Firmware 7.0 - For Classic Model S

[slcuervo]

I'm not going to complain about the UI. Just like any software update, it takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it ends up being better.

However, I am appalled that they removed the HVAC information. I was hoping they would ADD a "heater on" icon but now there's no info at all. I HATE that they did that. Please bring it back!!!!!

I fully agree with your first statement.

However, I am away from my car on a trip and won´t be able to download the latest SW update until end of next week, so I have read several times across this thread that HVAC information has been removed, but haven´t been able to figure out what you guys mean.

Removed from where? What HVAC info are you guys referring to?

 

[AmpedRealtor]

You never had individual TPMS values and it's not possible with your car, so I don't really see why a new software update suddenly makes it an issue.

It's not impossible, that is the reason for the complaint. Old VINs also have TPMS values, they just don't have a way to automatically know the position location of each TPMS transmitter. The new cars auto locate. The old cars would need someone to manually tell the computer where each tire is located. That's very easy to do if Tesla gave us a method with which to do it. The issue is only after a tire rotation, so we can manually tell the system where the tires were rotated so it would continue tracking the TPMS in the right locations.

But obviously Tesla did not want to do this because doing it the other way is faster, easier, and doesn't require additional time and resources. But I do think that Tesla should bite the bullet and give early owners some improved functionality. What I find totally unbelievable is that Tesla would use an inferior TPMS than the Roadster from 7 years ago. Tesla's TPMS in my 2013 car is inferior to the TPMS offered in my 2010 Toyota Highlander. Such a move defies common sense.

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Another question... why is the gray background in the speedo suddenly so grainy? It seems whoever designed the graduated gray backgrounds introduced some Photoshop-type 'noise' into the image to dither the gradations. The end result looks terrible, in my opinion. All I see when I look at the speedo is the graininess of the background that looks like really bad JPEG compression.

Anyone else? It's much, much worse than in 6.x.

 

[tomas]

Another question... why is the gray background in the speedo suddenly so grainy? It seems whoever designed the graduated gray backgrounds introduced some Photoshop-type 'noise' into the image to blend the gradations better. The end result looks terrible, in my opinion. All I see when I look at the speedo is the graininess of the background that looks like really bad JPEG compression.

Anyone else?

When moving to 7.0, you MUST re-adjust your brightness setting. That will remove/alleviate the graininess.

 

[mibaro2]

I fully agree with your first statement.

However, I am away from my car on a trip and won´t be able to download the latest SW update until end of next week, so I have read several times across this thread that HVAC information has been removed, but haven´t been able to figure out what you guys mean.

Removed from where? What HVAC info are you guys referring to?

With version 6.2 , you could tell how fast the fan was going by looking at the fan blades and seeing how many were lite up. You could also see if air was recirculating or not.
Now, with version 7, the 4 fan blades are always lite up, even if the fan is going at speed 2 or 3.
You don't see any info regarding recirculating either.
You can see all this info if you press on the hvac icon...then it brings up the 4 areas you can customize or set to auto (like in version 6.2).
But it was nice to be able to glance at the centre console and see the information quickly in 6.2.

 

[bollar]

When moving to 7.0, you MUST re-adjust your brightness setting. That will remove/alleviate the graininess.

I have my screen set to 100% and I'm wishing for 110%.

 

[swegman]

Old VINs also have TPMS values, they just don't have a way to automatically know the position location of each TPMS transmitter. The new cars auto locate. The old cars would need someone to manually tell the computer where each tire is located. That's very easy to do if Tesla gave us a method with which to do it. The issue is only after a tire rotation, so we can manually tell the system where the tires were rotated so it would continue tracking the TPMS in the right locations.

Fobo uses a simple method for resetting where each tire is located after the tires are rotated. Why can't Tesla implement a similar scheme for us Classic owners?

 

[skrenes]

An FYI to everyone who doesn't know: I learned that Tesla came out with a new TPMS sensor for the older Baolong sensors (<P50900). They're smaller and lighter (by 20%). I haven't had them installed in my new wheels, but I was kind of hoping I'd get the tire pressure app show up afterwards. I doubt it, as the limitation may be in the receiver and not the sensor themselves, but I'll report back, once they're installed (first week of November).

I also wanted to chime in on those thinking that the new interface is less taxing on the CPU/GPU/memory because there's less information. As a software engineer, I can assure you that the difference in speed would be virtually immeasurable (each data point requires a variable lookup when drawing, which takes << 20ns). So the excision of the temperature, time/date, etc was purely for aesthetics and has absolutely nothing to do with optimizing performance.

I really hope that Tesla can at least add the percentage of the battery as text, inside the battery image on the instrument cluster. The text may be too small, requiring them to make the battery image a little larger, but I think that would make up for the loss of 10% interval lines and reduced size/clarity of the image. To be clear, I know that we can switch to percentage, but I want to see both percentage and rated range. The vehicle information app, with the tire pressure, should also have more information, like battery temperature, perhaps with a visual indication of where that temperature fairs in terms of being cold, ideal, hot.

I will add that after using navigation, I think the way it shows up on the instrument cluster in v7 is gorgeous. That blend with the background and the way it fades into oblivion, instead of hard edges, is beautiful. Also, it seems unanimous that the new app icons on the center console are much nicer. The rest of the changes though leave a lot to be desired, and the flagrant waste of space on the instrument cluster is frustrating, to say the least.

 

[slcuervo]

With version 6.2 , you could tell how fast the fan was going by looking at the fan blades and seeing how many were lite up. You could also see if air was recirculating or not.
Now, with version 7, the 4 fan blades are always lite up, even if the fan is going at speed 2 or 3.
You don't see any info regarding recirculating either.
You can see all this info if you press on the hvac icon...then it brings up the 4 areas you can customize or set to auto (like in version 6.2).
But it was nice to be able to glance at the centre console and see the information quickly in 6.2.

Oh I see what you all mean now. Thanks !

 

[AmpedRealtor]

When moving to 7.0, you MUST re-adjust your brightness setting. That will remove/alleviate the graininess.

Unfortunately, I can't read the speedometer numbers as it is with my sunglasses on and that's with the brightness set to 50%.

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Fobo uses a simple method for resetting where each tire is located after the tires are rotated. Why can't Tesla implement a similar scheme for us Classic owners?

Tesla can, it has simply chosen not to. And that's one of the reasons why I am so disappointed with this release. Version 7 seems like a pivot away from Classic cars. There was a thread a long time ago that asked, "when is the honeymoon over?" I think I can say that my honeymoon ended with Version 7.

 

[smsprague]

When moving to 7.0, you MUST re-adjust your brightness setting. That will remove/alleviate the graininess.

So is auto brightness is out. What do you do at night?

 

[HankLloydRight]

I also wanted to chime in on those thinking that the new interface is less taxing on the CPU/GPU/memory because there's less information. As a software engineer, I can assure you that the difference in speed would be virtually immeasurable (each data point requires a variable lookup when drawing, which takes << 20ns). So the excision of the temperature, time/date, etc was purely for aesthetics and has absolutely nothing to do with optimizing performance.

Thank you! That's what I've been trying to say also, but some people still think the Model S GPU is resource constrained. Hogwash! My original xbox (circa 2002) can render tens-of-thousands more polygons and textures than is required in the Model S. And the Xbox was running on a 700mhz Pentium III and 64mb of memory and the graphics processor was a 230 mhz nVidia chip. THAT WAS TWELVE YEARS AGO.

And last night I was driving and looking at all the so-called complex GPU and memory hogging textures on the 6.2 instrument cluster. Guess what? There are shadows and gradients to give some 3D depth, but not really many (any) texturing to talk about. It's really a pretty simple design (from a texture perspective, that is). And what is there (with the shadows and gradients) aren't even moving, they're entirely static.

If baffles me that people think the move from skeuomorphic to flat design had anything to do with performance. If anything, the new AP "video-game" interface seems to be a lot more complex and GPU intensive than drawing some static textures and shadows in 6.2, and the hardware is still fully capable of that.

 

[apacheguy]

I also wanted to chime in on those thinking that the new interface is less taxing on the CPU/GPU/memory because there's less information. As a software engineer, I can assure you that the difference in speed would be virtually immeasurable (each data point requires a variable lookup when drawing, which takes << 20ns). So the excision of the temperature, time/date, etc was purely for aesthetics and has absolutely nothing to do with optimizing performance.

This was my hunch. Someone suggested they changed the charging icon to the lightening bolt to save on CPU cycles. I was like really you gotta be kidding.

 

[slcuervo]

So is auto brightness is out. What do you do at night?

Auto brightness for me only switched between night and day layout. It did not adjust brightness, like a smartphone does. Is that what you mean?

 

[smsprague]

Yeah - did not realize that - giving it too much credit.

 

[russman]

Let me rephrase it. I found it stupid that this car didn't have something that my 10+ year old Acura had. So I was hopeful that it was just a feature hidden that was displayed, as people said it's available in diagnostic screens. Then to see it show up in beta, I was excited to finally get that individual tire information, just to be let down to find out we don't get it.

You never had individual TPMS values and it's not possible with your car, so I don't really see why a new software update suddenly makes it an issue.

 

[cantdecide]

Thank you! That's what I've been trying to say also, but some people still think the Model S GPU is resource constrained. Hogwash! My original xbox (circa 2002) can render tens-of-thousands more polygons and textures than is required in the Model S. And the Xbox was running on a 700mhz Pentium III and 64mb of memory and the graphics processor was a 230 mhz nVidia chip. THAT WAS TWELVE YEARS AGO.

And last night I was driving and looking at all the so-called complex GPU and memory hogging textures on the 6.2 instrument cluster. Guess what? There are shadows and gradients to give some 3D depth, but not really many (any) texturing to talk about. It's really a pretty simple design (from a texture perspective, that is). And what is there (with the shadows and gradients) aren't even moving, they're entirely static.

If baffles me that people think the move from skeuomorphic to flat design had anything to do with performance. If anything, the new AP "video-game" interface seems to be a lot more complex and GPU intensive than drawing some static textures and shadows in 6.2, and the hardware is still fully capable of that.

Right. Making an image 2d or 3d is all in prerendering and nothing about the car. Instead this is all the flattened design that has been taking hold in Silicon Valley the last couple of years. See Google, Apple, and a bunch more...
This follows the general path of technology... When introduced it tries to match the mental model of what people did before... E.g. files and recycling bins. Once people are so used to the new concepts that they have forgotten the connection, the tech concept gradually morphs into a more ideal solution... Like app icons and widgets (which represent files) and things like cloud backup and search/organisation replacing the need for a recycling bin.

All great and explains most of the new design, but doesn't explain making it difficult to get to some information.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

If baffles me that people think the move from skeuomorphic to flat design had anything to do with performance. If anything, the new AP "video-game" interface seems to be a lot more complex and GPU intensive than drawing some static textures and shadows in 6.2, and the hardware is still fully capable of that.

The first version of Mac OS X set a lot of skeuomorphic trends and that was on a Motorola PowerPC processor running at 867 MHz in 2001. Surely whatever Tesla is using has more processing/GPU muscle than a 14 year-old PowerMac running on a Motorola architecture.

 

[AudubonB]

Could I PLEASE ask for a little time out for a reality check, please? Pretty please?

To all:

1. Please think about how many times you have been in your automobile and had the TPMS light engage.

2. Now please think of all those times, and think about how onerous it has been to check not one, but four, tires for air pressure.

3. Now please think about how that compares to all the time and angst regarding same that has been expended on this thread. In just three days! How do they compare?

 

[jcaspar]

The stubborn refusal to update accomplishes nothing.

Other than keeping me with a more functional, better looking UI! :wink:

 

[xhawk101]

So, test drove autopilot today. Coming from my vintage 60kwh vin 7767, its time to upgrade! Ordered 85d red with most options.

Im finding the new interface quite intuitive and less cluttered certainly makes sense for those with autopilot.

And maybe it's that big mileage of 41000 staring me in the face subliminally put me over the edge

Ps. Autopilot is a game changer imo. Works very well.