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Holiday Update

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The Light Show was a big hit tonight at a family get together.

I know Tesla put a lot of effort into rolling out this Holiday update (it seemed to require a massive rollout to 44.6 as a prerequisite). It was worth it. Our family including kids and grandkids, loved the lightshow. The kids and grandkids might not know anything about the car, but they will remember the Christmas light show in the driveway for many years.
 
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OMG...this 2021 holiday update is a ***massive*** step backwards for the user interface on Tesla vehicles, and I'm going to hold off installing it as long as I possibly can.

I thought the 2020 holiday update was bad enough (e.g., "Hey...let's make the speedometer small, the same size as other numerical symbols, and put it on the left of a row of other numerical data, causing the mind to have to take an extra half a second to be sure it's looking at *SPEED*...).

But this 2021 thing is a horrid, awful mess. Holy h*ll, it's terrible.

A few quick observations:

1. The cheesy MacOS-style icons with clashing colors are terrible.

2. It looks like there's no simple list of "Favorites" and "Recents" across all audio sources anymore??? Can that possibly be true? It's now a multi-step process to get into each audio source independently and then select from favorites or recents within each individual audio source app? That's !&^@%$# insane.

3. Where the heck did the WiFi and Bluetooth icons go in the upper right??? Those were massively useful to get into those settings and also monitor LTE signal strength to see if it was related to connectivity losses while driving.

4. The comments some others are making about how getting to defrost controls and wiper settings now forces you to fumble through menus while you're driving?

5. Also, what happened to the quick-select button to turn sentry on or off that was on the main display in the upper right corner? It's just gone? JFC, this is a mess...just like the last holiday update.

6. Overall, there's a ton of things that you used to be able to get to quickly (tire pressures, odometer, LTE and Bluetooth, Sentry on/off) that are now diving through menus.

7. You can't monitor your Wh/mi in a card right under the car anymore? Why? OMG.

JFC. Tesla shouldn't be allowed to make these levels of changes to the *!&!^%@$ interface. It's nuts.

- B
 
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Ok — 2 big gripes. The blind spot camera is an interesting idea, but there should be some ability to limit it: either above a certain speed or on highways only. It’s distracting and unnecessary on local roads every time you turn.

But my bigger bummer is that the trip computer on the main screen appears to be gone! Half the fun of driving the car for me was trying to maximize (or minimize, actually) my wh/mi. Now I don’t know how to watch that in real time anymore. Any help?
This is my main complaint too.
 
Ok — 2 big gripes. The blind spot camera is an interesting idea, but there should be some ability to limit it: either above a certain speed or on highways only. It’s distracting and unnecessary on local roads every time you turn.
I guess being able to set a limit would be useful, but for people in the city, it's important to see down the side of the car even at slow speeds (pedestrians/ bicyclists, etc)
 
LOL, all the angst here - it was the same at the last big UI change right around the time I got my car. I'm sure a couple of things will happen - 1) Tesla will fix a few things. 2) We'll get used to the way things look now. 3) We'll come up with some shortcuts/learn the new UI and realize it probably isn't quite as bad as it seems.
Lot of angst! Your observations are spot on. I like the update.
 
Overall I'm liking much about the update. I especially like the blind spot camera thing, although I too agree it should be on top rather than the bottom. I'm trying to like changes to the map guidance during navigation. It seems if you are navigating you only see a reduced amount of detail of the route. And if you are not navigating you do not get the names of most roads on the display.
 
I can get used to the new interface - eventually. It's just a fact of digital life that UI's change and we all don't like to have to adjust to the "new" look & placement of things we were used to. And invariably the new UI screws up somethings that worked perfectly well.

My largest issue is the limited number of apps (?) that are available for the customizable ribbon. Almost all of the issues being raised here could be solved by a significantly enlarged number of the actions available to park there.

PS - loved the light show!
 
Change is inevitably challenging to most and comes with some resistance/growing pains. However, this is the only vehicle on the market where you basically get a “new car” with updates like this. You didn’t have to purchase the update, yet you had features added to your car. PLUS, some of those features are pure gifts like the light show and new games. What other auto manufacturers do things like this for their customers? Basically none. Just think we all need to remember a couple things here… Tesla did not become Tesla by doing what all other companies do, it’s unique in every single way and Elon is a scientist, there is contestant R&D taking place in each of our vehicles to advance technology at an exponential rate...AI, EVs, etc… You sign up for that when you buy a Tesla… Maybe most importantly, what’s great about this forum and everything mentioned is that Elon/Tesla actually listen to their customers, make adjustments, improvements, etc. He actually responds to people on Twitter and someone with his money could just quit, retire, and go enjoy the endless funds he’s earned in life thus far… yet, he continues to try and push the envelope. I think this update will grow on everyone, I love the new UI overall and think there’s definitely some great points made here for even more fine tuning. Most importantly, enjoy being part of the journey, all of this is pretty incredible when you really think about some of these ‘complaints’ and everything.