Everything wrong with V11 update / user interface.

[MacNeil]

After reading many, many comments on these forums about v11, there are some things that really stand out. There seems to be a lot of exaggeration about the complexity of some controls or the loss of convenient access to certain things.

For example, checking the seat heater settings is one touch (on the temperature number) to bring up the climate controls, including the seat heaters.

The trip odometer info is two touches on the screen

Likewise with the tire pressure info, two touches. (Not sure about the focus of some owners on this aspect. Most owners allow the car to control speed, steer, change lanes, and whatever but don't seem willing to let the car monitor tire pressure. I'm quite happy to have the car warn me of pressure issues.)

I find the Homelink function works better than before; the button is bigger and more reliably responds on the first touch. There are issues in the lower left part of screen with Homelink, seat belt warnings, etc that need some work.

As other have said, the ability of pin more icons to the bottom of the screen would be an improvement.

Buying a Tesla required all of us to embrace change and change is ongoing with a Tesla; it comes with the territory for any car with over-the-air updates. (As a senior I figure that learning and adapting to new things may keep my brain healthier.)

 

[lensovet]

After reading many, many comments on these forums about v11, there are some things that really stand out. There seems to be a lot of exaggeration about the complexity of some controls or the loss of convenient access to certain things.

For example, checking the seat heater settings is one touch (on the temperature number) to bring up the climate controls, including the seat heaters.

Except it's two touches, because it turns on the climate. How does that make any sense? I want to check the status of something and it triggers an undesired side effect. Yeah, so exaggerated!

Same for turning on the seat heaters in the first place, btw.

The trip odometer info is two touches on the screen

Likewise with the tire pressure info, two touches. (Not sure about the focus of some owners on this aspect. Most owners allow the car to control speed, steer, change lanes, and whatever but don't seem willing to let the car monitor tire pressure. I'm quite happy to have the car warn me of pressure issues.)

Personally I'm not one of the "monitor pressures all the time" crowd because TPMS has been required (and works) in all vehicles sold in america for about a decade now, but surely you can appreciate the fact that in the previous version you could see this information without completely blocking your map and audio controls? Same with the "since start" or "since last charge" trip info cards. I didn't use this daily, but I'd use it every once in a while, and I certainly never wanted it to take over the screen completely.

I find the Homelink function works better than before; the button is bigger and more reliably responds on the first touch. There are issues in the lower left part of screen with Homelink, seat belt warnings, etc that need some work.

I never had issues with responsiveness. The old location was definitely subpar as it blocked the rear view camera. It seems like the biggest problem here is the lack of thought around interaction with other cards in this area. Never an issue with the old design since it didn't overlap with anything, but speaks to a general problem with QA and development in pushing this release out the door before it was ready.

I also really struggle to understand the logic between showing the mini vs. full climate popup. I rarely need to change the temperature, because it's usually set to the one I want. I also, in this new UI, generally just want the mini version, because again, I don't need it to take over the entire screen. But if I want the mini version, I now need to pointlessly change the temperature, then change it back, then do the thing I actually wanted to do. Why?

As other have said, the ability of pin more icons to the bottom of the screen would be an improvement.

Buying a Tesla required all of us to embrace change and change is ongoing with a Tesla; it comes with the territory for any car with over-the-air updates. (As a senior I figure that learning and adapting to new things may keep my brain healthier.)

You've left out some rather important things imho:
- no access to defoggers with one tap (front defogger requires an extra tap; rear defogger requires an extra two taps; both defoggers now require at least an extra tap to see status and potentially two)
- no way to change the size of the audio controls by swiping (always collapses it completely; changing the size requires hitting a tiny button in the far right of the panel)
- no way to quickly change seat profiles when the wrong one is automatically chosen and the car is crushing you into the dash

 

[lensovet]

Yes there is a reason for wanting to see at a glance if your seat heaters are on. Here's the deal, on older model S / X the seat heater settings (last state) are saved in the profile in use at the time. So anytime any of them are adjusted that is the way they will remain when the car is turned back on. So if your passenger turns on their seat heater or any seat heater in the car and you shut the car off the next time you come back to it and drive it those seat heaters will come back on even if the seats are unoccupied. The only way presently to see if they are on is now a menu deep as opposed to a quick glance. That's why.

It's the same in the 3/Y too. There was a period of time actually where my front passenger seat heater kept getting turned back on because of this. With this new UI I wouldn't even know about it.

 

[lensovet]

Another nit I just remembered: they got rid of the close buttons in all the panels, so now you have to swipe down. no problem.

because of this, though, every time you open a panel, it shows you explanatory text that says swipe down to dismiss. every. damn. time. and you have no way to dismiss that text, so you just have to wait. or not realize that, and stupidly keep mashing the tabs at the top of the phone app and have the car completely ignore them.

ugh.

 

[Jclboston]

The seat belt warning can be dismissed, at least for a while, by swiping it down.

When you’ve got a mf-ing 15” screen to work with, no warnings or indicators should be blocking other functions. That’s just horrible UI.

 

[MacNeil]

Except it's two touches, because it turns on the climate. How does that make any sense? I want to check the status of something and it triggers an undesired side effect. Yeah, so exaggerated!

Same for turning on the seat heaters in the first place, btw.

Personally I'm not one of the "monitor pressures all the time" crowd because TPMS has been required (and works) in all vehicles sold in america for about a decade now, but surely you can appreciate the fact that in the previous version you could see this information without completely blocking your map and audio controls? Same with the "since start" or "since last charge" trip info cards. I didn't use this daily, but I'd use it every once in a while, and I certainly never wanted it to take over the screen completely.

I never had issues with responsiveness. The old location was definitely subpar as it blocked the rear view camera. It seems like the biggest problem here is the lack of thought around interaction with other cards in this area. Never an issue with the old design since it didn't overlap with anything, but speaks to a general problem with QA and development in pushing this release out the door before it was ready.

I also really struggle to understand the logic between showing the mini vs. full climate popup. I rarely need to change the temperature, because it's usually set to the one I want. I also, in this new UI, generally just want the mini version, because again, I don't need it to take over the entire screen. But if I want the mini version, I now need to pointlessly change the temperature, then change it back, then do the thing I actually wanted to do. Why?

You've left out some rather important things imho:
- no access to defoggers with one tap (front defogger requires an extra tap; rear defogger requires an extra two taps; both defoggers now require at least an extra tap to see status and potentially two)
- no way to change the size of the audio controls by swiping (always collapses it completely; changing the size requires hitting a tiny button in the far right of the panel)
- no way to quickly change seat profiles when the wrong one is automatically chosen and the car is crushing you into the dash

With respect to the tire pressure in particular, I saw earlier posts about many touches to see tire pressure info and the like. It may semantics but I don't think of two touches as qualifying as many touches. Having it block the map doesn't strike me as an issue. Have a quick look and close it down. The driver can't look at the map and check tire pressures at the same time anyways. Any compulsive checking of tire pressure might be a distraction for the driver.

I like that all of the climate adjustments can come up on one view; I see seat heaters as part of the climate control system. If no changes are needed it will close on its own or hit the car logo or swipe down. Not sure that I follow your comment about an extra touch for the rear defroster. I thought that it was the front that needed one touch for defogging and a second touch for defrosting. I think that the rear is only one touch (after one is in the climate controls). I'll check that out tomorrow.

I do kind of miss the trip info card staying up continuously but in reality it may have been a distraction for me.

 

[Boza]

So if she is looking for the seat heater icon one must assume it is because she wants to do something like turn it off or turn it up? Therefore she would HAVE to interact with the screen. If she was cold and she wanted to see if seat heater was on then in v10 she would look at screen, see if it was on or off and then press the screen to do what action she wanted. In v11 if she is cold she swipes up and changes temperature. Why would you check seat heaters if you were neither hot nor cold?

Its unlikely anyone wants to see if heaters are on or off just to see...there is an underlying reason i.e. I am either too hot or too cold. If it IS just to see then what difference does it make if you CANT see...?

How about if she wants to control the seat warmers _only_ without turning on the HVAC?

 

[Jclboston]

Alright alright… in an effort to be more positive, I do have one good thing to say about V11. My charge port no longer automatically closes immediately after pressing the “open” button on the screen, which it had kept doing after a previous recent update and made the button useless. So now with V11, it works like it did when I first got the thing a couple of years ago. So that’s progress.. right?

 

[Boza]

I agree. I don't have an option for a like button. Maybe because I'm a new user. Is the like button on this forum hidden in a sub-menu somewhere?

It is a voice command

 

[angelman]

Quite apart from the just bad and ugly UI changes, the feature removals this version is just plain buggy as hell. The absolute worst, most buggy update yet. Example i was parked and decided to pass the time watching Disney+. I hadn't logged in before so logged in, during that process i got a phone call and had to leave stat. Unfortunately the screen was still busy with logging in and there was no way to exit. They removed the close button. I frantically tried to swipe in all directions, look for close buttons or just try and figure out how the hell i get out of that window. Eventually i was able to somehow get the damn theatre window off the screen but i still don't know how. No UI should leave any user, let alone one with years of experience so confused. I don't really care so much about the extra presses for ac, seat heaters etc. I have got used to that but these moments of thinking "how do I do this simple thing" are just unforgivable in a car interface.

 

[Xdama]

I never turn them off…..automatically on whenever low beams are on.

That’s illegal in UK, fogs are only to be used in bad visibilty
”Rule 236
You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.
Rule 226
You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves (see Rule 236).”

Above taken from the UK Gov website. Mind you there’s not enough Police on the road to stop anyone for it, just consideration for other drivers (which is also getting less in UK unfortunately)

 

[Xdama]

Auto wipers from Tesla at least are not ready for prime time, since they are still not as good as my own reaction times.

Not just Tesla tbf, I can’t say Ihave owned any car with auto wipers that have functioned how I personally would have them manually. Those cars include, Ford, Vauxhall(GM), VW, Mercedes, Toyota & BMW, none of the auto wipers are worth it imo but that’s just me.
What I do find strange is with lights on Auto my M3LR seems to have low beam on constantly even in daylight (not just marker lights). Is this normal as surely it would conserve battery by only having markers on during daylight.

 

[Xdama]

I'm super annoyed by the hidden seat warmers. I live in San Diego and don't want that feature automated. But on some cold nights, my passengers will turn on the heated seats and then never turn them off. With the new software, I have no idea if they are still on, which just drains my battery. At the least, they should give the user the option to provide the heated seat shortcuts in the home screen. Or they should automatically turn off the heated seats if nobody is sitting on a seat.

Most other manufacturers seat heaters are disabled unless a bum is in the seat, so it isn’t a difficult thing to do. Just needs connecting into the switch that triggers seatbelt not fastened.

 

[Xdama]

I will say as a new owner that overall I’m really happy with my M3LR, having driven 3 BMW’s, 1 Mercedes & a Toyota over the last 11yrs. Yes there are a couple of things that I find odd but I knew about them beforehand for the most part. As I am new to the brand I only had a couple of weeks with V10 so the changes haven’t affected me as much as others.
I do find it very strange that when accessing any car controls the satnav screen is completely covered, to me the car pictogram should be the one that gets covered up, it seems a complete waste of space in general. I know what a road looks like including white lines, traffic cones, other vehicles etc so don’t need them on a permanent screen. It could just flash up when it detects a perceived hazard which be much more likely to be seen anyway than a permanent rolling road. As far as I know no other manufacturer has deemed it necessary to depict your car on a screen permanently and unless the windows suddenly turn opaque then I see no need for it either. But as I said, I knew about this prior to buying the car so it’s something to just ignore. Much like a myriad of buttons / functions on most other cars I have owned over the years.
My biggest gripe (for UK anyway) is TACC but then I don’t like any adaptive cruise control that I’ve tried. Too many idiots pushing into none existent gaps in UK which causes nigh on emergency braking with TACC. I more concerned about the numpty behind me without TACC who’s likely to rearend me.

 

[Wheely]

I hear you loud and clear. I get that they're trying to push the whole self driving thing but if that's the case then I don't need a map. We were having the same difficulties when we first got pushed version 9 which forced nav to be on the screen all the time. I don't know too many people that use navigation on a daily basis. I know where my job is, I know where the grocery store is, my local legion club, my barber, and most of the places I drive to on a daily basis or weekly / monthly basis I actually use navigation very seldom. It would be nice to have all of that screen real estate to be able to display things that I want like I used to be able to do before version 9.

I have to admit I thought it was very funny when Tesla started giving you automated navigation to places basically based on how unlikely you were to need it. Fortunately you can turn it off.

 

[wws]

Another nit I just remembered: they got rid of the close buttons in all the panels, so now you have to swipe down. no problem.

because of this, though, every time you open a panel, it shows you explanatory text that says swipe down to dismiss. every. damn. time. and you have no way to dismiss that text, so you just have to wait. or not realize that, and stupidly keep mashing the tabs at the top of the phone app and have the car completely ignore them.

ugh.

You can touch the icon for the app on the task.bar on the bottom and it will make the app go away. So no need to swipe.

 

[T3slaM0del3]

Did the lights quick menu when you press the stalk... Is that new, or did it always do that? Just curious, becuase one of my peeves from before, is that the auto lights didn't work in all cases, such as heavy rain near dusk, etc... Tapping the stalk then tapping the display is much easier than trying to hurriedly hit controls and trying to read the text on the screen to find the lights.... I always knew about the wipers quick toggle with the button press, but not the lights one.

So i'm a bit of a weird case because I swear neither worked when I got my car with software from the factory. Then I updated it and then noticed it but it's possible it was always there. I dont know. But When you tap the stalk for the lights, the quick menue does come up on the screen.

I wish you could long hold or tap more than once to get it to stick or take off auto. But we will see -- Elon says updates are coming.

 

[MrSpock]

I too haven't commented in a long time, but this update gave me reason to do so again.

I can't stress enough how much I absolutely HATE this update. Not one (to me) useful feature added, but so many tried and trusted things removed or changed in ways that imho don't improve upon the previous status quo in any way.
Most of all I hate the removal of the trip info tab, or the tabs in general, that used to be visible at the bottom left of the screen, below the image of the car.
WHY in the name of Elon did they remove this vital information and bury it in the controls submenu?

At least make it configurable that you can make it return to where it was if you want to.

Also that seat heating controls are now only accessible via the climate submenu is a major drawback to me, especially now in winter.

Plus the new font for the speed you are driving at is way too thin for my liking. Again, a change for the worse where none was necessary.

Seriously, this is the first time since I got the car that I am going to write a mail to Tesla service to complain. I hope many others will do so as well (I know my colleagues who drive Model 3s will do so too, as they are also furious about these changes).
How stupid can one be to let something like this pass through to general release?

I'm going to make a service appointment and request they roll back the update. I'm sure they can't do it, but it'll at least get their attention. This is the first time in over three years that instead of feeling joy when driving my Model, I feel anger. Burying the defroster control under a menu is a serious safety hazard, particularly in the PNW where it are needs to be used frequently.

 

[MrSpock]

I agree. I don't have an option for a like button. Maybe because I'm a new user. Is the like button on this forum hidden in a sub-menu somewhere?

It'll show up after you've posted a few times. The fastest way seems to be to post a picture of your car.

 

[avs007]

Burying the defroster control under a menu is a serious safety hazard, particularly in the PNW where it are needs to be used frequently.

It's almost like the UX engineers in sunny california don't understand that just because THEY use it infrequently, doesn't mean everyone else uses it infrequently too... I don't understand why you can pin things like toybox, but not defrosters....