Tesla moments

[beeeerock]

Friday was a roller coaster; for a while there, really wasn't sure that my parents were going to be comfortable taking the Model 3. Jury's still out; they've agreed to try it for a month and after that if they don't like it we'll find something else to do with the car.

My mother will be 80 by the time one of the 3's I have reserved appears in her driveway. She's somewhat comfortable in her S70 she's had since '99, but I really don't know how she'll do with the 3. She's game, but I admit I'm a little nervous... ;-)

Good to hear your folks are giving it a shot though!

 

[PhxGT]

Hello everyone,

I really love my car, I hope everyone is enjoying theirs as well. The other day, I went to pick up my kids at school and as I’m driving one of the kids starts screaming “TESLA!! TESLA!!” I can understand the kid, he expressed how I feel.

On another note, I can also say I’m a better driver. Not necessarily myself, but since I’m on autopilot 90% of the time I race and rage only 10% of the time I’m behind the wheel. No, but seriously, I find myself driving less aggressive, I figure I don’t have to drive, if I choose not to. Thank you Autopilot, you’re making the world safe by driving for me.

One last thought, summon is awesome. If I need to take something out through the garage door, but the Tesla is in the way, summon really helps. It’s like having a remote control (5k lbs) car.

 

[Sgadhia]

I’m waiting to take delivery of our new white 75d with the new turbines. I didn’t think I would be, but for lack of a better word, feel a little “nervous” of feedback I’m going to get since I’m only 27 and my wife and I look younger. Anyone else here in the same situation?

Congrats at getting your 75d so early in life and thank you for making the decision of driving and electric can due to its impact. I’m almost 40 and recently got my X75d as well. Irrespective of your age people are going to ooh and aah over the car and then there are others who will tell you it’s finanially irresponsible to bust such an expensive car etc. In the 35 days that I have owned the car I have received both sides of it. I have alsoracked up 4000 miles on the car and each of miles has been with a smile. ENJOY YOUR RIDE!!!

 

[Ollie Jones]

I pranked the guy doing my safety inspection by summoning the Model S out of the garage bay.

It was mean. He freaked. He thought he hadn't set the brake or something.

But it was still fun.

 

[wdolson]

Friday was a roller coaster; for a while there, really wasn't sure that my parents were going to be comfortable taking the Model 3. Jury's still out; they've agreed to try it for a month and after that if they don't like it we'll find something else to do with the car.

They are still pretty scared of it, especially the cluttered, complicated, multi-layered screen UI that makes any functionality only six swipes, two pop-ups and a window closure away. There's so much for them to absorb that certain topics remain undiscussed, such as opening and closing the frunk.

But... but... for all that... they are game... my Mom operates the screen while my Dad looks for the wiper button on the stalk. They have great "fun" together trying to figure out where to tap the keycard to get the car started. They've already had the car in for service and are fond of "Maria", the woman who helped them on the phone. (As always, Tesla service is awesome. Today, the manager and a technician rushed out to the car as soon as we arrived at the SC. Patiently listened to my father's extended disquisition as to how last night's firmware update might be involved in the problem we were seeing -- it wasn't, it had nothing to do with it -- and then zipped into the garage to debug it. I send you hugs and kisses, Tesla Service!)

I, myself, am loving the Model 3 and look forward to getting one later this summer. Zippy! Range that matches my P100D! Feels great to drive! Just scratching my head at how Tesla engineers still have so much hubris around the UI. Somebody has spent years, untold dollars and an incredible amount of brainpower and forethought while tenderly crafting a logical UI that only an engineer can operate much less love -- probably in part because some other design and/or manufacturing tyrant decreed that there Shalt Not Be Additional Buttons, Stalks Or Other Controls.

Alan

P.S. Turns out my son has been a tremendous help to my father at understanding and operating the Model 3!
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Like the old saying went, if you want to program the VCR, find a kid. There is something about the plasticity of younger minds that adapts to things like computers quickly. I've noticed that people who were introduced to something programmable before they hit their early 20s tend to be much more comfortable with computers than those who never encountered anything programmable until they were well into adulthood. The rough line is for those born around the mid-50s. Many of them (who went to college) had some exposure to computers or just programmable calculators in college.

Your story sort of reminds me of a friend of mine. She thinks Teslas are the coolest thing and would really love to get an X (or possibly a Y), but she's both old enough to have not encountered computers until she was an adult and is dyslexic, which combined makes her quite the technophobe. One facet of dyslexia that most people aren't aware of is they navigate the world with patterns instead of reading things. Mix some tech anxiety with a whole new set of patterns and she just curls up into a fetal ball.

One time another friend who had been a programmer at Apple and knows everything Apple updated her iPhone and organized the icons the way he thought they should be arranged. She melted down because she couldn't find anything in their familiar positions and the friend who did it just couldn't grok what the problem was. It took a couple of attempts but I eventually got it through to him how important patterns were to dyslexics.

I'm mildly dyslexic myself, so I understand her need for patterns, but it isn't as big a thing for me. I'm also not a technophobe, though I avoid changing tech just for the sake of getting the latest and greatest. I hate learning new interfaces, it takes a lot of effort to lay down the new patterns.

Fortunately most of the critical controls on the Model S/X are pretty much the same place they are on other cars (and I was coming from a car with the shifter on the steering column so that was familiar too), but all the different patterns took some getting used to. I think the heavier reliance on the touch screen on the Model 3 would drive me nuts. I already find the climate controls on the touch screen annoying. I need to take my eyes off the road to change them because there is no tactile feedback like on physical controls.

 

[etmax]

I’m waiting to take delivery of our new white 75d with the new turbines. I didn’t think I would be, but for lack of a better word, feel a little “nervous” of feedback I’m going to get since I’m only 27 and my wife and I look younger. Anyone else here in the same situation?

The results of a study published in New Scientist says that people find humblebrags more annoying than normal bragging.

 

[etmax]

Like the old saying went, if you want to program the VCR, find a kid. There is something about the plasticity of younger minds that adapts to things like computers quickly. I've noticed that people who were introduced to something programmable before they hit their early 20s tend to be much more comfortable with computers than those who never encountered anything programmable until they were well into adulthood. The rough line is for those born around the mid-50s. Many of them (who went to college) had some exposure to computers or just programmable calculators in college.

Your story sort of reminds me of a friend of mine. She thinks Teslas are the coolest thing and would really love to get an X (or possibly a Y), but she's both old enough to have not encountered computers until she was an adult and is dyslexic, which combined makes her quite the technophobe. One facet of dyslexia that most people aren't aware of is they navigate the world with patterns instead of reading things. Mix some tech anxiety with a whole new set of patterns and she just curls up into a fetal ball.

One time another friend who had been a programmer at Apple and knows everything Apple updated her iPhone and organized the icons the way he thought they should be arranged. She melted down because she couldn't find anything in their familiar positions and the friend who did it just couldn't grok what the problem was. It took a couple of attempts but I eventually got it through to him how important patterns were to dyslexics.

I'm mildly dyslexic myself, so I understand her need for patterns, but it isn't as big a thing for me. I'm also not a technophobe, though I avoid changing tech just for the sake of getting the latest and greatest. I hate learning new interfaces, it takes a lot of effort to lay down the new patterns.

Fortunately most of the critical controls on the Model S/X are pretty much the same place they are on other cars (and I was coming from a car with the shifter on the steering column so that was familiar too), but all the different patterns took some getting used to. I think the heavier reliance on the touch screen on the Model 3 would drive me nuts. I already find the climate controls on the touch screen annoying. I need to take my eyes off the road to change them because there is no tactile feedback like on physical controls.

I'm not dyslexic but use patterns exclusively when navigating a GUI. It's way more efficient. It's driven me to convert Win7 to look exactly like XP and I have icons arranged consistently on my PC and different but also consistently on my phone.

By doing things this way I can navigate the system almost blind with motor neuron memory most of the time and needing glasses occasionally I don't need them on the computer until I want to read back what I've typed.

I struggled with my Tesla because the volume control, indicator stick and cruise are all on opposite sides to all my previous cars, I don't have a melt down but I do often take it out of gear going around a corner . I'm getting better and maybe in another month or so I'll have it down pat, until I drive my wife's car again.

 

[Brass Guy]

Then they update the interface. (I'm still floundering with the media app.) Like swapping 2 letterd on the keyboars, pain in the add!

 

[Pollux]

My mother will be 80 by the time one of the 3's I have reserved appears in her driveway. She's somewhat comfortable in her S70 she's had since '99, but I really don't know how she'll do with the 3. She's game, but I admit I'm a little nervous... ;-)

Good to hear your folks are giving it a shot though!

Hi, @beeeerock... if your mother is already familiar with the S70, I think she's going to have a much easier transition to make than either one of my parents. Not totally without pain, mind you, but she's already familiar with all the key concepts not to mention the notion of needing to use the touchscreen instead of physical controls to get stuff done. She might even prefer the smaller size of the Model 3!

Just my two cents.

Alan

 

[BrettS]

Hi, @beeeerock... if your mother is already familiar with the S70, I think she's going to have a much easier transition to make than either one of my parents. Not totally without pain, mind you, but she's already familiar with all the key concepts not to mention the notion of needing to use the touchscreen instead of physical controls to get stuff done. She might even prefer the smaller size of the Model 3!

Just my two cents.

Alan

I’m pretty sure going from a 99 Volvo S70 to a model 3 will be a bit bigger step than you are thinking

 

[beeeerock]

I’m pretty sure going from a 99 Volvo S70 to a model 3 will be a bit bigger step than you are thinking

Well, at least she's been a passenger in my Model S often enough to now grasp the basic concept of using a touchscreen. Honestly... I'll set it up to the defaults she needs and then teach just the basics...like how to turn on the wipers.

Good news is, I don't expect the 3 will have pop up advertising or invitations to install software...you have no idea how many calls I get about that...(should I click it??) ;-)

@Pollux - I sure hope you're right!

 

[BruceBrew]

As we came out of our favorite Thai restaurant in Germantown, a week after getting my 70D, I saw an older gent posing with a stack of fanned out bills (ones and fives) in front of a cool blue Tesla as his daughter took a pic. Oh wait . . . that's MY Testla!! My wife and I stopped and smiled as they took the photo. The guy, not realizing it was our car, said "Do you realize what this is? These are so cool!" After a minute of conversation and very nice complements, I offered to take some shots of him in the driver's seat. His daughter said we made his day. Made mine too.

 

[wdolson]

I'm not dyslexic but use patterns exclusively when navigating a GUI. It's way more efficient. It's driven me to convert Win7 to look exactly like XP and I have icons arranged consistently on my PC and different but also consistently on my phone.

I use several different computers and I have all of them configured to look and feel as much like Windows 95 as possible. I'm using Win 7 and need to switch to Win 10 at work one of these days. I did set up my primary work computer with Win 10, spent about 1/2 hour futzing with it and went back to Win 7. I haven't thought much of going back except when I see the boot menu and remember I have Win 10 installed and I need to get that setup one of these days.

I also know so many people who claim MacOS is so much easier to understand than Windows, but I find it the opposite. MacOS is the most confusing OS I've ever encountered. There are so many things that are done non-intuitively for my way of thinking. It isn't the dyslexia in this case because my dyslexic friend found MacOS made a lot more sense to her. After the initial meltdown about everything being different she did find it easier to use.

By doing things this way I can navigate the system almost blind with motor neuron memory most of the time and needing glasses occasionally I don't need them on the computer until I want to read back what I've typed.

I struggled with my Tesla because the volume control, indicator stick and cruise are all on opposite sides to all my previous cars, I don't have a melt down but I do often take it out of gear going around a corner . I'm getting better and maybe in another month or so I'll have it down pat, until I drive my wife's car again.

I assume your Tesla is right hand drive. My Model S has the stalks in the same place as most other left hand drive cars in the US. The turn signal/washer is about 10 o'clock on the left, the cruise control/AP is lower left, and the shifter is on the right. The only difference with my last car was the cruise control was part of the turn signal stalk.

My last car also pre-dated buttons on the steering wheel (it was a 1992 Buick). They are handy on the S, but I still accidentally hit them when I'm turning the wheel. I mute the radio when my SO and I are in the car so we can talk but a number of times I've un-muted the radio when turning the wheel and she wonders why the radio is suddenly on.

 

[beeeerock]

I also know so many people who claim MacOS is so much easier to understand than Windows, but I find it the opposite. MacOS is the most confusing OS I've ever encountered. There are so many things that are done non-intuitively for my way of thinking. It isn't the dyslexia in this case because my dyslexic friend found MacOS made a lot more sense to her. After the initial meltdown about everything being different she did find it easier to use.

Glad I'm not the only one. I first thought it was simply being a longtime Windows user that was causing the problems...but after several years with my MacBook Pro, I still find it painful to do what should be relatively simple things. If Apple computers were aimed at graphic artists originally, maybe it's a left brain, right brain thing...but whatever the case, it doesn't work intuitively for me - AT ALL!!!!

 

[Tannergroup2]

The results of a study published in New Scientist says that people find humblebrags more annoying than normal bragging.

Little late to the party

 

[wdolson]

Glad I'm not the only one. I first thought it was simply being a longtime Windows user that was causing the problems...but after several years with my MacBook Pro, I still find it painful to do what should be relatively simple things. If Apple computers were aimed at graphic artists originally, maybe it's a left brain, right brain thing...but whatever the case, it doesn't work intuitively for me - AT ALL!!!!

I think it may be something in the way we think. I know few people with a technical or scientific background who grok MacOS very well. In the left brain/right brain tests I always come up close to balanced between the two. But I have a pretty strong engineering/science background.

I catch a lot of flak around here for not grokking MacOS. My SO bought one of the first Macs (with the signed case) and is an adamant Mac fan and I have a friend who was a programmer at Apple. The screens on the iMac kill my eyes too. The Retina displays address the flicker from LED backlights, but do nothing to the extra blue. The extra blue in white LEDs give me horrible eye strain. (It was an issue with my Model S too, I had to get anti-blue screen protectors.)

I have had an iPhone for a few years now. I do have to say their battery management is way ahead of Android and I have found iOS more stable than Android. I had two Android phones before getting the iPhone and both had multiple unrecoverable failures after a year. Things like the camera would just quit and I wouldn't be able to get it back. As far as usability, iOS and Android are about equal, I'm not a big fan of either. Android is far, far better transferring data, especially to Windows, but iOS is better in day to day things like I mentioned above.

 

[Doctor X]

My Tesla moment actually involved another Tesla. I had my MX75D just about two weeks when I was driving to the cottage last summer in the Haliburton area of Ontario. I was stopped at the only light in town waiting to turn left and suddenly another MX arrived to my right and was about to turn right on the red light. But then, the driver came to a full stop realizing there was also another MX in the left lane waiting at the light (mine). He actually backed up a little to meet my window and gave me a big smile and a thumbs up before zooming away. I bet you this was probably the first time ever that two Teslas met side by side in Haliburton! It made me feel great that a total stranger took the time to acknowledge me just because we had the same car. I felt like I was part of a very fortunate club and that perhaps we were just starting to change the world.

 

[int32_t]

I think it may be something in the way we think. I know few people with a technical or scientific background who grok MacOS very well. In the left brain/right brain tests I always come up close to balanced between the two. But I have a pretty strong engineering/science background.

I catch a lot of flak around here for not grokking MacOS. My SO bought one of the first Macs (with the signed case) and is an adamant Mac fan and I have a friend who was a programmer at Apple. The screens on the iMac kill my eyes too. The Retina displays address the flicker from LED backlights, but do nothing to the extra blue. The extra blue in white LEDs give me horrible eye strain. (It was an issue with my Model S too, I had to get anti-blue screen protectors.)

I have had an iPhone for a few years now. I do have to say their battery management is way ahead of Android and I have found iOS more stable than Android. I had two Android phones before getting the iPhone and both had multiple unrecoverable failures after a year. Things like the camera would just quit and I wouldn't be able to get it back. As far as usability, iOS and Android are about equal, I'm not a big fan of either. Android is far, far better transferring data, especially to Windows, but iOS is better in day to day things like I mentioned above.

I'm a Mac guy and I work as a technologist at a tech company. N=1 but I'm not much of an artist over here. Since I grew up on Windows and use Windows at work, you could say I'm bilingual, but my personal machine is a Mac. I get that people have different preferences and totally respect that and if you want to use Windows that's fine. But if you want an example of why I personally can't stand Windows, here are a few concrete examples:

• My coworkers' fancy new 4K Dell laptops can't figure out how to drive your typical external monitor as well as the integrated display while keeping windows on both monitors at the same scale. They end up with micro-print on the 4K internal monitor and a realistic size on the external monitor, or a realistic window size on the integrated monitor and GIANT windows on the external monitor. My Mac … has zero issues with whatever resolution monitor you throw at it, from lo-res to 4K. If you drag a window from one screen to the other, it stays the same size but is just higher res on the better display.
• Control Panel, for me, is an utter mess. I find things by searching out of necessity since I can't seem to find them by digging through the categories manually. Again, for me, System Preferences seems much more logically laid out and I can find what I'm looking for very quickly without having to search (generally).
• The general look and feel. Windows has a ton of extra bezel everywhere (like Windows Explorer for instance), whereas the Mac keeps these bits of necessary interface very compact (like a Finder window for a direct comparison). I like the minimalism of macOS which somehow seems to not hide important things under extra clicks in spite of not having as many visible buttons.

There's no fix for blue on your Model S, but you could re-calibrate the white point of a Mac's display to cure its overly-blue-ness and save it in a new colour profile just for you, so your SO doesn't complain. (System Preferences > Displays > Colour > Calibrate …)

 

[mongo]

I'm a Mac guy and I work as a technologist at a tech company. N=1 but I'm not much of an artist over here. Since I grew up on Windows and use Windows at work, you could say I'm bilingual, but my personal machine is a Mac. I get that people have different preferences and totally respect that and if you want to use Windows that's fine. But if you want an example of why I personally can't stand Windows, here are a few concrete examples:

• My coworkers' fancy new 4K Dell laptops can't figure out how to drive your typical external monitor as well as the integrated display while keeping windows on both monitors at the same scale. They end up with micro-print on the 4K internal monitor and a realistic size on the external monitor, or a realistic window size on the integrated monitor and GIANT windows on the external monitor. My Mac … has zero issues with whatever resolution monitor you throw at it, from lo-res to 4K. If you drag a window from one screen to the other, it stays the same size but is just higher res on the better display.
• Control Panel, for me, is an utter mess. I find things by searching out of necessity since I can't seem to find them by digging through the categories manually. Again, for me, System Preferences seems much more logically laid out and I can find what I'm looking for very quickly without having to search (generally).
• The general look and feel. Windows has a ton of extra bezel everywhere (like Windows Explorer for instance), whereas the Mac keeps these bits of necessary interface very compact (like a Finder window for a direct comparison). I like the minimalism of macOS which somehow seems to not hide important things under extra clicks in spite of not having as many visible buttons.

There's no fix for blue on your Model S, but you could re-calibrate the white point of a Mac's display to cure its overly-blue-ness and save it in a new colour profile just for you, so your SO doesn't complain. (System Preferences > Displays > Colour > Calibrate …)

Your co-worker's issues may be the application not Windows. Possibly useful info.

Never did like the fixed resolution 1:1 WYSIWYG setup on Apples. Bigger screen? Either add memory or lose colors.

 

[wdolson]

I'm a Mac guy and I work as a technologist at a tech company. N=1 but I'm not much of an artist over here. Since I grew up on Windows and use Windows at work, you could say I'm bilingual, but my personal machine is a Mac. I get that people have different preferences and totally respect that and if you want to use Windows that's fine. But if you want an example of why I personally can't stand Windows, here are a few concrete examples:

I did say "most". I do know some technical people who prefer Mac, but most of the tech/scientific people I know prefer something else (including some who prefer Linux over both MacOS and Windows).

• My coworkers' fancy new 4K Dell laptops can't figure out how to drive your typical external monitor as well as the integrated display while keeping windows on both monitors at the same scale. They end up with micro-print on the 4K internal monitor and a realistic size on the external monitor, or a realistic window size on the integrated monitor and GIANT windows on the external monitor. My Mac … has zero issues with whatever resolution monitor you throw at it, from lo-res to 4K. If you drag a window from one screen to the other, it stays the same size but is just higher res on the better display.

I ran into a similar problem with Win 7. When researching I found an article about how Win 10 can deal with multiple monitors with different resolutions but Win 7 and earlier won't handle it.

I never said Windows was anything outstanding. I just said I could grok it better than MacOS. IMO there is no outstanding OS out there.

• Control Panel, for me, is an utter mess. I find things by searching out of necessity since I can't seem to find them by digging through the categories manually. Again, for me, System Preferences seems much more logically laid out and I can find what I'm looking for very quickly without having to search (generally).

Microsoft broke both Control Panel and Windows Explorer after Win XP. From Win 95 to XP, it usually wasn't too difficult to find what I needed in Control Panel, but since XP, I need to search around and usually click on the wrong thing first before finding the right thing.

• The general look and feel. Windows has a ton of extra bezel everywhere (like Windows Explorer for instance), whereas the Mac keeps these bits of necessary interface very compact (like a Finder window for a direct comparison). I like the minimalism of macOS which somehow seems to not hide important things under extra clicks in spite of not having as many visible buttons.

There's no fix for blue on your Model S, but you could re-calibrate the white point of a Mac's display to cure its overly-blue-ness and save it in a new colour profile just for you, so your SO doesn't complain. (System Preferences > Displays > Colour > Calibrate …)

I've played around with the color temperature on monitors and I've never been able to fix the eye strain problem. The only monitors with LED backlight that work for me are the FlexScan monitors from Eizo.

My SO has never complained about the blue. She doesn't have the extra blue sensitivity mutation I have. I rarely look at her iMac for more than a few minutes at a time, so it's kind of a non-issue. She's also planning on switching to a Mac Mini soon. She got a taste of my Eizo monitors and had to reluctantly admit the image was better than the iMac. Santa brought her a new Eizo for her Mac Mini.

Now get her around anything with a trace of formaldehyde, fluorescent lights, or any high pitched whine and she'll be complaining. She's hyper sensitive to all three.