Firmware 7.0 - For Classic Model S

[muleferg]

TESLA Portal

Try this if you don't like the new clock.

 

[DFibRL8R]

All that is below about the comparison to apple dumbing it down to a cartoon flat look is spot on. The classic UI is a rich and detailed look. I dropped by the dealer to see the 7.0. It looks Fisher Price. Can't stand it. I'm waiting to download 7.0 till the force me too.

Perhaps the simplified look brings with it faster performance/graphics loading. I agree it looks less sophisticated but improved rates of screen loading etc could be worth it to some. Also the more simplified UI (less words/clutter) probably appeals to more new buyers making the screen seem less busy and overwhelming. To us more experienced drivers, we see a loss of data that our brains are used to processing anyway.

 

[apacheguy]

Apacheguy, per my email exchange with Tesla, the performance improvements for RWD cars are "model year dependent" - which is a vague (but theoretically nice!) way of saying "only available on recent (autopilot age) cars".
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Thanks. Do we know the physical reason behind this? It must be isolated to the DU, but many of us have newer DUs so I wonder why it doesn't apply?

While I do not disagree with you David, I think we still would be a bit miffed because 85 RWD owners w/ AP got the performance improvement in their release notes and we would be asking what's different about S85s, P85s, and P85+s w/o AP that they couldn't get the same improvements. Until now, I had been under the impression that a brand new 85 RWD was equivalent (in the drivetrain) to my S85 w/o AP. Guess that isn't the case.

Right. This is what I want to know the answer to.

 

[Mark Z]

...surely as if they removed the sun visors just to get a smoother look in the interior...

The new windshield in Model X won't be cluttered with sun visors giving a smoother interior look to the glass canopy most of the time.

As one who loves the 100 year old Mission style Stickley furniture, that design was created in rebellion over ornate furniture of the 19th century. Now, every new phone and TV has the flatter interface, in part due to the death of Steve Jobs and his insistence on physical metaphors. As soon as Jony Ive (pictured below) took over, the lovers of realism departed and the changes to minimalism are affecting everything. Jony Ive shakes up Apples software design group, iPhone interface creator Greg Christie departing | 9to5Mac

I disliked the flat iOS 7 iPhone interface so much that it took a year before I would upgrade my latest phone. I did upgrade a seldom used iPhone to take time and get use to it. Now that I am okay with the design it doesn't bother me. The change by Tesla Motors with version 7.0 did not surprise me, as I thought this might happen with everyone designing flat and simple interface controls.

I understand your frustration of buying a car with a metal trim look on the touch screen that has been changed to appear like flat black masonite. But consider this. If a new buyer of your Model S was to be forced to have the old style, would they be happy? I tend to think that a new buyer will be thrilled that a one, two or three year old car looks the same as the ones in the showroom. Just as the iPhone changes, the Tesla Model S changes.

If software memory space is not at a premium, maybe Tesla Motors will have a switchable setting for "Classic" or "New" in the future. One benefit would be for the Tesla Model S cars in museums. They could look the same as when they first were manufactured in 2012.

Jony Ives iOS 7 remake: black, white, flat all over
Image via Michael Steeber.

 

[marcad80]

Can someone clarify which cars receive the perf boost and why? I must be missing something.

I am one who was personally really looking forward to the performance improvement. With a 5.5 0-60 time on my S60, a little horsepower boast would have gone a long way. This update was very disappointing to me. I really hope that someone can explain why the cars that are only 2 years old can't be upgraded.


Meanwhile I have many 0-60 runs timed on my S60, and it is updating right now. When I get back in town I will run them again, in the hopes that they are just being conservative and there really is a little love for us "Classic" S owners....

 

[TexasEV]

I'm confused about "performance enhancements for RWD cars". I have a 2013 P85 and I did not receive any notes regarding performance enhancement, just improved efficiency with torque sleep. I also did not receive any notes regarding changed throttle response at low speed, which has never really been a problem anyway. This update had very little for me and I'm a bit disappointed. No TPMS readouts for early cars, really? No performance enhancement? No brake hold? This is the first time in my ownership experience when I've felt left behind. I suppose it was inevitable.

I didn't expect an update that was primarily to enable autopilot to do anything for me, so I wasn't disappointed. I do think the climate control is an improvement in cooling the car faster. If Tesla reverses the flipped battery meter/rated range and odometer in 7.1 I'll be really happy.

- - - Updated - - -

I do like the minor media app improvement. I do find I resent that it's two years later and the media app is still worse than that of my decade-old economy car, though. Maybe in 7.1, I suppose.

I really wish I could see the brake lights on the toy car. Not sure I understand the purpose of the thing as-is, given it takes up prime real estate and provides literally no value. Maybe it's just those with red cars that are affected?

I can see the brake lights light up, as my car is green, but trust me you're not missing anything. Maybe the first time or two it was interesting, now it's just distracting. Can we all have the battery meter/rated range back now, please and put the odometer back in the corner where no one cares to look?

 

[jerry33]

So far the worst parts are the poor contrast on the speedo and climate controls and the three useless icons on the trip display. Removing trip a and trip b and putting in icons that convey zero information is bad. I believe that showing the car is over because it's just too embarrassing.

 

[Veggen]

Having read the comments and seen the screenshots I have decided to wait this one out.
The cons outweigh the pros this time unfortunately.
Hoping 7.1 puts things right...

 

[steve841]

Just adding myself to the disappointed parties.

No TPMS readout. ARE YOU KIDDING US TESLA?
The car on the speedo ... tried it, cute but absolutely useless. The lights/brake lights animation would need to be much bigger to offer anything of substance.
The smaller battery icon ... who really thought this was a good idea? If you want to animate something, animate this and make it larger.
Performance stuff ... like the TPMS, are the older models that out dated?

Do like the MCU revisions by and large. Hoping for further mods to media player. Again, they want to add animations, here's where Tesla should do it.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Having read the comments and seen the screenshots I have decided to wait this one out.
The cons outweigh the pros this time unfortunately.
Hoping 7.1 puts things right...

Same here. It's going to be a long and painful wait... and that's assuming they FIX what's wrong with 7.0.

I got the update notice today. I think the nag screens go away after a while.

Also, does the Nav cover up the Rated Range battery all the time, or just when there's an upcoming Nav instruction?

 

[JST]

Just when there's an upcoming instruction. But on my commute this morning that was probably 30 percent of the drive?

Btw, I checked to see if there was any improvement in the goofy SC routing, and there doesn't seem to be. To get from DC to Lewes DE, it still wants me to take a 30 mile detour to Salisbury.

 

[gizmoboy]

That's exactly my plan also.

Here's what I think (Warning -- rant ahead):

I realize that the "dedicated followers of fashion" among us think that the Apple-esque dumbed-down crudely rendered esthetically offensive UI is ...

FYI, you lost me right there. On to the next post...

(To add a little more detail, the condescending reductionist attitude turned me off to wanting to burn the time to see if you had anything of value to say.)

 

[RichardL]

Just adding myself to the disappointed parties.

No TPMS readout. ARE YOU KIDDING US TESLA?
The car on the speedo ... tried it, cute but absolutely useless. The lights/brake lights animation would need to be much bigger to offer anything of substance.
The smaller battery icon ... who really thought this was a good idea? If you want to animate something, animate this and make it larger.
Performance stuff ... like the TPMS, are the older models that out dated?

Do like the MCU revisions by and large. Hoping for further mods to media player. Again, they want to add animations, here's where Tesla should do it.

Completely agree with all these points - its totally underwhelming, let's hope 7.1 is actually an improvement.

 

[skrenes]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that hates this trend of flat-design over skeuomorphism, and sparse displays over useful, uncrowded information. I feel like v7 UI was taken right out of the Jony Ive book of "your customers are idiots, so give them less information that confuses them". In any case, I took a gander at making a video about the new firmware:
Tesla Model S P85+ Firmware 7 - YouTube

 

[Electricfan]

You have a newer generation car with dual TPMS receivers. Those of us with older cars have a single TPMS receiver. The new hardware supports TPMS readouts, the old hardware does not, unfortunately for us early adopters.

Given I'm not in any way, shape or form a "car person" - that makes no sense to me. You're telling me on older cars Tesla put "Tire Pressure Monitor Sensors" in that won't monitor the tire pressure? What flipping good do they do? They have to report the pressure back to the car's "brain", and if the car's "brain" has it, it can display it.

I know I'm wrong somewhere, but I can't figure it out. Pretty normal situation for me.

Just to clarify, are you telling me your car's "brain" does not know the pressure of its tires? Even though it has TPMS in the tires?

 

[rdrcrmatt]

Given I'm not in any way, shape or form a "car person" - that makes no sense to me. You're telling me on older cars Tesla put "Tire Pressure Monitor Sensors" in that won't monitor the tire pressure? What flipping good do they do? They have to report the pressure back to the car's "brain", and if the car's "brain" has it, it can display it.

I know I'm wrong somewhere, but I can't figure it out. Pretty normal situation for me.

They do monitor pressure, but they don't output the actual PSI reading. The only output that the pressure is acceptable, or that it is low.

 

[rainman50]

Good Lord man. Just sell your Tesla and move on with life.

That's a rash statement. I hear people say that all the time when someone has a rant or a rough comment. I feel the same way as he does. I have no intention of selling the car. We bought the car the way it was so don't take anything away from what we already have. This needs to be conveyed to Tesla how we feel about these changes. I'm up for changes but not in the negative direction.

 

[mknox]

I think it's great so far. Nice clean look. Tesla's forte is an uncluttered look which they have accomplished.

It's a serious step backwards IMHO. Here are some observations after my first day and a half with it:

Center Dash:

1. It's too dark. If I turn up the brightness, the 17" becomes too bright. With sunglasses on as I drove east this morning, I could hardly see the center dash compared to the 17";
2. The Trip App has been weakened by removing the Trip A and Trip B lines;
3. The Turn Signal indicators aren't as visible down low as opposed to the former way where they were either side of the center circle;
4.Why are the PRND and Odometer positions reversed? It made more sense to me to have the PRND display in the middle;
5. The Wh/mi Energy app is no longer calibrated on the Y-axis;
6. What is the purpose of the "toy car"? They already have an icon to show you when the headlights are on;
7. My car now has the tiniest "Fuel Gauge" of any car I've seen. I would forgo the "toy car" to have a more substantial energy display back there where it was;
8. The Date display is gone. Minor, but I actually got to like that;
9. The center circle doesn't do the animated "spin" when you turn the car on any more. Again, a minor thing but I liked that

17" Display:

1. Temperature no longer say C or F;
2. Clock still has the leading zero in AM/PM mode;
3. There is no highlighting any longer on the app buttons that are active on the screen;
4. The Battery/Charge icon no longer shows the battery SOC (green line);
5. The HVAC control no longer has icons to show Mode and Fan Speed like it used to

And on top of all this, it's ugly. It's also no faster on my car and, in fact, I now have some lag when I switch certain screens. It may just need a re-boot so we'll see about that one.

But here's the thing: I've given up a lot of what I used to like, and have not seemed to gain anything with this release. No improvement to Hill Hold. Why? I don't have the latest brake hardware, but it does work so why couldn't older cars get improvements to when it works like newer cars did? Seems like it should have been possible. No individual tire pressure readings? Again why? I am given to understand that even older cars display them on the technician's diagnostic screens. Seems like Tesla just didn't want to be bothered with the earlier models.

They've done something to the HVAC. I used to keep my car at 67 to make it feel like 72 did on past cars. I was freezing this morning and now have it bumped up to 70. That's probably a good thing, but the fan still runs way too slow on Auto. It was 40 F out this morning and the fan was at 2. I had to bump it up just to keep air moving and my windows from fogging up.

I'll reserve judgement on Torque Sleep. I can't tell the difference, and my one day energy consumption seemed about the same, but that will probably take a longer window of time to determine if the promised efficiency gains are there.

 

[dsm363]

I suppose you're right--for most of my trips, range is not that important. When it is, though, it's REALLY important.

And it's still there in the lower left corner. Easily visible with a quick glance. If they had hidden in behind a window on the 17" screen or forced it into one of the apps in the IC then I would understand the level of frustration on this point. I too would like it to return to the center but it's hardly gone or hidden in any way.

And on trips where range is really important I assume most people use the Nav for the range prediction which estimates your battery percentage on arrival.

 

[dsm363]

I'm driving a loaner with Autopilot and I see why most of these decisions were made. I bet it was designed around the image of the car in the driving lane and everything was pushed to the side. I hope with 7.1 they revisit the non Autopilot cars and clean it up again.