Model S Software/Firmware wishlist

[tpham]

Notifications

Notifications:
The car should be able to notify (by email might be the easiest) of events in the car
such as:

1) Alarms - For obvious reasons.​

2) Charge status: Rated miles now is greater than x. So you know the car is ready.
3) Charge status: Charging has stopped before limit is reached. So you won't wake up to
an undercharged car.
4) Speed - exceeds x. (So you know if the valet is Buellering your Tesla.)
​

Actually, #1 would need a firmware update. The REST API published by timdorr
(http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/13410-Model-S-REST-API) does not seem to have
an alarm status.
#2-#4 Could be implemented as a program that runs on a computer somewhere that would poll your
Tesla periodically and send the notifications to the appropriate recipient.


-Thai

 

[ShortArc]

All I want is for the darn lights to stay off and not go to auto every time I get in the car

 

[John3m]

Brake lights... It would be nice to have some sort of indication of when the brake lights are activated (if you didn't know, just taking your foot off the accelerator pedal can activate the brake lights when the car slows enough due to regen)
If you press the Tesla logo to get the info screen, the car is "live" and does show the status of the brake lights.

When I drive - especially on the freeway, I try to never have the brake lights on unless I absolutely have to, brake lights are the biggest cause of traffic on the road today...

A small indicator ANYWHERE in the dash or on the status bar would be nice.

 

[PeterK]

Brake lights... It would be nice to have some sort of indication of when the brake lights are activated (if you didn't know, just taking your foot off the accelerator pedal can activate the brake lights when the car slows enough due to regen)
If you press the Tesla logo to get the info screen, the car is "live" and does show the status of the brake lights.

When I drive - especially on the freeway, I try to never have the brake lights on unless I absolutely have to, brake lights are the biggest cause of traffic on the road today...

A small indicator ANYWHERE in the dash or on the status bar would be nice.

+1. An LED in the rear view mirror or on the top of the rear window that is on/off configurable would be even better than on the dash or status bar, but would require a hardware change.

While i agree with your point about sudden taillights causing traffic, sometimes I have the opposite concern in stop-and-go traffic. If my lights aren't going on enough, a driver too close behind who's not paying attention could rear-end me.

 

[andrewket]

Brake lights... It would be nice to have some sort of indication of when the brake lights are activated (if you didn't know, just taking your foot off the accelerator pedal can activate the brake lights when the car slows enough due to regen)
If you press the Tesla logo to get the info screen, the car is "live" and does show the status of the brake lights.

When I drive - especially on the freeway, I try to never have the brake lights on unless I absolutely have to, brake lights are the biggest cause of traffic on the road today...

A small indicator ANYWHERE in the dash or on the status bar would be nice.

I agree. Easy UI change.

 

[4sevens.com]

+1. An LED in the rear view mirror or on the top of the rear window that is on/off configurable would be even better than on the dash or status bar, but would require a hardware change.

While i agree with your point about sudden taillights causing traffic, sometimes I have the opposite concern in stop-and-go traffic. If my lights aren't going on enough, a driver too close behind who's not paying attention could rear-end me.

Agreed - and have the option to set the threshold when the brake would turn on... perhaps only when full release of the right petal.

 

[KennyB-FLL]

Not sure if this has been brought up before or not. How about Telematics similar to OnStar or Lexus Enform. Nice feature to be able to just place a call and the operator can suggest a POI you are looking for then program into the Nav system for you. Also if airbags are deployed you are called to see if there are injuries and help is needed.

 

[lov2krz]

Brake lights... It would be nice to have some sort of indication of when the brake lights are activated (if you didn't know, just taking your foot off the accelerator pedal can activate the brake lights when the car slows enough due to regen)
If you press the Tesla logo to get the info screen, the car is "live" and does show the status of the brake lights.

When I drive - especially on the freeway, I try to never have the brake lights on unless I absolutely have to, brake lights are the biggest cause of traffic on the road today...

A small indicator ANYWHERE in the dash or on the status bar would be nice.

It's pretty simple, if you have your foot off the accelerator then the brake light comes on when you go into regeneration mode. If your foot is on the accelerator (just a little) even in regeneration mode your brake lights do not come on.

IMHO, I don't need an led to distract me, if I want the distraction I use the vehicle representation in the software version page found by touching the big T at the top of the screen.

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure if this has been brought up before or not. How about Telematics similar to OnStar or Lexus Enform. Nice feature to be able to just place a call and the operator can suggest a POI you are looking for then program into the Nav system for you. Also if airbags are deployed you are called to see if there are injuries and help is needed.

This has been brought up before. Did you know that you can purchase an add-on On Star unit to your car through GM. The service is available if you're really interested.

 

[vfx]

...

When I drive - especially on the freeway, I try to never have the brake lights on unless I absolutely have to, brake lights are the biggest cause of traffic on the road today... .

Strongly agree. The roadster is the same way. Some actually figured out a little LED light (wired to the taillight) to show this.

And the E-Box from ACP has a dash indicator for this.

 

[Whom]

Three big ones for me, that seem bizarrely absent in my opinion:

1) Favorites for navigation, particularly "Home". Ideally, would be combined with on-map icons, and voice commands ("Navigate Home"). This is all standard on Nav systems for many years now.

2) Finish charging by a certain time. Combined with start charging time, can do a slower trickle charge to complete on time. Volt has this.

3) USB shuffle. Every other mp3 player has this.

 

[NigelM]

1) Favorites for navigation, particularly "Home". Ideally, would be combined with on-map icons, and voice commands ("Navigate Home"). This is all standard on Nav systems for many years now.

I used to feel I wanted this but voice commands have negated that feeling. I can always find home quickly by just tapping on the charge icon shown at my house location.

 

[apacheguy]

Following are the top three features I would like to see in 5.0:

1. Sleep mode
2. Backup lines on camera
3. Reduce supercharging time in half, per Elon's announcement

For what it's worth, this is my revised wish list with the 5.0 release notes in hand:

1. Backup camera guidelines
2. Reduce supercharging time in half, per Elon's announcement
3. Energy app overhaul to add a screen showing subsystems' individual power use. This used to be in the beta cars, but they took it away for production.

 

[NoMoGas]

This has been brought up before. Did you know that you can purchase an add-on On Star unit to your car through GM. The service is available if you're really interested.

Just an FYI, Its called OnStar FMV (For my vehicle) and costs about 50 bucks on Amazon/ebay. It replaces the rear view mirror and is a simple 3 wire install. (You will need to put a button on the glass) With that you can get auto crash response and turn by turn directions/concierge svc.

 

[Whom]

I used to feel I wanted this but voice commands have negated that feeling. I can always find home quickly by just tapping on the charge icon shown at my house location.

My house icon is usually off the screen.

For voice, in my six year old Lexus IS I can just say "Home" and it immediately navigates me home. Indeed, it's the only voice command that works reliably in that car, and I sorely miss it. In the MS, I have to say my entire address, which is pretty lengthy, so I always end up searching my PLACES nav history to find my house.

It's not that this is such a burden per se, but that every other nav system I seen has the concept of Home (and other favorites) so it seems an almost intentional missing feature.

 

[MartinAustin]

Suggestion - activate pre-AC/heat via GPS proximity

Hi folks, just have a suggestion for Tesla to put into 5.1

This would be a mode that is activated in the smartphone app. The default would be "off."

Depending on your proximity to the car, it would attempt to heat/cool the car as needed. (e.g. if the car's interior is already perfect, nothing happens, but if it is 115 degrees in there the AC starts to crank.)

How is your proximity to the car known? You have to have your phone's GPS and other location assessment features turned on. It will know the GPS location of the car. If you appear to be heading to your car, it can make an educated guess that you're actually going to get into your car and sends the signal to the car to pre-heat/cool.

The car remains in sleep mode until the smartphone sends it a signal. No battery power is wasted with false alarms, or extra communicating back and forth with your phone.

Over time, the smartphone app could be optimised to reduce false alarms; for example, if you walk into your garage to tinker around for a while, perhaps it'll think you're going to get into the car and it'll start the AC. Once it sees you are not really getting in... it will turn it off. And so on. (I am not one of the "top men" who would be working on this)

 

[brianman]

Hi folks, just have a suggestion for Tesla to put into 5.1

This would be a mode that is activated in the smartphone app. The default would be "off."

Depending on your proximity to the car, it would attempt to heat/cool the car as needed. (e.g. if the car's interior is already perfect, nothing happens, but if it is 115 degrees in there the AC starts to crank.)

How is your proximity to the car known? You have to have your phone's GPS and other location assessment features turned on. It will know the GPS location of the car. If you appear to be heading to your car, it can make an educated guess that you're actually going to get into your car and sends the signal to the car to pre-heat/cool.

The car remains in sleep mode until the smartphone sends it a signal. No battery power is wasted with false alarms, or extra communicating back and forth with your phone.

Over time, the smartphone app could be optimised to reduce false alarms; for example, if you walk into your garage to tinker around for a while, perhaps it'll think you're going to get into the car and it'll start the AC. Once it sees you are not really getting in... it will turn it off. And so on. (I am not one of the "top men" who would be working on this)

This gets a lot simpler if you're willing to exclude any home preconditioning. This simplification would ask the owner to specify home coordinates and the feature would be inactive within, say, 100 feet of this location. Would remove all the "home false alarm" scenarios.

Having said that, you don't need Tesla's help for this.

You could write this as a phone app that interrogates the car's GPS over REST and initiates preconditioning, again via REST, when appropriate.


Mods: It might be about time to consider an "app requests" section of the forum. At least 3 of the firmware requests I've seen recently can be solved by forum members just using REST and phone capabilities.

 

[artsci]

A navigation feature that list all chargers (not just superchargers) within a certain user-specified range. Using the web browser with apps for this purpose is dreadfully slow.

 

[elie06]

+10 for iOS in the car !

This feature would be n°1 in my wish list by far.

Come on Tesla Software wizards, You know You can do it !!!

- - - Updated - - -

+1 for a Pandora app.

I'd also like to see the display able to act as an AirPlay receiver.

+10 for the AirPlay receiver for both Music AND Video !!!

 

[Jason]

This gets a lot simpler if you're willing to exclude any home preconditioning. This simplification would ask the owner to specify home coordinates and the feature would be inactive within, say, 100 feet of this location. Would remove all the "home false alarm" scenarios.

Having said that, you don't need Tesla's help for this.

You could write this as a phone app that interrogates the car's GPS over REST and initiates preconditioning, again via REST, when appropriate.


Mods: It might be about time to consider an "app requests" section of the forum. At least 3 of the firmware requests I've seen recently can be solved by forum members just using REST and phone capabilities.

Wonder why someone (that knows how to program well) is not offering cool apps like this for sale.
I would be willing to pay for apps like this, I think there are others that would too.

Even something as simple as a icon on the screen to press for turning on the air - it does all the rest behind the scenes - it could give you a chime when done, or a buzz if unable.
...Instead of pressing the T icon, waiting for the circle going round and round, then pressing the climate, circle goes round and round, then pressing the 'on' and the circle goes round and round.

 

[dirkhh]

Wonder why someone (that knows how to program well) is not offering cool apps like this for sale.
I would be willing to pay for apps like this, I think there are others that would too.

Even something as simple as a icon on the screen to press for turning on the air - it does all the rest behind the scenes - it could give you a chime when done, or a buzz if unable.
...Instead of pressing the T icon, waiting for the circle going round and round, then pressing the climate, circle goes round and round, then pressing the 'on' and the circle goes round and round.

Easy to do. No one is selling it as the functionality could go away at a moments notice. If Tesla turns off api access, any such app is dead