Firmware 8.0

[Cyclone]

Don't know if this was just a problem I was having, but under 7.1 when I initiated listen for a call, the UI would only bring up my address book and I had to select the contact to dial out. Under V8, making the command cause the dial out, or reading a phone number initiates the call. So I am finally where I was with my 2013 volt, four years later.

The automatic call out is only under two circumstances (both must be true):
1 - The speech recognition has high confidence (accurately or not) on which contact you said
2 - That contact only has one phone number in the contact details

If either of the above are untrue, you will get the popup. Personally, I would prefer the pop-up ALL THE TIME, and if I don't select something within X or Y seconds, the contact is automatically called if they have only one entry. I would also love an automatic call out (with the above X or Y second pause) if we could say "Mom Mobile" if you have a contact card called "Mom" and has "Mobile" and "Home" as entries under the contact details.

 

[Alex D]

Just got the Version 8 update (first time, previous was 7.1) and it looks like I got it just at the right time (Ver 2.42.40). It actually fixes a few of the issues I read from others here:

1. USB search: Using the "Play" command now also searches your USB library.
2. (Not so sure about this one) It looks like the loading time for a USB drive has improved. After the installation I tested the new media player with Slacker first. By the time I was ready to look into the USB features, my drive was completely loaded and ready to play. Now I only have a little bit over 4,000 songs, so not the biggest library. But it was already loaded.
3. USB alphabetical index is back! Yay! You can now (again) select a letter on the right hand side and jump directly to it!
4. @Cyclone looks like they heard you. Initiating a phone call via voice command to a contact with several numbers now initiates a display in the IC, showing you Home/Mobile/Work etc. and you can select with the scroll wheel which number to dial!

Just a quick update after taking a 10 minute look at the update. I haven't had time to drive it, yet. So I'm not sure what else is new, but these are major improvements I just happen to notice.

 

[iffatall]

Just got the Version 8 update (first time, previous was 7.1) and it looks like I got it just at the right time (Ver 2.42.40). It actually fixes a few of the issues I read from others here:

1. USB search: Using the "Play" command now also searches your USB library.
2. (Not so sure about this one) It looks like the loading time for a USB drive has improved. After the installation I tested the new media player with Slacker first. By the time I was ready to look into the USB features, my drive was completely loaded and ready to play. Now I only have a little bit over 4,000 songs, so not the biggest library. But it was already loaded.
3. USB alphabetical index is back! Yay! You can now (again) select a letter on the right hand side and jump directly to it!
4. @Cyclone looks like they heard you. Initiating a phone call via voice command to a contact with several numbers now initiates a display in the IC, showing you Home/Mobile/Work etc. and you can select with the scroll wheel which number to dial!

Just a quick update after taking a 10 minute look at the update. I haven't had time to drive it, yet. So I'm not sure what else is new, but these are major improvements I just happen to notice.

Wow... now I feel terrible for complaining non stop here

 

[BertL]

Wow... now I feel terrible for complaining non stop here

IMHO you shouldn't feel bad at all.

Speaking for myself as just one owner, I expect higher quality and Tesla to provide increasing consideration of what real owners want and desire as time progresses and Tesla grows up -- not some pretty obvious take-always and quality misses like we've seen with Media Player USB and perhaps other places in the initial drop of 8.0.

 

[ucsdsig]

Thanks for the heads up! 1 of 5 here too. Maybe I'll swing by the sales center sometime this week...

Just to look at some showroom Teslas... yeah that's it, just to look...

nothing to do with the hope that geo-fencing might work...

I dropped off my Model S Tuesday at the Van Nuys service center. On Wednesday I received a notification on my phone that a software update was available and a subsequent notification that the car had been updated.

Picked up the car today and saw it had been updated to 2.40.21 (previously 2.36.108).

 

[JClu]

Went to my local SC this afternoon. They were able to "manually" install the latest (2.42.40) version of 8.0. Hopefully this version of 8.0 fixed the bugs people reported earlier.

 

[CuriousG]

4. @Cyclone looks like they heard you. Initiating a phone call via voice command to a contact with several numbers now initiates a display in the IC, showing you Home/Mobile/Work etc. and you can select with the scroll wheel which number to dial!

I have the first released 8.0 and it does that for me now. Did I miss something?

 

[Cyclone]

I have the first released 8.0 and it does that for me now. Did I miss something?

No, you didn't. @Alex D upgraded from v7.1, so he was unaware that this is the behavior 8 has always exhibited and the behavior I want changed because it only occurs for contacts that have more than one number. Still, it is good to see Tesla making enhancements to the complaints we have posited.

This is my thoughts for contact details if Tesla is listening...

The automatic call out is only under two circumstances (both must be true):
1 - The speech recognition has high confidence (accurately or not) on which contact you said
2 - That contact only has one phone number in the contact details

If either of the above are untrue, you will get the popup. Personally, I would prefer the pop-up ALL THE TIME, and if I don't select something within X or Y seconds, the contact is automatically called if they have only one entry. I would also love an automatic call out (with the above X or Y second pause) if we could say "Mom Mobile" if you have a contact card called "Mom" and has "Mobile" and "Home" as entries under the contact details.

 

[JHellow]

The automatic call out is only under two circumstances (both must be true):
1 - The speech recognition has high confidence (accurately or not) on which contact you said
2 - That contact only has one phone number in the contact details

If either of the above are untrue, you will get the popup. Personally, I would prefer the pop-up ALL THE TIME, and if I don't select something within X or Y seconds, the contact is automatically called if they have only one entry. I would also love an automatic call out (with the above X or Y second pause) if we could say "Mom Mobile" if you have a contact card called "Mom" and has "Mobile" and "Home" as entries under the contact details.

7.1 never worked that way for me. If there was only one number for the contact, it never auto-dialed. I asked the SC about it when 7.1 first came out and was told that's the way it works, you just get a pop up no auto dial. And noe auto dial by just reading a number is great.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Clearly Tesla ignored the EAP folks. Why would their ex-apple UI folks give a toss what the actual drivers of the car want?

Actually, Tesla's lead UI designer previously worked for Apple and he left Tesla in late 2014. What you are seeing in version 8 is what Tesla has come up with after the Apple people left.

 

[Cyclone]

7.1 never worked that way for me. If there was only one number for the contact, it never auto-dialed. I asked the SC about it when 7.1 first came out and was told that's the way it works, you just get a pop up no auto dial. And noe auto dial by just reading a number is great.

I'm not talking about 7.1 in the post you quoted. I'm talking about 8.0.

 

[sillydriver]

Just updated from 7.1 to 2.42.40. Based on the consensus of discussion around here I expected that pressing familiar icons would trigger the ejection seat at random. Yet compared with this low hurdle of expectations, my first drive using 8.0 was not catastrophic. I can tune the radio. I noticed that if you want to continuously view the app icons on the top you just need to swap the map out of the top half of the screen. A test of AP gave me no nags, but I did have a death grip on the wheel. Autosteer does wobble slightly when it drives through tree shadows, but at no point did it try to fling me off the road. The next step is to load a flash drive with music and see if I crash while going through the procedure to select a song. Wish me luck.

 

[thecloud]

I noticed that if you want to continuously view the app icons on the top you just need to swap the map out of the top half of the screen.

You're being dismissive, but this is a legitimate concern. In talking to other owners and reading the forums, it's my understanding that most people prefer to have the map in the top half of the display, closer to eye level. Why should I have to give up my preferred slot for the map just so I can also view the status area safely?

The current behavior in 8.0 is arguably more dangerous, because it forces you to tap on the map, then wait for it to reduce and show the status bar. Your eyes are off the road longer because you cannot immediately reach over and perform an action with one tap, or view status without any taps.

 

[Alex D]

You're being dismissive, but this is a legitimate concern. In talking to other owners and reading the forums, it's my understanding that most people prefer to have the map in the top half of the display, closer to eye level. Why should I have to give up my preferred slot for the map just so I can also view the status area safely?

The current behavior in 8.0 is arguably more dangerous, because it forces you to tap on the map, then wait for it to reduce and show the status bar. Your eyes are off the road longer because you cannot immediately reach over and perform an action with one tap, or view status without any taps.

While I actually like the feature, I agree. It should be an option to turn on or off in the settings.

 

[mrElbe]

Got 8.0 2.42.40 last night and shuffled off to Buffalo this morning and gave it a good test.
1. Every screen is now a washed out grey with no real contrast.
2. The distance to the next turn is now on top of the instruction but in tiny grey on white print.
3. The calculated State of Charge at the destination is now a smaller icon and tiny print.

This washed out grey "modern" interface might be alright for a tablet while sitting in an easy chair at the fireplace but in an automotive application we need high contrast because while driving we use quick glances away from the road to get information from the screen.
When you have to put on your reading glasses and lean forward to gawk at the tiny print on the screen that is an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Skotty]

I finally got 8.0. Mine is 2.42.40. They might be tweaking the software and listening to feedback, as a lot of the issues I was expecting appear to have been fixed, and so far I'm happy with it. Though this is just first impressions. There is an alpha shortcut for music lists, the icons look better than what I saw previously (I got a glimpse of 8.0 by chance in a car back in beta), and several features that were not there before to me seem quite nice, like being able to do voice search of USB. The configurable trip meters are quite nice. If they can fix all the glitches some folks have experienced with music playback and screen reboots, then I think I will be happy with it.

 

[TexasEV]

Got 8.0 2.42.40 last night and shuffled off to Buffalo this morning and gave it a good test.
1. Every screen is now a washed out grey with no real contrast.
2. The distance to the next turn is now on top of the instruction but in tiny grey on white print.
3. The calculated State of Charge at the destination is now a smaller icon and tiny print.

This washed out grey "modern" interface might be alright for a tablet while sitting in an easy chair at the fireplace but in an automotive application we need high contrast because while driving we use quick glances away from the road to get information from the screen.
When you have to put on your reading glasses and lean forward to gawk at the tiny print on the screen that is an accident waiting to happen.

It's likely that these UI problems that bug (pardon the pun) those of us with older eyes werent noticed by the beta testers because few if any of Tesla's beta testers are age 60+.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I'm 47 and I find Tesla's UI to be completely anemic in terms of appearance. Terrible contrast. I mean WTF... the time is displayed as white but AM/PM is grey and hard to see. I guess Tesla decided that nobody needs to be able to see whether it's AM or PM? What designer on earth thinks that breaking up the time into two different colors like this makes sense?

It's almost like Tesla hired some kid who just discovered that he or she can make things semi-transparent in Photoshop. Not unlike when someone is first exposed to a multitude of fonts for the very first time, they think it's cool to use different fonts because they can. Would be nice if Tesla actually hired experienced people. Seems like every Tesla job posting requires a Bachelor's Degree, but none require actual experience.

 

[ccharleb]

I guess Tesla decided that nobody needs to be able to see whether it's AM or PM?

AM or PM? What's that? after 12, it's 13, 14.... up to 23:59, no?

Joke aside, with the auto-hide of the status bar+shortcuts bar on the 17" screen, when status bar is hidden, actual time displayed over the map is very hard to read...why hiding that status+shortcuts bar??

 

[Cyclone]

AM or PM? What's that? after 12, it's 13, 14.... up to 23:59, no?

Joke aside, with the auto-hide of the status bar+shortcuts bar on the 17" screen, when status bar is hidden, actual time displayed over the map is very hard to read...why hiding that status+shortcuts bar??

I've said it before, even with the decision to expand the map over the app icons (without an option to enable/disable that behavior), they should not have had it partially obscure the status bar. The app icons gain you 1.5" - 2" of extra map space, but the 0.25" - 0.5" of the status bar would not have made that big of a difference in the maps.