TESLA UI / UX

[WyoDude]

I would love to be part of focus testing (if they do it lol) but they have access to the best people on their doorstep (California) A company like Tesla should prioritise this - if this were Apple, the interface would be as important as the battery and motor tech. As I said, if you’re going to commit to a hyper minimal dashboard like that, which I think was a bold (great) decision and is a USP and thus focus all the functions on a single central touchscreen - it has to be an INCREDIBLE execution. It needs to be a 9.5/10 and it’s really a 5/10 - that’s how far off they are.

What baffles me is, if Musk knows this why isn’t he raising hell over it?

A lot of their UI/UX designers come from places like Apple. They must just be hiring the bad designers from Apple that don’t care about driving. Maybe they should hire from one of the legacy automakers that has a killer infotainment system. I’m not that familiar with all the other car systems, I wonder who has a way better system that they could go poach designers from.

 

[Ratch]

A lot of their UI/UX designers come from places like Apple. They must just be hiring the bad designers from Apple that don’t care about driving. Maybe they should hire from one of the legacy automakers that has a killer infotainment system. I’m not that familiar with all the other car systems, I wonder who has a way better system that they could go poach designers from.

It’s a fascinating situation. Tesla call themselves a tech company not a car company. But their trading name is ‘Tesla Motors.’ People really started to dig their cars mainstream and buy them in droves when they started making a cheaper but better quality CAR.

They've got the tech part locked up but seem to be massively underestimating how important the car bit is to owners (randomly dropping USS ) and of course - the interface.

Putting the user (driver in this case) at the center of everything you do is design 101. I’m sure their UI people can make stuff look great and their UX people can execute smartly but whoever is leading that team must HATE driving / cars lol.

 

[Ratch]

#7: Unless I missed it in one of the massive v11 threads, I think this is the first time I saw this suggestion. Makes sense, seems so obvious once you think about it. Especially like the bong for failure of a voice command, and re/reading successful commands.

#4: you can add all but headlights to the app dock (there's an extra step to get the icons to pop up in the chooser pop up, I forget, long press or something. Poor execution, as usual.). Headlights pop up when you flash the brights with the stalk (and then disappear quickly).

3: There are a few aftermarket and/or DIY HUDs you can add. Mostly fully customizable. I plan to add one at some point.

Everything else, and more, has been beaten to death here, and I agree with all of it.

The rules part is key, not just for Tesla, but all UI. Even Apple messes that part up, rarely, but when they do, it's infuriating. The worst is inconsistent tap Done to confirm: sometimes it's there, sometimes there's no "Done", just have to assume the settings are set and navigate away. Pick one and stick to it.

Flat UI sucks. I'm not saying we need to go back to fully rendered buttons and dials, but use more visual cues to show what's possible. Make the word "Done" inflate/deflate as it's pressed, or something.

As brilliant as Jony Ive is, I blame him for it.

I’m not a fan of aftermarket stuff. And having to add pricey / complex hardware after purchase to bring the car upto an acceptable standard is just… can you imagine this at BMW / Ford?

 

[slink]

I believe everyone is missing the point of this software. From the first time I drove my Y, June of 2020, my impression was, these vehicles, because of the software, are not meant to be driven, I agree with everything Ratch has posted but if you look at it from the perspective of self driving then the programmers don't have to worry about the driver being distracted. The passengers, they will not be drivers, will be watching Netflix or playing games while the software pilots the vehicle. I can only believe Musk is keeping that as the priority for the software or otherwise the terrible UI would have been fixed by now. I think this is reinforced by Musk removing the stalks on what was once a steering wheel and now a yoke. A common refrain I read complaining about how bad the UI is "the programmers must never have driven a car". I believe the programmers are not not writing code for the drivers of the car, their priority is self driving. The UI being safe while driving is an after thought. That is why the changes Ratch would like to see will not happen. Tesla is putting all their time, money, and effort in FSD.
Maybe the change to a driver focused software would cost too much, or take too much effort. For whatever reason this UI is certainly not one. It is a shame because the car is so much fun to drive.

 

[Ratch]

I believe everyone is missing the point of this software. From the first time I drove my Y, June of 2020, my impression was, these vehicles, because of the software, are not meant to be driven, I agree with everything Ratch has posted but if you look at it from the perspective of self driving then the programmers don't have to worry about the driver being distracted. The passengers, they will not be drivers, will be watching Netflix or playing games while the software pilots the vehicle. I can only believe Musk is keeping that as the priority for the software or otherwise the terrible UI would have been fixed by now. I think this is reinforced by Musk removing the stalks on what was once a steering wheel and now a yoke. A common refrain I read complaining about how bad the UI is "the programmers must never have driven a car". I believe the programmers are not not writing code for the drivers of the car, their priority is self driving. The UI being safe while driving is an after thought. That is why the changes Ratch would like to see will not happen. Tesla is putting all their time, money, and effort in FSD.
Maybe the change to a driver focused software would cost too much, or take too much effort. For whatever reason this UI is certainly not one. It is a shame because the car is so much fun to drive.

I think you make a good point about the UI being prepared for / informed by autonomous driving goals but funny thing is, it’s poor even for that. And why has it barely progressed in all the years we’ve been waiting for FSD - which even today seems far off. They can’t have been tee’ing it up this long.

In any case, maybe ‘modes’ could be an answer as there’ll always be customers who enjoy driving and creative benign ‘auto-boxes’ would put the brand in the toilet. Your last sentence is key - if the goal is perfect, flawless FSD then why bother making it drive well or look cool? Why make it a car at all?

 

[Utumno]

Good one. Bet you didn’t even borrow it either, came up with it all by yourself.

Salty, too.

 

[WyoDude]

It’s a fascinating situation. Tesla call themselves a tech company not a car company. But their trading name is ‘Tesla Motors.’ People really started to dig their cars mainstream and buy them in droves when they started making a cheaper but better quality CAR.

They've got the tech part locked up but seem to be massively underestimating how important the car bit is to owners (randomly dropping USS ) and of course - the interface.

Putting the user (driver in this case) at the center of everything you do is design 101. I’m sure their UI people can make stuff look great and their UX people can execute smartly but whoever is leading that team must HATE driving / cars lol.

Looks like this guy would have been one of the primary people:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennanboblett

 

[Ratch]

Looks like this guy would have been one of the primary people:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennanboblett

Eeek.

 

[WhiteOnWhiteMY]

I’m interested to see what software the Roadster runs when it releases. At the end of the day, they can’t say their primary focus of the roadster is a self driving car and they will have to make some changes in the software to make it more focused on the driver.

 

[laservet]

You call it cartoonish, I’d call it an interface with buttons large enough to hit in a moving and bouncing vehicle. But ETTO.

Plus CarPlay opens up waze and many other apps.

I wouldn’t put Tesla in the top 3 UIs of vehicles I’ve driven, or perhaps I’d put it third behind iDrive and Pivi Pro. It’s all personal though.

I use iDrive in my other vehicle and am not impressed with it at all. Personal preference.

 

[jabloomf1230]

I use iDrive in my other vehicle and am not impressed with it at all. Personal preference.

I agree. Our other vehicle has a recent version of iDrive and it's a cluttered confusing mess of buttons, knobs and screens.

 

[Ratch]

I agree. Our other vehicle has a recent version of iDrive and it's a cluttered confusing mess of buttons, knobs and screens.

My bmw has iDrive. It also has a HUD, lots of switches on the wheel and of course separate climate controls and voice commands. It’s a lot cheaper than my Tesla here in the UK.

I can execute any primary function without taking my eyes off the road. In terms of driver focused UX there’s no competition. iDrive is one part of the interface experience with the car, all the primary functions - Speed / Climate / Cruise / Phone even Radio have separate fixed controls because BMW know what to prioritise.

Tesla thinks fart noises are as important as the defogger

I think people might be getting confused with a large touchscreen and fancy graphics being ‘better’ which of course, they aren’t.

 

[MashinBenzin]

My bmw has iDrive. It also has a HUD, lots of switches on the wheel and of course separate climate controls and voice commands. It’s a lot cheaper than my Tesla here in the UK.

I can execute any primary function without taking my eyes off the road. In terms of driver focused UX there’s no competition. iDrive is one part of the interface experience with the car, all the primary functions - Speed / Climate / Cruise / Phone even Radio have separate fixed controls because BMW know what to prioritise.

Tesla thinks fart noises are as important as the defogger

I think people might be getting confused with a large touchscreen and fancy graphics being ‘better’ which of course, they aren’t.

Agreed. I drove BMWs from 2009-2019 up to iDrive 5 and had 48 hours in an iDrive7 X7 in 2020. being able to do everything without taking eyes off the road was excellent - including selecting songs and calls on the HUD via the steering wheel buttons. I’m surprised any BMW owner (as opposed to a one-time driver) could find the BMW system confusing. I will say they’ve got worse though imho, iDrive7 and digital dash is not as good as what came before. I haven’t sampled idrive8.

The Land Rovers I had from 2019-2022 were a step back from BMW. Still a HUD and many physical controls, but song selection or making a call involved pressing the large icons on screen or talking to Siri (who at least got most things right).

The Tesla feels like a big backward step from either. Primarily this is about safety, having to take eyes off the road is not a good thing, stabbing at tiny icons is not a good thing. The voice control also largely doesn’t work for me. My text dictation success rate is below 10% - to the extent that I just don’t bother. Another function lost that I’ve been using regularly for over a decade.

I applaud anyone who can perform these basic tasks in a Tesla with less or equal ‘eyes off road’ time as they can in the other cars. And if they can’t, well they are not quite as safe.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the views of the professional UI designers in this thread. It’s put a lot of context around my thoughts.

 

[Killer Junior]

Wondering what owners honestly, objectively think of this? I think it’s very obviously designed by software engineers working at a tech company and not focused for drivers / motorists.

It’s as if Tesla didn’t engage / consult any professional designers in this field and it shows versus the competition.

Basically, if you’re going to commit so much functionality to one screen, the experience has to be exceptional - it’s far from that.

Harsh? Or are Tesla owners are just so happy to have a 300-mile range car that looks good and drives well that it’s just easy to overlook this?

Sure it can be improved but as a relatively new Tesla owner I just learned to adapt. I don’t find it super intuitive nor terribly awkward to use. It is what it is until they make it better.

 

[Ratch]

Sure it can be improved but as a relatively new Tesla owner I just learned to adapt. I don’t find it super intuitive nor terribly awkward to use. It is what it is until they make it better.

That’s fine. The interface is so far off tho (for a premium car) it needs calling out. And they’ve had long enough.

 

[laservet]

Agreed. I drove BMWs from 2009-2019 up to iDrive 5 and had 48 hours in an iDrive7 X7 in 2020. being able to do everything without taking eyes off the road was excellent - including selecting songs and calls on the HUD via the steering wheel buttons. I’m surprised any BMW owner (as opposed to a one-time driver) could find the BMW system confusing. I will say they’ve got worse though imho, iDrive7 and digital dash is not as good as what came before. I haven’t sampled idrive8.

The Land Rovers I had from 2019-2022 were a step back from BMW. Still a HUD and many physical controls, but song selection or making a call involved pressing the large icons on screen or talking to Siri (who at least got most things right).

The Tesla feels like a big backward step from either. Primarily this is about safety, having to take eyes off the road is not a good thing, stabbing at tiny icons is not a good thing. The voice control also largely doesn’t work for me. My text dictation success rate is below 10% - to the extent that I just don’t bother. Another function lost that I’ve been using regularly for over a decade.

I applaud anyone who can perform these basic tasks in a Tesla with less or equal ‘eyes off road’ time as they can in the other cars. And if they can’t, well they are not quite as safe.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the views of the professional UI designers in this thread. It’s put a lot of context around my thoughts.

Interesting. I use voice control for everything. The only time I need to touch the display while driving is to hang up a phone call, a software fix that they will eventually do. I've owned BMW's continuously for over 30 years, from 3's to 7's to X5's, and have watched iDrive improve over time, so I am quite familiar with it, and I don't like it, not as intuitive to me as Tesla's. And Tesla continuously improves the interface in response to owner's requests and suggestions, something BMW would never do.

 

[OxBrew]

Interesting. I use voice control for everything. The only time I need to touch the display while driving is to hang up a phone call, a software fix that they will eventually do. I've owned BMW's continuously for over 30 years, from 3's to 7's to X5's, and have watched iDrive improve over time, so I am quite familiar with it, and I don't like it, not as intuitive to me as Tesla's. And Tesla continuously improves the interface in response to owner's requests and suggestions, something BMW would never do.

Voice commands are a fail. I live in Spokane WA. From my house to the shopping center 2 miles away, there is zero connection. Can't use voice commands or Apple music or anything needing connectivity.

Downtown and near I90, it's ok, but often takes a re-start to re-connect.

Driving up to Mt Spokane to ski, once I'm a half mile from I90, connection drops and never comes back for the 35 minute drive one way.

When voice does work, it fails to do what I ask over half the time.

I'm happy it works for you, but it's not an actual solution to anything. The car needs to work everywhere.

 

[tangible1]

Not sure it helps this discussion- but I personally make a large distinction between the sitting/playing/charging UI, and the driving UI.

I've done a lot of UI work in software myself and worked at Apple for a very long time, so I have some background and expectations about what works and what does not.

The sitting/playing UI is perfectly OK. Stuff is a little weird and hard to find, but overall it's a tablet UI and I think not a surprise to anyone. With the current UI fads being grey-on-grey and the point-and-click adventure for finding out what is live, instead of visually showing you what is live. The current fad is to emphasize white space, which makes readability suffer.


However- I think the driving UI is completely, measurably, horrible and makes the car more dangerous to drive than it should be. The driving UI has clearly not had any usability testing or user-group testing. You know, like Apple does.

Can we agree that looking away from the road for extended times is bad? I want to be able to see at a glance, what I need. I want to be able to make actions like wipers/lights/defogger/AC happen without having to hunt down UI elements. I want geographic stability for elements that I need while driving so that I don't have to visually search for what I need.

The Telsa UI fails in all aspects from a driving standpoint because they either don't care, or don't actually drive test it. Smallish buttons with grey on grey and small fonts. Hard to read at 70 mph glance. Extremely hard if you are over 45 and have presbyopia. There is no reason for everything to be small, low-contrast, and with tons of white space, while driving. Small buttons that are hard to hit with your hand bouncing around and swaying in the air.

The climate controls pop up when I hit the temperature- OK. Now while driving I have to look back at the road and stay focused. Look back, the climate panel has auto hidden. Thanks. Same with the wiper controls and high beam controls. Why do they hide, and why is the timeout so poorly chosen?

There is a bong for something to look at, and I'm busy actually driving and can't look right then. If I do get a chance to look it's this tiny oval with inscrutable text. If it was important enough for a bong, it's important enough for a large font. And that's if it stays up. Half the time it's gone by the time I look and I never know what happened. This is... not a good UI while driving. The UI should not be actively distracting me from the job of driving.


One last thing on the horrible driving UI. What's with wasting fully 1/3 of my most important screen for that stupid and useless driving animation? I'm driving! I don't have time to look at your stupid animation, and I honestly don't care what the car can see, ever. I don't understand why this is considered so important that it is always the primary focus of the UI.

That space could be used for larger, static controls. No hiding, geographic stabilty so I can get a muscle memory. Large enough to hit with waving/bouncing arms. Large enough to identify with a glance. But instead- white space with flickering animations I see in my peripheral vision.

It's not a UI designed for driving.

try voice commands
they're not comprehensive but do eliminate much of the screen fumbling while driving

 

[smogne41]

I will add to the voice commands hate. Even if they worked well (which they don't) and all the time (which they don't) I would still not use them. They are slow, inaccurate, VERY obtrusive, and just a very poor solution to the task. Not thanks. I use them to change the nav directions while driving, or to make a phone call, but nothing else (and I don't want to have to use them for anything else. The same goes for any sound alarms/feedback. It better be an emergency alert, or that crap gets turned off forever.

There is plenty of room on the screen, just make a driver-focused UI (which we absolutely don't have now).

 

[smogne41]

I believe everyone is missing the point of this software. From the first time I drove my Y, June of 2020, my impression was, these vehicles, because of the software, are not meant to be driven, I agree with everything Ratch has posted but if you look at it from the perspective of self driving then the programmers don't have to worry about the driver being distracted. The passengers, they will not be drivers, will be watching Netflix or playing games while the software pilots the vehicle. I can only believe Musk is keeping that as the priority for the software or otherwise the terrible UI would have been fixed by now. I think this is reinforced by Musk removing the stalks on what was once a steering wheel and now a yoke. A common refrain I read complaining about how bad the UI is "the programmers must never have driven a car". I believe the programmers are not not writing code for the drivers of the car, their priority is self driving. The UI being safe while driving is an after thought. That is why the changes Ratch would like to see will not happen. Tesla is putting all their time, money, and effort in FSD.
Maybe the change to a driver focused software would cost too much, or take too much effort. For whatever reason this UI is certainly not one. It is a shame because the car is so much fun to drive.

Yes, absolutely. Making a driver-focused UI is a choice, and one Tesla has absolutely specifically chosen NOT to do. Even worse they have (mostly) actively made it worse at it for several years. It is absolutely no coincidence that the recent Holiday Update is perhaps the best upgrade to the UI in several years (at least for driver-usability) and it happened when Elon is mostly out of the picture distracted with Twitter. Don't get me wrong, it was only a minor update, but at this point any positive change feels monumental compared to the downgrades we usually get.