Smart Preconditioning

[Max*]

I don't understand why they can't be like Nest? Let it auto-learn all it wants, but let me have the option to change (or at least view) the schedule.

@tomp -- it's hit or miss. It usually preconditions my car in the morning, but at the same time, I have seen the car running the AC when it shouldn't have been...

 

[Cyclone]

I don't understand why they can't be like Nest? Let it auto-learn all it wants, but let me have the option to change (or at least view) the schedule.

That has been my position. While I would love to be able to key in entries myself, I would be ok if we had auto-learn with a view of what its learn + individual line item delete. Then we could remove spurious entries and it could keep refining what its thought is correct with our review. Those who do not want to be bothered and "just want it to work" would never need to go to the screen to review the entries.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

I've had it turned on since the day took delivery on 6/1. It's never attempted to precondition. Perhaps this is because I leave for work around 5:00am, which might be within the car's "deep sleep" window???

 

[ArtInCT]

I feel that Tesla Engineering should publish a white paper or user's best practices guide on this feature that can help all owners become successful with the Preconditioning. Perhaps there are some other "settings" or "status" that thwart the functionality. For instance, must you be plugged in to shore power for it to work reliably?

 

[tomp]

This would be great. But you don't need to be plugged into shore power for it to work - in my case inaccurately. I took the day off work last Friday, and came outside to see the car (unplugged in the driveway) with the A/C running at about 2:30pm. No idea why that would be.

I feel that Tesla Engineering should publish a white paper or user's best practices guide on this feature that can help all owners become successful with the Preconditioning. Perhaps there are some other "settings" or "status" that thwart the functionality. For instance, must you be plugged in to shore power for it to work reliably?

 

[ArtInCT]

Tomp
ok, so when you were not plugged in to shore power, it worked... In an unreliable manner.

 

[Andyw2100]

Tomp
ok, so when you were not plugged in to shore power, it worked... In an unreliable manner.

Which is exactly the same way most people who have used it say it works on shore power--unreliably.

I think the reason you see so little written about it is very few people are using it because after a few bad experiences even the people who wanted to give it a shot gave up. (I never gave it a shot because my wife, who is the primary driver of the car, leaves to and from work at different times every day, so the feature was not made for us.)

 

[ArtInCT]

Which is exactly the same way most people who have used it say it works on shore power--unreliably.

I think the reason you see so little written about it is very few people are using it because after a few bad experiences even the people who wanted to give it a shot gave up. (I never gave it a shot because my wife, who is the primary driver of the car, leaves to and from work at different times every day, so the feature was not made for us.)

Yup, I do recall all the hope and then frustration over the Pre-Conditioning early on. Are your hopes high that in the V7 software that TM may have improved it? Lets hope so as we northern climate folks could really use it in the Winter.

 

[mgboyes]

Is anyone still using Smart Preconditioning?

I simply assumed Tesla have decided not to improve it since the fact that everyone turned it off "proves" that there's no demand

I hear that the next version of the Remote S third party app is going to have a pre-heating scheduler. If it does then I will simply forget about this silly in-car functionality forever...

 

[Andyw2100]

Yup, I do recall all the hope and then frustration over the Pre-Conditioning early on. Are your hopes high that in the V7 software that TM may have improved it? Lets hope so as we northern climate folks could really use it in the Winter.

This feature happens to be one that I just don't care about because even if the implementation becomes rock-solid (and I hope, for others' sake, that it does) it's never going to be a feature my wife and I use, because as I mentioned, our use of the car is just too erratic. I do see value in the feature for others, if implemented properly.

 

[tomp]

That is correct.

Tomp
ok, so when you were not plugged in to shore power, it worked... In an unreliable manner.

 

[bancroftc]

Curious to know if anyone has seen any improvements with smart preconditioning since v7.0? I've had it enabled since I took delivery two weeks ago, and I have not seen/experienced any attempt by my car to do any preconditioning whatsoever. My departure to work in the morning, when I leave for lunch and when I leave the office for home are all very consistent times, usually within a 30 min or smaller window.

When I asked my DS about this feature in our walkthrough, she was pretty adamant that the preconditioning was based on your calendar as imported from the phone/app. I had read up on it before I took delivery and now re-reading up on the topic, it doesn't appear to be calendar based at all. Nor would that make much sense. Meaning, who calendars "leave for work 7:30am" or "leave for lunch 12pm" or anything like that, which would in theory prompt the preconditioning.

That said, maybe I'll try that just for grins to see if has any impact on the preconditioning.

I know it's only been a couple weeks but with a pretty consistent schedule I would assume that would be enough time for the system to learn my schedule. What is everyone else experiencing as of late?

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

I've had my car since June. Preconditioning shows up as "learning". I leave for work pretty early in the morning; I assume it doesn't expect anyone to be commuting at 4:45am.

 

[tomp]

I've been monitoring the v7 threads but haven't seen any mention of improved behavior of the smart preconditioning. I'm still on 6.2, where smart preconditioning remains laughably bad. Just a couple weeks ago, the car decided it was going to precondition itself at 9-9:30pm, at which time I am rarely driving, and definitely hadn't driven at that time in the previous several days.

I do hope they can improve this function, as it would be very nice. My schedule is actually quite regular M-F, at least in terms of what time I leave the house.

 

[DDotJ]

It's odd, don't know if it's preconditioning or not but a few times this week I've heard my Model S's HVAC compressor through my window. And this is at around 11 pm. I check my mobile app and my HVAC is running for some reason. Either my Model S is possessed or the smart preconditioning elf inside my dashboard is under the influence of illegal substances.

The smart preconditioning feature does work sometimes. I leave my car parked in a parking garage at work and it gets pretty hot and stuffy. But when I get to my car it sometimes already has the HVAC running and it's nice and cool in there. Also preconditions the vehicle occasionally in the mornings. But it's not very consistent.

 

[Max*]

I forgot about this feature, maybe I'll try it again...

 

[bancroftc]

Funny - I bumped this thread yesterday and I just happened to check the app while at work and saw that preconditioning was active in my car right now for the first time. It's 10am here, and never have I left the office at this time. There is literally no reason I can think of that would cause it to start right now. I never drive the car at 10am or even within an hour of this time. Very strange, and consistent with all of the complaints I've read about here. Will monitor it over the next few days but if it keeps up I'll just turn it off.

 

[chang]

Sorry to bring up an old thread. Has this worked consistently for anyone? It's never worked consistently for me.

 

[ArtInCT]

Sorry to bring up an old thread. Has this worked consistently for anyone? It's never worked consistently for me.

I have followed this thread and topic as I am in a cold climate (but without an S yet). To the best of my knowledge, not one person has had a really good and dependable positive experience as of yet. Most, it appears have given up on it for now. Hopes are high for some sort of new release of this functionality which corrects the algorithms used.

 

[tomp]

If they can develop AutoPilot, this has to be simple in comparison. I don't know why it's been so slow to develop.