smogne41
Active Member
Revisiting this thread, one month post major UI change. No further change to my M3 firmware. No info available about the reason for change has been offered by APP chat with appointment service, or phone call with local customer support. No answer to my question regarding where it is going, what to expect. No official suggestion that Tesla has any concerns, or is even looking into it. Tweet by EM in the middle of the night, meaningless to me. I accept that there will always be a difference of opinion, but I want Tesla to tell me why I must accept a display that is not what bought into, and is hard for me to read. They don't even try. And while on the subject of difference of opinion, rather then arguing here about why it is better to have it one way or another, or dismissing people on the forum with jibes about it being first world problems, or your the problem, maybe we could agree that a touch screen touted ad nauseam with the sales slogan "Only gets better", never is better unless ability to cater to needs is built in simultaneous with change? The updated Tesla slogan should be "my way or the highway". It took this UI being shoved down my throat to realise what I bought into. Brand no longer recommended, due fear of next firmware, no going back.
After thought edit: What is the name for fear of firmware phobia?
Yeah, I am having a lot of those second thoughts as well. I knew going into this 2.5 years ago that tesla had a severe control problem, (anti right-to-repair, keeping a lock on service and parts, other proprietary choices, etc). Those were all serious concerns I had before purchase, but I also wanted the best EV available, and I do love the car but there is a lot I don't love about Tesla. My hope was that Tesla would slowly come around (or be forced to come around) to recognizing that WE own our cars but they have made only modest steps in that direction (and MANY steps away from that). This update is just a stark reminder that Elon can come into our garages any time he wants and fundamentally alter our cars in ways we may not want. Many will say this UI change is trivial, or we are wrong for complaining, but I say BS. The driver interface (whether analog or digital) is certainly part of any car purchase decision I (and I suspect many others) make, and this new UI is very much not to my liking. If the car had this new UI 2.5 years ago I am not sure I would have bought it.
There is more to it, that is perhaps a lot more concerning. The whole UI update smacks of both arbitrary change for changes sake, and also a complete lack of usability testing. This is absolutely not how something as mission-critical as a driver interface should be treated. The nearly complete radio-silence from Tesla is not helping either. If Tesla wants to alter my car, two conditions should be always met: (1) the reason for the changes should be made completely clear to me, and (2) I should have to consent to those change. We are not getting either of those.
To be totally fair to Tesla, this is not just their problem (but they are not helping at all). The whole tech industry is an anti-user dystopian nightmare these days. There is widespread hardware DRM from appliances to phones to tractors and nearly everything in between that makes repair and modification often difficult or impossible. And for software (Windows 10, etc) there is a constant grind of forced updates that often alter your devices in ways you would really prefer they did not. This is not the tech world I want, and I really wish Tesla would do better (and that we would DEMAND they do better).