Nav 8.0 - UI not made for driving

[scottm]

"random owners" is all of us today with the beta in the field ... like you and me. The sample size for that is not a problem with the number and variety of us on the road now. But our feedback mechanism is weak-to-non-functional... and too late "thank you for your input".

What I'm talking about is get Tesla to do the damn testing, so results can inform the design cycle and adjustments made BEFORE crap gets out OTA. Yes, use Tesla employees, make them use the software in the design cycle, professional employed QA testers .. who carry incentives $ to improve UI performance. Drive the performance up... Just like the dudes in the propulsion department making things more ludicrous all the time.

Poor UI performance is just puttering along in a high performance car. It's getting left behind.

The car should be just as slick to use as it is to drive.

Drive UI error hit rates down.

Speed up UI selection.

Sure, throw in some random samples (people off the street) for focus group, A/B choice testing, sanity tests, etc.. Use them as "control" in the tests. I'd say controls should be people who don't know jack crap about a Tesla but drive a car today, and maybe want to own one some day.

 

[Topher]

throw in some random samples (people off the street) for focus group

Forget random, throw in some OLD people. (no offense intended) People whose vision isn't what it used to be, people who may not be as dexterous as they once were. High resolution screens are not an excuse for 4 point fonts with tons of white space.

Thank you kindly.

p.s. Glad to see this discussion taking a turn for the practical constructive suggestions rather than rants.

 

[Dborn]

When I said "random", I meant focus groups. I also meant before the software was released, so all of us owners are not currently testers in the sense that I intended. I actually am agreeing with Scott, just expanding on his suggestion.

 

[hmmm]

High resolution screens are not an excuse for 4 point fonts with tons of white space

Touché.

 

[scottm]

Forget random, throw in some OLD people. (no offense intended) People whose vision isn't what it used to be, people who may not be as dexterous as they once were. High resolution screens are not an excuse for 4 point fonts with tons of white space.

Thank you kindly.

p.s. Glad to see this discussion taking a turn for the practical constructive suggestions rather than rants.

... is what I was getting at in this part ...

Testers put on clear lens glasses smeared with Vaseline, then wiped off, but not cleaned any more than that.
Tester wears leather gloves with touch-device fingertip contact pads on index finger and thumb only. Add a 2 pound strap-on weight to forearm.

text enlarged for your satisfaction

By way, I totally agree Tesla is missing the point of having large real estate, which is to FILL IT with controls that are larger to see and hit

 

[number12]

Finally got a loaner with 8.0.. I'm so sad.

Worse than I could have imagined. Will service center updated my software without my consent?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Will service center updated my software without my consent?

Absolutely, unless you beg and plead with them not to do so.

But if your car requires any repairs that involves firmware, they are required to do the update. You can not get around that. Last year I was forced to upgrade from 6.x to 7.1 because I was getting a drive unit replaced. Of course, I could have stayed on 6.x and kept the bad DU. Decisions, decisions....

 

[scottm]

Also by the way I think this button, when rendered on a 15" laptop with browser full-screened... is showing at about the size of what buttons SHOULD be on the Tesla UI

 

[scottm]

I think people like to complain more than contribute toward improving a UI...

Here was our big chance at showing Telsa v8 BEFORE they went and created something. ..

Let's do a v8 UI commons project!

fizzled

 

[Lloyd]

What ever happened to this option?

 

[BertL]

I think people like to complain more than contribute toward improving a UI...

Here was our big chance at showing Telsa v8 BEFORE they went and created something. ..

Let's do a v8 UI commons project!

fizzled

No, I think the basic problem is Elon & Tesla operate mostly to their own drum beat as to what's important -- because they still can as long as there are people with enough money to buy MS & MX as they are, keeping the cash flow moving to get M3 out the door.

Beyond a few examples from "years ago" with things like backup lines being added to the backup camera view, IMHO it's tough for anyone to say Elon and Tesla listens and then acts upon customer requirements in more recent times. There was for example a full-blown multi-week effort done here on TMC last fall with about 300 TMC users contributing, where requirements were prioritized and the list was delivered to Tesla. Almost nothing on that list has made it's way into any fleet deliverable more than a year later. Like others, I have also sent a handful of constructive suggestions to Tesla since taking delivery -- my major one related to UI and IMHO a safety/comfort issue that was broken with 7.0 and could be easily remedied by relocating some IC information. I unfortunately believe these for the most part go into a big black hole. As I've discussed in another thread, there also seems to be little focus on using the 700-1000 EAP (if it still exists) effectively for feedback and improvement before delivering major drops to the fleet for anything other than perhaps AP and safety-related systems. Instead, we get Easter Eggs that make a few owners chuckle and put Tesla in the press for a couple of days, unexpected things like Homelink that works for some and is problematic at best for others, and a recently refreshed 8.0 UI that severely lacks necessary contrast for many owners, but not acknowledged firmware bug fixes or improvements that could really improve the Owner's experience with a top-of-the-line premium vehicle like our MS are.​

 

[TexasEV]

What ever happened to this option?

View attachment 204164

I miss it too. Now the car only displays the superchargers it thinks you need to see, depending on the zoom of the map.

 

[scottm]

What ever happened to this option?

View attachment 204164

First off, I weep when I see a SC list like that. Lucky you! I've got one SC within 200 miles. And must get to that to reach the next SC within 200 beyond that... not much creativity or choice for 800 miles. Either you're on the route or you're not.

Actually, it's the OTHER option shown on that screen, also gone, that I miss more... the "Visited Chargers". I liked having those always showing on the nav map as reference points and handy "nav to" points to hit... Now the memory of those places are gone, and do not show in the map. Or at least I haven't been able to find the way to make them appear... I think the function was just deleted.

You can find superchargers in the area with voice command "navigate supercharger"... and a list will come up.

You can't say "navigate to where I used to charge" !!

 

[scottm]

No, I think the basic problem is Elon & Tesla operate mostly to their own drum beat as to what's important -- because they still can as long as there are people with enough money to buy MS & MX as they are, keeping the cash flow moving to get M3 out the door.

Beyond a few examples from "years ago" with things like backup lines being added to the backup camera view, IMHO it's tough for anyone to say Elon and Tesla listens and then acts upon customer requirements in more recent times. There was for example a full-blown multi-week effort done here on TMC last fall with about 300 TMC users contributing, where requirements were prioritized and the list was delivered to Tesla. Almost nothing on that list has made it's way into any fleet deliverable more than a year later. Like others, I have also sent a handful of constructive suggestions to Tesla since taking delivery -- my major one related to UI and IMHO a safety/comfort issue that was broken with 7.0 and could be easily remedied by relocating some IC information. I unfortunately believe these for the most part go into a big black hole. As I've discussed in another thread, there also seems to be little focus on using the 700-1000 EAP (if it still exists) effectively for feedback and improvement before delivering major drops to the fleet for anything other than perhaps AP and safety-related systems. Instead, we get Easter Eggs that make a few owners chuckle and put Tesla in the press for a couple of days, unexpected things like Homelink that works for some and is problematic at best for others, and a recently refreshed 8.0 UI that severely lacks necessary contrast for many owners, but not acknowledged firmware bug fixes or improvements that could really improve the Owner's experience with a top-of-the-line premium vehicle like our MS are.​

This sounds like a completely lost opportunity on Tesla.

**bleep** the Easter Eggs, thanks very much. Maybe if you're caught up on work, put one in. But not cute when there's real needed work still to do. Kind of insulting a customer base that is bleeding to help and seems to be the equivalent to corporate masturbation. Feels good, makes you blind!

Tesla: direct your resources now.

 

[flashflood]

Agree with OP. I thought I would eventually get used to 8.0, but I'm actually having the opposite experience: with each passing day of actual use, I hate it more and more. It is incredibly driver-hostile.

Suggestion for Tesla: don't let anyone work on the UI who isn't also an owner. This was designed by someone sitting at a desk, not someone trying to safely operate a moving car.

Update: really loathing 8.0 at this point. Specifically:

(1) It's gotten to the point that I use my iPhone instead of Tesla nav because I can't stand the way it bigfoots the display.

(2) It seems totally random whether an app opens in top or bottom half. Well, not entirely random -- it's always the wrong place.

(3) I cannot fathom the media player, even when the car is parked and I can devote full attention to it. The old media player was primitive but at least it was simple and easy to use. The new one is a disorganized mess. I literally just stare at it and ask the gods "where the f*** is X" for all values of X. And this is after three months of daily usage -- and I'm really good with computers. I don't even try to listen to music in the car anymore.

(4) Audio source selection on the steering wheel -- so important, and taken away for no good reason.

(5) Voice control is not the solution. It's a nice addition, but it's fundamentally secondary. There are just too many times when I can't use voice control because I'm already on a phone call, conversing with a passenger, etc.

Finally -- and this is not new in 8.0 -- I have a request. If my phone is Bluetooth paired to the car, and the phone is playing music, please automatically change the car's audio input to phone. This seems so simple and obvious. As it stands, the sound goes to /dev/null until I manually intervene.

Of course, CarPlay would fix all of this and so much more. *cough*

 

[jeffro01]

Still loving 8 and still don't have any idea why some of you seem to hate it so much... Better get used to it because that's the direction Tesla is heading with their UI. I hope they don't go back to 7, or 6 for that matter, as I've really come to appreciate how much better 8 (especially after some of the fixes to the media player) is than anything Tesla has done before.

Jeff

 

[Aieukl378]

Still loving 8 and still don't have any idea why some of you seem to hate it so much... Better get used to it because that's the direction Tesla is heading with their UI. I hope they don't go back to 7, or 6 for that matter, as I've really come to appreciate how much better 8 (especially after some of the fixes to the media player) is than anything Tesla has done before.

Jeff

Understand this forum is 1st World Problem Central. I'm a guy who wants to throw his iPhone against the wall after the last IOS updates but at no point have I disliked the new UI on my Tesla. I've had my car for 6 months now and going from 7 to 8 was a huge upgrade(and a nice free gift). Anyhow...looking forward to see what Santa Musk has in store for us this month!

 

[TexasEV]

Still loving 8 and still don't have any idea why some of you seem to hate it so much... Better get used to it because that's the direction Tesla is heading with their UI.

If you really don't have any idea why some of us seem to hate it so much, there are more than 100 posts before yours in this thread that you could read.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I look at the media player to select one of my radio presets, I have no idea what to press. I see a bunch of squares on the bottom, which appear to be my presets? Yet some have tiny grey-out FM frequencies underneath - almost invisible - and some don't have FM stations at all but recently played songs. This is such a clusterf*.

 

[aesculus]

I look at the media player to select one of my radio presets, I have no idea what to press. I see a bunch of squares on the bottom, which appear to be my presets? Yet some have tiny grey-out FM frequencies underneath - almost invisible - and some don't have FM stations at all but recently played songs. This is such a clusterf*.

I agree. And I don't want all the clutter hanging around when I am using other sources such as USB. The old player let me capture my FM stations as favorites, but did not force me to look at them when I was using my USB player.

Since I use my USB almost exclusively, I just wiped all of those favorites off the UI. It looks much better but now when I want to got to a few of the FM stations I sometimes listen too, I have to hunt them down from scratch each time.