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Selecting Drive and Reverse Requires Two Pushes

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On my car, it seems to be associated with cold weather and/or the warning (often associated with cold weather) that regenerative braking is limited. That is, the first time you try to put the car in gear, it beeps and alerts you (via an on-screen message) that regenerative braking is limited. The second time, the car goes into gear. If this is what's actually happening, then it seems like a sensible safety precaution; the driver should be made aware of the fact that regenerative braking won't work as expected when it's been significantly reduced. That said, drivers might easily habituate to this warning, so it might not be 100% effective -- but it's still worth the effort by Tesla, IMHO.
 
For me it’s always been a problem regardless of temp. It’s related to time my foot is spent on the brake. If I put my foot on the brake and press down (or up) on the gear selector, it almost never goes in on first pull. However, if I just chill out and press my foot on the brake and wait a full second or two, it will work with one press every time.

So I’m calling it a safety feature...an annoying safety feature that hits me with the way I use and enter my car.
 
I don’t think it’s an issue if I’m experiencing the same thing. When I get in the car and press the brake, my profile kicks in and all the error icons etc flash on the screen. During that period you can’t put the car into D or R. You have to wait a second or two and then you can. I’m guessing this is just the startup period you can’t interrupt.
 
Does anyone else have the problem of requiring two pushes to get into drive or reverse modes?
The problem is not alway there as sometimes it works correctly.
Did you know that, at slow speed, you can engage the opposite direction while still moving.
When the car stop, it will automatically change direction and start moving.
This save a lot of time when manoeuvring.

 
Yes. Both Model 3 and X. It's partly from trying to click the gear selector to quickly after you hit the brake.
When you hit the brake a bunch of diags run and you can see all the lights on the dash (Model X) go out (ABS, Traction control etc.)
If I wait until those settle it will go into gear instantly on the first click. If I do it while that's all going on it takes a 2nd try, sometimes even a 3rd.

That said, there was a release about a month ago (Cone Visualization) that it would work no matter how long you waited on the first click.
Rear camera view also seemed more instantaneous.
This was clear as day, because the double click happened to me almost every time.

But now it's back to 2 clicks again. Not sure if something changed (back) in another update or like someone mentioned it's because it's a lot colder (regen warning) etc. But it used to do it when it was warm for me.
 
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It should never take more than one depress to get it to change gear, if it does something absurdly unusual and improbable is happening with your car. Far more likely, the car isn’t yet ready to move. The drive units ‘wake up’ when you press the brake, not when you get in the car. It takes a bit for the car to acknowledge they’re working properly, and presumably the oil is pumping before it allows power. It sounds like when an oil pump fails the drive unit is disabled, so it most likely is waiting for pressure or flow before it enables the drive units. So it could just be in cold weather the drive units take longer to start pumping oil, maybe it’s flat out timed and changed with updates, maybe you’re just slightly less patent this time of year. Either way, if you press the brake, wait a few seconds, and it goes into gear immediately, all is well.
 
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When you press the brake and "turn on" the car there is a one second or so delay before the car will actually go into gear. Once the majority of the "Dash lights" finish their diagnosis flash and turn off you can then select a gear.

Correction.

After you press the brake, there is a one second or so delay before the car will listen to the gear selector.
It wouldn't be as annoying if it was just a delay getting in gear and remembered that you selected a gear, but the request goes into the bit bucket until it's ready to listen.

It seems to be the first time after the car has been sitting a bit. If you parked after moving and did it again, there is no delay, which kind of trains you into thinking you can do any gear select quickly all the time. When you get in, the car partially already feels "on" (HVAC is the loudest feedback that the car is sort of on) and you're just hitting the brake for safety interlock, not to "start it" and wait and then select. I'm not saying the brake does not start it. But your muscle memory forgets that it is starting it and needs to wait, with very little feedback that it's not ready then ready unless you watch the lights. And it behaves slightly different when it's sat longer.

And as the Video shows you don't even have to come to a full stop to reverse direction. It's not quite as consistent as it could be. I can change direction before it stops with gear selector but I can't put in drive while it's stopped, to get going.

This reminds me of when I used to remote start my Jeep. I'd get in with engine running. My muscle memory is telling me the car is ready to go because it hears the engine. I got to put my foot on brake and then put it in gear and it won't go. Because for security I still have to "Start it". This stumped my brain every single time. It's a similar thing. The car feels on. Step on brake and go into gear in one fluid motion. Bzzzt, not yet buddy. But Tesla will later and will when reversing gear.

My long argument here is it's not an impatience thing. It's like driving a stick. It's all unconscious muscle memory at work. And the Tesla is slightly inconsistent. I make the mistake almost every day even though I know I need to wait. This is by no means a big deal. But don't blame folks for being impatient that run into this. It could be a tone when you hit brake to start and a different tone start up is complete. Watching dash lights is not enough.
 
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So to be clear, you would prefer if the vehicle acknowledged the gear selection and them implemented the change after it’s ready?

I’m aware the car does this, so I step on the pedal while entering the car. After seated and buckled, I grab a gear. Otherwise I find myself shifting into gear a few times before the car moves.
 
I find that if I hold the gear shifter at the first stop for maybe a half second, then go to the second stop it works every time. If I just blow through the first stop, then I have to do it twice. If it goes into neutral you are waiting too long. Takes a little practice to get it just right...
 
So to be clear, you would prefer if the vehicle acknowledged the gear selection and them implemented the change after it’s ready?

I’m aware the car does this, so I step on the pedal while entering the car. After seated and buckled, I grab a gear. Otherwise I find myself shifting into gear a few times before the car moves.

Not sure what would be right. I’ve had ICE cars that you put it in gear and there is a slight lag before it goes clunk that it’s actually in gear. It could give feedback that it’s “in progress” rather than it completely ignoring it, as it does now. And better audio feedback that it’s ready.

Putting your foot on the pedal as you get in sounds awkward. My guess is they will “fix it”. Like I said, for a while it was fixed. You could put it in immediately well before diag lights were done. Not sure if it’s regen warning slowing it now or it’s back the way it was. But it was nice when it was instant as long as foot was on brake it never missed or forgot the request no matter how fast you selected gear. It felt right.
 
Correction.

After you press the brake, there is a one second or so delay before the car will listen to the gear selector.
It wouldn't be as annoying if it was just a delay getting in gear and remembered that you selected a gear, but the request goes into the bit bucket until it's ready to listen.

It seems to be the first time after the car has been sitting a bit. If you parked after moving and did it again, there is no delay, which kind of trains you into thinking you can do any gear select quickly all the time. When you get in, the car partially already feels "on" (HVAC is the loudest feedback that the car is sort of on) and you're just hitting the brake for safety interlock, not to "start it" and wait and then select. I'm not saying the brake does not start it. But your muscle memory forgets that it is starting it and needs to wait, with very little feedback that it's not ready then ready unless you watch the lights. And it behaves slightly different when it's sat longer.

And as the Video shows you don't even have to come to a full stop to reverse direction. It's not quite as consistent as it could be. I can change direction before it stops with gear selector but I can't put in drive while it's stopped, to get going.

This reminds me of when I used to remote start my Jeep. I'd get in with engine running. My muscle memory is telling me the car is ready to go because it hears the engine. I got to put my foot on brake and then put it in gear and it won't go. Because for security I still have to "Start it". This stumped my brain every single time. It's a similar thing. The car feels on. Step on brake and go into gear in one fluid motion. Bzzzt, not yet buddy. But Tesla will later and will when reversing gear.

My long argument here is it's not an impatience thing. It's like driving a stick. It's all unconscious muscle memory at work. And the Tesla is slightly inconsistent. I make the mistake almost every day even though I know I need to wait. This is by no means a big deal. But don't blame folks for being impatient that run into this. It could be a tone when you hit brake to start and a different tone start up is complete. Watching dash lights is not enough.
By saying "there is a one second or so delay before the car will actually go into gear" I thought it would be obvious that the car is ignoring the user input during that time. From my admittedly limited UI/UX experience having a delay where the car goes into gear would be significantly worse than ignoring the input. It either should react immediately or ignore the input in almost all cases as critical as changing direction of travel. Think along the lines of if you press the park button while going 50kmph, it will ignore your input and display an error message. If it waited until you hit a slow speed, then put the car into park, this would be a bad idea. Generally queuing up input like this is a bad idea for something as important as driving.

I'm going out on a limb here and assuming the delay is not by design, but is required by the car while it does a brief start up cycle. Like you said, it's pretty unintuitive and counters muscle memory. Perhaps having an error message pop up when you try to shift too early would help allow people to train for this odd design. I've gotten used to it now, but I'll admit it took me a month or so to do so. Another annoying thing I had to get used to was NOT pressing the brake as soon as I get in, lest the seatbelt chime drive me crazy. That design choice really annoys me, why does the car have to warn you about the seatbelt being off before the car is even in gear, nevermind moving? Perhaps it's some safety regulation or something.
 
By saying "there is a one second or so delay before the car will actually go into gear" I thought it would be obvious that the car is ignoring the user input during that time. From my admittedly limited UI/UX experience having a delay where the car goes into gear would be significantly worse than ignoring the input. It either should react immediately or ignore the input in almost all cases as critical as changing direction of travel. Think along the lines of if you press the park button while going 50kmph, it will ignore your input and display an error message. If it waited until you hit a slow speed, then put the car into park, this would be a bad idea. Generally queuing up input like this is a bad idea for something as important as driving.

I'm going out on a limb here and assuming the delay is not by design, but is required by the car while it does a brief start up cycle. Like you said, it's pretty unintuitive and counters muscle memory. Perhaps having an error message pop up when you try to shift too early would help allow people to train for this odd design. I've gotten used to it now, but I'll admit it took me a month or so to do so. Another annoying thing I had to get used to was NOT pressing the brake as soon as I get in, lest the seatbelt chime drive me crazy. That design choice really annoys me, why does the car have to warn you about the seatbelt being off before the car is even in gear, nevermind moving? Perhaps it's some safety regulation or something.

I think it could be done safely through feed back, that it's "in progress". Like a big 3 Beep, 2 Beep, 1 Beep... Drive. It just has to give you feed back that it's working on it. It's annoying the way it is, lots of safe ways to deal with it, if the delay is required. And no I think an error message would be just as annoying. The natural instinctive operation should not tell the user, they did it wrong. And I forget at the moment but I think you get a beep or something some where along the way (when it does not go in gear). Maybe when you step on throttle and it's not in gear. I forget.

The way the rest of car operates it leads you down a path that it should work. And I like I said earlier. It's not consistent either.

Maybe an Engine Startup Noise ;) My Volt does that. Not a Engine noise but a space ship launch noise. Maybe it's functional and is unconsciously telling me "I'm Booting" and leads me to not touch the gear selector until it's done. Not sure.

BTW I noticed recently quite a bit of lag lately that after it is in gear, it doesn't want to go right away. Especially when flipping R to D or D to R which was never an issue before. But that doesn't feel that bad or annoying where it just does nothing. An no more "dangerous" then remembering I asked for D. It remembers R to D, or D to R and does not respond immediately, but eventually does. If it was too long it probably would be dangerous. The lag is probably 1 second or 2.

Still not sure if it's a bug, or only when regen is limited or by design. But it worked perfect for a short while.
 
I think it could be done safely through feed back, that it's "in progress". Like a big 3 Beep, 2 Beep, 1 Beep... Drive. It just has to give you feed back that it's working on it. It's annoying the way it is, lots of safe ways to deal with it, if the delay is required. And no I think an error message would be just as annoying. The natural instinctive operation should not tell the user, they did it wrong. And I forget at the moment but I think you get a beep or something some where along the way (when it does not go in gear). Maybe when you step on throttle and it's not in gear. I forget.

The way the rest of car operates it leads you down a path that it should work. And I like I said earlier. It's not consistent either.

Maybe an Engine Startup Noise ;) My Volt does that. Not a Engine noise but a space ship launch noise. Maybe it's functional and is unconsciously telling me "I'm Booting" and leads me to not touch the gear selector until it's done. Not sure.

BTW I noticed recently quite a bit of lag lately that after it is in gear, it doesn't want to go right away. Especially when flipping R to D or D to R which was never an issue before. But that doesn't feel that bad or annoying where it just does nothing. An no more "dangerous" then remembering I asked for D. It remembers R to D, or D to R and does not respond immediately, but eventually does. If it was too long it probably would be dangerous. The lag is probably 1 second or 2.

Still not sure if it's a bug, or only when regen is limited or by design. But it worked perfect for a short while.
I like the idea of a startup noise, anything but those annoying beeps that happen when you "start" the car before putting your seatbelt on. A nice spaceship whoosh sound would do for me, haha.
 
I like the idea of a startup noise, anything but those annoying beeps that happen when you "start" the car before putting your seatbelt on. A nice spaceship whoosh sound would do for me, haha.

Right after my post above I went to the car. It so happens it was backed in, which is not usually the case. I purposely put it in drive as soon as I hit the brake and it went right in.

Maybe the delay (miss of a gear selector) is related to the backup camera and most often reverse that it misses. I noticed some days the backup camera is instant and sometimes laggy.
 
Correction.

After you press the brake, there is a one second or so delay before the car will listen to the gear selector.
It wouldn't be as annoying if it was just a delay getting in gear and remembered that you selected a gear, but the request goes into the bit bucket until it's ready to listen.

It seems to be the first time after the car has been sitting a bit. If you parked after moving and did it again, there is no delay, which kind of trains you into thinking you can do any gear select quickly all the time. When you get in, the car partially already feels "on" (HVAC is the loudest feedback that the car is sort of on) and you're just hitting the brake for safety interlock, not to "start it" and wait and then select. I'm not saying the brake does not start it. But your muscle memory forgets that it is starting it and needs to wait, with very little feedback that it's not ready then ready unless you watch the lights. And it behaves slightly different when it's sat longer.

And as the Video shows you don't even have to come to a full stop to reverse direction. It's not quite as consistent as it could be. I can change direction before it stops with gear selector but I can't put in drive while it's stopped, to get going.

This reminds me of when I used to remote start my Jeep. I'd get in with engine running. My muscle memory is telling me the car is ready to go because it hears the engine. I got to put my foot on brake and then put it in gear and it won't go. Because for security I still have to "Start it". This stumped my brain every single time. It's a similar thing. The car feels on. Step on brake and go into gear in one fluid motion. Bzzzt, not yet buddy. But Tesla will later and will when reversing gear.

My long argument here is it's not an impatience thing. It's like driving a stick. It's all unconscious muscle memory at work. And the Tesla is slightly inconsistent. I make the mistake almost every day even though I know I need to wait. This is by no means a big deal. But don't blame folks for being impatient that run into this. It could be a tone when you hit brake to start and a different tone start up is complete. Watching dash lights is not enough.

Yup, this. If I'm quick on the draw to shift into gear after hitting the brake, the car will ignore me. Best to wait, for me, until the wheel has moved completely out. This pretty much guarantees that it'll work.