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Firmware 7.0

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The fact that the system would run faster with less texturing of the UI... and that today I have the proof to back it up. v7 is infinitely more responsive than 6.2.

I really hope that will be true over time. I know it is hard to quantify, but I take it the latency for reactions on ui interaction is less annoying - the question is: does it feel like eg. An iPad, or still some lag?
 
A different question: anyone worried about the friction brakes being used heavily with Autopilot? TACC has definitely gotten smoother than it was pre-7.0 but, it still appears to use the friction brakes more than it does regen. In contrast, when driving manually, I can seem to accomplish most freeway drives without engaging the friction brakes at all.

Yes, although v7 has a better implementation, stopping or slowing down with TACC is still too aggressive. It still causes some puckering and uses too much friction brake. That is in part due to the fact that other drivers brake too aggressively (because they typically follow too closely), but it could certainly be improved some in the software.
 
I've been speed reading through this thread, but I haven't seen that anyone experienced what happened to me this afternoon:

When I updated my 2013 MS software to OS 7.0, my radio kicked on and blasted the last internet music station I was listening to. This unfortunately upset my neighbor (can't believe they can't appreciate the likes of BTO). Luckily I did not update the operating system at 2 AM!

I hope you'll appreciate the serendipity of the song playing given the situation...

Odd bug. Wasn't it just taking care of business by installing the update as asked?
 
Taking kWh out of trip meter, moving IC battery meter to left, removing power gauge on AP cars... All to further move EV phobia cues for new buyers, I suspect. For those of us who want it, it's still there somewhere. More mainstreaming of Tesla. Keeping in mind the mission, I'm ok with it.
 
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I received 7.0 on Thursday, and took my S85D on a 350-mile trip from Skaneateles NY (near Syracuse) to Boston yesterday. I was incredibly impressed by the latest release. I estimate that I did about 80% of the trips "hands free", all on a single highway (I90) across NYS and MASS. The A/P was awesome, and I also grew to appreciate the new UI. I would never go back to the old UI now.

To be fair, the AutoPilot mode took a bit of getting used to...I was a bit nervous at first, and had to get the turn signal process right (see comments by others above). And OBVIOUSLY I went out of A/P mode in construction areas, or places where the lines were not clear. Also, as I was heading East early in the morning, the A/P had some difficult discerning lines as I was driving directly into the sun. But in the end, when coupled with some basic learnings and common sense, the Auto Pilot mode was just spectacular. I look forward to further improvements in the Beta in the months/years to come.

And how cool is it that - with a software update - I essentially have an entirely new car.

Thank you Tesla.
 
Holding the directional stock initiates the lane change. In fact you can just hold it, and never lock it, and the car will change lanes. Your plan to signal first, then check for traffic, and then lock the directional will result in the lane change starting as you're starting to check for traffic.

Actually I can think of a solution to this. Tap the signal stalk in the direction of your lane change without holding it or fully-engaging it. This will cause the signal to blink 3 times. In that time, check for traffic. If you need more time, tap it again for another 3 blinks. Repeat as necessary. THEN when you're ready for the lane change, hold the stalk in the direction of the lane you want to end up in (or fully engage it).
 
I received 7.0 on Thursday, and took my S85D on a 350-mile trip from Skaneateles NY (near Syracuse) to Boston yesterday. I was incredibly impressed by the latest release. I estimate that I did about 80% of the trips "hands free", all on a single highway (I90) across NYS and MASS. The A/P was awesome, and I also grew to appreciate the new UI. I would never go back to the old UI now.

To be fair, the AutoPilot mode took a bit of getting used to...I was a bit nervous at first, and had to get the turn signal process right (see comments by others above). And OBVIOUSLY I went out of A/P mode in construction areas, or places where the lines were not clear. Also, as I was heading East early in the morning, the A/P had some difficult discerning lines as I was driving directly into the sun. But in the end, when coupled with some basic learnings and common sense, the Auto Pilot mode was just spectacular. I look forward to further improvements in the Beta in the months/years to come.

And how cool is it that - with a software update - I essentially have an entirely new car.

Thank you Tesla.

This is a great example of how AP should be implemented by everyone. Be cautious, learn it's tendencies and weaknesses...anticipate them and take control over before it has an opportunity to get you into trouble. In areas where it excels, let it do its job and enjoy the convenience.
 
Good to hear that AP can handle construction situation in your case. Were there any road blocks at your construction sites, or just blacked out/overlaid lane markers? In my video a couple posts above, looks like the car is following the lane markers as it's supposed to, but I would think that it would also take other consideration as well - e.x. are there any obstacles in the way if I keep going and follow the lane marker? It does auto stop for you when there are cars in front, maybe lane following has higher priority than the radars on the side, but not the radar on the front?

It would be interesting to find out situations where it's best to turn off / take over AP ahead of time under the current v7.0 implementation.

It appeared to follow the correct lane markers, even though there were multiple sets and at times even confusing for me as a human. I was in the far left lane, and a concrete barrier came up basically where the left line was (on top of the left line) and the car recognized the barrier and nudged to the right a hair, riding a little closer to the right dashed line, just as I would have.

When the barrier ended it switched to orange barrels. At one point there was an orange barrel a hair into my lane a bit ahead, and the car nudged over on its own probably 25 ft or so ahead of it. It easily saw every barrel according to the little ultrasonic arcs around the car.

I was hovering my hands at the wheel and watching like a hawk for sure though. No way I'd let it attempt this any other way.

Keep in mind, I was observing the posted construction zone speed limit of 50 MPH (construction zone speeding tickets for 10 over are more expensive than 130 in a 65...) give or take a few MPH. I'm sure this helped.
 
I've got about 400 miles of autopilot testing in already. Majority of the miles were hands free, minus the obvious stuff that it doesn't do well with or work at all for.

I did test it at low speeds around some sharp curves. It freaks out. Even at 18 MPH and a clear view of the entire curve it won't turn the wheel more than so far while attempting it before "TAKE OVER IMMEDIATELY" happens and it drifts out of the lane. That was a little disappointing. I figured at low speeds it could handle curves. It does, upon "seeing" the curve, immediately pop up with "Hold the wheel", but it will attempt it if you don't, and fail. The turns I tried were pretty easy, but tight. At 18 MPH you don't really get pulled into the door or anything, but I wouldn't take these curves at more than 35 or so, personally.

Normal curves it handles perfectly fine most of the time if you're going at a reasonable speed. The road just before my development has a few curves before getting here, and at ~12 or so over the speed limit it doesn't do well and needs a little help staying in the lane. At the speed limit it doesn't even nag. I've found if I follow the posted caution speeds for curves (I normally don't and just take them at a speed I feel comfortable with when I know the road) the car performs perfectly in most cases.

So basically, with autopilot, if you just slow down a bit it performs infinitely better. Even applies on the interstate. There are some small curves on I-40 nearby, and at ~+8 MPH from the speed limit it does well and never nags. At +15 it wants me to hold the wheel more often, although still not much. I think this is a data input speed/processing limitation causing less confidence rather than +X over the speed limit triggering more nags.
 
I think your video just illustrated why people shouldn't be using autosteer beta in construction areas. By definition construction areas are going to be unfinished, with lane markings that are works in progress, concrete put, temporarily, in places it won't be later or wasn't before, etc. Why would you expect the Model S to be able to safely navigate that?

Why would we expect anyone to not expect the Model S to drive itself in every conceivable scenario? After all, everyone seems to think it's autonomous and self driving. Also, big first bump to Tesla for releasing a feature like this in BETA form - a feature that can cause an accident.
 
Why would we expect anyone to not expect the Model S to drive itself in every conceivable scenario? After all, everyone seems to think it's autonomous and self driving. Also, big first bump to Tesla for releasing a feature like this in BETA form - a feature that can cause an accident.
Somehow I am missing a <sarcasm>...</sarcasm> tag in this post.
I am freaked out that Tesla would put this to general release, even admitting that it's beta.
Here's a sample headline: "Head-on collision on local highway, 4 dead, Tesla driver walks away with only minor injuries after using Tesla's latest firmware to auto-drive his car"
Sensationalist? Un-called-for? Or just "too soon"?
I get the excitement of the tech lovers for all this. But it completely freaks me out that this has been released and is apparently being pushed to all cars.
People in general don't have common sense. People will try stupid stuff. And sooner or later this will go badly wrong.
And yes, we can go straight to the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" discussion. But I somehow had hoped that my car wouldn't end up being comparable to a gun.
 
Somehow I am missing a <sarcasm>...</sarcasm> tag in this post.
I am freaked out that Tesla would put this to general release, even admitting that it's beta.
Here's a sample headline: "Head-on collision on local highway, 4 dead, Tesla driver walks away with only minor injuries after using Tesla's latest firmware to auto-drive his car"
Sensationalist? Un-called-for? Or just "too soon"?
I get the excitement of the tech lovers for all this. But it completely freaks me out that this has been released and is apparently being pushed to all cars.
People in general don't have common sense. People will try stupid stuff. And sooner or later this will go badly wrong.
And yes, we can go straight to the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" discussion. But I somehow had hoped that my car wouldn't end up being comparable to a gun.

I love technology. I'm the first to update my Mac, my iPhone, my whatever. But this... I just don't know. I'm glad that people are enjoying the new feature, and I have no doubt that in time it will be truly great. But... version 7 was already in "beta" with the "beta testers", was it not? And after it made it out of "beta", it is still released as a beta. Would we be comfortable if our Airbags were beta? How about a beta ABS? I suspect we wouldn't be comfortable with that.

I get that Tesla is pulling a demand lever here, and delivering on a year-old promise. And that's another thing... this has been over a year in development, including the UI, and after a full year we still get a beta that can drive you over a cliff if that's where the lines go. I am bracing myself for the inevitable and I hope it doesn't happen. But if it does, it will make the battery fires look like a walk in the park.
 
Somehow I am missing a ... tag in this post.
I am freaked out that Tesla would put this to general release, even admitting that it's beta.
Here's a sample headline: "Head-on collision on local highway, 4 dead, Tesla driver walks away with only minor injuries after using Tesla's latest firmware to auto-drive his car"
Sensationalist? Un-called-for? Or just "too soon"?
I get the excitement of the tech lovers for all this. But it completely freaks me out that this has been released and is apparently being pushed to all cars.
People in general don't have common sense. People will try stupid stuff. And sooner or later this will go badly wrong.
And yes, we can go straight to the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" discussion. But I somehow had hoped that my car wouldn't end up being comparable to a gun.



I think you need to relax. Ppl don't want to generally kill themselves driving a car. The system is flawless off ramp to on ramp and that is what tesla and Elon always said.

Testing out in other areas is a test. If someone just closes there eyes and says hmm lets just see what happens then sure accidents will happen but that is not teslas fault in any way. I have tested in single lane roads and I know it's not ready. So I would not trust it like the highway, not even close.

You are describing not releasing a perfect functioning system till its autonomous 4 level like google with no steering wheel or pedals. I think humans are not that dumb and we can adapt slowly till we reach that level. I think Elon thinks the same way.

Off ramp to on ramp it's flawless in my opinion after about 300 miles. My dad had it on. First time. He was scared. After a minute he went to self drive for a bit, during self drive he had a wheel go slightly over the right side shoulder white line for a second and corrected , so autopilot drove better than him cause it never even did that.

As many accidents as it may "cause" it will also save a ton more and that is not measurable unfortunately.
 
I did test it at low speeds around some sharp curves. It freaks out. Even at 18 MPH and a clear view of the entire curve it won't turn the wheel more than so far while attempting it before "TAKE OVER IMMEDIATELY" happens and it drifts out of the lane. That was a little disappointing. I figured at low speeds it could handle curves. It does, upon "seeing" the curve, immediately pop up with "Hold the wheel", but it will attempt it if you don't, and fail. The turns I tried were pretty easy, but tight. At 18 MPH you don't really get pulled into the door or anything, but I wouldn't take these curves at more than 35 or so, personally.

So you are saying no AutoPilot down the mountain to go tubing :p
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Taking kWh out of trip meter, moving IC battery meter to left, removing power gauge on AP cars... All to further move EV phobia cues for new buyers, I suspect. For those of us who want it, it's still there somewhere. More mainstreaming of Tesla. Keeping in mind the mission, I'm ok with it.

Regarding the instrument cluster display changes, I am a new owner and thus not terribly used to the old design. So I think I can more or less easily adapt to the changes.
But I do have a concern is that the fonts are simply too small in some applications. (And since I just had an eye exam, I know my eyes + prescription are just fine.) On the trip panel, e.g., the numbers can be clearly read, but not the legend text. I am sure it looked nice on someone's graphic design screen, but it is not sufficient to read at a glance when driving under real world conditions, in daylight, etc. I can certainly with without that panel's detail in front of me all the time, so I probably will not display it routinely. It will be a (small) loss in convenience to have to change the menu selection just to read the odometer. I can live with the changes to the speedometer and the energy panel, but I think the changes lost us some valuable information. I also agree with someone else's comment that it seems to be necessary to crank up the illumination level to see some of the finer details.

I do miss having the outside temp, time, and odo reading right in front of me, as I have been used to having them there in other cars for many years. But as I said, I am sure I will get used to those changes in time.

Hopefully, the relatively small issues can be addressed over time.

And by the way, since this thread seems to be mostly about the autopilot changes, should this comment have been made in another thread? I t was not obvious to me that there was one specifically for non-autopilot aspects of v7. So the moderator is certainly free to move this comment if it is better elsewhere. Thanks!
 
So you are saying no AutoPilot down the mountain to go tubing :p
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Definitely not. :(

Spots I tried weren't even nearly that bad. lol

While I think if it were able to go slower it might do OK, at the same time the single camera setup needs flow to determine depth. I'm sure the minimum speed has something to do with the quality of that data.
 
I have not seen it mention here, so I tried to use autopilot in valet mode this morning.

It is completely disabled as I hoped, so we don't have to worry about valets or tire shop guys trying it out on test drives without knowing the limits.
 
I love technology. I'm the first to update my Mac, my iPhone, my whatever. But this... I just don't know. I'm glad that people are enjoying the new feature, and I have no doubt that in time it will be truly great. But... version 7 was already in "beta" with the "beta testers", was it not? And after it made it out of "beta", it is still released as a beta. Would we be comfortable if our Airbags were beta? How about a beta ABS? I suspect we wouldn't be comfortable with that.

I don't think this is a good analogy. With ABS and airbags, you don't have a choice to disable them, whereas with autopilot, it is disabled by default and you have to engage it yourself, so I don't see this as a safety issue.