Tesla Model S Update Causes Performance Bug, Struggles With Limited Power

Many Tesla Performance vehicles owners, especially Model S owners, are facing the problem of limited power output after Tesla ran a software update this year.

It is suspected that upgrade “inadvertently” removed vital features responsible for the full power output leaving the car owners in distress.

Most complaints about Tesla’s firmware updates having hurt power output are coming from owners of Model S variants.

It all started with some Tesla car owners complaining loss of power when pushing vehicles on ‘Ludicrous mode’ or ‘Launch Mode. The latter is an electronic aid supposed to assist drivers to rev up their vehicles from a standstill position.

Many Model S P85D and P90D owners had Ludicrous Mode software update by Tesla in March. But they said despite the upgrade the Launch Mode and Max Battery Power Mode were still missing.

Tesla says it is aware of the problem and still working on it.

According to a Model S P90DL owner Ryan Autry, his electric car lost Max Battery Power and Launch Mode after 2019.x update. Post the update in mid-March, he said the vehicle showed the Ludicrous + button under Acceleration. His problem was that the setting’s selection did not flash a sub-screen for him to choose the Max Battery.

At the same time, a slew of Tesla Model S P100D owners confirmed their vehicles showed no problem despite installing the same firmware version.

However, complaints are still pouring in from a number of Model S P90D and P85D owners who said they lost vehicles Launch Mode and Max Battery Power options.

One owner described his predicament. “My vehicle is a 2016 P90D with the ludicrous option. I updated my firmware from 2018.50.6 to 2019.12.1.1 via an over the air update on April 30th, 2019. After the update, my vehicle will no longer enable launch mode. Instead, I get an error which states “both pedals pressed”.

The core issue is power loss from a bug

To conclude, all the complaints boil down to the core issue of electric sedans showing less power after installing 2019.x update.

Some aggrieved Model S owners took their vehicles to Tesla service centers. But the car owners were told that since the source of trouble was a bug, it warranted a software update from the company to fix the issue.

Recalling Tesla’s previous actions that sought to reduce max power output, many owners harbor the concern that Tesla is trying to limit the power output yet again.

But Tesla affirms that it “inadvertently” removed Launch Mode and Max Battery Power Mode during the last software update and is working on a new fix.

According to an analyst, since speed and power are the key factors that attracted customers to purchase the Model S P90D and P85D, Tesla must make sure that Performance machines have those impressive characteristics until the end.