Media player in 8.0 actually got worse (for local music)

[cschock]

Would a solution to all this be to disable the USB ports?

Very funny, but that is more or less what they've done in practical terms. I'd also like to point out they have effectively disabled the Ultra High Fidelity Sound System as well, since the only real way to feed it high quality input is through said USB port. Considering I plunked down a couple thousand for that feature I'd really like to be able to enjoy it.

Truly annoying.

I raised my concerns with service (the adviser was actually mystified that you could not do the alphabetical jump and/or search for items on the USB) and will send an email to Tesla today.

 

[Stoneymonster]

I just want it to stop searching for crazy album art when I play podcasts over bluetooth. It's been doing that since 2012, stop it.

 

[Soolim]

I think Tesla slowed the v8 update in the recent days due to these complaints. May be a fix is coming.

 

[Stoneymonster]

I think Tesla slowed the v8 update in the recent days due to these complaints. May be a fix is coming.

I seriously doubt it.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I think Tesla slowed the v8 update in the recent days due to these complaints. May be a fix is coming.

Probably not, Tesla has shown almost zero concern for owner feedback in the three years I've owned my P85.

 

[scaesare]

I've also noticed that the radio station button logos get confused. I believe the logo is sourced from the HD Radio stream (if the station supports such), but for some reason the car is applying it (incorrectly) to other stations as well:

 

[pnd4pnd]

Here is the focus group tesla used for the new media app:

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Lots of negative feedback so I am forced to ask...

Does Elon just not get it?

 

[RDoc]

What totally mystifies me is how they could ever even consider this kind of junk interface, much less release it. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of examples of media player software systems, many of them open source.

IMHO Tesla really needs to do a major housecleaning in their software department.

 

[TexasEV]

I think it confirms their sole priority was autopilot. I'm convinced the beta testers were told to focus on autopilot. But in that case, why even try to update the media player on this release?

 

[Spidy]

Lots of negative feedback so I am forced to ask...

Does Elon just not get it?

Well, he does not seem read this forum judging by how long it took him to figure out the discount thing

 

[map724]

Lots of negative feedback so I am forced to ask...

Does Elon just not get it?

He's too busy worrying about his trip to Mars. It's a long flight - hope he doesn't plan to rely on a USB stick for music...

 

[dgpcolorado]

I think it confirms their sole priority was autopilot. I'm convinced the beta testers were told to focus on autopilot. But in that case, why even try to update the media player on this release?

That's what I don't get. Why not just leave the media player alone if they couldn't be bothered to do it right?

Yes, I too use ripped CD albums on a USB drive (how "old school!"). And most of my music is classical or movie soundtracks. I don't think I'm being OCD when I prefer to have my symphony movements played in order...

I appreciate the reports from the guinea pigs who have installed 8.0. For now I'll ignore the update message and stick with 7.1 since I haven't yet seen reports of anything in 8.0 that is a "must have".

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

Here is the focus group tesla used for the new media app:

I only wish Tesla's focus group could be as large...

Sigh. Actually a big sigh. I bought my CPO when 6.0 or whatever version, was out. I love the interface, the contrast, and the legibility. Low and behold 7.0 came out the day before I picked up my car. Of course, Tesla service "upgraded" me to 7.0. Ugh.

Since I was not really familiar with everything, I was unsure of what was "off" about it at pickup. Now, nearly a year later, I am starting to understand some of the old-timers grievances.

I love so much about the car, but so far the magic fairy that provides free "upgrades" to my car is no longer a welcome thing, and I have now told two friends who are really interested in Tesla to look at it, but maybe hold off a few weeks to a couple of months.

As everyone has said previously, this part of the car shouldn't be that difficult to get right. Open apps to 3rd parties (I mean there is a whole screen just waiting for apps), and pay Apple what they want and get on with things so that we can bitch about them, instead of Tesla.

 

[dkonigs]

As everyone has said previously, this part of the car shouldn't be that difficult to get right. Open apps to 3rd parties (I mean there is a whole screen just waiting for apps), and pay Apple what they want and get on with things so that we can bitch about them, instead of Tesla.

Actually, opening this stuff up to 3rd parties would be a lot more work than just getting it right themselves. For 3rd party access, you'd need to develop/manage a stable API, a means of loading and securing external code, and all the management/infrastructure surrounding that whole process.

To get it right themselves, they really just need one good developer who isn't split across three-dozen unrelated projects, has used a variety of other media players before, and knows something about writing responsive software.

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

Actually, opening this stuff up to 3rd parties would be a lot more work than just getting it right themselves. For 3rd party access, you'd need to develop/manage a stable API, a means of loading and securing external code, and all the management/infrastructure surrounding that whole process.

To get it right themselves, they really just need one good developer who isn't split across three-dozen unrelated projects, has used a variety of other media players before, and knows something about writing responsive software.

I get that, but the MS is now 4 years old. The promise was steady improvement, room for apps, and fairy dust.

"Every few weeks/months you get a new car experience because Tesla is always innovating." That's what everyone said.

It sounds great, and I am sure huge improvements were witnessed by early adopters, but after four years you would have thought that Tesla would have the right people in place to execute at a high level. I used to complain about the nav and browser and how it totally lacks compared to what we have on our phones. I never thought to complain about the media/audio playback because it just worked for me. Now it doesn't and I have a 3 systems that are sub par, and they are all software based.

This is not the direction technology is supposed to go. I now know, and should have known, rumors about how the next major OS upgrade is going to fix XY and Z, are really just our collective hopes and dreams of these shortcomings getting fixed, and that should have been dealt with years ago. Again, how could the beta testers have let this go out? Maybe, as others have said, it was all about adding more nags to AP to satisfy the lawyers.

I have my 3 reserved and want a refreshed S, but seeing how we are still stuck with a slow antiquated browser, questionable NAV, and poor media control in the latest cars, I think I can keep driving my 2013 until they get these things figured out.

I'd hate to see Tesla lose its impassioned user base just because they can't get these basic things corrected that would benefit every current MS and X owner. It's the little non AP things that make a big difference for everyone.

 

[cschock]

• Shuffle doesn't seem to be available if you select Songs and then pick a random one to start. Or at least I could not find it.

Update: I figured out how to do the above. Normally when you pick a song and it starts to play, the interface continues to show the two column song list and a small bar at the bottom of the app will show a skip backward, pause, skip forward, the non existent album art and the name of what is playing. It turns out that if you swipe this bar UP you get an expanded player that also has the repeat and shuffle icons so you can turn those on. Now if only the car remembered them when it turns off we might have one thing back from before!

 

[Fabio]

Update: I figured out how to do the above. Normally when you pick a song and it starts to play, the interface continues to show the two column song list and a small bar at the bottom of the app will show a skip backward, pause, skip forward, the non existent album art and the name of what is playing. It turns out that if you swipe this bar UP you get an expanded player that also has the repeat and shuffle icons so you can turn those on. Now if only the car remembered them when it turns off we might have one thing back from before!

The album art does come from the song metadata now, I put some random images and Tesla displayed them.

 

[RDoc]

Actually, opening this stuff up to 3rd parties would be a lot more work than just getting it right themselves. For 3rd party access, you'd need to develop/manage a stable API, a means of loading and securing external code, and all the management/infrastructure surrounding that whole process.

To get it right themselves, they really just need one good developer who isn't split across three-dozen unrelated projects, has used a variety of other media players before, and knows something about writing responsive software.

I totally disagree.

The way I'd engineer it would be to have all the non-critical UI be a web page accessed by a customized version of Chrome and a sandboxed API. Chrome is open source and has extensive sand box capabilites designed to withstand attack from any page browsed to on the web, a far tougher problem than resisting attack from rogue UI apps running on the car itself with only firewalled access to specific web sites.

It would also be perfectly reasonable to only allow open source apps to run on the car. It's pretty tough to embed malware in open source code.

 

[komills23]

Having spent more time with the new media player, and the hope that someone at Tesla actually reads these posts, a few suggestions, most of which have been discussed above:

1. Allow "Search Anything" to search our USB drives.
2. Return an alphabetical index to the USB interface so we can find artists, albums, playlists, songs, quickly and safely.
3. Don't return the scroll back to the beginning after each action. Keep it where we are looking, especially if we have invested many minutes scrolling to the middle of the alphabet.
4. Allow us to play albums in the order in which they were brought into this world. This is especially important for classical music which was never intended to be shuffled out of sequence, but also for a lot of great albums.
5. Make it so Serius XM stations are identified by the station name and not just the number. I have a lot of channel numbers that show up in my favorites now with no idea what they are. But other radio stations come through with clear identification and logos.
6. Allow us to organize our favorites. We can only delete them and I have no clue why the interface orders them as it does, but I would like to be able to organize how my favorite sources are displayed.

None of this is rocket science. Almost every other music interface we use in our normal lives - iTunes, Amarra, and the audio interfaces on most other advanced cars allows this, and has for quite some time. Those of us who paid for the upgraded sound system did so because we want to enjoy high quality audio as part of our driving experience. I bought my Tesla to be ahead of the curve, not well behind it.