Model S Software/Firmware wishlist

[JenniferQ]

I've now owned my P90D for 3 weeks and here's my wish list:

1 -- auto raise of steering wheel when the drivers door is opened
2 -- ability to actually turn the radio OFF, not just mute. Even Kia's have this ability. I find it annoying to listen to the radio, then mute, as when I then get in car again the radio comes on and I have to turn the volume down to zero. Or, make it an option in Settings.
3 -- for cars with the Smart Air Suspension, upgrade it to the Mercedes "Magic Body Control" so that the car "reads" the surface of the road in front of the tires and floats over potholes, bumps, ridges, etc. This would be a major improvement
4 -- a NAV system that doesn't give the goofiest routings imaginable. I thought I could get rid of my portable Garmin unit, but now have it in the car. Also, when I speak or type in an address it often says it can't find it; when I do the same with my Garmin, it immediately finds it. This is embarassing in a $120,000 high tech car.
5 -- rear impact detector. If the rear sensor detects a fast approaching car, flash rear lights to alert the driver of that car, use the front detector to see if there's space available and if so move the car forward so that the oncoming car has more room to stop.
6 -- a forward looking camera. I can not see where the front corners of the car or the leading edge of the nose is, and if I wanted to pull in tight to a space this would be helpful.

I've only had my car a few days, and I generally agree with you on the above, esp coming from MB. In addition, my top ten of what I like so far:

1 -- Quiet. BUT, when I do move Ludicrously fast - SPACE noises. Still, Quiet.
2 -- Radio volume lowers when I open the door. I have never had that happen before and it's a very nice feature if you are jamming out on the way home and forget...
3 -- NAV works very well for me. Today, I said, "Navigate to Monumental Workx," for window tinting, and it gave me two options, first of which was MW. I never could have done that in the MB. And I love that it shows the turns that are coming up every 1/4 mile so I know which lane to be in, if two are turning left, for example.
4 -- Ability via the app to turn on climate before I return to car, knowing "zero emissions"
5 -- Knowing, from the app, that my car didn't go on a joyride the entire time it was at window tinting! and Valet Mode to keep Ludicrous in the house.
6 -- Frunk - to keep my dirty boots in without getting horsey smells in the car!
7 -- Yacht floor for my purse! I am the envy of all the "soccer" moms for that spacious spot to put the purse so it's not jammed between me and the door!
8 -- My 17 y/o can fit in the trunk! Not sure why she decided to try...
9-- Controls on steering wheel AND big touch screen. I curse MB for its scroll wheel jiggery-pokery and only being able to see Nav OR Speed or Odo OR etc in dash
And number 10 -- Christmas is coming via a software update and I will wake up some morning soon to ALL NEW STUFF, INCL PRE-AP!

 

[PeterK]

6 -- Frunk - to keep my dirty boots in without getting horsey smells in the car!

While the "D" frunk is smaller, having the front motor there helps with the smell isolation. I can assure you on my early 2013 S85 when you put pizzas in the frunk you can smell them in the car. Fortunately I never need to carry horsey boots.

 

[BlkCld]

I would like to disable the sunroof control on the steering wheel. Constantly opens when I don't want it to. Nuisance. I would rather have that as quick access to control the temperature setting. More useful than the so few times I would ever open the roof.

 

[trils0n]

I would like to disable the sunroof control on the steering wheel. Constantly opens when I don't want it to. Nuisance. I would rather have that as quick access to control the temperature setting. More useful than the so few times I would ever open the roof.

You can set the function of the right scroll wheel to whatever you want. Doesn't have to be sunroof. Temp, fanspeed, display brightness, etc, all possible choices.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

I would like to disable the sunroof control on the steering wheel. Constantly opens when I don't want it to. Nuisance. I would rather have that as quick access to control the temperature setting. More useful than the so few times I would ever open the roof.

Good news: that functionality has always been available. If I recall correctly, you change it by pressing the menu button on the right side of the steering wheel, and in there is a way to select what the button does. I have mine set to control the temperature, too.

 

[Cyberax]

Get bifocal or progressive driving glasses. Use when driving. done.

That doesn't always help. My GF has problems with refocusing - it takes her about a second to refocus properly from far objects to the near ones (with bifocals). That was semi-OK with the old speedometer for her, but she has problems reading the new one.

Also, she always had problems with tiny rendering of the exit number.

 

[BertL]

That doesn't always help. My GF has problems with refocusing - it takes her about a second to refocus properly from far objects to the near ones (with bifocals). That was semi-OK with the old speedometer for her, but she has problems reading the new one.

Also, she always had problems with tiny rendering of the exit number.

I wear progressive bifocals all the time and understand your GF's challenge. I generally keep the Navigation Voice Prompts muted, but I'd suggest your GF ensure it remains ON for her at a volume level above whatever music source she may have playing (since there is no auto-mute in MS) and she can hear the voice if she has windows down or pano roof open too far. I find more times than not, the Nav voice in my MS communicates those (tiny visual) exit numbers with sufficient lead time.

IMHO, my MS with it's dual Nav display still presents small text at times, but overall it's superior to my former Lexus and even MBZ which I considered the best built-in Nav I had owned until my Tesla. I'd rather have the Nav present more information than less and think Tesla does a pretty good job of that with what is shown on the 17" and Speedo displays. I've personally given up complaining about small text that is a challenge for only some people, and try to figure out workarounds on my smartphone, computing displays, watches and my automobiles when necessary. Hopefully the Nav Voice will help your GF as it does me from time-to-time.

 

[Korben]

Wasn't sure where to put it but I made the following post. It contains a site to register feature requests and etc... It will be a heck of a lot easier than having people have to read through the thread and will help with voting on what is important to the broader group.

Vote on software features/bugs to fix in 7.1 and beyond

 

[Tor Norderhaug]

1. The "speedometer number" is partly hidden behind the steering wheel. Lower by 1/2 inch?
2. I would like to see the deviation from the speed limit. E.g. Below the "speed sign" +7 (in red colour) or -6 in green.

- - - Updated - - -

I feel it difficult to feel the speed - opposed to a fueled car where one can feel the RPM.
E.g When cruise control is not an option then an "invisible uphill" might lower the speed by 1 mile/h while an "invisible downhill" might increase with one mile.

Suggestion - Let the pressure on the "gas pedal" define the speed.

 

[doctorwho]

I'd like the speed sign, now always displayed, to either flash or pulse in size everytime a new speed is detected. ATM the sign is very small and there is almost no indication that a new speed has been detected.

 

[chiaguy]

A stereo display worthy of a $125k car and not a Yugo.

 

[beeeerock]

I'd like to see the old speedo/energy display available as an option for the right or left side of the display. My first-gen RX7 had the tach as the largest gauge, dead center, with the speedo off to the side. It worked just fine.

Tire pressure units independent of km/miles setting... with psi, kPa and Bars as options.

Bring back the visual indicators on the climate control auto button, to give an idea of whether there is heating or cooling going on. Or perhaps change the colour depending on how hard it's heating or cooling (deep red, light red, gray, light blue, dark blue etc...)

 

[mknox]

Bring back the visual indicators on the climate control auto button, to give an idea of whether there is heating or cooling going on. Or perhaps change the colour depending on how hard it's heating or cooling (deep red, light red, gray, light blue, dark blue etc...)

Yeah, I'm really missing that one. For those who forgot what it used to look like, I found this image in another thread:

 

[Korben]

Hello all, just wanted to share a quick medium.com update on the feature/bug priority lists. As we get closer to finalizing the current round of feature/bug requests I will do my best to summarize results and do a bit of de-duplication. Goal is to preserve the desires of the members but also make it easier to consume and prioritize.

 

[WGBoston]

Hello,

Hopefully I am posting new feature requests properly. I did not see my top one when I searched the history. I just ordered my S last weekend!

> Subscription option to public entrance / exists the community posts to for the car suspension height, with ability to override (blacklist) entries you choose.
For Example - subscribe to 90210 area - this would update your car with all of these community public locations entered

> I know these next suggestions are already posted, but they are important to me:
> Pair key to driver
> Easy Exit / Entry option while in Park for more than X seconds
> Passenger seat memory / profile
> Route choice options when entering address into Nav
> Ability to send route to car from phone or google maps account
> Ability to schedule start/stop of cooling or heating
> For now I am going to see if I can do this with apps like Android IF app...

-Walt

 

[beeeerock]

Yeah, I'm really missing that one. For those who forgot what it used to look like, I found this image in another thread:

View attachment 99431

The more I ponder this one, the more I think doing a colour scale of the actual button, from red = warm to blue = cool in shades to show how much would be good to understand how hard the system is working to maintain a temperature. But I'd also like the visuals of what is actually going on show up again. I've always inferred that showing the arrow at the feet meant heat, but knowing exactly what's going on is not obvious.

 

[Aussie Bob]

Hello,

Hopefully I am posting new feature requests properly. I did not see my top one when I searched the history. I just ordered my S last weekend!

> Subscription option to public entrance / exists the community posts to for the car suspension height, with ability to override (blacklist) entries you choose.
For Example - subscribe to 90210 area - this would update your car with all of these community public locations entered

> I know these next suggestions are already posted, but they are important to me:
> Pair key to driver
> Easy Exit / Entry option while in Park for more than X seconds
> Passenger seat memory / profile
> Route choice options when entering address into Nav
> Ability to send route to car from phone or google maps account
> Ability to schedule start/stop of cooling or heating
> For now I am going to see if I can do this with apps like Android IF app...

-Walt

I support the passenger seat memory attached to the driver's key. The Keys on my old Infiniti set the seat to my wife's or my seat setting each time we opened the driver's door with our remotes. This avoids the extra step of having to set an exit mode every time you exit the vehicle.
'

 

[Ingineer]

There is no way to have passenger seat memory settings due to a hardware limitation. The passenger seat is "dumb".

 

[Aussie Bob]

I support the passenger seat memory attached to the driver's key. The Keys on my old Infiniti set the seat to my wife's or my seat setting each time we opened the driver's door with our remotes. This avoids the extra step of having to set an exit mode every time you exit the vehicle.
'

Correction - I meant driver's seat

 

[Ingineer]

I suspect the reason they didn't do it is because what happens when you and your wife go out in your car? It's going to see both fobs at once. Who should it pick?