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Model S Software/Firmware wishlist

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Honestly, I'd settle for just having a user interface that simply worked. At all. The media controls are embarrasing - not to mention I haven't had SXM categories in months. The settings stored per driver are inconsistent, at best. The HVAC controls switch states randomly, as far as I can tell. It's an unholy mess. And I'm not even going to go there with AP... $120K and the user interface is put to shame by a $20K Hyundai. It's just depressing.
 
Model S sales are down, partially because owners like me stopped recommending them... because the software on the big screen has gone to hell.

The Experience sucks.

It used to not suck.

And Elon wants to get to root cause, and keeps slapping lipstick on the issue - free unlimited supercharging again...

I tell people to get the 3 because it has a smaller screen there is less to be disappointed with. :confused:

There are many people in this world capable of designing a much better UI all Tesla has to do is hire them and let them do their work. Get everyone else out of the room, they know what needs to be done to make a UI that is suitable for operating a car and its features.

Tesla has gone so amateur hour on this critically important piece of the car.
 
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Honestly, I'd settle for just having a user interface that simply worked. At all. The media controls are embarrasing - (what does this even mean?). not to mention I haven't had SXM categories in months. The settings stored per driver are inconsistent, at best. (I don’t understand this one either). The HVAC controls switch states randomly, (????). as far as I can tell. It's an unholy mess. And I'm not even going to go there with AP... $120K and the user interface is put to shame by a $20K Hyundai. It's just depressing.

Ya might consider being a little more specific so one would know what to address. Just sayin.
 
So the recent consensus seems to be that the Model S user interface wish list is: a stable release please !

I bought a car with a browser, but it's only showing a white screen this week (and before that it would slowly die until reboot). It's totally dead now (I placed a service call this should be interesting).

And here's a weird "wish list" item: I can't see my calendar for conference PIN and phone pad at the same time. Why is that a weird "wish list" item ? I used to be able to show both applets at the same time...
 
Actually, I do have one new feature request for all Model S and all Tesla vehicles: Add a "Start Max Charge Now" button to the app and car UI that would instantly initiate charging to 100%, restoring your level to where it was set after unplugging.

Who else has forgotten to reduce the max charge level from 100% after needing a range charge for a trip ? Leaving the car at 100% is one of the worst things you can do to the battery.

And also it would be fewer taps and pauses at that most critical moment of EV ownership: long distance travel. Right now it's Charging -> (wait) -> Set Max (wait) -> change max on slider (wait) -> charge now
 
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Actually, I do have one new feature request for all Model S and all Tesla vehicles: Add a "Start Max Charge Now" button to the app and car UI that would instantly initiate charging to 100%, restoring your level to where it was set after unplugging.

Who else has forgotten to reduce the max charge level from 100% after needing a range charge for a trip ? Leaving the car at 100% is one of the worst things you can do to the battery.

And also it would be fewer taps and pauses at that most critical moment of EV ownership: long distance travel. Right now it's Charging -> (wait) -> Set Max (wait) -> change max on slider (wait) -> charge now

Great idea.
 
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Honestly, I'd settle for just having a user interface that simply worked. At all. The media controls are embarrasing - (what does this even mean?). not to mention I haven't had SXM categories in months. The settings stored per driver are inconsistent, at best. (I don’t understand this one either). The HVAC controls switch states randomly, (????). as far as I can tell. It's an unholy mess. And I'm not even going to go there with AP... $120K and the user interface is put to shame by a $20K Hyundai. It's just depressing.

Ya might consider being a little more specific so one would know what to address. Just sayin.

Do you own the car? You should have a pretty good idea... of "how easy and consistent" it is to use the media. There's whole threads on the defects and feature function f*ckups of the media player. Dig in.

Are you a Tesla programmer who can change any of these please do:

As things sit today... only some settings are saved with a profile. Which gives the car a Dissociative Identity Disorder quality to it.

Stored settings per profile... it's really as easy as this: the car should store every possible user selectable setting with the active user profile when the driver exits the car. None of this "do you want to save with profile?" prompting every time you adjust your seat. When they return to the car with a key having an associated profile then every setting for that key-profile is restored. So the car is just as they last left it. Zero surprises. No further explanation needed as to "what is or isn't stored".

Going a little further: if the driver wants to use a profile that is different from that associated with the current key... select it on the menu and twiddle way at whatever settings you want and the settings stick with that profile (but is not associated with a key.) You could leave the car and that profile would stay up until the car locks... Returning to the car later with a key changes the profile to keyholder. But you could always punch that alternate profile and all those settings would be restored to the point of how they were last left.

Here's a profile bug you can try yourself with mirror preference: two keys, one profiled with mirror folding, the other not. Let the driver with mirror folding drive the car, when they exit and walk away mirrors fold as you'd expect. Then, the driver without mirror folding takes the car for a spin. (Sometimes you have to manually unfold the mirrors. OK.. fine, do that.) When that a drive cycle ends and you park... (drum roll please) ... mirrors automatically fold! But only Once. On subsequent drive cycles by the non-folder profile they do not fold. Been like this for years of updates.

Mirror weirdness: It used to be possible to drive with mirrors folded in. I would use this for long stretches of empty highway driving at night, smug in thinking of the mild aerodynamic efficiency savings. In some release they made that impossible, the will always unfold at speed - and if you try the fold button they will not. UNLESS you encounter the alternating profiles with different mirror fold settings, in that drive cycle I just mentioned above. If the previous driver has auto-folded and they're folded, you may drive around all day without them unfolding - until you hit the button.


HVAC - is like playing whack-a-mole, when you press one button two others flip state. When you leave the car and come back... fan speed is now mysteriously set to 1. Only sometimes. Like, WTF?
 
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I just finished a 2000 mile road trip. There are dozens of just "WTF?" moments with V9 firmware. Like seriously, what were they thinking?

-- When actually using the Nav, and approaching a destination, I'll zoom in about 5 minutes before exiting the highway to check out the local roads, traffic, and landmarks to see where I'm going. But no matter which mode I start from, and even when the UI pops up "TRACKING DISABLED" for about 30ms, after about 10 seconds, it reverts back to the current "route view" -- EVEN BEFORE THE TRAFFIC tile overlays had finished loading. Or if I'm traveling a well known route and I want to check out traffic levels on the alternate routes, I can pan/zoom to that route, but after 10 seconds -- BAM -- zooms right back out to the default view. There's actually no way to pan or zoom to any part of the map while Nav is active to study for more than a few seconds before losing the zoom/pan view I just selected. SO FREAKING FRUSTRATING! This is such basic UI/UX stuff, how could they F it up so badly?

-- Removing the color icons on the instrument cluster and the main screen. This causes so much confusion and DISTRACTION while driving, because now I have to actually LOOK AT EACH LITTLE ICON to figure out which one I want. Before, it was beautifully subliminal. Music was BLUE. Nav was RED. Energy was ORANGE. TPMS status was a WHITE, etc. Same with the touchscreen icons... you can't just use peripheral vision to detect which icon to press.. you have to LOOK DOWN TAKING YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD to see which one. And worse yet, MOST OF THEM ARE TWO CLICKS away -- you first have to click the MORONIC "^" icon, which brings up another bar of COLORLESS ICONS and then you HAVE TO LOOK DOWN AGAIN to find the COLORLESS ICON you want to press. I just don't understand how any intelligent human being responsible for UI/UX could possibly think this was an improvement? IT'S MASSIVELY DISTRACTING from actually driving. WTAF?

-- I can't even being to describe how the different screens/apps jump up and down in a completely incosistent manner -- requiring even more distraction to just get the screen back to where you had it before. I hit the HVAC button to jus turn it off -- EVERYTHING else goes away, this HUGE HVAC screen pops up... but when I go to close it, I think the FULL SCREEN media player pops back up, even though I had it closed before? Who tests this sh1t??? I just pushed the button to turn off the HVAC -- I DO NOT NEED THE WHOLE HVAC SCREEN TO THEN POPUP. I'm DONE WITH THE TASK, you freaking morons.

-- Turning the Nav Voice on mute used to have one clear button on the screen. Now (again) it's TWO CLICKs to bring up "Settings" and then Mute/Volume. Again with multiple taps and EVEN MORE DISTRACTION from, you know, actually DRIVING!??!?! THIS IS NOT A DESKTOP COMPUTER, THIS IS A DRIVING MACHINE.

There are at least a dozen other things I just don't have the time to write about now.. I'm just getting more and more upset the more I write it down.
 
I just finished a 2000 mile road trip. There are dozens of just "WTF?" moments with V9 firmware. Like seriously, what were they thinking?

-- When actually using the Nav, and approaching a destination, I'll zoom in about 5 minutes before exiting the highway to check out the local roads, traffic, and landmarks to see where I'm going. But no matter which mode I start from, and even when the UI pops up "TRACKING DISABLED" for about 30ms, after about 10 seconds, it reverts back to the current "route view" -- EVEN BEFORE THE TRAFFIC tile overlays had finished loading. Or if I'm traveling a well known route and I want to check out traffic levels on the alternate routes, I can pan/zoom to that route, but after 10 seconds -- BAM -- zooms right back out to the default view. There's actually no way to pan or zoom to any part of the map while Nav is active to study for more than a few seconds before losing the zoom/pan view I just selected. SO FREAKING FRUSTRATING! This is such basic UI/UX stuff, how could they F it up so badly?

-- Removing the color icons on the instrument cluster and the main screen. This causes so much confusion and DISTRACTION while driving, because now I have to actually LOOK AT EACH LITTLE ICON to figure out which one I want. Before, it was beautifully subliminal. Music was BLUE. Nav was RED. Energy was ORANGE. TPMS status was a WHITE, etc. Same with the touchscreen icons... you can't just use peripheral vision to detect which icon to press.. you have to LOOK DOWN TAKING YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD to see which one. And worse yet, MOST OF THEM ARE TWO CLICKS away -- you first have to click the MORONIC "^" icon, which brings up another bar of COLORLESS ICONS and then you HAVE TO LOOK DOWN AGAIN to find the COLORLESS ICON you want to press. I just don't understand how any intelligent human being responsible for UI/UX could possibly think this was an improvement? IT'S MASSIVELY DISTRACTING from actually driving. WTAF?

-- I can't even being to describe how the different screens/apps jump up and down in a completely incosistent manner -- requiring even more distraction to just get the screen back to where you had it before. I hit the HVAC button to jus turn it off -- EVERYTHING else goes away, this HUGE HVAC screen pops up... but when I go to close it, I think the FULL SCREEN media player pops back up, even though I had it closed before? Who tests this sh1t??? I just pushed the button to turn off the HVAC -- I DO NOT NEED THE WHOLE HVAC SCREEN TO THEN POPUP. I'm DONE WITH THE TASK, you freaking morons.

-- Turning the Nav Voice on mute used to have one clear button on the screen. Now (again) it's TWO CLICKs to bring up "Settings" and then Mute/Volume. Again with multiple taps and EVEN MORE DISTRACTION from, you know, actually DRIVING!??!?! THIS IS NOT A DESKTOP COMPUTER, THIS IS A DRIVING MACHINE.

There are at least a dozen other things I just don't have the time to write about now.. I'm just getting more and more upset the more I write it down.

It would be a lot wiser for them to honestly move the entire bottom icons to the top then have the apps hover and float like windows is. Move it around as you need to. Maps does not need to be full screen. Especially on S when we already have an IS that shows the dam directions. I do not like looking down whiel i drive to select menus. It should always be above.
 
I just finished a 2000 mile road trip. There are dozens of just "WTF?" moments with V9 firmware. Like seriously, what were they thinking?

Who tests this sh1t??? I just pushed the button to turn off the HVAC -- I DO NOT NEED THE WHOLE HVAC SCREEN TO THEN POPUP. I'm DONE WITH THE TASK, you freaking morons.

-- Turning the Nav Voice on mute used to have one clear button on the screen. Now (again) it's TWO CLICKs to bring up "Settings" and then Mute/Volume. Again with multiple taps and EVEN MORE DISTRACTION from, you know, actually DRIVING!??!?! THIS IS NOT A DESKTOP COMPUTER, THIS IS A DRIVING MACHINE.

There are at least a dozen other things I just don't have the time to write about now.. I'm just getting more and more upset the more I write it down.
Don't think I have ever seen HLR rant before .... But the points are all well made. System 7 (or was it 6?) interface was much better than the current set up.
 
Don't think I have ever seen HLR rant before .... But the points are all well made. System 7 (or was it 6?) interface was much better than the current set up.

Ha ha.. I found another huge annoyance today -- I go to JUST tap the temp up or down a few degrees, and that clears 3/4 of the screen to popup the full climate control page... BUT I ALREADY CHANGED the temp to what I wanted, why do I need the Climate control page now? And even worse, when I sweep it down to close it, the media player pops back up to full size, even though that's NOT what I had there before.. so then I have to SWIPE that down as well (I think twice to get it to collapse?), and then manually add back the camera page (or the energy page) and the mini media player bar at the bottom. THIS HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME I CHANGE THE TEMP. And this is while I'm, what is it... oh yeah TRYING TO DRIVE THE CAR. I just can not understand the complete braindead idiocy of whoever developed and implemented this system.
 
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Ha ha.. I found another huge annoyance today -- I go to JUST tap the temp up or down a few degrees, and that clears 3/4 of the screen to popup the full climate control page... BUT I ALREADY CHANGED the temp to what I wanted, why do I need the Climate control page now? And even worse, when I sweep it down to close it, the media player pops back up to full size, even though that's NOT what I had there before.. so then I have to SWIPE that down as well (I think twice to get it to collapse?), and then manually add back the camera page (or the energy page) and the mini media player bar at the bottom. THIS HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME I CHANGE THE TEMP. And this is while I'm, what is it... oh yeah TRYING TO DRIVE THE CAR. I just can not understand the complete braindead idiocy of whoever developed and implemented this system.


Well this all makes me sad. I owned the first iPhone and every one since because of the simplification of software and in most cases, it just works. I value software. I know it may seem like a 1st world problem, but I am the guy that hates when my phone drops out of LTE and the speeds reduce. Unfortunately in 2019 we have become accustomed to things working, and working fast. My Tesla is on order and I pray I do not encounter so many software bugs. That and road noise are my cryptonite.
 
Ha ha.. I found another huge annoyance today -- I go to JUST tap the temp up or down a few degrees, and that clears 3/4 of the screen to popup the full climate control page... BUT I ALREADY CHANGED the temp to what I wanted, why do I need the Climate control page now? And even worse, when I sweep it down to close it, the media player pops back up to full size, even though that's NOT what I had there before.. so then I have to SWIPE that down as well (I think twice to get it to collapse?), and then manually add back the camera page (or the energy page) and the mini media player bar at the bottom. THIS HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME I CHANGE THE TEMP. And this is while I'm, what is it... oh yeah TRYING TO DRIVE THE CAR. I just can not understand the complete braindead idiocy of whoever developed and implemented this system.
Hank... As usual, I agree with you how it seems UI “usability” is either regressing or definitely not as mature as it should be by now.

IMO, it seems ever since the original MS UI design lead left Tesla years ago (sorry, forgot his name), things went awry in this regard. As new functions have been added and costs needed to be cut, much of the updated functionality seems to me having more of the feel of “gee wiz” things being added by techies and programmers, vs. a cohesive overlying UI with that functionality underneath it, that has been painstakingly thought out from a usability, maximizing eye time on the road vs. display/control manipulation, and a safety perspective. I know we could both give plenty of general examples of this (you with the eliminated MS pre-AP IC display as I seem to remember back in the day ;), and what I consider the screwy and inconsistent window-shade pop-up UI we have now.) I know I have sometimes spent way too much time looking at the CID vs keeping my eye on the road just trying to figure something out; and then realize what I’ve done, have a hot flash as I put my eyes back on the road where they should be, and get my act together driving. That isn’t good for anyone, and would be the sort of problem a true UI focus would have likely eliminated in terms of safety and usability before it ever got to us in the fleet — the problem is, it’s hard for leadership to put a value on a subjective benefit like that when they are chopping costs and likely think they know better, vs say a real manufacturing or service cost they can discretely see, touch and measure. :( Ya know what I mean, I’m sure.
 
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I would like to see a different orientation on the avatar screen. The avatar for my car is placed near the bottom of the screen so that avatars for other vehicles are primarily those in front of me. I can already see the cars in front of me. I would like more information about vehicles behind and beside me -- those that I cannot readily see. One car behind and three cars ahead is less useful than the reverse. The car needs to be aware of all the nearby vehicles but the presentation to me should emphasize what I most need to know.
 
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I want the voice-operated calling to work like it should. Is that a lot to ask? My iPhone is connected to the car just fine. But I say, "Call [my wife's name], mobile" and I might get a suggested name that is no one I know or have ever known. If it gets my wife's name right, I have to scroll through all numbers associated with her - work, fax, home, mobile - to select the mobile I requested. Siri never makes this mistake. The v.o. calling feature on my 2013 Volt never once made a mistake. I don't like taking my eyes off the road to choose between a bunch of tiny numbers -- isn't that the whole point of hands-free?
Every time I hear about all the happy horsepoo that's been added in updates, like I CAN NOW PLAY CHESS??? And this simple, old-school function is still stuck in...I'm not sure which century. It's not very far advanced from our 2008 Lexus where you had to choose among names on the little screen in order to call someone you call all the ^!@^%$!! time.
 
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Every time I hear about all the happy horsepoo that's been added in updates, like I CAN NOW PLAY CHESS??? And this simple, old-school function is still stuck in...I'm not sure which century. It's not very far advanced from our 2008 Lexus where you had to choose among names on the little screen in order to call someone you call all the ^!@^%$!! time.
I sure wish Elon and Co. would stop using the car's firmware as a Marketing device, particularly when there is so much that still needs to get up to speed... I recall the voice control in my 2007 Chrysler RER MyGig unit being more reliable and more feature rich than my Model S (with an internet connection).

Then again we used to be able to see our calendars and the phone pad at the same time, which I need for joining conference calls. Makes me anxious for what is coming in 10 (if it will be released at all for MCU1, that is...)
 
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