Obvious features/functions that weren't obvious to you

[Moose408]

While streaming, if you press and hold the back button, it will jump to your other saved stations, FM or streaming. So you can surf your favorites, but backwards.

Thank you. That was a major flaw that once I scrolled through the FM stations to streaming I could not get back to FM.

 

[DB-Cooper]

Might have been covered but I always wondered how the brake lights worked when regen stopping. I noticed the little Tesla car figure on the main screen actually displays the brake lights when on and off. It’s subtle but you can see it on the figure in addition to the third brake light. The brake lights do turn on when significant regen happens or when the friction brake is used.

I was worried any coasting or minimum regen would fire off the brake lights. I worried other people would think I was brake happy, but Tesla has done a good job only turning the lights on when there is significant deceleration.

 

[whatthe2]

Might have been covered but I always wondered how the brake lights worked when regen stopping. I noticed the little Tesla car figure on the main screen actually displays the brake lights when on and off. It’s subtle but you can see it on the figure in addition to the third brake light. The brake lights do turn on when significant regen happens or when the friction brake is used.

I was worried any coasting or minimum regen would fire off the brake lights. I worried other people would think I was brake happy, but Tesla has done a good job only turning the lights on when there is significant deceleration.

Yep, covered, but still very cool.

 

[DB-Cooper]

If you think of the Auto High Beam feature as "Auto High Beam Off" it makes more sense. You turn on the high beams whenever you need them using the left stalk, and it will turn them off automatically to avoid blinding oncoming traffic.

At first I thought they were meant to be left on all the time but I quickly got annoyed by the high beams turning on and off all the time. Didn't take long to realize it was because I was trying to use my high beams in areas I didn't really need them.

I’m confused, this is a feature I’m struggling with. Our Volvo has auto high-beam and basically when we turn on the high-beams using the stalk, they go on and then auto-off when a car is detected, then turn back on when there is no traffic to blind.

The Tesla seems the opposite. It seems the auto feature just automatically turns on high beams when it’s dark and nobody is around. I don’t mind it, but it’s different. The major issue though is you can’t seem to force them on except to hold the stalk. Our neighborhood has parked cars, Christmas lights and street lights. We have a lot of deer so my wife likes to use the high beams on these streets. It’s not dark enough for the Tesla to auto-high beam. Her Volvo is intuitive, the Tesla won’t seem to turn on unless we hold the stick manually. It’s unreliable enough that I turned it off so we can have the traditional high-beam stay on. Our roads rarely have cars so it’s not a major deal. Additionally, the Tesla low beams are some of the worst I’ve had in a recent luxury car.

Reading your post makes me think your’s works differently. I’d rather have auto-off after manual initiation than what I feel is auto-on only when crazy dark.

 

[DB-Cooper]

While it was known to me that the left scroll wheel can be used to advance to the next song by clicking right on it, I discovered today, completely by accident, that you can click to the right and hold for a moment and it will cycle to the next station on your favorites list. I love this as it's one less thing I need to look at the screen for while driving!

I see now that it mentions it in the owner's manual where it says, "Push the scroll button to the right to go to the next/previous song, station, or favorite," but it was not clear at all to me that you have to click and hold for a second otherwise it will only advance songs (at least for streaming radio).

OMG, long press moves to next station. I can’t wait to try this. This will be HUGE for me! Thanks

 

[Runt8]

I’m confused, this is a feature I’m struggling with. Our Volvo has auto high-beam and basically when we turn on the high-beams using the stalk, they go on and then auto-off when a car is detected, then turn back on when there is no traffic to blind.

The Tesla seems the opposite. It seems the auto feature just automatically turns on high beams when it’s dark and nobody is around. I don’t mind it, but it’s different. The major issue though is you can’t seem to force them on except to hold the stalk. Our neighborhood has parked cars, Christmas lights and street lights. We have a lot of deer so my wife likes to use the high beams on these streets. It’s not dark enough for the Tesla to auto-high beam. Her Volvo is intuitive, the Tesla won’t seem to turn on unless we hold the stick manually. It’s unreliable enough that I turned it off so we can have the traditional high-beam stay on. Our roads rarely have cars so it’s not a major deal. Additionally, the Tesla low beams are some of the worst I’ve had in a recent luxury car.

Reading your post makes me think your’s works differently. I’d rather have auto-off after manual initiation than what I feel is auto-on only when crazy dark.

Mine works similar to your Volvo, although it seems to have a large number of false positives when it comes to detecting oncoming traffic. On my street I get my brights turning on and off frequently when I go around a curve and it thinks lights on people’s garages are cars. But I feel like it’s detecting point lights, not ambient brightness.

 

[Runt8]

OMG, long press moves to next station. I can’t wait to try this. This will be HUGE for me! Thanks

This was my favorite feature, until an update broke the ability to favorite streaming stations (or at least remember them after you get out of the car).

 

[kirbo20]

A bit embarrassing but one day I was backing out of my garage. I forgot something so I put my car in park (so I thought). I get out and the car starts to roll backwards but only a foot or two and the car realized it was rolling away and automatically applied the brakes. There was a popup on the screen that said something about it applying breaks to prevent rollaway. I was fortunate that this happened because I was trapped behind the door trying to jump back in. It all happened so fast and I’ve obviously learned my lesson to check for the P on the screen. This is great safety feature.

 

[Moose408]

I’m confused, this is a feature I’m struggling with. Our Volvo has auto high-beam and basically when we turn on the high-beams using the stalk, they go on and then auto-off when a car is detected, then turn back on when there is no traffic to blind.

The Tesla seems the opposite. It seems the auto feature just automatically turns on high beams when it’s dark and nobody is around. I don’t mind it, but it’s different. The major issue though is you can’t seem to force them on except to hold the stalk. Our neighborhood has parked cars, Christmas lights and street lights. We have a lot of deer so my wife likes to use the high beams on these streets. It’s not dark enough for the Tesla to auto-high beam. Her Volvo is intuitive, the Tesla won’t seem to turn on unless we hold the stick manually. It’s unreliable enough that I turned it off so we can have the traditional high-beam stay on. Our roads rarely have cars so it’s not a major deal. Additionally, the Tesla low beams are some of the worst I’ve had in a recent luxury car.

Reading your post makes me think your’s works differently. I’d rather have auto-off after manual initiation than what I feel is auto-on only when crazy dark.

The Tesla works the same way as my wife's Mercedes. If you want to force high-beams you have to pull on the stalk and hold it.

 

[DB-Cooper]

The Tesla works the same way as my wife's Mercedes. If you want to force high-beams you have to pull on the stalk and hold it.

Ok glad I’m not losing my mind. The others who posted it’s the similar to other cars, it’s not. Although I haven’t driven a Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and Infiniti all work based on a premise of auto-off where you flip the stalk and it turns on immediately than off when vehicles are in range. The Tesla is opposite, sort of Auto-On where the stalk only toggles between turning the feature on or off.

In limited practice the Tesla has been ok identifying other vehicles. I find it too aggressive to turn on on reasonably lit highways, but sometimes not aggressive enough on dim lit residential streets. I guess that’s why I prefer being more in control as is the case with the other makes I cited.

 

[DB-Cooper]

I'm not sure if our definition of light force is different or it's because I have sport steering turned on, but I have to move the wheel enough to actually change the car direction which is not what I consider light force. But with the nipple buttons, it's a non issue for me now.

Same issue here. I also use sport steering. My wife’s Volvo with PAII requires a single finger’s weight, the Tesla in my experience requires more than just resting hands on it. I now just click the volume up or down one notch. Before my wife as a passenger could actually feel my inputs of jerking the wheel to stop the nag. I haven’t tried taking zapper steering off but I’ve suggested that makes it worse. I definitely think they need to lower that sensitivity and make it more detect resistance as it seems now you need actual input. Agree similarly that the buttons make t a non-issue.

 

[dsvick]

Ok glad I’m not losing my mind. The others who posted it’s the similar to other cars, it’s not. Although I haven’t driven a Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and Infiniti all work based on a premise of auto-off where you flip the stalk and it turns on immediately than off when vehicles are in range. The Tesla is opposite, sort of Auto-On where the stalk only toggles between turning the feature on or off.

In limited practice the Tesla has been ok identifying other vehicles. I find it too aggressive to turn on on reasonably lit highways, but sometimes not aggressive enough on dim lit residential streets. I guess that’s why I prefer being more in control as is the case with the other makes I cited.

You can always turn the auto hi beam feature off under the lighting controls then the stalk will simply behave as an on/off toggle.

 

[DB-Cooper]

You can always turn the auto hi beam feature off under the lighting controls then the stalk will simply behave as an on/off toggle.

Yeah Ive confirmed that. A bit of a hassle, but I may just opt to disable this feature and leave it to the ole human decision. I only need it in my neighborhood to see the deer sleeping on peoples’ lawns, but I believe the dim street lights prevent the Tesla from auto-firing them.

 

[israndy]

Perhaps they need to add a feature where you press and hold the high beam icon and it toggles the automatic feature. Oh, wait, only the Model 3 has a touch screen where the indicator lights are...

-Randy

 

[BenR]

A bit embarrassing but one day I was backing out of my garage. I forgot something so I put my car in park (so I thought). I get out and the car starts to roll backwards but only a foot or two and the car realized it was rolling away and automatically applied the brakes. There was a popup on the screen that said something about it applying breaks to prevent rollaway. I was fortunate that this happened because I was trapped behind the door trying to jump back in. It all happened so fast and I’ve obviously learned my lesson to check for the P on the screen. This is great safety feature.

I really wish I could turn this feature OFF - my garage space is pretty tight on the sides and so if I am taking passengers I first have to back out of the garage so they can get in, generally a few minutes before actually leaving. If I don't put on my seat belt and start to back out slowly, it slams the car into park and gives me this message. Thus I have to futz around to put my seat belt on for the 10 seconds it takes to back out, which really, really annoys me (more than it probably should, but ya know, first world problems...)

 

[Runt8]

Ok glad I’m not losing my mind. The others who posted it’s the similar to other cars, it’s not. Although I haven’t driven a Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and Infiniti all work based on a premise of auto-off where you flip the stalk and it turns on immediately than off when vehicles are in range. The Tesla is opposite, sort of Auto-On where the stalk only toggles between turning the feature on or off.

I guess I'm not seeing how it's any different. Pulling the stalk towards you turns on the high beams, unless it determines that it shouldn't because of oncoming traffic. I can see the sensitivity being different between manufacturers, but the underlying feature is the same.

 

[DB-Cooper]

I guess I'm not seeing how it's any different. Pulling the stalk towards you turns on the high beams, unless it determines that it shouldn't because of oncoming traffic. I can see the sensitivity being different between manufacturers, but the underlying feature is the same.

Pulling towards you turns them on but you just hold it. In other cars pushing the stalk back permanently forces the high beams on and then if major changes are noted, they are turned off automatically.

Basically most cars have an Auto-Off approach versus Tesla has an Auto-On. The issue is getting high beams on in a permanent manner when the Auto function doesn’t work.

My Volvo allows this as its user initiated and factors ambient lights and then turns off automatically once it seems a major light source change like headlights.

Long story short, my high beams won’t turn on in my neighborhood and holding the stalk isn’t practical or convenient especially as I navigate 90degree turns. I’d like to kick them on and then have Tesla turn off when a major light source is detected. My current choice is disabling entirely or awkwardly holding the stalk forward. Not huge but could be way more refined. I really have zero complaints about the Volvo system however.

 

[TT97]

I really wish I could turn this feature OFF - my garage space is pretty tight on the sides and so if I am taking passengers I first have to back out of the garage so they can get in, generally a few minutes before actually leaving. If I don't put on my seat belt and start to back out slowly, it slams the car into park and gives me this message. Thus I have to futz around to put my seat belt on for the 10 seconds it takes to back out, which really, really annoys me (more than it probably should, but ya know, first world problems...)

Are you opening the door while backing up? Just driving around without buckling the seat belt shouldn't cause the car to go into Park. You may have a occupancy sensor issue on the driver seat.

 

[Bill51]

An easy way to navigate to any location that you can see on the map display is to hold the tip of your finger on that location for 1 second. A window pops up with the address and a button that can be pushed to navigate to it.

 

[BenR]

Are you opening the door while backing up? Just driving around without buckling the seat belt shouldn't cause the car to go into Park. You may have a occupancy sensor issue on the driver seat.

Hmmm. Happens when I move forward without a seatbelt as well, but only at very low speed (<3 mph.) If I "gun it" out of the garage it doesn't happen, but I'm not really comfortable doing that... I assumed it just wasn't distinguishing between very slight acceleration and inadvertent rolling.

I have/had another issue with the screen going black for a moment when entering/closing the door that seemed like it may have had something to do with the seat sensor, but I had service look at it and they said it was fine and I wouldn't be able to put the car in drive if it wasn't detecting a driver, and it was just a software glitch. It's gotten mostly better since then, but not completely. And come to think of it, I usually have to press the stalk twice to go into reverse (the first press doesn't register, or something.) I think I'll have them take another look at that next week - I already happen to have a service appointment just for updates.