I took my car in for this issue. The service department had never heard of this. Upon checking in with engineering, they confirmed that there is indeed some thermostatic monitoring going on, resulting in the heating element being switched off until some condition is reached. It is off long enough that I get cold, since I am depending mostly upon the seat heater to stay warm and conserve power.
Turning off the heating element completely makes it impossible to maintain a consistent level of comfort over an extended drive. In my opinion, the system if overreacting, and the heating element is switched off for way too long, resulting in the seat going cold.
I don't see why it is necessary to switch it off at all, rather than just scaled back a bit. If the heat can sustain the "3" setting (which is too hot for me to endure once it warms up the seat) for any length of time, I don't see how the "1" setting needs to be scaled back for any reason. And since the heating level is performed through duty-cycle adjustments, I don't see why the duty cycle can't be reduced instead of completely turning off the heating element.
If others find the behavior of the seat heating unsatisfactory, I hope you will provide feedback to Tesla to help get this changed. Its behavior can be changed through software. The programmers who code this don't live in cold climates. We will have single-digit temperatures here over the next few days, which is something the programmers don't experience.
Turning off the heating element completely makes it impossible to maintain a consistent level of comfort over an extended drive. In my opinion, the system if overreacting, and the heating element is switched off for way too long, resulting in the seat going cold.
I don't see why it is necessary to switch it off at all, rather than just scaled back a bit. If the heat can sustain the "3" setting (which is too hot for me to endure once it warms up the seat) for any length of time, I don't see how the "1" setting needs to be scaled back for any reason. And since the heating level is performed through duty-cycle adjustments, I don't see why the duty cycle can't be reduced instead of completely turning off the heating element.
If others find the behavior of the seat heating unsatisfactory, I hope you will provide feedback to Tesla to help get this changed. Its behavior can be changed through software. The programmers who code this don't live in cold climates. We will have single-digit temperatures here over the next few days, which is something the programmers don't experience.
