Did a 120 mile round-trip drive today, 95% freeway, did one enhanced summon in a parking lot. My view:
Smart summon: Parlor trick. Not especially useful. I was no more than 10 parking spots away from the car, and it refused to summon, saying I needed to move closer to the car. Moved to about 8 spots away, and it let me summon it, which took 45 seconds of zig zagging down a straight path. I literally could have walked to the car, loaded it, and driven back to where I was originally standing faster.
TACC Improvements: TACC is smoother. This is just about the only thing in this update that looks like a significant improvement.
AP/NOA Improvements: Not impressed. NOA tried to change lanes into another car 3 times, one time it didn't even abort, I had to take control. Nav routing is still subpar, Waze outperforms it every time. NOA constantly picks the wrong lane to be in, including trying to pass another car when the exit it needs to take is imminent. On multiple occasions it would not vacate the passing lane, I had to do it manually. Still has hundreds of map errors with incorrect lane maps, incorrect speed limits, incorrect exit and entrance ramp placement. It still won't properly allow traffic entering the freeway to merge in front when traveling in the right lane, always have to take manual control and brake to allow someone to merge.
Theater/YouTube/Hulu: Have no idea when I'd watch anything here. Most supercharging stops are bathroom, food, etc, not waiting in the car. Plus very few superchargers have WiFi, so no opportunity anyway.
Caraoke: ? No idea when I'd use that.
More video games: ? I don't think I've ever started up a single game on the car's screen. I have games on my phone if I need to waste some time, so no need.
Restaurants & Destinations: Maybe the "I'm Hungry" might be useful at some point, but if I don't know where I am, that means I'm likely on a road trip, and what I will need is a supercharger, not a random restaurant. I don't know who has time for "I'm feeling lucky" to go kill some hours on a random outing. I'm in the car for a reason -- I need to get somewhere.
Spotify: Need a premium account, so have to spend $10 per month to get any features out of this. No compelling features for me anyway -- I don't need or use playlists. Plus it doesn't have sports, talk, and news, which is what I would be most interested in.
Sentry/Dashcam Improvements: Auto-delete of old sentry recordings and rear camera in dashcam are honestly two functions that should have been there from the beginning. So it's improved up to the level of an actual dashcam now. Congrats, it took months to arrive at a $50 value.
Joe Mode: Due to wind and tire noise, I already have trouble hearing the alerts in the car as it is, making them quieter is honestly a safety concern because I'd never hear them.
App/Remote Improvements: Window vent is a welcome addition. Not sure when I'd ever remotely use the homelink.
Old bugs: And, much to my disappointment, the following are still not fixed:
- Auto high beams are still useless (doesn't function properly)
- Auto wipers still useless (won't wipe frequently enough, then for no reason decides to wipe at maximum speed with no water on the windshield).
- Auto climate control still runs recirc mode with low fan speeds, which greatly exacerbates the mold/mildew issue.
- [Thats 3 different automatic systems that do not work properly, and need manual control at all times].
- Side mirror reverse settings still do not work (mirrors don't return to driving position after shifting out of reverse)
- Still can't set a cruise control speed that's below the posted limit (or below the limit that the car has from the incredibly inaccurate map database).
I'm glad that some of you are excited and happy with this update, I truly am. I cannot get on board, and am very disappointed and disiilusioned. I'm just very tired of having to fight with the car at every step within every system because it just doesn't work. I cannot demonstrate the car to anyone because they'd just laugh at the severity and quantity of bugs. I am 100% not impressed with v10.
Great review. Agree almost entirely with your take on all of the non-driving changes. I guess I'm just an old fogey, but I'm not going to sit in my car to watch Netflix or Hulu. Having Spotify is great, I guess, but I've always been a Pandora man. I prefer to let someone else build my playlist based on my mood.
My limited experience with the driving updates are pretty consistent with what others have said with a few additions:
NOA:
Was looking forward to some great improvement, but alas, it is still not ready for prime time. The lane changes are a little smoother, but it still has the annoying habit of slowing down to make a lane change when the better course is to accelerate past a slow car before moving over. It also still has the terrifying habit of getting way too close to the guardrail when exiting from one highway to another from a single lane exit. This morning, all of the proximity sensors on the right side of the car flashed red and I was sure I was going to hit the guardrail. Way too scary for daily driving.
Auto Pilot:
To me it is like two steps forward and one step back. Some aspects are definitely smoother. I like the quick acceleration from a stop behind another car, but it can be a little jerky. While the car slows for curves, it now seems to slow more than is necessary. Not sure why they changed this. It seemed to work pretty well in V.9. Also, the behavior is unpredictable. Last night, on a down hill blind right hand turn, I had to take control to prevent the car from running off the road. This morning, on my normal commute, the car missed a turn and was 3/4 into the other lane before I could get control. Luckily, no traffic was coming the other way. And, as others have indicated, the nag screen comes up way more frequently than in the past.
Auto Hi Beams:
These actually work pretty well for me except that I notice that when I'm following another car, the high beams don't dim at what I feel is the appropriate distance and only dim once I'm close enough that the high beams must be annoying the other driver.
Just my $0.02.
