Model S Software/Firmware wishlist

[beeeerock]

Noticed today... Lane assist doesn't trigger if the turn signal is activated before a lane change. Correct behaviour. But if you start to wander toward the edge of your lane to change lanes and the lane assist vibration triggers before you activate the turn signal, it doesn't stop when the signal is turned on, but instead finishes its cycle. I think the turn signal should cancel the lane assist vibration immediately.

The smart pre-conditioning (or whatever it's called) should have some ability to accept user input to let you make some tweaks.

It would be great to be able to do more advanced route planning online (heck, ANY route planning) and upload/transfer the route and details to the car. The ability to upload KML files would be a logical extension to this.

Given that the energy graph evidently has knowledge of elevation and the GPS system *must* have an idea of elevation, why can't we see elevation on the GPS display? Bjorn's second 'race' video triggered this realization. I was able to pull this from my '09 Benz GPS.

When you set a destination in the GPS so that you can get the energy calculation done and graphed, the GPS instructions show up on the dash display, next to the speedo. Yes, you can push/hold the steering wheel roller button and select something else... and simply have the GPS instructions pop up when they become relevant. But you have to do this EVERY time. I'd prefer to have the ability to set a default behaviour because I generally know where I'm going, but just want to have the energy information available.

And there were two other things I noticed while driving today, but do you think I can remember them now? I guess we need another voice function to take a memo... ;-)

And just for the record, I'd also like to be able to set a charge percentage to be completed at a specified time...

 

[mknox]

Noticed today... Lane assist doesn't trigger if the turn signal is activated before a lane change. Correct behaviour. But if you start to wander toward the edge of your lane to change lanes and the lane assist vibration triggers before you activate the turn signal, it doesn't stop when the signal is turned on, but instead finishes its cycle. I think the turn signal should cancel the lane assist vibration immediately.

I don't have the feature, but kinda like the default behavior. One of my pet peeves is people who are already halfway out of their lane before they turn their signal on. Maybe this will help "train" people on how to do it properly. :wink:

 

[beeeerock]

I don't have the feature, but kinda like the default behavior. One of my pet peeves is people who are already halfway out of their lane before they turn their signal on. Maybe this will help "train" people on how to do it properly. :wink:

LOL, I understand. What I don't like is driving a quiet highway and being chastised by the car every time I'm a little lazy or slow using the signal to change lanes when nobody is in sight. I understand this might not be a possible scenario in Toronto, but it is here... ;-) Even moving over from a lane that's ending... habit is to use the signal, but if you're a little too close.... bzzzzzzzzzzt

If the turn signal is supposed to prevent the lane assist from activating, I think it should also kill it mid-buzz.

 

[Aussie Bob]

LOL, I understand. What I don't like is driving a quiet highway and being chastised by the car every time I'm a little lazy or slow using the signal to change lanes when nobody is in sight. I understand this might not be a possible scenario in Toronto, but it is here... ;-) Even moving over from a lane that's ending... habit is to use the signal, but if you're a little too close.... bzzzzzzzzzzt

If the turn signal is supposed to prevent the lane assist from activating, I think it should also kill it mid-buzz.

This is same issue I had with my Infiniti. It drove me crazy. Do not miss it with my S85.

 

[Woland]

My top requests at the moment are a Waze app and support for Spotify (Slacker still stinks in comparison).

 

[beeeerock]

If the turn signal is supposed to prevent the lane assist from activating, I think it should also kill it mid-buzz.

I'm also noticing that if I come up to a passing lane, and the driver's correct behaviour is to get into the righthand lane, I get the buzz even though there is no lane line being crossed. It seems like the software is aware of the center line and gets excited if you deviate too far away from it - even though there is no line to the right.

Another unrelated detail I'd like to see fixed is related to the screen brightness. I think there should be an ability to set the day and night screen brightness levels separately. I find that I have to drop the brightness significantly for rural night drives, then bump it up the next day when I'm driving in full daylight.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

Screen brightness should be a separate control from the Day/Night color schemes, IMHO. I'd love to have the night colors all the time, but in the current software that would force me to set a fixed brightness and change it myself every time the light levels change.

A Waze app would make my life vastly easier.

And one bug gripe: After two years of missing something so basic as random and repeat controls in the music app, I was overjoyed to see them added. But in an "oh come on, seriously?" dufus move, random and repeat were NOT added to the favorites playlist. Oh, come on... seriously? :cursing:

 

[apacheguy]

For Spotify, how hard is it to connect your phone via Bluetooth and stream from there? I use Pandora all the time that way. Works great and better than Slacker. No complaints from me.

 

[Olen]

For Spotify, how hard is it to connect your phone via Bluetooth and stream from there? I use Pandora all the time that way. Works great and better than Slacker. No complaints from me.

It is trivial to do that, but it would be a lot easier to use the interface on the big screen to select playlists, search for music and in general use the app.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

My top requests at the moment are a Waze app and support for Spotify (Slacker still stinks in comparison).

+1 Waze in the Nav and Spotify with higher bitrates (up to 320)

 

[mikeg561]

I only have 1 request:

Make navigation (with and without needed SC stops) actually work!

 

[beeeerock]

I learned yesterday that the service centers can pull logs from the cars that include tire pressures. Not just 'low pressure' but actual pressures. So the data is in the car, but we can't access it. I'd like to see that changed so that we can monitor pressures. I found that when my rated 45 psi tire dropped to 32, I got a notice on the screen to check my tires (nail!). It would be useful to see smaller changes and optimize higher pressures to allow better efficiency. Losing 12 psi before triggering the warning seems to be almost too little too late...

 

[Max*]

Probably here somewhere, but a seat memory/profile for the passenger seat would be great.

 

[neroden]

I learned yesterday that the service centers can pull logs from the cars that include tire pressures. Not just 'low pressure' but actual pressures. So the data is in the car, but we can't access it. I'd like to see that changed so that we can monitor pressures. I found that when my rated 45 psi tire dropped to 32, I got a notice on the screen to check my tires (nail!). It would be useful to see smaller changes and optimize higher pressures to allow better efficiency. Losing 12 psi before triggering the warning seems to be almost too little too late...

Yes, this would be useful. People have been requesting that the individual tire pressures be reported somewhere in the UI for about two years now.

Instead, Tesla is "reskinning" and deleting useful information from the dashboard (see the 7.0 thread) and introducing bugs in the core driving algorithm (see the "shaking at 4 mph" thread).

I think someone running the programming team is incompetent.

I'm not great at running a programming team, but I'm more competent than THIS. Tesla, feel free to contact me if you want some advice. There are others on this forum who are much more competent than I am.

 

[travwill]

In short, Neroden again got it 100% right.

Tesla - if you need a solid list of prioritized user needs to work on, contact us. Happy to help. Your working on a releasing the wrong things! This will bite you when completion closes in more and we are looking at our next cars. Love Tesla but it's missing some very basic features still, especially at this price range.

 

[beeeerock]

Tesla - if you need a solid list of prioritized user needs to work on, contact us. Happy to help. Your working on a releasing the wrong things! This will bite you when completion closes in more and we are looking at our next cars. Love Tesla but it's missing some very basic features still, especially at this price range.

Unfortunately, it does boil down to this. The car is light years ahead of the ICE cars on the road in all ways, except when it comes to the toys on the dash. Yes, it does have the basics one would expect inside... and the screen has huge impact, but the competition has plenty of gee-gaws and gadgets that - unfortunately - do matter to the average buyer. That shouldn't make the difference, given how amazing the car is, but the things that are conspicuously absent aren't exactly tough to implement.

The list could easily be filled out by owners. In fact, reading through this forum would probably provide 99% of the wish list. And just not that tough... we know the tire pressures are available. We know more voice inputs are possible, because everyone else does it. You should be able to dictate addresses for the GPS without Google. You should be able to verbally switch to a radio station (not just Slacker searches). Emails and texts should be integrated. All sorts of features are available from the competition and Tesla should be leading the way when it comes to pure innovation. Drive train wise, they are of course leading. But travwill is right - it's important to lead the way in as many ways as possible.

And I won't even mention the trip planning issues...

 

[Kratus]

AutoGuide: Drivers Say They Want More Technology, Then Never Use It: Study - Drivers Say They Want More Technology, Then Never Use It: Study » AutoGuide.com News

 

[Andyw2100]

AutoGuide: Drivers Say They Want More Technology, Then Never Use It: Study - Drivers Say They Want More Technology, Then Never Use It: Study » AutoGuide.com News

I wonder what kind of numbers a study like that would kick out if it was limited to the kind of tech-savvy car buyer attracted to a high-tech car like a Tesla Model S, for example. Just going out on a limb, here, but I'm guessing the numbers might be just a little different.

 

[Ebony Star]

I wonder what kind of numbers a study like that would kick out if it was limited to the kind of tech-savvy car buyer attracted to a high-tech car like a Tesla Model S, for example. Just going out on a limb, here, but I'm guessing the numbers might be just a little different.

I agree!

 

[beeeerock]

It would be nice if there was an 'advanced mode' or 'advanced settings' area that allowed you to adjust things most users wouldn't be interested in. Things like:

• advanced trip meter information - time, average speed, elevation change etc.
• current elevation shown on GPS.
• bluetooth connection to show signal strength on PHONE (not car's 3G - a separate set of strength bars for the bluetooth-connected phone).
• tweak speedo to show current Wh/km instead of kW draw (switchable).
• charge prediction functions so you can ask for a XX% charge by <departure time> and have the car start the charge at the correct time.
• a preset 'daily charge' that is the default charge level, so that one-off 100% charges only happen once (how many times do you forget to reset to 80% after doing a range charge?).

I'm sure there are other things I could add to this list as I think of them when driving but can't recall them all when out of the car!