Pre-heating of seats, steering wheel, etc now available!

[evster]

New version of the app just released. Now pre-heating will warm up steering wheel, seats, wiper blades etc! This is really awesome news and a well awaited feature!! Well done!

"Preconditioning will also turn on your seat heaters and defrosters automatically in cold weather for your comfort and convenience. Cold weather upgrades, such as the heated steering wheel and wiper blades, will also be activated. When you start your next drive, your climate settings will automatically revert to your previous settings. NOTE: Requires vehicle software version 2018.4 or above."

 

[boaterva]

So, there's no option, it always turns on everything? That seems sorta presumptuous... If there's no snow, I don't need the wiper heaters going.... I don't get this at all. I can see having the *option* for all these things, but wearing out the wheel, seats, and wiper heaters may be an issue. I never run the wheel heater for more than 10 minutes when I do have it on.. I'm a bit confused.

I'm still on 2017.50.3, but 2018.4.5 looks like it may be a major release on ev-fw and TeslaFi, so maybe I'll get a chance to test this...

ETA: Car will be pretty toasty if you run the wheel, the seats, the climate, all for 30 mins because you wanted the battery preheated!!

 

[Mark Z]

It's enjoyable to have the steering wheel warmed up for a few minutes, even on a mild winter night in SoCal. Very pleased that the app and software are being updated to include the controls.

 

[mazeminder]

So, there's no option, it always turns on everything? That seems sorta presumptuous... If there's no snow, I don't need the wiper heaters going.... I don't get this at all. I can see having the *option* for all these things, but wearing out the wheel, seats, and wiper heaters may be an issue. I never run the wheel heater for more than 10 minutes when I do have it on.. I'm a bit confused.

I'm still on 2017.50.3, but 2018.4.5 looks like it may be a major release on ev-fw and TeslaFi, so maybe I'll get a chance to test this...

ETA: Car will be pretty toasty if you run the wheel, the seats, the climate, all for 30 mins because you wanted the battery preheated!!

I agree. They should give us individual controls. For example: will it only warm up the driver's seat? Want if I have a passenger? They have to sit on a cold seat?

 

[tktktk]

I wonder if they fixed the issue (for me) in 2018.4.1 where preconditioning was coming on at night, during the day......Key was hundreds of feet away in some situations.....

 

[sharpgator]

So now all I need is 18.4. Waiting patiently.

 

[BerTX]

I think the app is just displaying that those items are on. The seat heaters and wheel heat now come BACK on if you had them on when the car turned off. The app isn't actually turning them on, they just come on when the climate control is turned on, and the fact that they have been activated is displayed.

My seat heaters don'y come on when I turn on climate control, because I didn't have them on previously. I can't test anything else, as I don't have heated steering, etc.

 

[islandbayy]

I beat tesla to it, reported it via my YouTube channel before the News broke

Works well. Yesterday, could disable the defrosters via range mode ON. Today, Range mode setting has no effect. Will try a reboot though, as this firmware is proving buggy. (Errr. Buggier then USUAL)

 

[evster]

I think the app is just displaying that those items are on. The seat heaters and wheel heat now come BACK on if you had them on when the car turned off. The app isn't actually turning them on, they just come on when the climate control is turned on, and the fact that they have been activated is displayed.

My seat heaters don'y come on when I turn on climate control, because I didn't have them on previously. I can't test anything else, as I don't have heated steering, etc.

I think what you describe is how it was in 2018.4 without the app update. If you read the text in the release notes for the app it clearly states that the seat heaters, wheel etc will come on while you precondition the car. When you start driving it will revert back to your previous setting, which is what it was when you left the car the last time.

But we of course got to test before we know for certain. I'm still on 2018.2 so can't test it yet

 

[boaterva]

So, it turns them on with the battery heater (at 41 F) or it doesn’t? I get it reverts to your settings when you get in the car, it plainly says that.

But what does ‘I turn on Climate to preheat and it’s cold enough to trigger the battery heaters’ actually do? That’s the case the app text is describing, I believe.

And it cannot turn on all seat heaters. Many X’s have the back two folded shut most of the time. Are they disabled when folded flat? Lots of questions here....:

I really can’t see how they can enable any of this without giving us the option to turn on what we want. I may want all/one/none of seats. Same for wheel. Wipers are useless if it’s not snowing.

Another anti-case of no clue about cold weather?

 

[BerTX]

Unless they have updated the API, which I have not heard of, there is no mechanism available to the app to allow it to turn these items on -- not the battery heater, nor seat heaters, nor wheel heater, nor wiper heater. It just can't.

It CAN turn on and off climate control. If those things happen as a result of turning on climate control, then that is the only way the app can do it at this time.

When I turn on climate control on the app, my seat heater does not come on. Now, it's only 56°F in the car. I'm using v3.3.1 (Android) of the app and 2018.4.5 in the car.

 

[Webeevdrivers]

Which models does this apply to. S X 3, all of them?

 

[HankLloydRight]

If there's no snow, I don't need the wiper heaters going...

They use very little energy, probably less than the seat heaters.

but wearing out the wheel, seats, and wiper heaters may be an issue

What's this about wearing out the steering wheel and seats?

I never run the wheel heater for more than 10 minutes when I do have it on.. I'm a bit confused.

I have it on 100% of the time when it's cold out. No "wear" as far as I can tell. What kind of "wear" are you concerned about?

 

[boaterva]

Well, they are resistive elements, I assume there's some wear and tear. If we think not, okay, fine. And didn't know the wiper ones were such low draw. Point taken!

Which seats do we think are getting turned on? They really can't turn on all the X ones, including the perhaps folded third row!

And I also assume this whole concept is only enabled when you turn on Climate remotely and the battery heaters are on, which I thought was only at/below 41 F/5 C. No?

And, @BerTX, this is a new software version, who knows what they added to it, API-wise!

My overall point is that I'd like to control these things.

And, BTW, there's a new software version. 2018.4.7 is out for S/X (according to TeslaFi).

 

[HankLloydRight]

Well, they are resistive elements, I assume there's some wear and tear. I

Yes, but I think the wear and tear from resistive elements comes from the number of heat/cool cycles, but once it's on, I don't think they "wear" much, compared to turning on and off. So once these small heaters are on, I'd just leave them on to minimize the thermal cycling.

 

[boaterva]

So the question is then which seat heaters are we turning on? Both front seats? Can’t be all of them....

I would have thought this would have been a case for turn on which ones were in use when the car was shut down. If I lost passengers, I could turn off those seats since I wouldn’t need them for the next trip.

 

[BerTX]

And, @BerTX, this is a new software version, who knows what they added to it, API-wise!

Making changes to the API is a more serious undertaking than changing an app or the car programming is. They don't do it often, and if they do it will not be to just include turning on seat heaters. And if it DOES include seat heater control, they will actually control the seat heaters from the app, not just do a kludgy solution that turns them on when you turn on climate control. All indications are that this is just a "temporary" workaround until it can be done right.

 

[boaterva]

Interesting then they can turn on all these items when the battery heaters are enabled. Hope they do add more control to the app for options for us.

 

[MP3Mike]

Can’t be all of them....

Why can't it?

I would have thought this would have been a case for turn on which ones were in use when the car was shut down. If I lost passengers, I could turn off those seats since I wouldn’t need them for the next trip.

Wouldn't turning everything on heat up the car faster even if the seats weren't going to be used? And it does say it goes back to your prior settings when you go into drive.

 

[boaterva]

It can’t be all of them because in an X the third row could always be folded and in a 5 or new 7 (like mine) so could the second. I’m sure heating up a folded seat would overheat things. No?