Is there really no way to dismiss warning messages? Really?

[vikefan]

Got a tire pressure warning. A little bit under the norm. No big deal, I’ll get it filled when I get a chance later...except I can’t get the g*damn error message in the middle of the screen to go away so actually I have to go stop at a gas station and fill it up 2 PSI right now.


Am I missing something? This seems like UX 101 failure.

 

[StealthP3D]

Got a tire pressure warning. A little bit under the norm. No big deal, I’ll get it filled when I get a chance later...except I can’t get the g*damn error message in the middle of the screen to go away so actually I have to go stop at a gas station and fill it up 2 PSI right now.


Am I missing something? This seems like UX 101 failure.

I've never had a low tire pressure warning in either of our Model 3's. If you keep your tires properly inflated you will never see that. I've found the best performance is well above the warning threshold. Why are you running them so low? You're far more likely to get a flat tire when you run them that low.

 

[mrau]

I think if you swipe the message to the left it will minimize to an icon. Been a while since I had that tire warning, so not sure it still works that way.

 

[Gavyne]

Yup swipe it to the left, no issues at all.

 

[Petrlol]

One of the errors requires a swipe down. Can't remember which.

 

[Rudyshoe]

Agree that this is a UX fail. I currently have a restraint fault that's indicated in three separate locations on the screen. Why? And yes, while you can swipe left to minimize the main indication, it expands when a new indication pops up requiring the driver to minimize it repeatedly.

 

[MarkBrokeIt]

OP probably can't swipe left without flashbacks

 

[vikefan]

I've never had a low tire pressure warning in either of our Model 3's. If you keep your tires properly inflated you will never see that. I've found the best performance is well above the warning threshold. Why are you running them so low? You're far more likely to get a flat tire when you run them that low.

Uh, I’ve had the car for 4 months and just drive it like any other average car owner, I.e. the tire pressure is whatever the car dealership set it to before giving it to me (42 PSI, in case you’re wondering). I get in my car in the morning, drive to work, then drive home. I don’t know what you think I’m doing or am supposed to do. Do you think I’m purposely just letting air out of the tire or something? Am I supposed to be checking my tire pressure before every trip? I was just driving one day and the warning came on saying I was 2 PSI under all the other tires. I don’t know why, and again, this is the first time I’ve even thought about touching the tires since I bought the car.

Anyway, this thread was about the lack of ability to disable warning messages. The specific warning message is immaterial to the point.

 

[vikefan]

Yup swipe it to the left, no issues at all.

I tried that and it didn’t do anything.. stayed on the screen.

 

[StealthP3D]

Uh, I’ve had the car for 4 months and just drive it like any other average car owner, I.e. the tire pressure is whatever the car dealership set it to before giving it to me. I get in my car in the morning, drive to work, then drive home. I don’t know what you think I’m doing or am supposed to do. Do you think I’m purposely just letting air out of the tire or something? Am I supposed to be checking my tire pressure before every trip? I was just driving one day and the warning came on saying I was 2 PSI under all the other tires. I don’t know why, and again, this is the first time I’ve even thought about touching the tires since I bought the car.

Anyway, this thread was about the lack of ability to disable warning messages. The specific warning message is immaterial to the point.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you're new to cars and driving.

1) Tire pressure is critical the vehicles performance and safety and it varies with time and temperature.
2) I don't think you let air out on purpose, you just neglected to monitor your tire pressures.
3) No, I don't think the "average car owner" goes 4 months without checking tire pressures. It needs to be checked a lot more often than that, particularly when the weather turns colder.
4) I monitor my pressure via the TPMS display on the dash every trip but I only check the pressure about once a month, if I notice the TPMS reporting lower numbers than usual or if the weather turns significantly colder. It's just part of being a responsible motorist.

Low air pressure increases the risk of flat tires by a very signifiicant margin so it's actually less work to monitor and correct tire pressures than it is to assume everything is OK. There's a reason why the warning can't be easily or permanently dismissed. I see in your case it worked since you corrected the low pressure situation rather than ignoring it. So, no, I don't see the point of this thread.

 

[jjrandorin]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you're new to cars and driving.

1) Tire pressure is critical the vehicles performance and safety and it varies with time and temperature.
2) I don't think you let air out on purpose, you just neglected to monitor your tire pressures.
3) No, I don't think the "average car owner" goes 4 months without checking tire pressures. It needs to be checked a lot more often than that, particularly when the weather turns colder.
4) I monitor my pressure via the TPMS display on the dash every trip but I only check the pressure about once a month, if I notice the TPMS reporting lower numbers than usual or if the weather turns significantly colder. It's just part of being a responsible motorist.

Low air pressure increases the risk of flat tires by a very signifiicant margin so it's actually less work to monitor and correct tire pressures than it is to assume everything is OK. There's a reason why the warning can't be easily or permanently dismissed. I see in your case it worked since you corrected the low pressure situation rather than ignoring it. So, no, I don't see the point of this thread.

All of this is true, but the part I would challenge is that the "average motorist" does any of that. I believe the average motorist does exactly what @vikefan said... they get in, they drive. They put fuel in it, and wash it when its dirty (with each motorist having a different tolerance for that). The "average motorist" in an ICE car is not checking the oil, or fluids, or anything else until or unless the car tells them to.

Maybe older motorists do, and definitely enthusiast motorists do, but "average" motorist just drives the car, and deals with things the car tells them is wrong.

If you are expecting more, then I think we likely have different definitions of what "average motorist" is. I know for a fact no one else in my family or extended family has ever checked oil in a car, for example (I have). I know they have never "checked" air in tires either (by check I mean without prompting from the car).

 

[Gavyne]

I tried that and it didn’t do anything.. stayed on the screen.

Weird, I've tried it recently and it worked fine. Most people don't think of swiping but folks need to realize Tesla's interface is a lot like iphones. It's intuitive like your smartphones, you can swipe left or down to hide messages.

But really though, tire pressure warning is easy to fix, just fill your tires up. If you haven't gotten a portable compressor, Tesla sells one on their site that you can keep in your trunk.

 

[jjrandorin]

Weird, I've tried it recently and it worked fine. Most people don't think of swiping but folks need to realize Tesla's interface is a lot like iphones. It's intuitive like your smartphones, you can swipe left or down to hide messages.

But really though, tire pressure warning is easy to fix, just fill your tires up. If you haven't gotten a portable compressor, Tesla sells one on their site that you can keep in your trunk.

I got this one from recommendations here on TMC and its awesome!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CDW2MCM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Works well, comes in a nice case, cheaper than the tesla one (which also has fix a flat type slime in it I think? not sure on that), and has rubber feet that keep it from "walking" around when you use it. It also has a pretty accurate air pressure gauge built in. Highly recommend it. I keep it in the trunk lower compartment, next to the charging cable kit that comes with the car.

 

[SVMike]

But really though, tire pressure warning is easy to fix, just fill your tires up. If you haven't gotten a portable compressor, Tesla sells one on their site that you can keep in your trunk.

That's NOT the point of the OP message. His point was not whether he should check the tires or fill up the tires.
His POINT was that the UI was/is not intuitive. Even most things on a phone are intuitive, until you learn them.

On a phone (hopefully) when you first learn them you are sitting on your couch, for example.
In the Tesla, when you first encounter something like this you might be driving 65 mph in the rain, at night.
This is not a good time to be tapping and swiping to figure out how to dismiss an error message that is blocking your view of something that might be important.

And, BTW, these messages, depending on their importance are too small.
They should just be bigger (fonts) and possibly be color coded as to their importance.
And should just say, in a smaller font how you get rid of them.

Tesla needs to realize that as the number of cars they sell goes up, many more of the people driving them won't be the primary driver, who may be an expert and have read the whole manual.
If the tires are still low the next time the car is started, the warning message should pop up again in case the secondary driver just dismissed it

 

[Gavyne]

That's NOT the point of the OP message. His point was not whether he should check the tires or fill up the tires.
His POINT was that the UI was/is not intuitive. Even most things on a phone are intuitive, until you learn them.

First of all, the tire pressure warning doesn't block anything important. So there's nothing too urgent to get upset about.

Secondly, swiping is intuitive. The problem is some people new to Teslas are treating the car like cars from old manufacturers where their interface is slow, sluggish, and always got big buttons for you to press for every OK and CANCEL. You do more button pressing on legacy auto interface than you do with Model 3's touchscreen. I know because I recently drove a company LEAF. Start thinking about the touchscreen as your smartphone, there's nothing confusing about it.

 

[SVMike]

First of all, the tire pressure warning doesn't block anything important. So there's nothing too urgent to get upset about.

Secondly, swiping is intuitive. The problem is some people new to Teslas are treating the car like cars from old manufacturers where their interface is slow, sluggish, and always got big buttons for you to press for every OK and CANCEL. You do more button pressing on legacy auto interface than you do with Model 3's touchscreen. I know because I recently drove a company LEAF. Start thinking about the touchscreen as your smartphone, there's nothing confusing about it.

Thanks for being the definitive source on what is intuitive.
Maybe you missed the part of my post where I said it wasn't a problem for me.

But you forgot to address the part of my post that showed concern for new or infrequent drivers of the cars that aren't the primary drivers.
There is no reason to make the car difficult or frustrating for them. Denying they exist won't help them

 

[vikefan]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you're new to cars and driving.

1) Tire pressure is critical the vehicles performance and safety and it varies with time and temperature.
2) I don't think you let air out on purpose, you just neglected to monitor your tire pressures.
3) No, I don't think the "average car owner" goes 4 months without checking tire pressures. It needs to be checked a lot more often than that, particularly when the weather turns colder.
4) I monitor my pressure via the TPMS display on the dash every trip but I only check the pressure about once a month, if I notice the TPMS reporting lower numbers than usual or if the weather turns significantly colder. It's just part of being a responsible motorist.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you actually don’t think you’re being a condescending jerk for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I’ve been driving for 20 years. I’m well aware of how tire pressure affects the car’s ability to drive. What I’m trying to tell you is that I don’t understand wtf you think I’m supposed to be doing to “monitor” the tire pressure. The car has a freaking tire pressure monitor that tells me when it’s low. That monitor is the very SUBJECT of this entire thread. In 20 years of driving, I’ve never had a tire pressure monitor go off when the tire isn’t low, and I’ve never had a tire low without the pressure monitor going off. Thus, perhaps unlike you, I’m not so paranoid as to feel the need to manually check pressure every other week. Do you also spend your saturdays testing out all the locks on all the doors in your house just to make sure they still lock? Are Sundays your “test all the smoke detectors” day? Generally, the average human doesn’t spend his/her time and energy to constantly and repeatedly reassure themselves of the continued functionality of components which have a sub 1% failure rate at any given moment.

And by the way, I live in Southern California. The “cold season” here is 60 degrees, so while you seem to think weather is paramount to your driving and maintenance decisions wherever you are in the world, they are decidedly not here. And I don’t understand the “responsible motorist” quip. My thread is about how to get rid of warning messages, and you’re making a blanket judgment statement about how responsible of a driver I am??

You have issues, and I lied; I’m not giving you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[vikefan]

That's NOT the point of the OP message. His point was not whether he should check the tires or fill up the tires.
His POINT was that the UI was/is not intuitive. Even most things on a phone are intuitive, until you learn them.

On a phone (hopefully) when you first learn them you are sitting on your couch, for example.
In the Tesla, when you first encounter something like this you might be driving 65 mph in the rain, at night.
This is not a good time to be tapping and swiping to figure out how to dismiss an error message that is blocking your view of something that might be important.

And, BTW, these messages, depending on their importance are too small.
They should just be bigger (fonts) and possibly be color coded as to their importance.
And should just say, in a smaller font how you get rid of them.

Tesla needs to realize that as the number of cars they sell goes up, many more of the people driving them won't be the primary driver, who may be an expert and have read the whole manual.
If the tires are still low the next time the car is started, the warning message should pop up again in case the secondary driver just dismissed it

This post is exactly right. Personally, I don’t find swiping as the most intuitive action to take to dismiss a message that is in the center of a very large display. It makes sense when you’re looking at a phone with little screen real estate. It makes less sense when it would seem you’d have to swipe as though you’re playing tennis to get the message to the edge of the screen.

When I first encountered this error message, I was driving in the rain on a freeway. My first thought (some might say my INTUITION) was to tap on the message to make it go away. That didn’t happen. Then I quickly glanced for an X to hit in one of the corners. THEN I did try to swipe, and that didn’t get rid of it. Maybe I didn’t do it hard enough? Maybe I didn’t swipe in the right direction. Maybe my finger bounced because I was driving. When I’m in the middle of trying not to kill myself and wreck my car, that’ll happen I suppose.

It’s unfortunate this thread got derailed by a couple of trolls, because I feel like the actual point of this thread still stands. The UI design for dismissing notifications needs to be clearer and more accessible with the expectation that when someone is encountering a message, they’re likely DRIVING and not in a position to be able to focus on whatever they’re supposed to do on the screen. Proper UI design would take this fact into account.

 

[StealthP3D]

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you actually don’t think you’re being a condescending jerk for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way but tire pressure is critical to the cars performance and safety not to mention energy consumption and tire life. Regular checking of tire pressure is something motorists have been doing since tires first held air. Most people don't like to get flat tires which is often the result of running low air pressure.

I’ve been driving for 20 years. I’m well aware of how tire pressure affects the car’s ability to drive. What I’m trying to tell you is that I don’t understand wtf you think I’m supposed to be doing to “monitor” the tire pressure. The car has a freaking tire pressure monitor that tells me when it’s low. That monitor is the very SUBJECT of this entire thread.

This is where you could have a better understanding of the TPMS and tire pressures. The TPMS tells you the current pressure of the tires which is often different from the cold pressure. It doesn't alert you to low pressure until it's really low. That means it's up to the user to be aware of the situation with your tires. The Owner's Manual tells you how to do this (with a manual tire pressure gauge). Yes, until we have non-pnuematic or self-inflating tires the person responsible for maintaining the car actually has to check pressures manually. At least if you believe what the manufacturer of the car tells you.

In 20 years of driving, I’ve never had a tire pressure monitor go off when the tire isn’t low, and I’ve never had a tire low without the pressure monitor going off. Thus, perhaps unlike you, I’m not so paranoid as to feel the need to manually check pressure every other week.

Again, the low pressure alert will not go off until the tire is really low. That means it was underinflated before the low pressure alarm went off.

Do you also spend your saturdays testing out all the locks on all the doors in your house just to make sure they still lock?

No, we use a special kind of door lock that doesn't contain any air pressure inside. That means when they are moved in the "lock" position, they stay locked until someone unlocks them.

Are Sundays your “test all the smoke detectors” day? Generally, the average human doesn’t spend his/her time and energy to constantly and repeatedly reassure themselves of the continued functionality of components which have a sub 1% failure rate at any given moment.

I put new batteries in the smoke detectors once a year and they don't contain any pressurized air that could leak out.

And by the way, I live in Southern California. The “cold season” here is 60 degrees, so while you seem to think weather is paramount to your driving and maintenance decisions wherever you are in the world, they are decidedly not here.

It's not the absolute temperature that matters, it's the change in temperature between seasons or weather systems. I've ridden motorcycles extensively in California and have seen the temperature swing 50 degrees in one day. Unless you live in a climate like Hawaii the temperature will probably change enough to have a considerable effect on tire pressures. Regardless, a tires casing allows a small amount of pressure to escape at all times so it is necessary to constantly replace the escaped air or you will be driving on under-inflated tires.

And I don’t understand the “responsible motorist” quip. My thread is about how to get rid of warning messages, and you’re making a blanket judgment statement about how responsible of a driver I am??

I consider anyone who drives on the same road as other motorists (which may include my loved ones) and who thinks it's unecessary to check tire pressures regularly, to be negligent (and yes, irresponsible). Driving is not a right and it carries with it certain responsibilities. I don't want to be on the road with a bunch of ignorant people who don't know the first thing about maintaining their car in a safe and reasonable manner. And, no, going 4 months without checking your tire pressures is not what reasonable people do.

Knowing where to look for the manufacturers recommended pressures and how to check the pressure is in the class materials that beginning drivers must learn before being awarded their drivers license. I've even heard of beginning drivers being sent home without a license for showing up to their driving test with under-inflated tires. Immediate fail. How you could not know this is beyond my comprehension.

 

[StealthP3D]

This post is exactly right. Personally, I don’t find swiping as the most intuitive action to take to dismiss a message that is in the center of a very large display.

Really? In 2019? I could perhaps agree with you if it was the 1970's, before the popular rise of touchscreens, but I imagine everyone has a lot of experience swiping to dismiss messages on a touchscreen these days. I'm not sure why it would matter if the touchscreen is small, medium or large, swiping is a natural way to get rid of a message (at least for me). I can't speak as to why some individuals would have trouble figuring that out.