Screen viewing by old eyes

[SalisburySam]

I'm actually worried about whether there is a better car for her. She has been driving her Solara for 20 years now and can probably drive it blindfolded. But I have ridden in a few Uber cars this week and have queried the drivers about their dash boards, buttons/switches, and computer screens. Ironically, the Camry that I rode in yesterday seemed very well thought out. Driving information was in front of the driver and info/nav stuff was in the center of the dash. And there were lots of buttons and switches.

Yeah, you may have found your answer here.

Tesla is brilliant in that they could not produce a car with good EV range within an "affordable" price range unless they eliminated an awful lot of moving parts. If you think about all of the parts that go into making just one switch and then think about all the knobs and switches in a typical luxury car, it is easy to see that by eliminating almost all of them, Tesla was able to put more of the dollars that we spend on a car towards the batteries and drivetrain and computing/AI that make their cars possible.

Interesting. Then how do other manufacturers manage? Give me less AI and more driver-applicable aids…my new mantra after owning a Model 3.

And I promise you that every single car manufacturer out there is aware of that. I bet it won't be long before almost all high end and EV cars are similarly equipped. Hopefully some of them will be more considerate of their customers and make the screens a bit more adjustable for people whose eyesight is not that of the 30 year olds who designed the Model Y. In my reading I have come across some opinions where Musk seems to feel (pretty strongly it would seem) that he can hardly wait for all of the old people to die off and get out of his way. What he, with all his high IQ and immense ego, has apparently not realized is that we weren't born the way we are and that he is going to be like us some time all too soon. But he is not alone. Nobody really realizes what old age is like until they get there. And they have no idea what naive children they appear to be to us.

In an attempt to get back on topic, from your posts the Tesla is likely not a good fit for your wife. If you still have the vehicle these many months later, you may lose a bit of money trading it in, but better that than an unhappy wife or questionable driver awareness. To me, it doesn’t make sense to have to buy a bunch of after-market add-ons to overcome difficulties with the car…get a different car. But that’s me, not you, though you asked.

 

[pookii00]

Tesla and all other manufactures will need to start to consider and address the aging of one of their most wealthy demographics - BOOMERS. I’m not sure what the ultimate solution will be to make their products usable to a wide swath of the buyers, but doing NOTHING isn’t a solution.

Tesla is best positioned to offer a solution since that big LCD screen could easily be updated with a SW update to allow owners to select an Accessibility or Unique Display settings. For those users I’m sure Tesla could allow certain functions to be TO BE INCREASED IN SIZE. It’s not rocket science Elon.

Hell I’m surprised the Fed’s haven’t stepped in yet. Accessibility is the mantra in every facet of our lives.

 

[pookii00]

Tesla and all other manufactures will need to start to consider and address the aging of one of their most wealthy demographics - BOOMERS. I’m not sure what the ultimate solution will be to make their products usable to a wide swath of the buyers, but doing NOTHING isn’t a solution.

Tesla is best positioned to offer a solution since that big LCD screen could easily be updated with a SW update to allow owners to select an Accessibility or Unique Display settings. For those users I’m sure Tesla could allow certain functions to be TO BE INCREASED IN SIZE. It’s not rocket science Elon.

Hell I’m surprised the Fed’s haven’t stepped in yet. Accessibility is the mantra in every facet of our lives.

I’m new to Tesla with my new model Y. I found the screen really hard to read: too small and pale grey, especially on the maps. I found one big improvement by increasing the brightness at the bottom of the control screen. It helped me a lot, but still would like a bigger and darker font. Just in case anyone else hasn’t already found the brightness control. I’m usually driving by myself and don’t have a passenger to navigate the map.

 

[ev4robert]

I’m new to Tesla with my new model Y. I found the screen really hard to read: too small and pale grey, especially on the maps. I found one big improvement by increasing the brightness at the bottom of the control screen. It helped me a lot, but still would like a bigger and darker font. Just in case anyone else hasn’t already found the brightness control. I’m usually driving by myself and don’t have a passenger to navigate the map.

I'm also new to Tesla. I am concerned that the transition from button to screen driven controls will be difficult for me. This thread has given me ideas on how I may prepare for that adjustment.

 

[aerodyne]

I'm also new to Tesla. I am concerned that the transition from button to screen driven controls will be difficult for me. This thread has given me ideas on how I may prepare for that adjustment.

Two words:

Voice Commands

 

[bo3bdar]

I can add another gimmick that I use to make the screen not quite so terrible while actually driving. I make a big distinction between ease of use while parked, versus driving, and I think the driving experience is really sad and terrible because the UI is all oriented around being an iPad clone.

Trying to keep my eyes on the road is challenging, because their UI is built around desktop use, not driving. No feedback like audio cues, buttons are too small to hit with hands and arms moving while driving. Text is way to small for a screen this size while I'm driving.


One thing I've done is to use blu-tack on the back of the screen, at key spots where I want a tactile location without having to look. For my wipers button and defog, I want to find those without having to take my eyes off the road at all, because it's a fundamentally dangerous situation. With the blu-tack, I can find the right spot with my fingers on the backside, and use my thumb to hit the button on front.

This is a little silly, but maybe it helps someone else. And before someone pipes up with the "just use voice" canard- voice fails for me about 15% of the time, even if I've got connectivity. It's not a substitute for physical controls being missing. There is no audio feedback when it fails, requiring me to look at the screen, which is also a complete non-starter.

For wipers, your best bet is to use the button on the end of the left stalk to spray/wipe, which gets them going, but only once.

 

[ev4robert]

I wish they had designed in a configurable heads-up display for critical information such as current speed and next turn (if navigation is on), incoming call identification info, and so forth.

I don't want think voice commands is the answer to this type of dynamic information.

 

[CaseyL]

I'm also new to Tesla. I am concerned that the transition from button to screen driven controls will be difficult for me. This thread has given me ideas on how I may prepare for that adjustment.

For me, the transition was easy. Just for reference, I'm 68. I like having everything in one place. Plus, there is so much extra info tucked away in the menus.

However, honesty compells me to disclose that I'm an engineer, if that matters.

 

[CaseyL]

One thing I've done is to use blu-tack on the back of the screen, at key spots where I want a tactile location without having to look. For my wipers button and defog, I want to find those without having to take my eyes off the road at all, because it's a fundamentally dangerous situation. With the blu-tack, I can find the right spot with my fingers on the backside, and use my thumb to hit the button on front.

I don't use blu-tack, but I do put my fingers on the backside and press with my thumb for stability for things near the top of the display.

For wipers, your best bet is to use the button on the end of the left stalk to spray/wipe, which gets them going, but only once.

Yep. I use that button frequently, especially in a light misting rain.

 

[SidetrackedSue]

One thing I've done is to use blu-tack on the back of the screen, at key spots where I want a tactile location without having to look. ... With the blu-tack, I can find the right spot with my fingers on the backside, and use my thumb to hit the button on front.

This is a little silly, but maybe it helps someone else. And before someone pipes up with the "just use voice" canard- voice fails for me about 15% of the time, even if I've got connectivity. It's not a substitute for physical controls being missing. There is no audio feedback when it fails, requiring me to look at the screen, which is also a complete non-starter.

For wipers, your best bet is to use the button on the end of the left stalk to spray/wipe, which gets them going, but only once.

The blu-tack is an ingenious idea and I could do it without my husband even knowing! I still haven't upgraded to the Christmas changes yet, so know I'll have to move everything around when I do.

I agree about voice command. My favourite example of a fail is the fan on full for defrost and I want it to turn down but it can't hear me over the roar of the fan. I end up screaming and swearing and hoping against hope some a-hole at Tesla ends up monitoring it so they can suffer for a bit too. I can't express how much I hate this car's UI (and ride and a host of other things but the majority is the UI.)

For wipers, I was blinded once by a deluge, auto failed to turn on the wipers, and the button at the end of the stock was still useless. I did not feel safe taking my hands off the wheel because the road was flooding, and I wasn't keen about taking my eyes off the transport I was following since its 4-way flashers were all I could see in front of me. It took 4 or 5 tries of hitting the stalk and stabbing wildly at the screen before the wipers came on steadily.

 

[bo3bdar]

Most all the after-market displays are read-only and don't change anything on the bus, so software updates might make them fail, but they won't alter car functions. However, there are a couple of after-market accessories that do write to the Canbus to create actions.

Not sure if I can recommend these, because they are doing a fundamentally strange thing of injecting commands onto the Canbus. Lots of terrible software in the world, and if they are not strictly locking to car versions, they could in principle inject wrong commands after an update. I'm leery, but maybe others are not. If I could find out who wrote the software, or it's open-source, I'd be interested.

1) There are also the S3XY buttons that can be programmed to do different functions. These are already available at lots of spots.

2) This is a control bar accessory that will be available in a few months. Interesting idea.

Ctrl-Bar

Bring physical buttons to Tesla Model 3/Y! | Check out 'Ctrl-Bar' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

 

[JHCCAZ]

Most all the after-market displays are read-only and don't change anything on the bus, so software updates might make them fail, but they won't alter car functions. However, there are a couple of after-market accessories that do write to the Canbus to create actions.

Not sure if I can recommend these, because they are doing a fundamentally strange thing of injecting commands onto the Canbus. Lots of terrible software in the world, and if they are not strictly locking to car versions, they could in principle inject wrong commands after an update. I'm leery, but maybe others are not. If I could find out who wrote the software, or it's open-source, I'd be interested.

1) There are also the S3XY buttons that can be programmed to do different functions. These are already available at lots of spots.

2) This is a control bar accessory that will be available in a few months. Interesting idea.

Ctrl-Bar

Bring physical buttons to Tesla Model 3/Y! | Check out 'Ctrl-Bar' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

Yes, I agree the S3XY buttons do write to the CANbus via the Commander(?) module. I don't have them at this time, but there is an active thread.

However, that new control bar does not use CANbus commands; in fact it is not wired other than getting 5 volt USB power. I read about it with interest; it basically sends Bluetooth commands to your phone, running a companion app, and then the phone app in turn controls the Tesla functions through the cloud, the way the Tesla app and third-party apps do now.

This control method has the theoretical advantage of being less intrusive or risky by not injecting commands to the CANbus, but it introduces several communication links that can result in noticeable delay and potentially intermittent reliability issues.

The designers are clearltly well aware of this:. Adjustment of the stepped temperature control knobs provide local visual feedback on the control bar itself, an attempt to mitigate the problem that the main screen's temperature set-point lags well behind the user's manipulation of the knob. I'm sure you could get used to this pretty quickly, but I'd say it's clearly not a completely seamless integration. And this doesn't even address the times when the Tesla phone app(s) fail to sync properly with the car - issues that may be no fault of the control-bar accessory, but would interfere with a pleasant user experience.

Honestly I don't want to denigrate the product; the design concept looks very attractive, sleeker than the S3XY buttons, and I may want to install it myself. I was all ready to sign up for the pre-order queue, but after reading and thinking about these details, I decided to await early user reviews.

It certainly would be nice if Tesla, in the spirit of a leading-edge-tech company, would put some resources into the creation of an official interface method and API library. Perhaps Bluetooth-based within the car, so CANbus and various other connector hacks to tap into the vehicle systems can be replaced by safe, easy and supported/documented protocols. People are going to hack and accessorize the car, best not to fight it or ignore it, but to embrace it and widen the attractiveness of the car for enthusiasts that are already drawn to the idea of a Tesla.