How satisfied are you with the non-AP (Classic) V7.0

[HankLloydRight]

This has become the new "norm" unfortunately, due to all the script kiddies who took over programming jobs but never learned to program in an actual programming language, so they just use interpreted scripting languages that provide 100x slower performance on the same hardware, therefore they need to use "light" graphics. Where "light" should be translated as cheap, low quality, easily scriptable.

While I'm not a fan of the new UI (I'm not upgrading until I see what 7.1 brings).. I think this assessment isn't really fair.

While wk57 and dirkhh and I disagree on certain things relating to the new UI, I think they would back me up in saying that this interface isn't "scripted" with "light" 1980's graphics done by script-kiddies with no experience in real programming languages. Rather, this was a top-down DESIGN decision to go with what they're calling a "new, modern look" and the existing development team that brought us 6.2 and all firmware versions before that simply responded to the new design language direction handed down from the ivory tower.

A lot of information previously visible is now missing or hidden, requires interaction to access instead of just a glance.
Very bad direction...

Gone are the days of manually optimized bit operations to get the maximum performance out of a hardware...

I totally agree with you on these two points.

 

[jbw550313]

I agree about the battery indication. I have to consciously remember to look for it.

 

[Merrill]

I would like the battery and mileage back in the center and need the mileage to be there at all times. My Nav is flakey sometimes with full 3G I have a blank nav, rebooted twice. Also even with the display brightness at 100% I have a hard time seeing the left screen navigation map when it is in use.

 

[apacheguy]

Tesla should move the toy car to a "car status" app and thus make it optional for those who like it. This would clear the way for the battery gauge to move back to its rightful location on the dash.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Tesla should move the toy car to a "car status" app and thus make it optional for those who like it. This would clear the way for the battery gauge to move back to its rightful location on the dash.

I agree. Have just one "Car Status" app that shows:

Tire pressure
Lock status
Open doors
Headlights
High beams
Tail lights (turn signals remain on main console)
Brake lights
Seat heaters
Pano Setting
Trunk/frunk status
A/C settings

And put it all into one of the side apps.

 

[jerry33]

I agree. Have just one "Car Status" app that shows:

Tire pressure
Lock status
Open doors
Headlights
High beams
Tail lights (turn signals remain on main console)
Brake lights
Seat heaters
Pano Setting
Trunk/frunk status
A/C settings

And put it all into one of the side apps.

And there is a silly clock side-app that could be removed to make room for this kind of useful information.

 

[Johann Koeber]

I can get used to the look. Not sure if it is a great improvement.

Would love an altitude reading to enhance my mileage predictions. The info must be in the GPS somewhere, but is hidden to us.

I haven't found the tire pressure reading (haven't searched yet).

Unfortunately the car hold (previously hill hold) was not improved. Does someone know the reason for that. The unpredictable behaviour can cause problems. Parking spaces can be very small here in Europe. Taking my foot off the brake, I am never sure whether the car will budge a few inches before I hit the accelerator. Can't hit the accelerator too hard in order not to bump front car. In the meantime car might slip a few inches toward behand car.

The new function of the car hold would aleviate that. But it seems to be only offered for sensor equipped cars.

 

[CO2Saver]

I miss the big speedo/energy virtual gauge in the center. Pride of place, attractive and functional, proudly displaying what Tesla is really good at, managing the flow of energy in and out of the battery.

Now I have a flat, dead white avatar there right below my line of sight where a good speedo gauge belongs: artificial looking and totally boring on the road. Whoever thought this was an improvement? I like to see the brake lights, but this is the one that should be relegated to an inferior side position.

And I really hate that they made it less readable in the process. I could read the old one just fine, but I have to squint to read the this one on the side. Apparently the kids in Fremont have not heard of, much less reached, the age of ACCOMMODATION LOSS when they will learn, to their dismay, that having 20/20 vision will not preclude the need for reading glasses. Maybe Tesla should include some seniors in the next batch of EA's and beta testers.

And I really hate that they made it less functional. I believe the old regen scale was labeled 20/40/60 kW (cannot remember for sure -- can't bring V6 back to check, tho I'd like to. I do remember hitting 60 kW of regen and thinking wow, that’s 80 HP worth of braking that I’m putting into the battery rather than creating waste heat and asbestos dust). Now the regen scale just has a 50.

Another thing I haven't seen commented on: the orange energy-history line is phantomed out except for the rightmost 1/5 or so... what's with that? It makes it look as if there's something wrong with the screen. Or is there something wrong with my screen?

Someone on this forum suggested Tesla was losing its engineers to Apple; I would suggest the opposite: this tendency toward flatness, less readability and loss of functionality for the sake of change sounds to me like what they’ve been doing to the iPhone and Mac OS.

 

[HankLloydRight]

And there is a silly clock side-app that could be removed to make room for this kind of useful information.

There already is a "car status" app that just shows doors and tire pressures. It's need all the other things I listed. Also I thought of some others to add:

-Interior Temp
-Exterior Temp
-Suspension height
-Miles until next oil change J/K

 

[mgboyes]

I can get used to the look. Not sure if it is a great improvement.

Would love an altitude reading to enhance my mileage predictions. The info must be in the GPS somewhere, but is hidden to us.

I haven't found the tire pressure reading (haven't searched yet).

Unfortunately the car hold (previously hill hold) was not improved. Does someone know the reason for that. The unpredictable behaviour can cause problems. Parking spaces can be very small here in Europe. Taking my foot off the brake, I am never sure whether the car will budge a few inches before I hit the accelerator. Can't hit the accelerator too hard in order not to bump front car. In the meantime car might slip a few inches toward behand car.

The new function of the car hold would aleviate that. But it seems to be only offered for sensor equipped cars.

Hill hold is only on autopilot cars.

Individual tyre pressure readout is only on cars with the new TPMS sensors (which I think also matches up with the introduction of Autopilot).

- - - Updated - - -

This is entirely my conjecture, but I would render a guess that a number of beta testers (and I would guess a majority seeing how 7.0 came out) are afraid to be highly critical of Tesla for fear of getting bounced out of the early access program. Which is exactly NOT what you want beta testers to be.

I don't understand why anyone thinks EAP members are "beta testers" in the usual sense that the term is used.

EAP is part of Tesla's final QA process, designed to help validate that production ready firmware works on lots of different configurations of hardware and in different geographies. That's why EAP members often have unusual hardware options and are disproportionately located outside the US.

In my experience the EAP members I know are never asked for any kind of feedback, and there is certainly no structured process or dialog that they have with TM. They simply report bugs if they find them, and frequently they only get new versions of the software a few days before general release. They're generally not even forewarned - they simply get a software update notification and then once they've installed it they realise that they have something that others don't.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I don't understand why anyone thinks EAP members are "beta testers" in the usual sense that the term is used.

EAP is part of Tesla's final QA process, designed to help validate that production ready firmware works on lots of different configurations of hardware and in different geographies. That's why EAP members often have unusual hardware options and are disproportionately located outside the US.

In my experience the EAP members I know are never asked for any kind of feedback, and there is certainly no structured process or dialog that they have with TM. They simply report bugs if they find them, and frequently they only get new versions of the software a few days before general release. They're generally not even forewarned - they simply get a software update notification and then once they've installed it they realise that they have something that others don't.

Great points, makes sense, and thanks for clarifying. So who are the real "beta testers" responsible for this latest release? Or is it just an echo-chamber within Tesla with really no feedback from regular owners?

 

[shokunin]

I just got a P85D loaner with autopilot while my P85 classic is in for service. 1st thing I noticed on the dash is no odometer, anywhere, on the main dash. For once, I actually wanted to know how many miles were on the loaner and had to go looking for it. It comes up on the trips menu and on if you hit the tesla "T" on the main screen. I'm sure it's availabe in some of the other views but thought it was funny.

 

[tinm]

Next, Tesla will no longer place the VIN badge in the driver's side of the lower windshield. Clearly that is too easy and convenient to view from outside the car. No, far better for it henceforth to be concealed within several layers of menu structure. The ways of software companies trying to be automobile companies are strange, but in Elon we trust.

 

[woof]

What they call "modern" look is actually a 1980's computer graphics style with flat line drawings, no shading or 3d effects.

Take a closer look. Buttons still have a gradient applied implying a light source reflecting of a physical object. They have drop shadows showing they can be pressed (or are already pressed). Its more subtle than it was, (the over the top bubble shine is gone) but it's far from truly flat.

 

[Tslynk67]

I'm very happy with it, my thoughts:

- the new look is much fresher, makes the car feel new again
- yes I can't read the numbers around the speedo very well, but I don't care, I use the digital speed reading and I have a good feel for the power gauge without numbers
- the clock I don't use
- the trip meter thingy is OK, will get used to it
- the battery indicator I can see OK, but should indeed swap back with odometer
- I can see my brake-lamps in the little car (silver), but you do have to look a bit and thus it does distract from driving
- at night the headlights on the little car are not overwhelming - maybe I keep my brightness setting mower than others, or maybe it was toned-down in .77?
- low speed is smoother
- acceleration I don't have an opinion yet

Overall I'm very positive with it.

 

[Johann Koeber]

Hill hold is only on autopilot cars.

No. My MS has hill hold but no cameras, TACC etc. It does have the parking sensors and hill hold.

 

[chiaguy]

I guess there is a reason Tesla made the stereo buttons so ugly and huge. These owners seem to be hitting the wrong buttons. I definitely hit the right "unsatisfied" button. The fact that PRND and battery are moved to the side and put the mileage in the middle is annoying but something I can let slide. However, The stereo is a complete failure. So much so, I am giving up my car. It wasn't the best to begin with but when they made the buttons hideous by making them even bigger, it completely destroyed the car for me. It is the screen that is always on, (unless I show someone the car, then I quickly close it) Three days after I got the update and complained, my daughter got in and said OMG, what happened to your screen? That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen! I said.. thank you, that's what I've been telling them. I could live with the old "grayscale" screen as that is what I bought. It should at least be set up to personalize. Give options to have colored buttons or background. AND SMALLER BUTTONS. For me, It's like someone coming in and painting my car a different color and saying Tesla doesn't want that color any more. I'm tired of having to accept design teams forcing their visions on me. They do it with email accounts, cell phones, and now we are forced to accept it in our car?! Really? Those of you that like it, that's fine. But why do I have to accept something I didn't buy. Would you accept them painting your car a different color? That's what this feels like to me.

 

[mgboyes]

Great points, makes sense, and thanks for clarifying. So who are the real "beta testers" responsible for this latest release? Or is it just an echo-chamber within Tesla with really no feedback from regular owners?

I really don't know :-(

Obviously Tesla staff drive early firmware (Elon himself, lots of US guys I am sure, and I know that the UK MD of Tesla drives firmware that's ahead of being ready for widespread release - he said he's had Autopilot for quite a while and that the improvement over 10 or so different iterations of pre-release firmware has been remarkable). But as to how they get user feedback, whether they do user testing even on closed circuits with focus groups etc... no idea.

The version of v7.0 that's rolling out in the UK has the time and temperature visible in the bottom of the instrument cluster, unlike the first version that went into US cars, so TM have clearly already made changes to v7.0 following the outcry that those had been relegated to the "clock app", so they are at least listening to what owners are saying.

 

[mgboyes]

No. My MS has hill hold but no cameras, TACC etc. It does have the parking sensors and hill hold.

All cars have the pre-existing hill hold feature where the car keeps the brakes engaged for a second or two after you release them, to allow you to switch to the accelerator without rolling backwards.

But 7.0 adds a "full hill hold" feature where you can hard press the brake and it then holds the car stationary indefinitely, with a new "H" symbol in the dash.

That feature is only on autopilot cars since it requires the new hybrid brake system that they have.

 

[Johann Koeber]

All cars have the pre-existing hill hold feature where the car keeps the brakes engaged for a second or two after you release them, to allow you to switch to the accelerator without rolling backwards.

But 7.0 adds a "full hill hold" feature where you can hard press the brake and it then holds the car stationary indefinitely, with a new "H" symbol in the dash.

That feature is only on autopilot cars since it requires the new hybrid brake system that they have.

Thanks for the clarification