Tesla is an AWFUL software company

[Jigglypuff]

The software has gone through a major update. I will now update my post:

People keep saying that Tesla is such a great software company, but their software is AWFUL. Bad words carefully avoided but thought loudly:

Still 100% true.

1. I can't get rid of the visualization. It takes up the most visible part of the display, distracting me as I drive.
2. The autopilot software can't even get the visualization right. Flickering, bouncing images of vehicles? That bus next to me is sliding back and forth even though we're both dead stopped. That pickup? It's a minivan. No! It's a sedan. No! It's a pickup.

Still 100% true.

3. The UI has no significant customization. The speedo needs to be larger, for instance, but I cannot modify anything. Elon knows best?

Now 95% true. I can put some custom chosen icons on the bottom. Can't change anything else, though.

4. I want to turn on my heated steering wheel. Not under car settings. No way to hit a button directly on the main screen. Hitting the electric seats button doesn't do it. Nor does holding down on the seat button. Looked it up in the manual on built into the car, and it doesn't even list the feature. Finally searched on the internet and found a screenshot about the feature existing that shows it's in the HVAC screen. Click on HVAC. Look around. Find the button. I'm supposed to do this while driving? I no, I have to memorize where every single unintuitive and undocumented control is. That assumes the control actually exists.

The HVAC controls are now worse. The seat heaters are no longer on the home page. Extra taps! Control all seat heaters from one image? No! The rear and the front are split up. My favorite part? The HVAC controls time out. What were they thinking? Two steps forward two hundred back, guys.

5. The time the car wouldn't open for a few minutes. Then it opened but wouldn't start. Then it finally all turned on 10 minutes later.
6. The time the entire interior electronics were dead, including AC, speedo, and so on. But then they magically turned on 10 minutes later.

Hasn't happened in ages, thankfully. However, rather often, the phone doesn't open the car or turn the car on, and I have to break out the keycard.

7. The charge port that doesn't want to let go, even though charging is done. No button to do it either. Gotta unplug the charger from the adapter then the adapter from the car. I love pointless extra steps. Yes, this is software.
8. Back to the UI: it's a total fustercluck. Tabs at the bottom with tiny icons. Tabs that have no discernable meaning (A circle with stars? Wut?) and then jumble a bunch of unrelated ideas together.
9. The settings menus have no discernable logic. I have to go through several items to find the settings I want, but only when they actually exist. And yes, sometimes I have to search up the location as I tire of searching through tabs.
10. Thanks, Mr. Screen, for blinding me at full brightness when I got in the car at 10:15PM last night.
11. The auto-bright headlights that turn off when signs shine back at them, but that don't notice the oncoming car.

Still 100% true, though some slight changes made here and there.

12. Every time I turn the car on, the screen goes to Tidal. WTF? I don't have a Tidal account. Is this some kind of ad? I switch to USB. I use other apps. Go back to USB. Come back to the car. Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal!
13. Let's show the side view camera with the turn signal. Great idea! Let's put it so down low, you need to take your eyes completely off the road to check. Greater idea!
14. The list of songs never switches to where the current song is in the play list. What song is next on random? You get to guess. Do Tesla people hate music? They must for this crap to happen.
15. Voice recognition doesn't work at all if there's no cell signal.
16. I can browse the web and play video games while I drive. Joy!
17. Hey, navigation software, thanks for directing me straight into traffic as opposed to around it. Again.
18. Hey, auto HVAC controls, thanks for fogging up my windows. I'm glad that, while I'm blinded, I have to navigate through multiple places to defog. Also, if I hit the defog button, turn the fan up high, stupid.
19. Oh, Tidal again. Yay!
20. Voice search cannot find music on my USB drive. It only streams.
21. "Navigate to XYZ." There's a beep. Look at the screen. It's my USB drive's contents. Nothing else. Oh, I have to move the USB out of the way to get to the navigation screen then choose from the list of navigable places. If I use voice command to navigate, switch to the navigation screen, idiots.
22. How do I open the stupid glovebox again?
23. Hey, can you make these buttons a bit smaller for me?
24. I'm so glad you don't have the AI to recognize that I need to rest my hand somewhere on the screen in order to hit the button as the car moves on this crap suspension.
25. Sentry mode doesn't recognize that I'm walking up, so the car beeps at me, the owner. Nice.
26. I'm driving. Everything is fine. Panicked warning and then I'm told the car intervened somehow in my driving, though I didn't feel a thing.
27. Turn the wheel to correct autopilot and it suddenly shuts off. It's like, "Fine! I'm taking my ball and going home."

I'm sure there's more. I think this is good enough for an update.

 

[VivekDr]

12. Every time I turn the car on, the screen goes to Tidal. WTF? I don't have a Tidal account. Is this some kind of ad? I switch to USB. I use other apps. Go back to USB. Come back to the car. Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal! Tidal!
19. Oh, Tidal again. Yay!

Damn it just turn off the Tidal if you don't have account. You might have opened once, and the car thinks that is your default media app.

15. Voice recognition doesn't work at all if there's no cell signal.

I hate this too. They should have basic commands available offline. That'll make it faster and always available.

16. I can browse the web and play video games while I drive. Joy!

Perhaps don't do it!! It's not hard not to do. It's weird but they might have intended it for passengers. Not really a real problem, still weird though.

22. How do I open the stupid glovebox again?

How often do you'll really open your gloveboxes??? It's not really hard

24. I'm so glad you don't have the AI to recognize that I need to rest my hand somewhere on the screen in order to hit the button as the car moves on this crap suspension.

This is a weird complaint! Not even sure how this is a problem. Maybe it's just me

27. Turn the wheel to correct autopilot and it suddenly shuts off. It's like, "Fine! I'm taking my ball and going home."

This is the way. If i'm taking control for any reason, I don't want autopilot to still continue at the moment until I turn it back on.

 

[Jigglypuff]

Damn it just turn off the Tidal if you don't have account. You might have opened once, and the car thinks that is your default media app.

HOW? HOW? DAMNIT, HOW?!!?!?!??!?!!

Perhaps don't do it!! It's not hard not to do. It's weird but they might have intended it for passengers. Not really a real problem, still weird though.

I'm not the one I'm worried about.

How often do you'll really open your gloveboxes??? It's not really hard

Almost never since it's so darned hard to do.

This is a weird complaint! Not even sure how this is a problem. Maybe it's just me

Having trouble hitting the buttons is weird? My wife and I have the issue, as done everyone else who tried to hit on-screen buttons while the car moves.

This is the way. If i'm taking control for any reason, I don't want autopilot to still continue at the moment until I turn it back on.

It works way better in the I-Pace for real-world usage.

 

[Jigglypuff]

In the past week, I've had at least four and I think five warnings that I was going off or had gone off the road. It's not amusing.

 

[bo3bdar]

HOW? HOW? DAMNIT, HOW?!!?!?!??!?!!

Not certain about the v11 software, but you should be able to go into the music preferences and turn the Tidal off. You can choose what music sources to show, and if you turn it off, it won't show in UI.

> 20. Voice search cannot find music on my USB drive. It only streams.

This. Jesus. Come on. Can't even do a text file name search for songs?

 

[VivekDr]

HOW? HOW? DAMNIT, HOW?!!?!?!??!?!!

Just noticed Tesla removed the option to disable in V11. Anyway, this seems to be happening only to you. My music app is always the ones I used last time, never randomly to tidal. Perhaps a bug, reset.

Having trouble hitting the buttons is weird? My wife and I have the issue, as done everyone else who tried to hit on-screen buttons while the car moves.

Weird to me, because I never experienced accidental hits. But I don't see how you hit random buttons, unless you are accelerating and swinging like crazy. Again, I'm only saying based on my personal experience. The problem of adjusting sliders is real though.

 

[earthwormjim]

I hate this too. They should have basic commands available offline. That'll make it faster and always available.

But then the NSA couldn't spy on us while we furiously enunciate random phrases.

 

[Jigglypuff]

Just noticed Tesla removed the option to disable in V11. Anyway, this seems to be happening only to you. My music app is always the ones I used last time, never randomly to tidal. Perhaps a bug, reset.

Weird to me, because I never experienced accidental hits. But I don't see how you hit random buttons, unless you are accelerating and swinging like crazy. Again, I'm only saying based on my personal experience. The problem of adjusting sliders is real though.

There's another thread on this site where people are having the same issue. The behavior is pretty random.

Because the suspension is so underdamped, the car moves around constantly on anything but a smooth road. It's hard to hit a moving target.

 

[earthwormjim]

However, rather often, the phone doesn't open the car or turn the car on, and I have to break out the keycard.

I have found in my experience, this only happens when the phone app decides to stop running in the background. Tapping the Tesla app icon on my phone (iOS) to truly open the app, seems to resolve this.

Seems to be an issue with background apps in iOS. A lot of apps decide to stop background updates or actions, without any hint this has happened. The apps still show up in the open apps manager, but when you actually switch to them, they completely reload, as if they weren't running. Happens a lot to my NPR radio app. Also happens with the Tesla app if it's been a few days since I've interacted with.

Unsure if you have iOS or Android, but it's something to check before you take out the RFID key.

 

[chengka]

I have found in my experience, this only happens when the phone app decides to stop running in the background. Tapping the Tesla app icon on my phone (iOS) to truly open the app, seems to resolve this.

Seems to be an issue with background apps in iOS. A lot of apps decide to stop background updates or actions, without any hint this has happened. The apps still show up in the open apps manager, but when you actually switch to them, they completely reload, as if they weren't running. Happens a lot to my NPR radio app. Also happens with the Tesla app if it's been a few days since I've interacted with.

Unsure if you have iOS or Android, but it's something to check before you take out the RFID key.

I find this happens when the App is updated. I guess it makes sense that the App is not automatically started after an update, but it can be frustrating. Now, if the car doesn't unlock I open the app and the car unlocks. Btw, I have an Android phone.

 

[Zoglog]

They actually are in the context of a car mfr. Also I assume a lot of this is based off the recent UI update that is garbage. How they haven't rolled this back yet is beyond me

 

[AmokTime]

After living with the new UI for a few weeks I think I prefer the appearance of the new over the old, though I might argue with the placement of a few of the controls. I still have a beef with the seat heater and defroster button locations. It has forced me to use the voice controls more often so I don’t have to take my eyes off the road to hunt around. Unfortunately, those are not available if you’re in a cellular dead zone. “defrost front” works for the defroster. I don’t remember what I used for the seat heater, but I got it on my first guess, so likely something like “front passenger seat heater” increased it from off to one bar for my wife. My next step will be to explore the dockable controls I’ve heard about. I’ve still not had time to sit in the car to mess with it when I don’t have somewhere I need to be.

 

[Boza]

How is your night navigation? Do you see all the streets on the map?

 

[Sporty]

How is your night navigation? Do you see all the streets on the map?

Yes but not plainly. It wouldn’t pass any sort of accessibility test many sw companies use due lack of contrast.

 

[drtimhill]

Yes but not plainly. It wouldn’t pass any sort of accessibility test many sw companies use due lack of contrast.

Nor would Apple Maps imho .. Tesla are not alone in that regard.

 

[Sporty]

Nor would Apple Maps imho .. Tesla are not alone in that regard.

I was referring to the Tesla maps in dark mode. There’s some very low contrast stuff going on their. I’ve not seen anything like that on Apple map (or Google, Waze, or Here maps)

 

[drtimhill]

I was referring to the Tesla maps in dark mode. There’s some very low contrast stuff going on their. I’ve not seen anything like that on Apple map (or Google, Waze, or Here maps)

Understood, but frankly I find the choice of colors and light/dark grays on Apple Maps nearly impossible to read. Tiny medium-dark gray text on a light-gray background isnt exactly what I would call readable (and, no, you can't change this with any of the Accessibility settings in iOS, since maps apparently ignores them).

 

[Sporty]

Understood, but frankly I find the choice of colors and light/dark grays on Apple Maps nearly impossible to read. Tiny medium-dark gray text on a light-gray background isnt exactly what I would call readable (and, no, you can't change this with any of the Accessibility settings in iOS, since maps apparently ignores them).

I see what you’re saying! Roads are ok, but the street names are pretty low contrast. They really should honor the accessibility settings. While it’s not perfect but the lot do support people using other map apps. Early on I didn’t see the need for Tesla to do this, but as time goes on I think it would be a useful thing. (Not simple to do, but useful) They may have the opposite view thou

 

[drtimhill]

I see what you’re saying! Roads are ok, but the street names are pretty low contrast. They really should honor the accessibility settings. While it’s not perfect but the lot do support people using other map apps. Early on I didn’t see the need for Tesla to do this, but as time goes on I think it would be a useful thing. (Not simple to do, but useful) They may have the opposite view thou

I think the problem is the Tesla nav system is far more tightly integrated with other car functions, such as battery preconditioning when driving to a supercharger. And for things like NoA and FSD beta there is no way Tesla would allow the car to use 3rd party maps/nav, as, even if the data were compatible, the liability issues would be horrendous.

 

[Jigglypuff]

I have found in my experience, this only happens when the phone app decides to stop running in the background. Tapping the Tesla app icon on my phone (iOS) to truly open the app, seems to resolve this.

Seems to be an issue with background apps in iOS. A lot of apps decide to stop background updates or actions, without any hint this has happened. The apps still show up in the open apps manager, but when you actually switch to them, they completely reload, as if they weren't running. Happens a lot to my NPR radio app. Also happens with the Tesla app if it's been a few days since I've interacted with.

Unsure if you have iOS or Android, but it's something to check before you take out the RFID key.

I'm on Android. My wife couldn't even get into the car yesterday. Also on Android. I don't have my apps on autoupdate. It just sometimes decides to stop working. I also always carry the keycard, just in case. It's still smaller than a key, at least.

After living with the new UI for a few weeks I think I prefer the appearance of the new over the old, though I might argue with the placement of a few of the controls. I still have a beef with the seat heater and defroster button locations. It has forced me to use the voice controls more often so I don’t have to take my eyes off the road to hunt around. Unfortunately, those are not available if you’re in a cellular dead zone. “defrost front” works for the defroster. I don’t remember what I used for the seat heater, but I got it on my first guess, so likely something like “front passenger seat heater” increased it from off to one bar for my wife. My next step will be to explore the dockable controls I’ve heard about. I’ve still not had time to sit in the car to mess with it when I don’t have somewhere I need to be.

I have docked apps but not controls. I didn't know I could. The seat heater and steering wheel controls are not located even worse. Also temp isn't directly controlled from the HVAC screen? Idiotic.

How is your night navigation? Do you see all the streets on the map?

I can see the streets, but it is still awful navigation. The absolute worst ever. It had me getting off the freeway mid-trip then back on for no reason whatsoever. In both directions! Oh, and here's the best part: this is all about ten miles from the Tesla factory, at a major freeway intersection, the 237 and 880. *sugar* on a stick, and Musk wants us to gobble it down.

At least nobody on this forum is doubting that I own this turd of a car anymore. I can't wait for my i4 M50 to arrive.