Item — HN Reader

I own a Model S and I know that one of the painful parts of ownership is that you have to go to approved bodyshops and Tesla service centers, as well as use only Tesla original parts.

That translates into very long wait times to fix your car (they haven't scaled those yet, and they are exclusive, so it's a bottleneck), and higher costs. Not to mention that parts aren't available that quickly since they have a limited production rate and have to decide what % are used for repairs vs producing new cars, and guess who impacts the bottomline the most? Then higher costs of repair translates to higher premiums.

BTW I'm not complaining that the repair/service centers do a bad job - I've generally had a good experience with them - but their scarcity and exclusivity is an issue.

It can turn a minor fender bender into months-long waiting game without your car (it's "at the bodyshop waiting for parts").

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This makes me wonder how slow service will get once a large volume of Model 3's are on the road.

I guess it all depends how much they invest in scaling that part of the business. It's a bit of an optimization problem to figure out the "right" formula to grow the business.

I can already feel the pinch at the supercharger stations. It's ridiculous to have to wait for a spot to open. I wish the charging stations were designed with 2 "pumps", so you can plug in next to someone, even if no current flows to your car, and you get energized as soon as the other guy leaves. Also, with a double feeder, it's easier for one party to share the input power with someone else: sometimes I don't want the charge to go too fast (when I'm at a restaurant inside a mall for example, and have to rush out in the middle of the main course to free up the space). I wish I could simply say: "ok, let my ETA be 1:45pm" and have the system dial everything such that another car can charge while preserving my ETA.