Anyone find "Smart Preconditioning" helpful?

[JClu]

Rookie question here. As the title says, does anyone find the Smart Preconditioning function helpful at all? In addition to supposedly cool or warm the cabin temperature to your liking, does it warm up the battery in preparation for driving as well?

I've had my MS for a little over 2 weeks, and the function is supposedly still "learning." Although I head out to work around the same time most mornings, there could be as much as 45 minute difference one day to another. Conceptually this function just doesn't seem that practical to me. Also, I can easily use the mobile app while I'm getting ready in the house to pre warm the cabin 5-10 minutes before. That seems to me a more efficient way, no?

Or am I missing the whole point of this function all together?

 

[Phoenixhawk101]

Someone with more experience may correct me but I believe it bases its schedule off the calender In your phone, so if you want it to condition the car before your departure time for work you need to add an event to your calendar. Which in your case might be better with your odd schedule.

I personally use the climate control in the app all the time. Because it uses so little battery life I turn it on as I get out of the shower or as I'm packing up my desk to leave. Makes the car perfect by the time I depart.

 

[SanCarlos]

It's not based on the calendar on your phone. It learns from your schedule. If your schedule is reasonably regular, it works pretty well. It did take quite a while before it zeroed in and stopped pre-conditioning at seemingly random times. It also pre-conditions on weekends for no reason. It seems like it would be pretty easy to program it so that it doesn't run on weekends if you don't have a regular schedule on weekends.

 

[MoonChou]

The learning process took 2 days for me. I leave within +/- 5 minutes of my departure times everyday. Today I purposefully left early about 15 minutes and the pre-conditioning was not activated. So it seems that if you're going to leave at the same time +/- 10 minutes (number taken from the time pre-conditioning remains on after turning it on from the Tesla app) smart pre-conditioning is the way to go. If it is more than that then the most energy efficient method is to use the Tesla app.

 

[Dstrohl]

Is there any way of setting the time instead of waiting for the system to learn?

 

[JClu]

I don't think so. Again, using the mobile app a few minutes before heading out is probably the most efficient option.

 

[Cstreet]

I use it and love it but I have a very regular schedule.

 

[jerjozwik]

i just leave it on, that one day its 110* and the car correctly guesses my schedule is worth it.

 

[tliving]

It has been totally unreliable for me. Came on at odd times and generally didn't work. My sense from talking to owners is that the experience may be more polarized in colder climate areas.

 

[MP3Mike]

Didn't Elon say that smart preconditioning was less stupid in 8.x?

Almost: "Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk Sep 21
@ninjas "smart" preconditioning should be less dumb in 8.0"

But he still put smart in quotes.

 

[JClu]

Well, I think I'm gonna leave it off for now. I hope by turning on the climate control with the mobile app, the car is "smart" enough to warm up the battery as well (that's actually more important in my mind).

 

[tliving]

Didn't Elon say that smart preconditioning was less stupid in 8.x?

Almost: "Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk Sep 21
@ninjas "smart" preconditioning should be less dumb in 8.0"

But he still put smart in quotes.

I'd love to see someone test it. But, before 8.0, it did the opposite of the intended function for me. It actually used more battery than not pre-conditioning or doing it manually via the app.

 

[shokunin]

We turned ours off. Neither of use have routine schedules other than morning drop offs for the kids. It may work in the morning but mid-day I can hear the AC cycling on and off and basically draining the battery randomly. There was no way that I could figure out how to edit the schedule.

 

[Dstrohl]

I don't have the car yet, but I just can't see it being useful unless I could edit the schedule manually.