This is what EAP is supposedly for. But their sample sets are based on hardware configurations, not on actual owners who would test the crap out of their software.
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If they have a 1000 EAP testers like they say, there must be a lot of actual owners. More likely many of them are FOE (Friends of Elon). Probably focused on AP more than anything else.
jgs
Active Member
EAP should be the last stage in the process, when they think it's already solid. That's the thing -- there's no single "just do this and it's good" bullet -- "don't write bugs", "have a better EAP", all good, but in addition you need to do things like track and prioritize bugs rationally and consistently, not whip your developers back and forth from project to project, all the usual boring stuff. I'm sure there are others reading this who have forgotten more than I ever knew about running an effective dev org.
It's refreshing to see someone who actually understands how non-trivial software projects work.
I'd agree that the overall dev organization is broken. This is clear not just from the bugs, but the bizarre changes in features along with the stupid things like gratuitous UI changes like removing the source select button in 7.1(?) from the audio app on the touch screen, and removing the source selection capability on the right scroll wheel in 8.0. Or the absolutely stupid mucking around with the time and temperature displays. Why is temperature still not back on the top of the center screen.
But, in my mind, the biggest overall organizational issue is that the UI software team seems to have forgotten what their job is. It's to support the world's foremost personal transportation vehicle. If they understood that, they wouldn't change the UI to have grey on grey text with small fonts that require extra driver effort to read rather than being clear with a quick glance. If they understood their purpose within Tesla, they wouldn't have added auto-hide buttons that require extra driver screen presses to deal with. It's crazy that while multitasking between driving and screen operation, just as I'm about to touch a charger icon, the screen auto hides the top icons which makes the entire map shift and the thing I was just about to touch moves.
The organization is also very immature; no mature organization would let single individuals add what are clearly their idea of 'cool'. The purpose of the UI is not to be 'cool'; it's to support the operation of the world's best personal transportation vehicle.
BertL
Active Member
I simply don't believe the EAP even exists in the same form it may have once been. I know Elon has made statements in the past of 700 or 1000 people as part of EAP ...but honestly, if those people are still in place, they are not being directed well enough by Tesla as to what to focus on, or their input is not being properly considered before general distribution. With the larger number of "dot releases" that occur sometimes without a lot of time between them, I just don't see the EAP being used for each and every drop. I would like to hope an EAP is at least being used for the larger significant releases where all functions are given a thorough workout by targeted parts of the EAP before general distribution.
I recognize Tesla has a lot to be concerned with... basic safety and performance systems seem for the most part to be focused on which is a good thing, but UI and user-convenience functions like Infotainment and even Homelink when it was first deployed seem to have/had increasing quality problems where the fleet is doing real-world test that IMHO should never get past Beta/EAP with even a few owners focused on real-life use of these things. Perhaps it is Elon's intent to let the fleet do the final test of what he considers non-essential systems... If so, that may have served its purpose well in the early days, but with increasing cost of MS & MX, and a growing fleet that will soon see exponential growth with a different breed of owners, hopefully higher quality of all systems at initial deployment becomes the norm sooner than later. Tesla does not have a post-sale Customer Service infrastructure and processes to deal with failures if they happen to a lot of less-sophisticated owners. 8.1 will certainly be a good indicator if things are getting better, won't it?
I recognize Tesla has a lot to be concerned with... basic safety and performance systems seem for the most part to be focused on which is a good thing, but UI and user-convenience functions like Infotainment and even Homelink when it was first deployed seem to have/had increasing quality problems where the fleet is doing real-world test that IMHO should never get past Beta/EAP with even a few owners focused on real-life use of these things. Perhaps it is Elon's intent to let the fleet do the final test of what he considers non-essential systems... If so, that may have served its purpose well in the early days, but with increasing cost of MS & MX, and a growing fleet that will soon see exponential growth with a different breed of owners, hopefully higher quality of all systems at initial deployment becomes the norm sooner than later. Tesla does not have a post-sale Customer Service infrastructure and processes to deal with failures if they happen to a lot of less-sophisticated owners. 8.1 will certainly be a good indicator if things are getting better, won't it?
My opinion, based soley on observation, is that if there is some sort of early access program, it's really just in name only - any feedback beyond absolute show stoppers like "my car stopped in the middle of the road" is ignored because "we have to ship; it's too late to change it."
Tesla has no idea how to set schedules. Clearly, the folks at the bottom are whipped like animals and things are shoved out the door as soon as they appear to mostly work. There's no time for feedback. There's no time to catch and change the gratuitous changes made by individual engineers, who have little oversight ("there's no time") and who treat the UI as some sort of school project instead of something being used by thousands of people moving in deadly objects at freeway speeds.
There have been leaks by EAP over the past year or two that have shown up both here and other sites in the form of screenshots and the actual release showed significant changes from that. What we don't know is if those changes were a result of feedback from EAP, management or the dev team themselves. I don't think there are that many people working on the UI as most of the focus is on AP.
I'd prefer an alert or email. If Remote S implements horn honking I'll delete it in a New York minute.
It has an alert as well, and the horn honking is optional. Are you saying if Remote S added an option horn honking feature that you would stop using it? Really?
S100D
Member
SG, do you have any plans to port your Android application to iPhone?
Calm down, if you wrote it was optional I missed it.
SG57
Former Vendor
@S85D , I do have iOS plans in the far future, but I have a lot of great ideas I want to see realized on Android before I switch platforms to iOS. Another note on iOS, due to Apple's restrictions that I have no control over some features are rendered either impossible, not user-friendly at all on iOS, these include all the services on Android- plug-in reminder, smart charging, camper mode, scheduled behaviors, and cabin temperature protection. :\
@msnow , I may not have mentioned it would be optional in my original post that sparked the idea, but the release post and screenshots show the plug-in reminder service is optional, and when enabled its honk horn option is optional. It will always show a status bar notification with an action to turn off the reminder.
@msnow , I may not have mentioned it would be optional in my original post that sparked the idea, but the release post and screenshots show the plug-in reminder service is optional, and when enabled its honk horn option is optional. It will always show a status bar notification with an action to turn off the reminder.
There will be a "Firmware 8.1" thread created when the actual software starts rolling out. The general thread for mobile apps is here: Phone App: iPhone/Android app
HankLloydRight
No Roads
And while I'm trying to "own it" as @ohmman suggested, if by chance I'm not online at that particular moment, whoever does create the official "Firmware 8.1" threads, I'd like to again request we have three threads:
Firmware 8.1 Autopilot discussion
Firmware 8.1 for the Classics [non-AP]
Firmware 8.1 General [features common to both]
Thanks.
BertL
Active Member
Hank, how about just creating the threads now AYC with a first post to say what the intent is for each, and perhaps a pointer to the other two. Hopefully people don't clutter them with nonsense until the real event occurs, but if so, it's easy to scroll down and ignore!
