Software Update 2018.10.4

[d21mike]

I had some time on my hands the other day after receiving the update. So I figured I would call Tesla and ask them their thoughts about the potential security issue of inadvertently opening the non-powered liftgate using the mobile app. Since this action can be completed from anywhere, those with the inability to close the liftgate remotely essentially leave their car unlocked for all to enter.

The response was that they would forward my concern. Speaking to possible solutions, they indicated that perhaps at minimum a pop-up message could be displayed advising of the risk before opening the liftgate. The message would be similar to the one received when attempting to unlock the car remotely.

The Tesla associate also mentioned something about a possible retrofit of some kind for us non-powered liftgaters, but that was not being discussed currently within Tesla as far as they knew.

I really dont see Tesla completing any powered-liftgate retrofits, so I'll continue to plan on purchasing a 3rd-party powered liftgate kit.

As I have read elsewhere, using the app to open the frunk/"front trunk" and trunk would seldom, if ever be used - kind of like the auto-park feature. The only time to open these doors would be when you are in sight of the car, and normally by using the key fob.

How about an option to disable this feature. I will probably never use it.

 

[cmarshack]

Have any pre-AP VIN's received this update? I would like the new app functionality and have not received the update...

 

[evster]

You can adjust the volume of navigation announcements while one is in progress; adjustments made during announcements apply only to them.

I know that. That's why I wrote in my post that I had the navigation volume set to Max. So even with maxed out Nav-voice, the Music is not faded down enough to hear the navigation voice. In reality the navigation voice is barely there at all. And like I also wrote in m post I've tested the same scenario with a car with Ultra HIFI and there it worked out fine under the same circumstances and with the same volume levels (music + nav volume)

There must be someone out there with the standard audio system who can test this out? I'm sure it will be the same like I reported that the nav volume is impossible to hear if music is playing at 7+ level even if nav volume is set to maximum.

Thanks!

 

[ChrML]

Today I got more driving experience with the Autopilot in 2018.10.4.

As previously said: Autosteer is now very reliable and feels confident. I can drive most stretches between intersections entirely on autopilot with almost never need to take over as long as there is something visible that might resemble a roadmarking.

A few things that can be improved:

The distance to the car ahead feels very unnatural. When driving in maybe 60 km/h and then the vehicle ahead starts braking before a red light, the car will abruptly start to brake in order to preserve the same distance to the car ahead as before braking. Then we come to a complete stop, there is a distance of maybe 6-10 meters to the vehicle in front. It feels very strange to brake so hard, for then to leave a gap that big. If I were the car behind, I would think that looks strange too.

One solution would be to measure the distance to leading vehicle in time, such as seconds, eg 3 seconds. Then the car would come closer to the vehicle ahead during braking until we come to a complete stop around 2-3m behind. Then during acceleration creep back to 40 meters as speed increases. That would feel a lot smoother.

 

[ranma64]

hey guys, i made a new video with IC in PIP showing how this new update perform on hill crest, car sudden stopping, poor visibility night condition

Enjoy and let me know.
next time IC will be better with proper go-pro support on top dashboard!

 

[Sawyer8888]

Obervations on a winding road (these side roads are not what AP is intended for yet)...

1. At 40 seconds AP slows my car down considerably to maintain an ultra safe distance from the lead car exiting the road. Nothing new here I believe.

2. At about 1 minute, my car accelerates as it enters into a turn forcing me to disengage to avoid a possible collision with the curb.

3. At 25 seconds of this next section of video on the same road, my car fails to adequately slow to avoid the lead car stopped at a light. (segmented and muted due to expletive at the end)

As others have mentioned, AP has a strong urge to turn left when the road forks on the highway. In this case, my car begins to go left and then makes an abrupt correction to return to the right. It felt worse than it looks in the video. At least it stayed right this time, which I suppose is an improvement. Still, an uncomfortable transition...

IMO, the best part of the new update is the auto-lane change.

 

[boaterva]

Yes, you can close the trunk with the app. The picture shows the trunk open. You push the button and wait 6-7 seconds then the picture shows the trunk closed. It doesn't let you know if it is opening or closing in real time, but does change the picture once it is opened or closed. The car makes a beep letting you know the trunk is opening or closing but the app does not beep. You also don't get a notification if you accidently press the button and the trunk is now open. If you happen to open the app, you can see the picture with the trunk open, go to controls and close it. Don't hit the button twice. Hit it once and wait at least 10 seconds to see if the picture changes or it will start closing then open again and stay open.

At least on my iPhone, unlike the "VENT ROOF" button, the TRUNK buttons don't change when a trunk is open or closed (they always show open); and there's more...

This doesn't seem like a well thought-out feature:
1. It's way too easy to accidentally push one of these buttons...and you may not know that you did.
2. US cars (et al?) don't allow the front trunk to electrically close. If you accidentally open it, you won't know it and won't be able to close it until you get back to the car. NOT good.
3. It's unclear to me how often you'd even want to open/close a trunk when you can't even see the car. This is both a safety and security issue...and can risk damage to the trunk if something is in the way.

And BTW, why not let the app open the roof to more than just the vent position?
And let the app and key fob close all of the windows to make sure that the car is really locked.

A comment on the UI: If you use "Remote S", that app shows you on it the trunk and frunk status like the car does internally: Yellow swatches when the frunk/trunk are open. You can also open them remotely from it.

The frunk, of course, has no hardware to close it, but if the car is locked, the 'open' frunk isn't really open. It's locked on the safety pawl (which isn't like a normal US car double latch, but is the second latch (what the second string is for!)).

I've done this: Opened the frunk to get something out, walked away so the car locked, and then come back to get my bag out, and the frunk was 'open' (ajar?) but it had locked. It wasn't shut all the way, but it was still secured. So, it's not like the trunk, which, when 'open' is gaping open. But, of course, you can reverse the trunk opening to close and secure it... pros and cons!

(Looks like some of this was addressed above; this thread is turning into a book!)

 

[conman]

One solution would be to measure the distance to leading vehicle in time, such as seconds, eg 3 seconds. Then the car would come closer to the vehicle ahead during braking until we come to a complete stop around 2-3m behind. Then during acceleration creep back to 40 meters as speed increases. That would feel a lot smoother.

According to the manual it has always been based on time and not distance already. I'm not particularly fond of the behaviour in stop and go traffic, especially the take off which remains glacial. In fact it appears to have gotten worse. I don't expect it to take off at ludicrous speed but it's not even keeping up with any cars whatsoever that take off at a natural pace.

 

[chillaban]

According to the manual it has always been based on time and not distance already. I'm not particularly fond of the behaviour in stop and go traffic, especially the take off which remains glacial. In fact it appears to have gotten worse. I don't expect it to take off at ludicrous speed but it's not even keeping up with any cars whatsoever that take off at a natural pace.

Usually when it does that I just punch the accelerator real quick (just a bit of a tap) and it will zoom forward. I presume this is some safety paranoia "feature"….

 

[croman]

According to the manual it has always been based on time and not distance already. I'm not particularly fond of the behaviour in stop and go traffic, especially the take off which remains glacial. In fact it appears to have gotten worse. I don't expect it to take off at ludicrous speed but it's not even keeping up with any cars whatsoever that take off at a natural pace.

I believe this is solely because the system is L2 but people in stop and go and at intersections are not paying sufficient attention while the car is at a stop or proceeding very slowly (looking at phones), so it starts gradually just to capture the driver's attention. A manual tap on the accelerator usually jumpstarts the "glacial" takeoff.

 

[conman]

Yes everyone keeps telling me to punch the accelerator... I can do that with AP off though as well so it kinda defeats the purpose. Also my passengers hate when I do that because I'm usually so annoyed by the glacial take off that I DO take off at ludicrous speed to catch up, ruining any comfort afforded by AP trying to remain silky smooth.

The take off aspect is something that level 2 should be doing better than a human IMO as per this youtube video. It would be good traffic management:

 

[chillaban]

Yes everyone keeps telling me to punch the accelerator... I can do that with AP off though as well so it kinda defeats the purpose. Also my passengers hate when I do that because I'm usually so annoyed by the glacial take off that I DO take off at ludicrous speed to catch up, ruining any comfort afforded by AP trying to remain silky smooth.

The take off aspect is something that level 2 should be doing better than a human IMO as per this youtube video. It would be good traffic management:

We're not saying that you're doing anything wrong… at least speaking for myself, it's meant to be a tip for how to work around how it currently is.

It seems like even a light tap on the accelerator signals to the car that you want it to accelerate faster. You don't have to sacrifice any of the smoothness.

 

[conman]

We're not saying that you're doing anything wrong… at least speaking for myself, it's meant to be a tip for how to work around how it currently is.

It seems like even a light tap on the accelerator signals to the car that you want it to accelerate faster. You don't have to sacrifice any of the smoothness.

Sure thing, thanks - it's what I've always been doing, I just keep hoping it gets better like the rest of the behaviour has been doing. It's a bit like people telling me before we had autowipers that it's not that hard to turn the wipers on. It's a workaround but it's no excuse to set the bar lower.

 

[boaterva]

And we have a new version of the Tesla app (3.3.3) with no notes (great, now the app is following the cars!) except the 'minor fixes and improvements'. I don't see anything relevant to 10.4 and/or trunk/frunk except maybe those icons look slight darker outlined?

 

[croman]

Sure thing, thanks - it's what I've always been doing, I just keep hoping it gets better like the rest of the behaviour has been doing.

It will improve but for now they are cautious. People blame AP for everything and fender benders add up. The car certainly knows the lead car is zooming away. I've found that it waits about 1 full second before accelerating and fails to match the acceleration of the lead car for the first 5 seconds after that. Then it does a good job catching up and maintaining the same temporal distance as what it was set to. So patience is really the key I guess.

FYI, I often tap the accelerator but I find with this fw it still might not catch up after a nudge as quickly as it used to. Hopefully the system will use traffic signals and predictive algos to help time this better.

 

[ChrML]

According to the manual it has always been based on time and not distance already. I'm not particularly fond of the behaviour in stop and go traffic, especially the take off which remains glacial. In fact it appears to have gotten worse. I don't expect it to take off at ludicrous speed but it's not even keeping up with any cars whatsoever that take off at a natural pace.

I also remember stop and go traffic being better before. Previous version did stop right behind the leading car on stop, and had less lag than current version on take-off. Now it often brakes hard early and sluggishly stops 10+ meters behind the traffic.

Pretty much the only "regression" though. Everything else is becoming really good.

 

[Lawsteve]

And we have a new version of the Tesla app (3.3.3) with no notes (great, now the app is following the cars!) except the 'minor fixes and improvements'. I don't see anything relevant to 10.4 and/or trunk/frunk except maybe those icons look slight darker outlined?

I just saw this on Reddit re the new app update:

PSA: Tesla iOS app update 3.3.3 with Siri can now control Model 3. • r/teslamotors

 

[boaterva]

I just saw this on Reddit re the new app update:

PSA: Tesla iOS app update 3.3.3 with Siri can now control Model 3. • r/teslamotors

Thanks, hadn't had a chance to check reddit today! Unless Siri does new things, I don't know if it's just 3 access for Siri? Is that new? (Not exactly the right thread, we're bleeding over everywhere... )

 

[deonb]

Any reports on whether it deals with Truck Lust better?

 

[conman]

And just to prove I'm not only complaining about this release, the freeway/highway driving is superb. Almost no nervous twitching of the steering wheel, stayed beautifully in the middle of the lanes, took curves naturally, changed lanes as smoothly as a human, buffeted changes in speed when someone would cut in front of me instead of abruptly braking at the last moment. The lane change was interesting, it seemed to turn the steering wheel in a more sinusoidal pattern instead of abrupt changes in angle and back again. Truly remarkable improvement. If I wasn't driving I would have easily been fooled it was a human driving.