Question about usage of automatic folding mirrors

[Andyw2100]

I have a question that doesn't seem to be answered in the manual about how the automatic folding mirrors function. I could probably answer it myself if I had access to my new P85D, but I don't, and won't for a couple of days, as it is having Opticoat Pro put on.

I understand that if I enable the option to automatically fold the mirrors, they will fold when I turn the car off and unfold when I turn it on. That is straight-forward.

I would like to know if, either with this feature enabled or disabled, I will be able to do the following:

--fold the mirrors manually before pulling into my garage
--turn the car off
--turn the car back on
--back out of the garage with the mirrors still folded in, without having had to manually fold them in again


As I see it there are three possibilities here:

1) This can't be done. No matter the setting on the automatic folding, and what has been done manually, when the car starts, the mirrors unfold.

2) This can be done, but only if I leave automatic folding set to off. I give up the ability to automatically fold at all other parking times in order to not unfold automatically after I have folded manually.

3) The software designers are geniuses. The car is smart enough to understand that if I have folded the mirrors manually, the car will not unfold them until I manually unfold them (or until some set speed is reached.) I can leave the automatic folding option set, and a manual fold automatically overrides the next automatic unfold.

So...someone with a new P85D, (and preferably the newest software release) please tell me...is it 1, 2, or 3?

Thanks!

 

[Chipper]

Very easy to do. There is a switch on the driver's door between the mirror controls. If you have the Tech package the mirrors deploy or tuck based on driver profile. They even accept a programmable downward tilt when you put the car in Reverse.

 

[Andyw2100]

Very easy to do. There is a switch on the driver's door between the mirror controls. If you have the Tech package the mirrors deploy or tuck based on driver profile. They even accept a programmable downward tilt when you put the car in Reverse.

I appreciate the answer, but I don't think you understood my question.

I know about the mirror controls, and the driver's profile, and the downward tilt. I have set my passenger side mirror to try to be able to see the curb when in reverse, for parallel parking.

If you are so inclined, please re-read my specific question, and then answer it if you can.

Thanks!

 

[FLDarren]

If you press the fold button, the mirrors will not unfold unless you press the button again to unfold them. You can open and close the door all want or drive all you want. They will not unfold until you press the button again, even with autofold on.

 

[Andyw2100]

If you press the fold button, the mirrors will not unfold unless you press the button again to unfold them. You can open and close the door all want or drive all you want. They will not unfold until you press the button again, even with autofold on.

Excellent! That is the answer I was hoping for! So that would be number 3. Chalk one up for the Tesla software programmers!

Edit:
Wait.

I posted the above, but realized I failed to make sure that you can also turn the car off and back on, and the mirrors will still not unfold, until you manually unfold them, right (You mentioned opening and closing doors, and driving, but didn't say anything about turning the car off and back on.)

Thanks!

 

[Johan]

It can't do what you're asking, sorry. If you manually fold, they will fold out again after turning car off and then on again. Actually it's kind of stupid: what if you parked in such a tight space that unfolding the mirrors will damage them? IMO manual fold in should mean manual fold out OR automatic fold out once you reach for example 20 mph (I even had this function in my old i-MiEV). I have suggested to ownership they change this behaviour.

 

[Andyw2100]

It can't do what you're asking, sorry. If you manually fold, they will fold out again after turning car off and then on again. Actually it's kind of stupid: what if you parked in such a tight space that unfolding the mirrors will damage them? IMO manual fold in should mean manual fold out OR automatic fold out once you reach for example 20 mph (I even had this function in my old i-MiEV). I have suggested to ownership they change this behaviour.

So Johan--you are saying that the answer from my options in my original post would be option number 1? That's not good. Not good at all.

 

[Johan]

So Johan--you are saying that the answer from my options in my original post would be option number 1? That's not good. Not good at all.

Yes. At least that's how my car behaves. It could be that it doesn't auto deploy if you de-activate auto-fold on shutoff, like Atebit suggested in the thread i linked below, but I haven't tried:

Please see this thread from this post and forth, where we have discussed it before:
Power Folding Mirrors - Page 18

 

[Andyw2100]

Yes. At least that's how my car behaves. It could be that it doesn't auto deploy if you de-activate auto-fold on shutoff, like Atebit suggested in the thread i linked below, but I haven't tried:

Please see this thread from this post and forth, where we have discussed it before:
Power Folding Mirrors - Page 18

Yes, I had even commented in that thread.

I guess I didn't remember, or didn't at the time fully comprehend post number 173 in that thread:

There is an option setting to turn auto fold on and off. I have mine turned off as my current garage is a tight squeeze and after folding them prior to entry, I don't want the mirrors to deploy until I've cleared the pod bay doors.

A nice option would be to auto-deploy once a certain low driving speed is reached, say 25 MPH or so. Or perhaps a geofencing option, but implementing that would take some thought to avoid spurious & potentially disastrous deployments.

It sounds like Atebit is saying that my option number 2 in my original post is the correct answer.

 

[Johan]

Yes I suppose. I have auto folding turned off now in the winter (has been down to -15 Celcius here this week) but I haven't tested manual folding with auto-fold deactivated so I can't tell you if/how it works. Now that you have an S of your own I'm sure you'll figure it out!

 

[Andyw2100]

Yes I suppose. I have auto folding turned off now in the winter (has been down to -15 Celcius here this week) but I haven't tested manual folding with auto-fold deactivated so I can't tell you if/how it works. Now that you have an S of your own I'm sure you'll figure it out!

Yes, I will.

I just was hoping for a definitive answer before getting my car back in a few days. I didn't think it would be this complicated!

 

[Gizmotoy]

It sounds like Atebit is saying that my option number 2 in my original post is the correct answer.

Correct. You'll have to take full manual control to get exactly what you want.

There were a couple posts up-thread that were wrong, at least in my experience. I have to fold my mirrors manually to get into my parking space, but can allow them to unfold once I'm in, so I get to observe this behavior every day. If you have auto-folding enabled and fold them manually to get into a garage, they'll automatically unfold when you return to the car and open the front doors (and again when you take it from park to reverse if you "re-fold" them manually or they failed to open the first time - occasionally I've felt like I'm fighting to keep them folded).

If you're parking in a tight spot where unfolding the mirror would damage them, you really need to control them manually.

Note: I don't have a P85D, but do have the latest software, just updated via SC last week.

 

[Jgdixon]

It would make sense that they should tie the folding mirrors with your home link. Open your garage door and they fold, they stay folded until you back out and close the door.

 

[Andyw2100]

Correct. You'll have to take full manual control to get exactly what you want.

There were a couple posts up-thread that were wrong, at least in my experience. I have to fold my mirrors manually to get into my parking space, but can allow them to unfold once I'm in, so I get to observe this behavior every day. If you have auto-folding enabled and fold them manually to get into a garage, they'll automatically unfold when you return to the car and open the front doors (and again when you take it from park to reverse if you "re-fold" them manually or they failed to open the first time - occasionally I've felt like I'm fighting to keep them folded).

If you're parking in a tight spot where unfolding the mirror would damage them, you really need to control them manually.

Note: I don't have a P85D, but do have the latest software, just updated via SC last week.

Thanks for the confirmation.

At least we --CAN-- take complete control manually. I was afraid that my answer 1 could be the case, and that even with manual control, the car might automatically unfold mirrors that had been manually folded at startup. So I'm glad that, at least, is not the case.

Thanks again!

- - - Updated - - -

It would make sense that they should tie the folding mirrors with your home link. Open your garage door and they fold, they stay folded until you back out and close the door.

Giving us automatic folding mirrors was great. But now that they have, there are so many ways Tesla could improve the implementation. The above suggestion is certainly one. The could also add geo-fencing, just like what they are doing with the suspension settings. And if they wanted to do something even simpler, that would still be more effective than what they have now, they could have implemented what I had hoped they had in my number 3 in my original post: just never unfold manually folded mirrors, even after the car has been turned off. The exception could be speed based, so once the car is moving at 20 or 25 MPH, the mirrors unfold.

I may write up some of these suggestions and forward them to engineering. It can't hurt.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I almost forgot to mention: at least one software update in the past has caused folding mirrors set to auto to unfold during the update process. They got a bunch of complaints about this so I don't think it will happen again, but it is an additional risk.

 

[Andyw2100]

I almost forgot to mention: at least one software update in the past has caused folding mirrors set to auto to unfold during the update process. They got a bunch of complaints about this so I don't think it will happen again, but it is an additional risk.

Thanks for the heads-up!

My primary concern is getting in and out through a somewhat narrow garage-door opening, so unfolding during an update wouldn't in and of itself be a problem, provided whomever was driving the car next (me or my wife) noticed the mirrors were extended before trying to back out. But that's definitely one more thing to be aware of, so thanks.

I'm going to write something up and forward it to engineering. I realized, thinking about it more, that geo-fencing would be a bad idea, for the same reason it is causing some problems with the suspension: the area can be too large, and one may pass through the area at times other than when you want the desired activity (suspension change or mirror folding) to occur. But I think the other suggestions would make sense, and would be fairly easy to implement. One would be to give an option to associate a mirror-fold with any homelink setting, and the other would simply be that a manual folding of the mirrors overrides everything, including the car having been turned off, until the mirrors are unfolded manually, or until some speed is reached. That would allow for the automatic setting to be maintained, but still give us control when we need it.

 

[BrianC]

If your mirrors folding back will do them damage how in the world are you expecting to get into the car itself? Jump in the roof?? The car door is going to swing out much farther from what the mirrors space would take up... I know this is more of a tight garage backing in/out question, but some of these situations are pretty silly imo.

 

[Andyw2100]

If your mirrors folding back will do them damage how in the world are you expecting to get into the car itself? Jump in the roof?? The car door is going to swing out much farther from what the mirrors space would take up... I know this is more of a tight garage backing in/out question, but some of these situations are pretty silly imo.

As you pointed out, this is not my situation. But to address the point you made, there could be a situation where someone parks very close to a wall on the passenger side, leaving room on the driver side, and doesn't want the passenger side mirror damaged when they both unfold.

 

[Gizmotoy]

If your mirrors folding back will do them damage how in the world are you expecting to get into the car itself? Jump in the roof?? The car door is going to swing out much farther from what the mirrors space would take up... I know this is more of a tight garage backing in/out question, but some of these situations are pretty silly imo.

If your garage is small, you may park very close on the passenger side in order to give you room to open the door on the driver's side.

- Someone who has had a tiny garage in the past.

Edit: Ooops, beaten to it! That's what I get for not refreshing the page before replying!

 

[Andyw2100]

Edit: Ooops, beaten to it! That's what I get for not refreshing the page before replying!

Hey, you know what they say about great minds, right?