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Another review:

Tesla Model 3 review: the fast and infuriating

Summary: he really likes driving it but user interface is a problem and he spends half the time talking about that, which may be a pattern in these reviews.

I agree with him, even without having my model 3 yet. Because it's obvious the UI makes no sense. There's personal preference and then there is human limitation which cannot be overcome. That some people are perfectly fine or actually prefer it, is irrelevant really because that's just a measure of one's perception of efficiency - or lack of perception. :) Anyway as I stated in a poll a while ago, Tesla should offer an option for a strategic group of physical controls carefully designed for intuitive use that supplement the touchscreen. Problem solved. But it's an obvious problem that shouldn't have been introduced to begin with, as the reviewer suggests. The only reason can be that it was to reduce cost.
 
Thanks. This review pretty much sums up how I reacted to my Model 3 drive. A last quote really seemed spot on:

That's what's so infuriating because being behind the wheel of the Model 3 puts a smile on my face. It delivers on so many levels and yet, when I have to do things that would be simple in any other car, here it involves tapping and swiping when I should be looking at the road. That's frustrating. If this were a horrible car, it would be fine, you chalk it up to an overall failure of the automaker. A bad vehicle is a bad vehicle. But it's not. It's a great car held back by weird decisions. Tesla says it's working on these issues. That's great, but I can't judge a car I haven't driven yet.
edit: I didn't need an instrument cluster behind the wheel as much as the reviewer seemed to, but I'm used to the configuration from driving Prii.
Robin
 
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I will reiterate what I've maintained from the beginning. I think people overestimate how often other drivers constantly fiddle with controls. I think people need to realize that these reviews are written by people who are spending their first moments in the vehicle, and it's new to them. Of course they're going to fiddle with the vehicle more than someone that has owned the vehicle for a few weeks, and of course doing so will be foreign to them.

In the past week the only controls I've used physical buttons for was to answer and end phone calls.

Of course, I may simply be less finicky than everyone else.
 
I really enjoy the speed etc to my right rather than behind the wheel like on my truck. I'm 6'1 and with my steering wheel position i normally have to arch my neck to see a traditional speedometer. not so with the model 3-i just glance quickly to the right with no steering wheel obstruction. it is actually faster. If Tesla were to have a HUD, i would turn it off permanently or ideally never order it the smooth dash is nice. People really need to live with the car before making these demands because they are baseless.
 
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The second thing I am buying this month where reviewers say the HW is great and the SW will catch up in time. The other is my HomePod.

I watched the EVTV review this morning and the old codger that is the host was destroying the car for having everything on the screen, said he almost wrecked on the way home trying to figure our how to turn on cruise control.

Got excessively pissed off when he discovered that EAP won't come on if you are not wearing your seatbelt.

Oh, my, really? You have a car that lets you drive w/o a seatbelt and it's not screaming at you? That should be such a joy if you are really mr. personal freedoms. He too hated it more for being SUCH a good car that he couldn't dismiss it.

-Randy
 
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Another review:

Tesla Model 3 review: the fast and infuriating

Summary: he really likes driving it but user interface is a problem and he spends half the time talking about that, which may be a pattern in these reviews.

I agree with him, even without having my model 3 yet. Because it's obvious the UI makes no sense. There's personal preference and then there is human limitation which cannot be overcome. That some people are perfectly fine or actually prefer it, is irrelevant really because that's just a measure of one's perception of efficiency - or lack of perception. :) Anyway as I stated in a poll a while ago, Tesla should offer an option for a strategic group of physical controls carefully designed for intuitive use that supplement the touchscreen. Problem solved. But it's an obvious problem that shouldn't have been introduced to begin with, as the reviewer suggests. The only reason can be that it was to reduce cost.

BMW faced the same challenge when they unveiled 1st Gen I-drive. Took two levels to get to important areas, ie temp changes

Over time they incorporated physical buttons for some common items and system was perfected.

Tesla should consider same...
 
I will reiterate what I've maintained from the beginning. I think people overestimate how often other drivers constantly fiddle with controls. I think people need to realize that these reviews are written by people who are spending their first moments in the vehicle, and it's new to them. Of course they're going to fiddle with the vehicle more than someone that has owned the vehicle for a few weeks, and of course doing so will be foreign to them.

In the past week the only controls I've used physical buttons for was to answer and end phone calls.

Of course, I may simply be less finicky than everyone else.

Agreed, we have had our 3 for a couple months and similar to my S, after a few days of fiddling with everything in the menus everything is set where it needs to be and/or is automatic and we no longer really use any controls that are not already at hand. Its kind of a non issue to us.

And by the way, I'm a bit of a techno-grouch about the trend of screens replacing physical controls in general....so I'm predisposed to hate the model 3, but I don't, its just not proven to be issue to me or my wife in the way we actually use the car. Not saying the screen is better...and if the right side scroll wheel ends up doing speed/following distance it will be great, just saying all the arguments about it are overblown based on my real world experience.
 
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Agreed, we have had our 3 for a couple months and similar to my S, after a few days of fiddling with everything in the menus everything is set where it needs to be and/or is automatic and we no longer really use any controls that are not already at hand. Its kind of a non issue to us.

And by the way, I'm a bit of a techno-grouch about the trend of screens replacing physical controls in general....so I'm predisposed to hate the model 3, but I don't, its just not proven to be issue to me or my wife in the way we actually use the car. Not saying the screen is better...and if the right side scroll wheel ends up doing speed/following distance it will be great, just saying all the arguments about it are overblown based on my real world experience.

I agree with this as well. Reviews by people who have been driving a few days overstate the issues of this new design. Use it a few weeks and it is not a problem. Not saying tweaks to the UI will not make it better, just that the lack of physical buttons is fine. Part of that depends on letting the car automatically control things like wipers and climate that typically add lots of physical controls to other car’s design.

Others are free to disagree but I bet early iPhone reviews said the same thing, new always meets reaction.
 
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It's not that reducing the number of controls would be a bad thing. Eliminating basically all of them, is. I'm not reading any valid objections to the notion that it's superior to have controls you can learn and operate without glancing away, for functions that need it. Because there aren't any - how could there be? After all it reduces to this question: is distracted driving a good thing? The only point to be made is that if you have a full traditional suite that's badly designed (as I would say most cars have) you can't learn and operate that stuff by touch alone anyway. Hence the idea that it be strategic and carefully designed.
 
I'm not reading any valid objections to why it's not superior to have controls you can learn and operate without glancing away, for controls that need it.

I would say it's largely a matter of reviewers not having the time to learn where the different options are. That's always a challenge with a car you are unfamiliar with, and putting them all in a touchscreen makes it even harder, and for the impatient, more frustrating out of the gate. But given time, it's really not a big deal at all, and in some ways it's far easier. At least that's been my experience with Model S. The sheer size of the screen makes it easier for me to do things than if I have to hunt for a little button my wife's Acura. YMMV ofc.
 
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I would say it's largely a matter of reviewers not having the time to learn where the different options are. That's always a challenge with a car you are unfamiliar with, and putting them all in a touchscreen makes it even harder, and for the impatient, more frustrating out of the gate. But given time, it's really not a big deal at all, and in some ways it's far easier. At least that's been my experience with Model S. The sheer size of the screen makes it easier for me to do things than if I have to hunt for a little button my wife's Acura. YMMV ofc.
Yeah but once you find that one little button, its always there, right in the same spot and muscle memory will take over. In a touch screen its usually a couple steps, ui changes and it gets moved etc. I'm all for the touchscreen but still appreciate a few buttons for essential stuff.
 
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I can't believe people would argue having cruise control adjust on a touchscreen isn't an absurdity. It might move to the steering wheel in a firmware update fine, but the fact they would even have that now is glaringly stupid. It's as ridiculous as having the turn signals on the touch screen. Actually if that were the case I'm sure roughly the same number of people here would say, hey, I never fiddle with that anyway and once you get used to it it's better on the touchscreen. :D Rationalization I guess...

(Actually I have to believe the cruise control example hints at the motivation. There's no way Tesla is that stupid. And why wouldn't they have it assignable to the steering wheel from first release if they're going to do it anyway? The explanation of all the radical minimalism has to be simply that it very much reduces production complexity and development time. Quicker to market. That's the only reason, but it can be spun however one wishes).
 
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This is either the 2nd or 3rd review I've come across where they note they still want one after pointing out negatives. What I take from this is that the negatives are more annoyances rather than deal-breakers.

Well. By no means would I consider cancelling. I don't accept (what I see as) obviously bad ideas however. But deal breaker? That isn't even in the lexicon of the Tesla fanatic, i.e. TMC member. :O
 
I think it will be interesting to read non-Tesla owners who will be getting their first taste of a Tesla in the coming weeks. All of us owners are already kind of aware of things with the car and software. The Model 3 doesn't have all of its' software installed yet and I know that some of these issues that media reviewers have faulted in the articles are suppose to be voice command activated so no need for all the screen card swipes etc. just not ready yet. And with cars with OTA updates getting updates is going to be the norm I suspect.