Acid or Tesla? From the steering wheel button, can I choose to "scan" all radio stations vs. faves?

[9-Volt]

Simple question (I think).

When listening to the radio in my other cars, I'm used to being able to choose whether to "scan" either my favourite radio stations or all radio stations using the button on my steering wheel, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that in the Tesla.

If I add at least two favourites, it seems to only scan between the favourites.

I checked the manual, and hope that's not a design feature? As noted on page 108:

For Radio, you can browse through Favorite Stations or you can touch Direct Tune to enter the frequency of a specific channel.​

In other words, if you have favourite radio stations, you're then forced to use Direct Tune? That can't be right?

I can see that you can pick between "favourites" and "stations" in the radio soft menu, but it doesn't seem to have any impact on the steering wheel button.

Any idea if I'm missing something?

Thanks!

 

[alseTrick]

You can only scan between your favorites. Like you said, once you select favorites, you're unable to scan between "all" radio stations. This is particularly annoying if you drive anywhere outside your home radio station range.

The radio functionality is awful.

Not only that, but sometimes when I'm trying to skip between my favorites, it'll randomly go to one of the streaming channels I've recently listened to. But once it's on the streaming channel - even if I'm under "radio" and not "streaming" - it will only skip to the next song instead of the next "station".

I'd also like to group my "favorites". On most cars you have something like an FM1, FM2 and AM pre-set list. You get something like 5 or 6 stations per grouping. And speaking of "favorites", it'd be really nice if you could adjust their "order" by "dragging" them to a new spot in your favorites list. Currently, as far as I'm aware, you would have to add them in the precise sequence you prefer. Which I've found to be fairly annoying since there is no "AM" tuner and it takes/took some trial and error to figure out which HD2 stations were the AM stations I like.

 

[SDRick]

Perhaps before adding more games Tesla should focus on fixing these issues in the radio.

 

[jjrandorin]

Perhaps before adding more games Tesla should focus on fixing these issues in the radio.

I doubt they (tesla) care much about the radio functionality. They probably think "we have enabled internet radio (tunein) and thats what tesla buyers will want. OTA regular radio is just a throw in, in a car like this".

I know for me personally, I have not listened to "regular" radio stations with commercials etc in something like 6-7 years... but I know there are others that do. I listen to music from my phone (streaming music from pandora, amazon radio, or spotify), and I use tunein to listen to a few podcasts.

I wouldnt hold your collective breath expecting tesla to improve regular radio functionality much. Maybe at some point, they will expand voice commands to tune to a specific station (or maybe that works now? I dont know.. as I mentioned I dont use "radio" at all).

 

[SDRick]

jjrandorin,

I think you are helping making my point. There are two areas of shortcomings to the current radio set up.that you brought up.

Using your phone for content is fine but with Tesla unfortunately the phone is not fully integrated. For me, steering wheel controls are the best.for controlling volume as well as changing content ("or channels"). Fortunately, Tesla still has the volume control on the wheel and works rather well. Changing content is currently very clunky as highlighted up thread.

Fully functional AM, FM, XM radios have been a throw in for decades, that "wheel" has already been invented and the technology cheap so why not throw it in on these $50,000 to $150,000 vehicles? A friend of mine on his third Tesla now carries a portable AM radio in his cupholder. At best it is inconvenient and unsightly for him at worst potentially distracted driving. Even in the most base model cars like my sons Kia surpasses Tesla in this regard.

Why give a consumer another reason to look elsewhere or not be completely satisfied? It would cost Tesla virtually nothing to give consumers a more robust product while saving years of complaints on the forum.

 

[9-Volt]

Unfortunately, our Canadian federal rebate doesn't allow us to buy a more expensive model than the SR+, so, if we want $5k back of our own money, no streaming radio for us. Regardless, I suspect FM still provides better sound quality, and I like checking out what's playing around town as I drive (I get different stations on my commute, depending on where I'm at). But, if there's nothing floating my boat on our local university radio station, etc., then I'd like to switch back to my tried and true.

If I hadn't read the manual, I would have sworn it was a bug, because the fix must literally be a single line of code. All I'm asking for is that if I hit "Favorites" (see pic), let the button scan Favorites. If I hit "Stations", let the button scan between Stations. What's the point of letting me choose to display either Favorites and Stations, but not change the action of the button accordingly?

Oh, and as for not letting me re-order the Favorites (post above), that's just plain dumb.

It's these sorts of silly limitations in terms of what people have come to expect from a car that will continue to restrict who buys a Tesla. Maybe not enough to move the needle on demand for now, but why not go with the flow on the easy stuff so that the real car manufacturer's done eat Tesla's lunch when they decide to get serious? As silly as it may sound on this forum, not having something like Android Auto is a big deal for me. No problem getting ribbed today about looking like an Uber driver because I have my phone hooked up old-school to the screen (for Waze, Deezer and my podcasts), but, given that it falls of it's magnetic perch and hits me in the knee every drive, if Polestar (for example), can produce something that's as fun at roughly the same pricepoint, it wouldn't be a hard decision to jump ship once some choices are available.

 

[crackers8199]

there are so many annoyances with the radio that it's hard for me to pick just one as my least favorite thing. another annoyance on the favorites (unless they've fixed this, i haven't tried it in a while)...

add a slacker favorite for an artist radio. switch to regular radio or tune in (or any other station really). use voice control and tell it to play an artist...

you'd expect it will just pick the favorite you just created...right? nope, it'll just take you to a new station based on that artist (and let you create a new favorite for it on top of that). good times.

this has gotten much less annoying now that i have xm installed and i use the streaming less...but it's still annoying. my most recent one is that there's no rhyme or reason as to when it will start the car on the same audio source you exited on...for example, i exit the car with xm playing (via FM 88.1) and then come back to a podcast or streaming of some sort. ugh.

 

[mtndrew1]

Tesla radio functionality is hilariously terrible. My base Nissan Leaf had better iPhone integration (you could browse artists and playlists over USB!).

I would pay actual money to be able to cycle through radio presets without jumping into the damn streaming favorites. One you’ve clicked into that black hole you’ve gotta poke around the touchscreen to get out of it.

I love the car but my god the entire media interface is a disaster.

 

[Knightshade]

Remember these are the folks who took 5 years to add "shuffle" as a feature...and who still haven't figured out how to add waypoints to the nav software- a nut Garmin had cracked 15 years ago.

 

[SDRick]

Remember these are the folks who took 5 years to add "shuffle" as a feature...and who still haven't figured out how to add waypoints to the nav software- a nut Garmin had cracked 15 years ago.

That may be true, but at least the games are getting really good!

 

[johnnyS]

Actually in an older software version we were able to choose radio stations by touching a spot on the radio dial. This was more functional than having to type an exact station frequency.

 

[jsmay311]

I used to listen to the radio in my car all the time. Since I got a Tesla, I virtually never do because the UI is so bad.

Not being able to toggle between radio and phone/bluetooth streaming via steering wheel controls is a crime against (UI design) humanity.