
"We are also continuing to proactively monitor the condition of the powertrain to let our customers know if service becomes necessary," the company was reported as saying.
However, Tesla's latest actions puzzled car owners and the company confirmed that the removal of the settings was inadvertent and a clear. In line with the admission, Tesla said engineers are now working on the fix but the exact deployment of the software solution remains a big question mark.
Electrek said the delay seems out of character especially for a company led by Elon Musk, who is known to emphasize quality and efficiency on all the products he created. Tesla has suggested that the performance bug on the P85D and P90D models can be quashed by a simple firmware push, which the company is taking too long to deliver.
In the past, the same report said, Tesla's performance on fixing product issues has been characterized as "incredibly net positive" if not outright impressive. This has to indicate that Musk and his team intend to speed up on the fix deployment.
