Not sure why people need physical buttons for climate control

[canbonbon]

About 25 years ago or so, most automakers introduced Automatic climate control in cars. All the cars I have had, have "Auto" climate control. So there is literally never any need for me to touch the physical buttons. I have my settings for 70 and I had set that about 15 yrs ago. In winters it heats the car and tries to bring it to that temp as soon as possible. Fidgeting with controls wont make it bring the car to that temp any sooner. There is literally *NOTHING* you can do to make your car come to a temp faster then what is set on auto. Its a misconception that if you maximize the heat by turning the dial or pressing the buttons, it will get you there sooner. In reality it only increases the fan speed and blows more *cold* air on you. So if you had just left it alone, it would have reached that temp anyway, normally. Ditto for summer when the AC kicks on. Anyway, that is how I use it. So I was wondering why do people play with those controls and therefore complain about lack of controls in Tesla MY? Under what scenarios would you need physical controls if you already have "AUTO" Climate control in your car. And if you do have those scenarios, then are they so common (meaning daily) that you really need that button to play with your fan speed or increase/reduce your cabin temperature? I just curious for other folks opinion on this because I really find it fascinating when one of the first complaints I hear about Model Y is the lack of physical buttons for climate control.

You can read more about Climate control in Tesla MY here: Tesla Climate Control

Having said all that, there are some physical buttons I do use. And those are the seat warmer/Cooler fan. Both of my other cars allow seat warming and cooling. So those buttons are tricky because they are not on auto control. I don't think Tesla MY has any seat cooling but I know it has seat warming. So I guess that might be something I might like as a button. Ditto for steering heating. I could not find a way to set automatic temp on seats and steering. So if people want those as buttons, I guess I would buy that precisely because there is no auto control for them.

 

[buckets0fun]

Use your right steering wheel button plus spoken words to activate things.
“Set driver seat heat medium”
“Turn steering wheel heat on”
“Set car to 84degrees”
“Passenger seat heater to low”

 

[exxxviii]

• Nope, don't need hard buttons for automatic climate control. Just an easy way to raise or lower the temperature a degree or two.
• Hard buttons for front and rear defogging would be helpful. They are annoying on the Tesla.
• Now that the Tesla has automatic heated seats and steering wheel, I don't need buttons. (I have permanent soft buttons on the screen, but don't use them any more.)
• Lack of buttons for rear seat heating in the Tesla is just stupid.
• Lack of radio volume knob kinda sucks, because sometimes the passenger would want to turn it up or down. (The driver control is excellent.)
• Hard buttons for headlights would be better, since they do not automatically turn on in rain (when the wipers automatically turn on).
• I would love a MAX AC button. German cars have this - you push it and it turns everything on for max cooling, turn it off and it returns to your original settings. Brilliant.

 

[whisperingshad]

Automatic climate control sucks in all cars! At least for me. Sometimes i want just foot or just face etc...I usually dont use heater and just use the seat heater(s), both sometimes if its really cold. Plus sometimes I ran the AC when hot but need seat heater on for Mrs back issues.

 

[NovaY]

My wife doesn't want air blowing directly at her, so she usually set her temperature high, fan speed low, and directs air flow to upper and lower vents. Pressing auto messes this all up and she becomes very upset and irritated.

 

[golferguy]

Auto Climate control is great in the summer when its very hot, and great in the winter when its very cold. But when its 60-75 outside, auto climate control will flip back and forth between AC and Heat. Sometimes mixing Heat with AC on to keep humidity low. I find it easier to open a window a bit or the sunroof. That's why a few physical buttons would be nice.

Tesla buried some of these in the touchscreen, and if you have rear seating in a MX, you have to go down to another level to get rear controls.

 

[leoita]

I pretty much never adjust as well. A degree or two and in the spring I shut off.

My 2009 Prius has a few physical buttons and I only use the ones on the steering wheel.

I don't NEED any buttons on my MY whatsoever.

I literally cannot think of anything that I miss on my MY.

 

[SkyDog]

Sometimes I want more or less air blowing from the vents than AUTO chooses to do.

...There is literally *NOTHING* you can do to make your car come to a temp faster then what is set on auto. Its a misconception that if you maximize the heat by turning the dial or pressing the buttons, it will get you there sooner. In reality it only increases the fan speed and blows more *cold* air on you. So if you had just left it alone, it would have reached that temp anyway, normally. Ditto for summer when the AC kicks on. Anyway, that is how I use it. So I was wondering why do people play with those controls and therefore complain about lack of controls in Tesla MY? Under what scenarios would you need physical controls if you already have "AUTO" Climate control in your car. And if you do have those scenarios, then are they so common (meaning daily) that you really need that button to play with your fan speed or increase/reduce your cabin temperature? I just curious for other folks opinion on this because I really find it fascinating when one of the first complaints I hear about Model Y is the lack of physical buttons for climate control...

Sometimes I like either more or less air blowing form the vents than what AUTO chooses. It's not a matter of wanting the car to warm or cool faster, it's just a matter of what feels comfortable to me. For example, the car might be at my temperature setting, but I want more air blowing from the vents. Or it's a nice day, I want the windows closed for a quiet ride, but I want outside air blowing from the vents - not heating or cooling, just blowing. I fiddle with the HVAC controls a lot, it's about my least favorite feature of the car and I'd really prefer more traditional vents and a couple of manual dials that I can play with without even having to look at them.

 

[T061]

I agree that all the complaining about the lack of physical buttons is silly.

Once upon a time, some manufacturers (like Honda) replaced physical volume/seek buttons with quirky non functioning digital buttons on poor quality touchscreens or haptic feedback buttons that were so hard to use. Cuatomer Complaints were warranted and some manufacturers fixed this and perhaps overcompensated by using big, ugly physical volume knobs. Like every YouTube review of the Rav4 comments how awesome the big rubbery volume knob is!

Other manufacturers like VW still haven't gotten it right and the return to previous platform buttons would be a godsend.

But the Tesla screen is like an iPad and works better than any other car infotainment I've tried. It's great quality and responsive. The UI is very intuitive and easy to use. The steering scroll wheel is the best volume knob I've ever owned.

I'm not sure why people complain. Why on earth would I want to add physical buttons? It's like going from an iPhone to a flip phone. Remember the days when it took 4 clicks to type a single letter while writing a message? I once heard a friend complain that he misses being able to type a message without looking at his phone... It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I agree that certain UI features could be better optimized so you don't have to dig into 2nd/3rd level menus. For example it could be easier to adjust windshield wiper speed once they're in use. But the solution isn't adding physical buttons, but rather optimizing the UI.

Hopefully Tesla does this in the future and maybe gives us more UI "shortcut" button options since there is a lot of unused screen real estate. (I better be careful what I say here since apparently some people are against Tesla updating the UI as well.)

As far as Auto Climate... I've had several cars with this feature and I've always found myself incessantly fidgeting and adjusting it and it never seemed to work all that great. On Tesla, for the most part, I leave it on 70 Auto and never touch anything. Occasionally if I have my coat on I turn it down to 68 and that's very quick and easy thing to do on the screen. It's actually the best Auto Climate control that I have personally experienced.

I appreciate the new auto fan feature that let's you select lo-med-hi fan speed. I've utilized this only a few times and don't mind the 1 extra click it takes to do... Hyundai Palisade has a designated button just for this feature... It's one of the 30 physical buttons that makes the center console look too busy and I imagine you have to look for it every time you need to use this rare feature.

Keep in mind Tesla didn't even have this feature in 2017 when model 3 was released (and I don't know of any car that did at the time).

There are a few physical buttons I'm glad to have: steering wheel controls, drive/turn stalks, interior lights and window/seat switches. Everything else I can live without. I think Tesla nailed it in the 3/Y. As for the new stalkless cars with haptic turn signals, I'm not convinced.

 

[STS-134]

There is literally *NOTHING* you can do to make your car come to a temp faster then what is set on auto.

But even if you are someone who uses the AUTO setting (and I am), you have to first set the temperature in the first place. And the problem with touch screens is that there is zero tactile feedback and there's no way to even adjust the temperature without taking your eyes off the road.

 

[buckets0fun]

But even if you are someone who uses the AUTO setting (and I am), you have to first set the temperature in the first place. And the problem with touch screens is that there is zero tactile feedback and there's no way to even adjust the temperature without taking your eyes off the road.

False. Right steering wheel button, “set temp to 78degrees”. Problem solved, eyes still on road. No one crashed and burned.