Holiday Update (2021.44.25.2)- A Big Disappointment

[bodosom]

I think to some extent Tesla shot themselves in the foot (again). I suspect a number of ligitimate complaints would be minimized if the alternatives were properly documented and if the documents were available at or prior to release as a download. E.g.
The Not A Tesla App write-up via Reddit describes the hard way of bringing of climate controls and doesn't mention swiping up. Perhaps everyone thinks this is an easy discovery because it's an exisiting action that now does something completely different. Likewise you can bring up the mini-climate by tapping a temperature change arrow ('<' or '>') but 1) that's a very small target and 2) it changes the temp. Just by a one degree but it's an obvious error. Or consider the headlight pop-up. I wonder how many people have discovered that?

Back in the day car ergonomics assumed the operator was wearing gloves in the winter so your AC/Delco radio had buttons and knobs you could operate while wearing mittens. After-market audio systems commonly had affordances that were suitable for household use rather than automotive use making liberal use of tiny touch targets and impossible to read legends. Tesla seems to forgotten their automotive roots as they rush down the same path. What's most annoying is that none of these mistakes had to be made. They could have made sensible use of a giant screen rather than acting as if you should buy a Model S if you want nice things.

I'm just glad we have excellent AT&T mobile service everywhere we drive because not having voice commands would be sad.

 

[_Redshift_]

I think to some extent Tesla shot themselves in the foot (again). I suspect a number of ligitimate complaints would be minimized if the alternatives were properly documented and if the documents were available at or prior to release as a download. E.g.
The Not A Tesla App write-up via Reddit describes the hard way of bringing of climate controls and doesn't mention swiping up. Perhaps everyone thinks this is an easy discovery because it's an exisiting action that now does something completely different. Likewise you can bring up the mini-climate by tapping a temperature change arrow ('<' or '>') but 1) that's a very small target and 2) it changes the temp. Just by a one degree but it's an obvious error. Or consider the headlight pop-up. I wonder how many people have discovered that?

Back in the day car ergonomics assumed the operator was wearing gloves in the winter so your AC/Delco radio had buttons and knobs you could operate while wearing mittens. After-market audio systems commonly had affordances that were suitable for household use rather than automotive use making liberal use of tiny touch targets and impossible to read legends. Tesla seems to forgotten their automotive roots as they rush down the same path. What's most annoying is that none of these mistakes had to be made. They could have made sensible use of a giant screen rather than acting as if you should buy a Model S if you want nice things.

I'm just glad we have excellent AT&T mobile service everywhere we drive because not having voice commands would be sad.

Actually the voice commands were unavailable due to connectivity issues in Fremont, just 3 miles from my home yesterday.

Tesla, if you are reading this - this is beyond ridiculous. Before someone gets hurt badly or worse due to your stupid UX engineers, fix the issues!

 

[_Redshift_]

Had exactly Patp's windshield experience experience earlier - went through a cold, icy spot on a twisty road well away from cell towers (hence no voice commands), screen fogged within moments, and darned if I could work through the new multi-clicks quickly enough to find the windshield defrost button safely. As a safety priority, please bring back the simple one-click windshield defrost button ASAP!

Absolutely. Yesterday, I was at a party at a friends house just 3 miles away, and close to the Tesla Fremont factory, actually. After I got in the car to drive back at night, the car displayed ‘no voice commands available due to connectivity issues’ after I asked the defrost to be turned on.

This is madness. There is very little testing of these changes in the car. Tesla is screwing this one up royally.

 

[MrWattson]

The removal of the defrost is a really bad design decision. Same with moving tire pressure and removing it as a voice command at the same time

 

[Zhe Wiz]

The removal of the defrost is a really bad design decision. Same with moving tire pressure and removing it as a voice command at the same time

I agree with the defrost button move. Not a huge change, but not an improvement either.

But, why must you view the tire pressures while driving? OK, a quick check before you leave, more maybe you heard something funny and want to check (two taps, not that big of a deal). But really, why does it need to be immediate like defrost/windshield wipers/lights? If there's an issue, you'll be warned, otherwise not much to see.

It's odd to me that so many people are bent out of shape about not being able to watch the tire pressures while driving.

 

[Calliope]

I haven't updated yet -- don't have WiFi until I get back to work in January -- but I'm not really looking forward to seeing what it will bring me. I'm not a fan of voice commands, because I often roll the button while I'm trying to compress it, but I'm trying to get used to it. Organizing the commands in menus doesn't make them easier to use while driving, it just makes them easier to find while not driving, so I am curious about the utility of things. I think I'm now going to have to sit in my car for a half hour and find everything I might need in a hurry while driving.

To bad we can't have a customized row of icons on the screen for the commands we use most often.......then again, Tesla's not big on customization. Like Apple, they insist that they know what's best for us, whether we like it or not.

Well, at least I still have Superchargers.......

 

[tdwin2000]

I was driving to work this morning. I DO have FSD on both of our Tesla's (3 and Y). FSD Beta is for city streets and when on the highway, for it to exit an offramp or enter an onramp you MUST use NAV on AUTOPILOT. Well, since the Christmas update, when I enter my office address (or any address) and tap for FSD, it works great on the city streets but the NAV on AUTOPILOT grey bar (which turns blue when you tap it) is no longer there. Anyone else experience this? I DID DO a soft reset and hold in the scroll wheels after realizing this and still not working

 

[ZetaWagon]

I was driving to work this morning. I DO have FSD on both of our Tesla's (3 and Y). FSD Beta is for city streets and when on the highway, for it to exit an offramp or enter an onramp you MUST use NAV on AUTOPILOT. Well, since the Christmas update, when I enter my office address (or any address) and tap for FSD, it works great on the city streets but the NAV on AUTOPILOT grey bar (which turns blue when you tap it) is no longer there. Anyone else experience this? I DID DO a soft reset and hold in the scroll wheels after realizing this and still not working

I think they made it a smaller boxy icon on the left.

 

[MY-user]

First, the controls are more logical. Tire pressure seems a service-y thing to me, and intuitively a first-time user would look there.

Second, you can now add specific apps to the menu bar, so you get to choose what is quick access.

Overall, I dont see any particularly negative changes, apart from muscle-memory issues. Possibly the only thing which is a bit odd is hiding the driver profiles under the Control menu, since you cannot see which profile is chosen at a glance (more important for people like me with multiple profiles, no doubt).

The car should recognize and change the profile based on the Bluetooth signal. The only situation when it doesn't work is when two signals are detected and the secondary driver wants to drive.

 

[bro1999]

We actually had rain the other day here in LA, and I'd say the M3 rain sensing has improved considerably over the downpour it took to trigger auto-wipe back in 2019. Still not quite as good as the old Corolla, which has a real rain sensor, especially at night.

I've found auto-wiper systems in all cars I've driven (Model 3 included) to be below average to terrible. Can't believe we can send people the the moon but can't design a good rain-sensing auto wiper system.

 

[CaseyL]

In fact, if you look quietly through the various screens, you will see that the organization is much more logical .. things are grouped together better (e.g. tire pressure in service menu), and the elimination of the card interface (which a new owner would NEVER find by themselves) is a good step imho. Tesla are selling a LOT of cars now, that means most buyers are new ... and the new UI will benefit them imho. Is it perfect? of course not, and I've already mentioned a few places where it needs to be refined (wait for them to move user profiles back to the main screen).

I installed the Holiday update on Christmas Eve and played the lightshow a few times for our kids and grandkids. Loved it! I didn't move the car or explore the menus at all until driving off this Monday morning. After reading all the comments, I expected to be massively confused. It really wasn't that bad at all. The logical groupings really make sense, especially if you weren't used to doing things the "old way". I was worried about how hard it would be to switch driver profiles since our MY seems to get confused about that. Hit the little car icon on the lower right and the driver profile icon is right on top of the controls menu, along with the "missing" cell signal indicator (I assume the WiFi meter will be there as well). So now it takes three presses to change profiles instead of two.

It takes just two presses total to find either the tire pressure or the trip odometers. Yes they cover the map now, but I always had trouble swiping to bring up the old cards. Half of the time, all I managed to do was to spin the car around in the visualization window.

Since I live in Florida, the relocated defrost icon doesn't bother me much. However, I can see why others in colder climates are very concerned about it.

I know a lot of people disagree, but I actually like the new UI.

 

[bodosom]

I've found auto-wiper systems in all cars I've driven (Model 3 included) to be below average to terrible. Can't believe we can send people the the moon but can't design a good rain-sensing auto wiper system.

The one in our 2009 MINI Cooper was perfect until the windshield was replaced. Then it was just good. Plus the fact that it kept running for a few minutes after parking was adorable. The Model Y system is pretty bad. Sitting in Drive in a light drizzle and it runs at speed 4 until you start moving. Or the opposite. I assume the system is pure vision and the camera area isn't representative of the windshield as a whole.

However I don't find the V11 UX any better or worse than the V10.

 

[Mrbrock]

Google or Samsung can put out a mess of an interface on their next update, and while it will annoy the *#&@ out of me it also will not be critical. This is a vehicle, not a toy cell phone. If anything I would expect UI modifications that would improve for safety reasons, but this update is clear that it did not have safety in mind but rather like the idiotic light show just want to be hip & cool. The screen was a functional terminal that could have used some improvements but now looks more like an iphone.

If anything, I could have at least respected being given the option.

You have the option, do no connect to wifi. You will be notified an update is available but will not be able to download it. Then you can read all about it and see it in action before you choose to connect to WiFi and download it.

 

[jkeyser14]

I agree with the defrost button move. Not a huge change, but not an improvement either.

But, why must you view the tire pressures while driving? OK, a quick check before you leave, more maybe you heard something funny and want to check (two taps, not that big of a deal). But really, why does it need to be immediate like defrost/windshield wipers/lights? If there's an issue, you'll be warned, otherwise not much to see.

It's odd to me that so many people are bent out of shape about not being able to watch the tire pressures while driving.

You can't check the pressure before driving, it only reads the sensors after the car has started moving.

Also, I often check the tire pressure if I think the car is handling a little funny, or after hitting large potholes, sticks in the road, driving past accident sites that were never cleaned up, construction sites, etc.

 

[bodosom]

You can't check the pressure before driving, it only reads the sensors after the car has started moving.

Also, I often check the tire pressure if I think the car is handling a little funny, or after hitting large potholes, sticks in the road, driving past accident sites that were never cleaned up, construction sites, etc.

Yeah, however I would say this isn't newly broken in V11 it's just broken since you're supposed to check cold tire pressure. I don't know the minimum distance you have to move to 'wake up' the display but it should work after the car has been stationary for an hour or two without moving. On our other car I can check via the app without going to the car. Also I don't know what the sensitivity of the Tesla warning is but on our other car it alarms at 8 PSI (20%) below rating which I consider to be too late.

 

[OxBrew]

Hit the little car icon on the lower right and the driver profile icon is right on top of the controls menu, along with the "missing" cell signal indicator

Yeah, but you can park the Spotify app on the ribbon for 1 click access, so you know, priorities.

I actually think the overall UI logic is pretty good, but they just missed a few details. The new layout simplifies each screen, so there's less to be distracted by, that's probably better.

Just allow us to add defrost, seat heaters, driver profiles, if we want to, to the control bar.

Then set left scroll wheel to adjust wiper settings just while wiper controls are active, after stalk button push.

Do that, and I'll learn all the other changes.

Oh wait, the music situation sucks too, that needs to go back to the old way. Not enough room for all the options we use, period, before (future, we hope) adding defrost and seat heaters.

So points for a lot of the simplification, but still no marks for basic functionality.

People on V11 in S and X for months, and you put up with this? Must be something different? A few physical buttons, right?

 

[jcanoe]

Yeah, however I would say this isn't newly broken in V11 it's just broken since you're supposed to check cold tire pressure. I don't know the minimum distance you have to move to 'wake up' the display but it should work after the car has been stationary for an hour or two without moving. On our other car I can check via the app without going to the car. Also I don't know what the sensitivity of the Tesla warning is but on our other car it alarms at 8 PSI (20%) below rating which I consider to be too late.

Reading the tire pressure does not require waking up the display, only waking up the TPMS sensors in each wheel. You only need to drive a short distance, in my experience I only need to drive past a few houses on my street before the TPMS sensors start transmitting the tire pressure. The cold tire pressure reading is not going to measureably change until you have driven more than 1 mile.

 

[SidetrackedSue]

But, why must you view the tire pressures while driving?

Change in handling of the car, is it the surface or is a tire losing air? Quick swipe (made all the easier because I always drive with the consumption card on) to see if something is happening before it gets to the crucial stage that my car notifies me.

As well, in cold weather my tire temp will drop many, many PSI and I need to see if, when the tires are warm, they are running at too high a pressure for the road conditions.

 

[SidetrackedSue]

I’m sorry it takes you hours to get home.

It doesn't but I'd no more put my pizza in the deep freeze for 15 minutes when I've got home, than I would put it in my frunk for the 15 minute drive home. The anecdote about the frozen veggies was to show that my frunk is currently a fully functional deep freeze.

 

[mcm50s60s]

I'm enjoying how you can customize the bar at the bottom with the apps you want to see, like talk or message, as example. I wish more of the display was customizable.