How's the touch screen holding up?

[Xenius]

With the model S running what is at least a 4? year old computer to drive the main display, I'm wondering how sluggish it's been recently with the latest updates?

From what I've seen there's no rumor/indication on an upgrade to the hardware?

 

[Max*]

Dunno, no complaints.

 

[TexasEV]

Not sluggish at all, no different than when my car was new three years ago. Of course if you owned a Model S you would know that, and if you don't I'm not sure why you're concerned about it.

 

[Xenius]

@TexasEV I'd like to become an owner, and am in the process of trying to convince myself one way or the other

 

[DFibRL8R]

It's a valid question given the general tendency in computing for older hardware to not run the latest software as well over time. Smartphones eventually can't be upgraded to the latest software if the hardware is too old etc. Hopefully Tesla will not require a costly hardware upgrade to maintain functionality of the touch screen interface going forward.
I have noticed no degradation in performance to date with January 2013 build.

 

[ForeverFree]

Not sluggish at all, no different than when my car was new three years ago. Of course if you owned a Model S you would know that, and if you don't I'm not sure why you're concerned about it.

Why do people write testy answers like this ... in this case to a prospective owner who was merely doing pre-purchase due diligence?

I work with kids and would never show them the condescension and disrespect with which a few posters snakily treat fellow adults.

 

[jerjozwik]

displaying the google maps at full [the entire 17" screen] can be a bit laggy pinch zooming. but that is seriously being judgmental. my phone is probably slower doing the same action.

 

[deonb]

Also, the new cars shipping today is still running the same Tegra 3 CPU as the first ones, so its not like Tesla can suddenly release software that cant run on the older cars.

 

[mikeash]

My car is not quite a year and a half old, but as far as I can tell the software has become more responsive, not less, as updates are made. Yes, this is possible! Most software makers let performance degrade over time, but it's possible to go the other way, and it seems like Tesla is doing it. The screen is still a bit laggy. It's definitely not as good as an iPad. But it's acceptable, and has improved.

I assume you've tried one out. If you're OK with the performance as it is now, you should be fine for the future. Unless Tesla suddenly changes course on this and starts doing a bad job, which is possible, but I'm hopeful they won't.

 

[mspohr]

Why do people write testy answers like this ... in this case to a prospective owner who was merely doing pre-purchase due diligence?

I work with kids and would never show them the condescension and disrespect with which a few posters snakily treat fellow adults.

I believe that TexasEV was responding to the negative tone of the question which referred to an "ancient screen" not holding up... as if he/she was expecting a negative answer. Also, Xenius did not explain why they were asking... plus a new account... lots of new people come here just to troll.
Most people here will respond fairly to fair questions... not so much to trolls.

 

[mikeash]

I don't think that's fair. The hardware is ancient by computing standards. The Tegra 3 will celebrate its fifth birthday that year. It looks and behaves like a big tablet computer, and how many five year old tablet computers have you seen that still run well? The fact that Tesla gets pretty decent performance out of it is nothing short of remarkable. If you were looking at the car and wondering how well it ran, then wondering about the performance of the five year old electronics driving the touchscreen would be a completely legitimate concern!

 

[Galve2000]

A bit OT but I drove around in an old Dolphin Grey 85 loaner while my car was in for annual service before Memorial Day weekend and i was shocked by the difference in image quality between the ODO screen on my newer AP enabled 2015 85D vs the loaner. it was strange to stare at the loaner screen while driving. it was super low-fi...

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

They see me trollin' they hatin'....

 

[ChrisPDX]

Everyone needs to remember that the Tesla touch screen is an appliance based system, not an open computer like a PC or Smartphone. You can't just install any software on a Tesla. TM is well aware of what the hardware can do and would never push software to it that would slow it down to the point of being unusable. There's no reason for it to start slowing down with age. Any PC will run the same speed over its life assuming you don't push newer software on it that requires more resources. Unfortunately this rarely happens, so most PCs get slower with age. As long as TM keeps testing any new features the current hardware is capable of, there's no reason it should not perform well.

I'm sure there will be a time when they upgrade the touch screen and at which point, I could see new features being rolled out to them and not current Tesla models based on hardware/performance limitations.

 

[Xenius]

Sorry folks, I certainly did not come to troll. My account has few posts, but it's been around for a while

I work in software, so to me running the same chipset that first came into production in 2012 is ANCIENT in computing standards. Waiting for a computer upgrade is an actual consideration for me, hence the rumors question.

No offense meant, I don't yet own, but I already bleed Tesla red.

 

[Jaff]

The speed of the touch screen is a very minor part of the overall fantastic experience of driving a long range, performance EV.

I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[TexasEV]

I believe that TexasEV was responding to the negative tone of the question which referred to an "ancient screen" not holding up... as if he/she was expecting a negative answer. Also, Xenius did not explain why they were asking... plus a new account... lots of new people come here just to troll.
Most people here will respond fairly to fair questions... not so much to trolls.

Exactly. With such a snarky thread title it did not appear that the OP was just looking to make an informed decision about purchase. It was more like an invitation to solicit complaints.

 

[GaryREM]

Remember, this car is a distributed system with dozens of computers.

I suspect the display processor isn't doing much different from what it was doing in 2012. When AutoPilot was added, I believe there were additional controllers added which provided added computational power to the car overall.

Comparing this to a general purpose computer doesn't really make sense.

 

[SteveW25561]

The touchscreen and software optimizations make the UI for car setting & control tasks, choosing apps, backup camera, all run just fine.

Where it is molasses and seriously shows the weakness of the processor is the Web browser. Even on LTE with good strength or on a strong WiFi, the web browser is frustratingly slow. Scrolling graphically intense pages is quite laggy.

Map loading is sometimes slow, and this may be dependent on data, and screen updates of the map when zooming in or scrolling can be a bit sluggish but quite acceptable.

I'm not sure if there's anything more Tesla can do to make the web browser any faster -- it's no better now than when I got my car in 2013.

I'll bet the center console hardware will be upgraded in step with Autopilot 2.0 if we assume it uses the center console's processing power vs a separate coprocessing module.

 

[Xenius]

Maybe a little OT at this point, but is there not a way to edit a thread title after the fact? I'd hate to have people's feathers being ruffled due to my snarky title.

When I ruffle feathers I like to mean it, not do it accidentally