Firmware 6.1 - For Classic Model S

[SteveS0353]

I received the iPhone notification and installed 6.1 (2.2.92) last night in classic P85+, VIN 48xxx, manufactured in July 2014. I took the car out today to try out some of the new features. Here is a very brief report after about 25 miles running errands around town.

• My car is nose-in the garage, so the first things I noticed are related to reverse. The mirrors did not tilt down at first even though they did on 6.0. I re-read the manual, and set the mirror tilt and saved the driver profile -- no difference between drive and reverse. Reset both consoles, still no change. Selected the drive profile even though it was already selected, and voilà -- the mirrors tilt and return like they should. I suspect that there was a null pointer to the driver profile after the upgrade, and I had to explicitly set the save context by selecting the driver profile.
• White back-up lines on the rear view camera display work as advertised. They appear to align with the widest part of the body, and not the extent of the mirrors when unfolded, so be careful. They are a bit tough to see when you are on light colored concrete (my driveway). I believe they would pop more on any background if they were yellow.
• I like the Trip tab on the Energy display - predicted energy usage and tracking it on a planned route. Very useful. With a fresh charge and short drive today I didn't see any of the warnings to slow down or charge, but I can see that this will be a very useful platform for further energy management functionality. I applaud Tesla changing the default range prediction on the Energy display to Average.
• I'm happy that I can now display battery SoC or rated or ideal miles on the driver's display.
• Parking sensors display and chime both front and back when driving slowly is a nice enhancement. Coupled with the back-up lines, parallel parking is easier.

That's about all I had time to evaluate today, but overall, this feels like a very solid, stable and useful upgrade for those of us with a classic Model S.

 

[Rheazombi]

Great write up! My SO is actually the most excited for shuffle, he can't stop talking about it, lol.

Hoping for the update soon. I really wish the Android app did notifications. It's a 5 block walk in 20° F weather if I wanted to check on the car >_>

 

[joefee]

No 6.1 yet Sig Performance 791 ...& proud

OTAU 1/16 yes!

 

[jerry33]

Installed mine last night. At the end of the install it got stuck with a "Car needs update, contact service" message. A couple of reboots fixed it and I received the "update successful" message. It appears to work but I notice that you can't shuffle favourites, which is what I was really looking forward to.

Question is: is not being able to shuffle favourites just the way it is, or did something go wrong with my install?

 

[NOLA_Mike]

Question is: is not being able to shuffle favourites just the way it is, or did something go wrong with my install?

Just the way it is.

 

[rapoport3a]

It's a fine update. Now I wish Tesla would get rid of the arcane, basically nonsensical way the trip odometer calculates. Does any other car mark off every second tenth of a kilometer only, until it decides to increase by 0.1, or sometimes by 0.3, then go back to 0.2?

 

[ken830]

I don't have the update yet. But, what the heck is shuffle good for if it doesn't work on favorites? What does it work on? This is also the feature I'm looking forward to most.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

I don't have the update yet. But, what the heck is shuffle good for if it doesn't work on favorites? What does it work on? This is also the feature I'm looking forward to most.

Please don't kill the messenger... Shuffle and Repeat show up when I play stuff off the USB flash drive. But when I play from my Favorites list, no shuffle...

Mike

 

[jerry33]

I don't have the update yet. But, what the heck is shuffle good for if it doesn't work on favorites? What does it work on? This is also the feature I'm looking forward to most.

As far as I can tell, shuffle works if you select Songs, Albums, or Artists from the USB drive. Release notes say it also works with playlists, but I guess they mean playlists on Slacker (don't know as I never use Slacker). I was looking forward to that feature as well. Another oddity is that instead of putting the Track, Album, and Artist, it puts USB1 (as if I didn't know I was playing from the thumb drive) and the track name. It's pretty obvious the programmer never actually had to use it.

And the lines on the backup camera that everyone else wanted--they could have left them off. I wish I could turn them off. I guess after a few more days I can train my brain to ignore them.

 

[mackgoo]

I'm finding this lines very helpful. When there's something behind you and your backing out like at a parking space those lines guide and indicate if you've got the clearance needed. I just benefited from this 5 minutes ago. In the past I may have stopped ond done a 3 pointer, this time one move.

 

[ChadS]

Old number #112 got 6.1 this morning. Very nice.

I love the option to display remaining battery as a percentage instead of as EPA miles; it makes a lot of math easier as I rarely get EPA miles and had to keep adjusting in my head. Of course that only matters on road trips.

For the same reason, I really love the new trip energy use display. You can get a fast, easy estimate as to whether you will make it, AND you can monitor progress simply in real-time! I haven't tried it yet, but I think it will be an extremely useful tool. However, I fear that while they do take elevation in to account, they don't take speed or weather, so it's still likely a best-case estimate and a lot more people will be falling short than coming out ahead. At least it will be easy to see, and you can just slow down until the graph lines are where they need to be.

 

[AoneOne]

It's a fine update. Now I wish Tesla would get rid of the arcane, basically nonsensical way the trip odometer calculates. Does any other car mark off every second tenth of a kilometer only, until it decides to increase by 0.1, or sometimes by 0.3, then go back to 0.2?

That sounds exactly like the behavior I'd expect if the internal odometer measured tenths of miles, and it converted to kilometers by first multiplying by ~1.6 and then rounding again to the nearest tenth.

 

[bxr140]

Changing speed seems like it changes the green "actual" line after a few seconds.

 

[jcadman22]

VIN4005 and I don't have 6.1 yet. While I'm patiently waiting on the mothership to randomly choose my number can anyone tell if the media player updated the way album art is selected? I've got a meticulously tagged collection of tunes with embedded artwork and I find it silly that Tesla favors over the air Internet searches over my locally stored album art.

 

[snellenr]

As far as I can tell, shuffle works if you select Songs, Albums, or Artists from the USB drive.

Shuffle also works with Genre.

 

[ohaq]

While i am checking out the lines at work a guy checking out the car.

I need to do some testing and see if I can rely on the green pointers i.e. where the white line start as an indication to stop. I also need to test if the red pointer is where I would have actually hit the car. Not obvious in this case but if i get closer and closer.

I dont have parking sensors and the camera gives a weird view when close so i'll try to use the lines as sensors. I love the lines. I wish white lines had an outline of different color so it would be easy to see in both light and dark surfaces.

 

[Vger]

Please see the new thread I started for study of the Energy Prediction feature, especially relevant to us Classics:

Evaluation and Observations with v6.1 Trip Energy Prediction

 

[MarkR]

While i am checking out the lines at work a guy checking out the car.

I need to do some testing and see if I can rely on the green pointers i.e. where the white line start as an indication to stop. I also need to test if the red pointer is where I would have actually hit the car. Not obvious in this case but if i get closer and closer.

I dont have parking sensors and the camera gives a weird view when close so i'll try to use the lines as sensors. I love the lines. I wish white lines had an outline of different color so it would be easy to see in both light and dark surfaces.

View attachment 69582

An outline with a different color for the back-up camera parking stripes is a great idea . . . why didn't somebody at Tesla think of that?

 

[kendallpb]

Sure for new hardware features. I seriously doubt that Tesla would intentionally hold back any features that can run on older hardware just to sell more cars. They are not that kind of car company. I would bet money on that never happening. That's not the value proposition sold to Model S buyers since day one.

Apple is that kind of company (don't always include features on previous models that they could; stop updating software for some devices; etc.). Tesla is demonstrably not that kind of company, as this latest update shows. Plus, people buy cars for the long haul (plus, as mentioned, Tesla sold it as a constantly-improving car from the start) . . . but personal tech devices (phones, music players, even computers), not so much. (I try to get as much out of my tech devices as I can, but I'm in the minority.)

Sure, at some point, Tesla may hit the limit of what they can add that doesn't require new hardware. But at their current pace, IMHO they're many years away from that. ;-) And given they're still doing hardware+software upgrades for cars they no longer make (Roadster), I'm not worried about being abandoned.

Anyway, I'm excited about how much is in this latest update, and can't wait to get it! My other half wasn't impressed by much of the list, but I think these are way cool, in order of coolness: trip energy prediction, reverse camera, route overview, and maybe "additional improvements" (I forget which those are). In order of utility to me, probably reverse camera tops the list (since I reverse more than I take trips, of course).

- - - Updated - - -

I need to do some testing and see if I can rely on the green pointers i.e. where the white line start as an indication to stop. I also need to test if the red pointer is where I would have actually hit the car. Not obvious in this case but if i get closer and closer.

Good picture & question. I'm still on 6.0, but for me, anything on the ground (e.g., where wall meets floor) that's at the edge of the camera display is basically an inch or so from me, so I must stop if I don't want to hit. I use this all the time for backing up into spots, especially if there's a wall or a parking line and I know the car behind me isn't over it. Car noses/rears stick out, of course, so it's tougher to gauge this, so I try to guesstimate and stop earlier than if it were a wall, just in case.

So I'm hoping you're right - that stopping where the start of the white line matches what's behind me will work for something like a car. (For a wall, I can keep doing what I do now.) That's probably its purpose, buuuuut careful testing's needed! ;-)

 

[Klaus]

Good picture & question. I'm still on 6.0, but for me, anything on the ground (e.g., where wall meets floor) that's at the edge of the camera display is basically an inch or so from me, so I must stop if I don't want to hit. I use this all the time for backing up into spots, especially if there's a wall or a parking line and I know the car behind me isn't over it. Car noses/rears stick out, of course, so it's tougher to gauge this, so I try to guesstimate and stop earlier than if it were a wall, just in case.



So I'm hoping you're right - that stopping where the start of the white line matches what's behind me will work for something like a car. (For a wall, I can keep doing what I do now.) That's probably its purpose, buuuuut careful testing's needed! ;-)

When I back into a parking spot with regular size concrete stop blocks I stop when the block has just completely disappeared from the camera. That way it's just under the rear bumper, but not in an area where the car sits too low. With a wall or high curb I've learned to stop when the edge gets close to the rear bumper edge and I'm usually right where I want it. For me, the beginning of the guidelines doesn't add anything.