Musk: Tesla Model X doors will finally be 'useful' with software update

"I think we’re almost there in making the doors useful," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said of the Model X SUV at the company's Annual Shareholder Meeting on June 1.

I am sure Musk is having a bit of a deprecating laugh with that line.

In one flippant remark, however Musk expressed frustration with his own admitted "hubris" surrounding the design and application of the tech-heavy all-electric crossover. Also, he's highlighting the truth. The X's headline-grabbing falcon-wing doors have been problematic at best -- for owners and Tesla.

Accordingly, the electric vehicle maker has been hard at work with a software update to solve some of the issues plaguing the complex doors. Specifically, the embedded sensors that tell the doors how to open in order to avoid hitting people, cars and ceilings have been most troublesome. 

“Finally we’ll be at the point where the doors are better than normal doors, as opposed to worse,"

"If the sensor is giving erroneous feedback, when is the right time to ignore the sensor?" Musk rhetorically asked. "Digging ourselves out of the hole has been quite, quite hard.”

Tesla plans to send out two software updates to solve these issues and more, one later in June and another in July.

“Finally we’ll be at the point where the doors are better than normal doors, as opposed to worse," Musk admitted.

Hopefully, this has proved an important lesson for Musk and Tesla. The company dared to load a car that should have been relatively easy to make with tons of untested tech. And it's paid the price. 

Not only have owners been annoyed with the finicky doors, Tesla failed to meet anticipated production figures during the last quarter of 2015.

With any luck, Tesla won't make the same mistakes with the Model 3 -- a car it hasn't quite finished designing yet, despite having taken 380,000 pre-orders.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.