Auto Air Suspension Raising can be annoying

[bluefuego]

I have been complaining about this very thing... Actually, let me clarify, in addition to location-based auto-raising, I wish it were also driver profile based (of course this doesn't help if I'm driving and my husband is the passenger- I will raise it for him). My husband who is nearly a foot taller than me raises the car every time he parks in order to help his getting out of the car. However, when I am in the car alone (and it is my primary car)... either parking or driving by someplace he has parked previously and set as a location... I have to deal with the autoraise which I actually don't prefer ('member, I am the short one... and the first few weeks I would trip trying to climb into the car since it was off just a bit).

I do find it slightly amusing now since it is a weird way I can tell where he has been.

 

[jerry33]

"Would be very helpful if an indicator was added to the dashboard showing the car's current height position..."
What?
Is this true?
How do you find out what the suspension's level is?
Is it embedded somewhere on the big screen?

It's displayed on Controls-->Driving (the same place where you set it).

 

[Duma]

There may be limits to the accuracy that Tesla can deliver on simple GeoLocation fencing of locations where the suspension gets raised. While GPS itself is typically accurate to about 50 feet, the car needs to be raised by the time that you get there, which I understand takes 3 to 4 seconds. A vehicle travels 50 feet/sec at 34 mph. (I know that you will probably slow down before you get to the uneven pavement, but you are still a good distance away.)

Now we get into speculation, because I have no information on Tesla's implementation. If you had to pick single, fixed distance for the geolocation fence, what speed would you assume, knowing the above, and what distance does that give, building in some safety margin? Probably somewhere around 500 to 1000 feet from the marked location. The simplest improvement would be to make the geolocation fence distance dependent on the current vehicle speed, since in most cases you will be approaching the marked location at a lower speed. But false readings are still possible if the marked location is near a highway where you are going past at 60+ mph. Beyond this simple speed correction, I don't see any easy way to automatically improve the geolocation fence that is robust because that depends on direction of approach and is difficult to infer from the GPS information alone. (A driveway often can be approached from at least two directions.) Some degree of visual scene/location recognition would probably be needed.

The bottom line is that using GPS to anticipate when to raise the suspension is actually somewhat limited, and we will need to temper our expectations with an understanding of situations were it will not work as well as we may like. Can Tesla improve the current implementation? Probably. At least there is room for improvement in how the driver is notified in situations where the car computes it is time to raise the suspension but it violates another parameter (speed). Perhaps the driver can be allowed more control about the size of the geolocation fence when setting a location. But there are limits given the current technology.

Actually, I impressed that Tesla is willing to take the risk of offering this feature. Most car company lawyers would kill this feature due to the possible liability exposure of damage to the car if it fails to raise the suspension soon enough to prevent damage.

 

[Doug_G]

the problem is that these auto raising points have at least a 1/2 block radius which means I can be driving down the main road and my car will auto raise.

LOL I have the same problem. A friend's driveway requires raising, and it's near enough a main road that every time I drive by it tries to raise. If I hit the red light the car actually raises. If I'm just driving through it doesn't, although sometimes it pops up a warning message saying it can't raise.

 

[Andyw2100]

LOL I have the same problem. A friend's driveway requires raising, and it's near enough a main road that every time I drive by it tries to raise. If I hit the red light the car actually raises. If I'm just driving through it doesn't, although sometimes it pops up a warning message saying it can't raise.

It seems like a solution for the example here, and for many of the problematic examples given would be to have an option offered when setting the location to "only adjust suspension if speed allows adjustment and ignore otherwise."

So basically there would be two kinds of GPS based suspension settings. One kind the car would attempt to make at all times, and would issue a warning if it could not make the adjustment for, and the other kind it would only make if it could, and if it could not there would be no warning because at the time the adjustment request was created, it was understood that it would only be made if the speed was low enough to allow it.

And there would need to be an option to abort an adjustment too. There could be some sort of indication that an adjustment is about to begin, and an action that could be taken to abort it.

Wouldn't this basically solve pretty much all the problems?

 

[bob_p]

When raising the suspension, if you're looking at the dash, there is a notice for a few seconds indicating the suspension has been raised.

There doesn't appear to be a corresponding notice indicating when the suspension is being lowered.

Tesla should add an indicator on the dash showing the current suspension setting - and indicate when the suspension height is being changed - since most of the time this is being done automatically - either with the new geolocation-based feature or when driving at higher speeds.

Drivers should be able to quickly determine the height of the car - and clearance - without having to pop up the settings on the touchscreen...

 

[Andyw2100]

When raising the suspension, if you're looking at the dash, there is a notice for a few seconds indicating the suspension has been raised.

There doesn't appear to be a corresponding notice indicating when the suspension is being lowered.

Tesla should add an indicator on the dash showing the current suspension setting - and indicate when the suspension height is being changed - since most of the time this is being done automatically - either with the new geolocation-based feature or when driving at higher speeds.

Drivers should be able to quickly determine the height of the car - and clearance - without having to pop up the settings on the touchscreen...

And if Tesla did these things, it wouldn't be hard to also have an indication, say, 5-10 seconds before the suspension change was about to take place, with a corresponding pop-up option button on the Touchscreen to allow you to abort the change. I think this, along with my recommendation upthread, would resolve almost all the concerns and complaints people have.

 

[gpetti]

I think I should email ownership now and provide a link to this thread!

 

[bob_p]

Since the air suspension changes discussed on this thread are SAFETY related, they will hopefully be listening and get these features added.

It's important to know how low or high the car is at all times - whether it's in "very high" and it's easier to clear bumps or navigate steep driveways or if it's in very low and extra caution is needed not to drive over something in the roadway (at high speeds).

 

[Vitaman]

This seems really basic and I hate to beat the drum of other cars have had this for years....but you guessed it, Audi has had indicators for at least 7 years and Porsche for at least 4.

 

[Andyw2100]

I think I should email ownership now and provide a link to this thread!

Since the air suspension changes discussed on this thread are SAFETY related, they will hopefully be listening and get these features added.

Perhaps we (and by we I mean a few of us, to make sure the message really gets through) should e-mail ownership. Sure, it's entirely possible Tesla will find this thread on their own, but why leave that to chance? gpetti--I'd say go ahead and write them, and if you provide the contact person you are writing to (or will it just be [email protected]) I'll write as well, and suggest others may want to do the same. Is there a contact person or more specific email address that may be a better one to write to? Let's do it!

 

[Andyw2100]

Perhaps we (and by we I mean a few of us, to make sure the message really gets through) should e-mail ownership.

I wrote to ownership, and received the following response:

--
Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors Technical Support. I have submitted your suggestion into our feature request system, this will be reviewed by our development team and possibly added in a future software release. We appreciate your feedback so if you have any further suggestions, questions, or concerns please feel free to contact Technical Support 24/7 at [email protected] or by phone at 1-877-79-TESLA (83752).
--

 

[Andyw2100]

I wrote to ownership, and received the following response:

--
Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors Technical Support. I have submitted your suggestion into our feature request system, this will be reviewed by our development team and possibly added in a future software release. We appreciate your feedback so if you have any further suggestions, questions, or concerns please feel free to contact Technical Support 24/7 at [email protected] or by phone at 1-877-79-TESLA (83752).
--

I had also written to Chris Porritt, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering. (I found his e-mail address after my e-mail to [email protected] bounced.) I just received a warm, personal response from Mr. Porritt, in which he let me know that he and his team did read the forums and were aware of the discussions about the auto air suspension raising. He thanked me for bringing it back to his attention, and said that he'd discuss it with his team again, but of course would make no promises of anything, beyond the fact that Tesla is always trying to improve the products "in a robust fashion."

I think we can be pretty confident that Tesla will definitely improve upon this first implementation of the automatic air suspension system.

 

[gpetti]

I had also written to Chris Porritt, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering. (I found his e-mail address after my e-mail to [email protected] bounced.) I just received a warm, personal response from Mr. Porritt, in which he let me know that he and his team did read the forums and were aware of the discussions about the auto air suspension raising. He thanked me for bringing it back to his attention, and said that he'd discuss it with his team again, but of course would make no promises of anything, beyond the fact that Tesla is always trying to improve the products "in a robust fashion."

I think we can be pretty confident that Tesla will definitely improve upon this first implementation of the automatic air suspension system.

Thanks for following this through - I hadn't emailed yet but seems like you might have got as much a result as we can hope for.

 

[StephenM]

Thanks for following this through - I hadn't emailed yet but seems like you might have got as much a result as we can hope for.

+1 on this.
I just want them to put a slider button in the settings page to opt out. It's more annoying than convenience in its current iteration as almost all of my raising is due to parking garages in one square mile (Waikiki) and my car is constantly trying to raise to high when I'm driving down the main streets which are straight and flat and I have to remember to override if I catch the suspension trying to raise when I'm not headed to one of the garages (which I do often for business).

 

[green1]

Auto-raise should be a user defined choice, not a default.

I'll set it for places I go to frequently that need it, but I don't want it to think everywhere I happened to raise needs it.

Keep in mind, I might raise it in winter just to drive in deep snow, that doesn't mean I want it raising all summer on the same streets.

 

[gpetti]

Auto-raise should be a user defined choice, not a default.

I'll set it for places I go to frequently that need it, but I don't want it to think everywhere I happened to raise needs it.

Keep in mind, I might raise it in winter just to drive in deep snow, that doesn't mean I want it raising all summer on the same streets.

Fortunately, it is relatively easy to remove (when you know how) though it can be distracting trying to delete it while driving sometimes. This doesn't help for the original scenario I mentioned or as StephenM described as you would lose the advantage and or have to constantly delete raise points.
To be clear, having started this thread, I really like the feature, it just needs a bit of refining. Presumably this is one of the best ways to refine it, i.e. see where the annoyance and pain points are via user feedback.

 

[Blu Zap]

Hey guys, thanks for your conversation and follow-up with TM on this topic. I, too find it distracting while driving. I have to bring up the Control screen to make sure the suspension raised where it should. I also had a problem parking in Standard height. I slid into the curb and didn't notice. The car lowered thinking it was too high. When I backed out, it dragged on the curb. Ugh! The good news is I went immediately to the San Rafael SC. They stopped what they were doing and put my MS on a lift to check it out. The scrapes were to the plastic under panel. But no operational issue. Whew!
Seems like I am always thinking about suspension height when I am driving around town.

 

[Andyw2100]

I also had a problem parking in Standard height. I slid into the curb and didn't notice. The car lowered thinking it was too high. When I backed out, it dragged on the curb. Ugh!

I don't have the car yet, so could you explain to me how this would happen? I thought the car would only change height on its own based on either GPS pre-set change locations, or possibly lowering the height for highway driving, or something like that. I didn't think there was any chance that the system would lower the suspension in a situation like the one you describe.

I've already read about and become concerned about the issue where you might manually fold the side mirrors in when parking in a tight spot, and then they will automatically unfold when you start the car, which would be a problem. But this sounds, potentially, like another one. If I am understanding correctly, you could park with a high suspension setting to clear some obstacle, and the car could, on its own, set the suspension lower when you restart the car, causing a problem? This seems bad.

 

[Woland]

Was there ever a solution for this (i.e. to disable this feature completely, or prevent it from constantly re-adding a location)? This has become tremendously annoying, distracting, and potentially dangerous.

Thanks.