After using Firmware 4.2 for a while, I just sent the following list of notes to Franz and JB. Some of these are software/firmware issues, some hardware, and some miscellaneous suggestions, but here is the list for completeness:
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Hi JB, Franz,
A few notes on the Model S, following the Firmware 4.2 upgrade:
• It's nice that the right scroll-wheel can now control the sunroof, but its implementation feels reversed. "Rolling up a window" closes it, but scrolling upward makes the sunroof roll down ('open'). It seems much more intuitive to me that scrolling down should move the sunroof backward [open], and scrolling up/forward should move it forward to close.
• Since the 4.2 update, the touchscreen interface shows my car (Sig Special #61) with 19" wheels, instead of the 21" turbine wheels it correctly showed before. Totally minor, but worth mentioning in case there's a bug somewhere that's causing this for lots of customers.
• It would be nice if the Climate Range option were toggle-able directly on the small Climate Settings popup panel, rather than having to hunt through the Controls screens to find it.
• While Climate Range Mode is enabled and power reduced, perhaps the heater could still use full power while the car is decelerating / regenerating? My commute involves a mile-long steep hill descent, regenerating the whole way, and it occurred to me that it might be more efficient to heat the cabin at full power while descending, then turn off the heater for a couple miles, than to regenerate into the battery and keep the heater at half-power the whole time.
• It would be great if the seat heaters were controllable from the iPhone app. (Or do they do nothing unless you're sitting in the seat?)
• Since the upgrade, perhaps coincidentally, my mobile charging cable has been unable to pop open the charging port door. Or when it does, it takes 20 tries from all angles before it works. Another argument to have a way to open the charge port from the key fob. I'd find this a far more useful action when pressing-holding the top of the keyfob than lowering all windows, for instance. Or a triple- or quadruple-click, as I've mentioned before.
• Suggestion: when plugged into a supercharger, the charging should ALWAYS and AUTOMATICALLY be in Range Mode!! No one is going to sit at a supercharger for extended periods of time after charging, so it won't hurt the battery, but it would certainly prevent situations like both the NYT reviewer and Consumer Reports reviewer assuming that 240 miles is a "full charge". (Or in general, ordinary drivers forgetting to set it to Range Mode themselves, coming back to the car, and having to wait an additional 15 minutes while they top up.)
• Regarding the NYT review: does the Tesla telemetry show whether the climate control was in Range mode, and/or whether the seat heater was being used, and/or if the A/C was on Recirculate? I never saw this data mentioned anywhere, but it seems relevant. I've also found that the "Auto" A/C setting doesn't seem to go on Recirculate nearly as often as it should, and thus wastes a lot of unnecessary power relative to how I use it manually.
• I presume you're working on improving the user experience for an overnight cold-soak; displaying artificially low range numbers in cold temperatures doesn't make sense if there are many more driveable miles of charge in the battery that magically "comes back" as the battery warms up from driving. The "projected range" calculation should probably also ignore energy used while the car is off, as well. Perhaps if the user puts the car in Park while the outside temperature is very low, a popup reminder to plug in the car would be a good idea?
• In addition to "Ideal" and "Rated" as mileage display options, perhaps there should be a third "Sport" option that would display 80% or 85% of Rated? (Symmetric with the steering Comfort/Standard/Sport options?) 85% would almost exactly match my real-world average of 372 Wh/mile, after nearly 5k miles of driving. Because I've wanted to keep track, I've never reset Trip B since taking delivery! Perhaps below Trip B it should show 'Lifetime' as well?
• Fit & Finish: More than once, while lifting items out of the trunk with the hatch partway open (because my garage doesn't have the headroom to open it completely), I've scraped my knuckles on the very rough plastic surrounding the latch, at the bottom of the hatch. I plan to tape over these sharp gaps with electrical tape, but perhaps there's a nicer solution on your end for the future?
Thanks for listening,
-Ben
