Firmware 7.0 Beta Discussion

[TexasEV]

I agree about the clock. What really irritates me (beyond the lack of power meter and the lack of date/time/temp) is the change to the battery level and remaining range display.

I get the idea that Tesla wants to deemphasize the "range" issue, but until there's a supercharger everywhere I need to go, range is still something I have to pay attention to, particularly in the winter. Making it harder to do that? Fail.

Range is an issue, except perhaps in parts of California, the land of superchargers. Trying to pretend the elephant isn't in the room by making it smaller and putting it off to one side doesn't make the elephant leave the room.

Something else I just noticed-- the miles next to the battery icon does't say "rated range". Perhaps this means they're getting rid of the "ideal range" display option, which is probably a good thing as that could be very misleading to the uninitiated.)

 

[cgiGuy]

* Re: brake lights... Tesla aims to make these cars mainstream. That means it is critical that people who don't want to learn new technology can step into car and go. So, the concept of "teaching people how to brake" so that their brake lights come on appropriately is *NOT* something I suspect Tesla wants to do. If there's a problem with the regen braking threshold, I'd guess Tesla would want to adjust it vs. get the image that you have to be re-trained to drive their car properly.

If this were truly Tesla's approach, then the regen would be tied to the brake pedal--so that it behaves like every other car. The fact is that this car doesn't "coast" like a normal ICE does, so you do, indeed, need to learn how to drive it differently.. with one pedal for the most part.

And it's one of the questions that has come up over and over and over on the forum. "How do I know when the brake light comes on" in the search field of this forum yields 709 results.

 

[bollar]

So this light would train people to not slow down? ... or train them to be wary of slowing down?

<Shrug> I've tried to articulate what I see as the issue to the best of my ability. It's to potentially train the driver to drive more smoothly. In the example above, the Tesla is keeping up with traffic but is the only car with brakes regularly flickering on. We covered this topic to death years ago here: One Pedal Driving and Brake Lights

In any event, setting everyone else aside, I'd like to have a straightforward way to see when the brakes are illuminated.

 

[Cyclone]

Personally, I very much like the center cluster on 6.2. That said, if Tesla moves the power meter to one of the side spots in v7, it would not be all that unlike ICE vehicles with a separate tachometer. Heck, some cars don't even include the tachometer, so having this be a side option that can be "turned off" doesn't exactly deviate from making the UI more mainstream. That said, I still think 6.2 did a great job of provided great "at a glance" info without being overly complex. We shall see what actually gets released.

 

[OddB]

Personally, I very much like the center cluster on 6.2. That said, if Tesla moves the power meter to one of the side spots in v7, it would not be all that unlike ICE vehicles with a separate tachometer. Heck, some cars don't even include the tachometer, so having this be a side option that can be "turned off" doesn't exactly deviate from making the UI more mainstream. That said, I still think 6.2 did a great job of provided great "at a glance" info without being overly complex. We shall see what actually gets released.

No issues with the design itself, nor with the powermeter to one side... but the side effect is that you are left with only one sidepanel if you choose to keep the powermeter up all the time.

 

[ohmman]

I don't believe I saw it mentioned in this thread, but it does appear they're including an automatic trip computer in this version, which was something I missed. That is, how long have I been driving and how far, which resets each time I exit the vehicle. I am also hopeful it means they are including a lifetime Wh/mi so that Trip B is free from its chains.

 

[OddB]

I dont think this guy has been sitting in the car for two hours, so it is probably a manual reset. The average speed while in D would have been nice, since speed is an important factor vs consumption--

 

[jerry33]

I don't believe I saw it mentioned in this thread, but it does appear they're including an automatic trip computer in this version, which was something I missed. That is, how long have I been driving and how far, which resets each time I exit the vehicle. I am also hopeful it means they are including a lifetime Wh/mi so that Trip B is free from its chains.

When Toyota did this, they took away the lifetime reading, so if you wanted lifetime, you had to keep track at every fill. I hope Tesla doesn't do this, but I suspect it will go the way of being able to set the range display to projected rather than ideal or rated.

 

[ohmman]

I dont think this guy has been sitting in the car for two hours, so it is probably a manual reset. The average speed while in D would have been nice, since speed is an important factor vs consumption--

I saw that, but figured maybe he was fiddling and taking photos, leaving his door open, coming inside and out.. but you're probably right.

When Toyota did this, they took away the lifetime reading, so if you wanted lifetime, you had to keep track at every fill. I hope Tesla doesn't do this, but I suspect it will go the way of being able to set the range display to projected rather than ideal or rated.

That'd be a loss for me. I prefer a car that maximizes my ability to extract data without using the API and an outside computer.

 

[Ingineer]

I think it's pretty clear that these "accidental" upgrades are intentional. I can see one or 2 accidents, but after the first one, they would have halted all releases until they could have figured out what was wrong.

They wanted to do this so they could get our opinions, and also "under promise/over deliver" I suspect these releases are not indicative of what we will see in the actual release. This way when they release it and it' way better than we expect we'll be extremely happy.

 

[3s-a-charm]

I dont think this guy has been sitting in the car for two hours, so it is probably a manual reset. The average speed while in D would have been nice, since speed is an important factor vs consumption--

Come on, TESLA... Release it already!!!

 

[jgs]

Personally, I very much like the center cluster on 6.2. That said, if Tesla moves the power meter to one of the side spots in v7, it would not be all that unlike ICE vehicles with a separate tachometer. Heck, some cars don't even include the tachometer, so having this be a side option that can be "turned off" doesn't exactly deviate from making the UI more mainstream. That said, I still think 6.2 did a great job of provided great "at a glance" info without being overly complex. We shall see what actually gets released.

Thing is, I barely ever use the tach. I use the power meter all the time when I'm trying to feather the pedal to coast to a stop. For that I need it in front of me, not on the side panel.

 

[Cyclone]

Thing is, I barely ever use the tach. I use the power meter all the time when I'm trying to feather the pedal to coast to a stop. For that I need it in front of me, not on the side panel.

Same here. I was just mentioning it as moving it to a side panel makes it look more like mainstream cars, not less. But I agree that it even if it was different than a tradition ICE layout, it worked great.

 

[Khatsalano]

Range is an issue, except perhaps in parts of California, the land of superchargers. Trying to pretend the elephant isn't in the room by making it smaller and putting it off to one side doesn't make the elephant leave the room.

I live in California and there is an SC 5 minutes from me at the Whole foods; there is no range problem. But, there is a range issue-- I want to know what my remaining range is in a prominent display. Having it as a big bar in the middle helps me a lot. Unlike with a gas tank, managing the battery between 20% - 80% extends its life. To me, that's worth knowing and seeing when I glance at my dash without having to move my eyeballs both down and left.

I agree with the elephant analogy. I would rather leave the big range bar in the middle with a big number. Solve range anxiety by engineering an affordable vehicle with longer range while building up the supercharger and other charging networks. I think Tesla will do these two latter items better than it does minimizing the size of the range bar ... the range-bar minimization move is just silly.

- K

 

[thegruf]

I think it's pretty clear that these "accidental" upgrades are intentional. I can see one or 2 accidents, but after the first one, they would have halted all releases until they could have figured out what was wrong.

They wanted to do this so they could get our opinions, and also "under promise/over deliver" I suspect these releases are not indicative of what we will see in the actual release. This way when they release it and it' way better than we expect we'll be extremely happy.

^this.

My call is definitely for normal/advanced modes.
This is easily the best way to cater for various categories of users.

Those that want it can have all the info they require, but less tech savvy users can have the clean uncluttered interface.

And lose that hideous clock thingy, and beware confusing flat with boring!

 

[jerry33]

beware confusing flat with boring!

I just spent eight hours yesterday upgrading to Yosemite, and today I can assure you that flat is boring.

 

[wk057]

View attachment 91660

Wait wait wait... hold the show.

Did they remove the ability to name your car? Screw this, not upgrading. Deal breaker.

 

[Cyclone]

Wait wait wait... hold the show.

Did they remove the ability to name your car? Screw this, not upgrading. Deal breaker.

Maybe that car is named "founder"

 

[NigelM]

Come on, TESLA... Release it already!!!

This firmware went out to beta testing 48 hrs ago and don't forget the testing of the AP features, it'll likely be anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months before it goes out for general release.

 

[StaceyS]

If this were truly Tesla's approach, then the regen would be tied to the brake pedal--so that it behaves like every other car. The fact is that this car doesn't "coast" like a normal ICE does, so you do, indeed, need to learn how to drive it differently.. with one pedal for the most part.

Actually, this should read "The fact is that this car doesn't "coast" like a normal AUTOMATIC ICE does..." The car behaves like a manual transmission car with very good compression engine braking. The regen braking effect is just like using the engine and transmission to slow the car in a manual.

My wife and I came from a VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI with a 6-speed manual. We had our display set up so that our instantaneous economy was visible. When you took your foot off the accelerator, the car would decelerate, AND you would get --- mpg because the ECU would stop fuel delivery to the engine entirely despite the car still moving forward. Its the best performance you can get out of an ICE. We naturally got into the habit of using the engine for as much deceleration as we could.

The Tesla has probably 2 or 3 times as much deceleration force in its regen than our TDI did, but the way we drive it is exactly the same. We were both able to quickly adapt to 1 pedal driving (and my wife is not a car person, nor technically inclined). I've found the regen setup to be very intuitive.