Why can't Tesla make a decent media player?

[srthomas21]

I love most everything else about my Tesla but the stinking media player/center blows.

The 8.0 release made it even worse. Here are the problems I have had

1. Loading error- this happens all the time for me. No idea what it is. I get this when streaming music and playing some podcasts.

2. When streaming music from Slacker or whatever they call it now when I get out of the car it doesn't pause the song. When I get back in the car it just starts the song over.

3. Slacker compared to Spotify is just not good. The songs it chooses to play when on radio mode are near as relevant and the songs repeat way too often.

4. Favorites suck now. It combines favorites across all media so when I'm listening to the radio i have to be paying attention to which way I scroll through the favorites when before I could just scroll through either way and it would just stick to radio stations.

5. Sometimes songs skip or stutter like there isn't enough buffering.

Bluetooth related issues

1. Once a week my phone will just decide to not play through the car and I have to go through all kinds of wizardry to get it to work again.

2. Cover art only works half the time. The other half it pulls nonsense cover art from the web database. (why doesn't it just pass from the phone to the car? Why use a mostly worthless web database for this?)

3. The track time doesn't display on songs or podcasts. Particularly annoying for podcasts. (seriously why is this feature missing? It's super basic stuff)

It seriously feels like a bad beta version. If Tesla has the resources to make the Model X play synchronized lights and doors to Christmas music they must surely have the resources to make the media player good.

 

[larmor]

Because it's not rocket science...

 

[srthomas21]

Because it's not rocket science...

I wish it was

 

[BBB4000]

What I don't get is why Europe can have Spotify in their Tesla's but we can't in the US. Makes no sense to me.

 

[bob_p]

4 years ago, it was understandable that Tesla provided only limited functionality in the media player and navigation apps.

While they looked great on the console display, the functionality was basic, missing features such as playlists and waypoints/route customization.

4 years later, there have been some improvements, but the core apps still suffer from a lack of major features. It seems like more effort has been placed on the appearance (such as the auto-hide menu bar) than on how useful the features really are (losing the ability to quickly change media sources from the steering thumb wheel).

When the Model S was introduced, Tesla had a limited software team, and needed to focus on a few high priority areas (such as sleep mode and energy management).

But it's been 4 years - and the excuse of limited staff is wearing a little thin. And with the Chevy Bolt, there's an example of another car with similar range (though lack the SC network is a major problem) that has better software in some areas (such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto).

The navigation software probably needs to be scrapped and completely replaced, especially if it will be used by the autopilot software.

And the media software still is plagued with confusion after the car has been sitting - which could mean it also needs to be redone - and designed not only with the functionality people expect - but also designed to work alongside the other software running in the car (and handle sleep mode correctly).

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Clearly Tesla lacks the talent.

 

[Discoducky]

For Bluetooth issues, once the phone is paired and has worked once, I have to make a phone call first in order to hear any other audio from the phone. This happens regularly and is device and Bluetooth hardware specs agnostic I've found.

 

[Yodeller]

This!
I can reproduce this issue reliably with my iPhone 7+ and it's frustrating. Sometimes my audio will play but scratchy and at double speed before I make a phone call, then when I do it's all cleared up.

 

[dkonigs]

I love most everything else about my Tesla but the stinking media player/center blows.
. . .
It seriously feels like a bad beta version. If Tesla has the resources to make the Model X play synchronized lights and doors to Christmas music they must surely have the resources to make the media player good.

And you've only cited a few of the bugs and usability issues. If you let people in this forum contribute, they'll bloat this list to 40 more pages of bugs, limitations, and personal nitpicky feature requests. (Likely so many of the latter that the actual bugs will get lost in the noise, and be insufficiently recognized due to tl;dr.) You can find several of these threads already.

I think the real problem is that Tesla is trying so hard to impress people who casually pay attention to the car and write articles about it, that the latest headline-grabbing AP addition or easter egg grabs all the attention. The media player may be a source of constant annoyance (or pleasure, if it didn't suck) to actual everyday Tesla owners, but is a completely invisible component to tech reporters and jealous product on-lookers.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I think the real problem is that Tesla is trying so hard to impress people who casually pay attention to the car and write articles about it, that the latest headline-grabbing AP addition or easter egg grabs all the attention. The media player may be a source of constant annoyance (or pleasure, if it didn't suck) to actual everyday Tesla owners, but is a completely invisible component to tech reporters and jealous product on-lookers.

This is correct, IMO. Tesla is still operating like the very fate of the company depends on them staying in the headlines. And maybe they're right, their financials have stumped more savvy investors than I.

It's really the only thing that explains why an upgradeable software component that so many owners view as a glaring weakness has barely been touched in 4 years on the market. Their attention and interests are elsewhere. I hope they get this stuff in order before the Model 3 launches, but I have doubts.

 

[wayner]

What I don't get is why Europe can have Spotify in their Tesla's but we can't in the US. Makes no sense to me.

Slacker doesn't offer their service outside of NA so Tesla does not have the option of offering Slacker outside of NA. Why they used Slacker in the first place is another good question.

 

[ZAKEEUS]

Yesterday I got a text message on my phone, and the car locked in on the phone as if I was making a call. Could go back to streaming music until I turned the Bluetooth off on my phone.

 

[supratachophobia]

Ouch, and I thought I was the most outspoken about the media player.... where are @BertL, @msnow, and @Boatguy?

 

[Akikiki]

Yes, they can. They've just been waiting for enough people to complain so they would know they are serious.

 

[supratachophobia]

Yes, they can. They've just been waiting for enough people to complain so they would know they are serious.

This is reasonably accurate unfortunately....

As of this post, 31% are not satisfied with the Media Player. Which could be dismissed if you say, "well, 68% can live with it". But when you apply ownership numbers to that, oh dear. Model S VIN's are at 170k as of yesterday, so that's 51,000 owners who think the Media Player isn't what it should be. That's a staggering amount.

Now I know these poles are not completely accurate, but even if they had a ridiculously high margin for error of +/- 25%, that's still tens of thousands of your customers who thing you've come up short.

 

[BertL]

Ouch, and I thought I was the most outspoken about the media player.... where are @BertL, @msnow, and @Boatguy?

Well, I was trying not to pile on. I've done that probably more than sufficiently in a number of former threads. But since you ask...

I do appreciate the OP turning this into a poll. I believe it already more than proves this isn't just a little annoyance to a handful of owners as some other enthusiasts continue to suggest.

Beyond my vehicle providing a basic mode of safe transportation, Infotainment is the major reason I enjoy being behind the wheel. It either enhances my driver experience or can be a continual annoyance. Infotainment is something many owners interact with untold numbers of time each day, so hopefully it offers what the owner needs and desires, in an easy-to-access and safe manner. I absolutely love my MS BEV tech, it's safety, the SpC Network, and the possibilities over-the-air updates can provide. AP is an interesting future tech to be a part of, but not something I use or require every day. Sadly, I am annoyed almost every time I drive my MS with Nav and Media Player functionality that is years behind the competition, or is just flat out broken. Figuring out what the latest firmware update may have improved and broken in my MS is no longer fun, nor is determining the best workaround approaches to handle a new set of deficiencies with each code drop. I own perhaps the best luxury BEV on the planet today, but am left with a less-than-superior driving experience only because Elon does not see a (non-sexy or interesting) quality Infotainment System as being important like many of us do.​

 

[Akikiki]

I was just having a little fun. I wasn't being serious. But realistically from your own poll I believe the numbers are closer to 32 people that said no and 23 that voted not perfect. That's a considerable difference between 51,000 who think it isn't what is should be.
So, frankly after 170,000 people have voted, come back and argue your numbers, - please.

 

[supratachophobia]

I was just having a little fun. I wasn't being serious. But realistically from your own poll I believe the numbers are closer to 32 people that said no and 23 that voted not perfect. That's a considerable difference between 51,000 who think it isn't what is should be.
So, frankly after 170,000 people have voted, come back and argue your numbers, - please.

I was speaking to percentages. And regarding your comment, I chose to take it very seriously because that's exactly how Tesla operates for good or ill with regards to things they see on this forums. Items that receive a lot of attention on their radar are the things they address.

I'm with @BertL in that almost echoing word for word what his sentiments are. And my money is that those sentiments are going to be echoed in the percentages of the pole. The beauty in UI is that the user should never need to think about it, it should just be natural. If they are wondering why things were done this way or that, you've already come up short.

Why do I need to click an extra time to get the NAV to display a search box?
Why do I need to to find an album by album in order for it to play in order (instead of looking for the album under artist, where it would play alphabetically).
Why does the passenger seat heater revert to being on if there is no weight detected in the seat for that trip?

The list goes on, and it bleeds over into non-media infotainment areas as well. Tesla has a great platform to work with, and the non-infotainment parts of the car fit into my life perfectly. We just need to bring it the rest of the way.

 

[supratachophobia]

Clearly Tesla lacks the talent.

I refuse to believe this. I've gotten glimpses of the hiring process, I can't believe they would hire idiots. That's just not how they got where they are today.

 

[trils0n]

The original media player was just fine. Not the most feature rich, but worked nicely and was extremely well-designed for use in a car. It was easy to use and and had the basics down. The 8.0 player is terrible. I cannot think of any elements of the 8.0 player that are better than the original style one.

The old media player organized media with 1 column for each category (artists, albums, songs, etc.): This was great, it was easy to use (you only had to track one dimension, vertically, to scroll and find whatever you were looking for). You could go up or down levels of sorting (artists>album>songs or genre>subgenre>specific show on the slacker and tune-in) with a right or left swipe as well. Simple and easy.

The new media player uses an inappropriate-for-automobile, two column, left-to-right, top-down system that is extremely difficult to read quickly. This is one of the main problems with the new software -- It simply isn't designed for use in the car, and requires tons more eye-time and brain-power to read. Single columns are much easy to read as you only have to track 1 dimension (top to bottom) instead of two, simultaneously (left-to-right and top-to-bottom). Huge UI problem just in how info is displayed.

Then there are the tons of other little things: One that really bugs me is when the screen is displaying the current song, and you click "back" button to the right of the album art, it brings you to the root, instead of back to the song, inside the album folder. Strange that it goes back all levels, instead of just one level (displaying the entire album the song is from -- the original software did this correctly, and you could just swipe left or right across the media player to move up or down directories really easily, instead of having to hit a tiny button in the corner like the new player)

So at one point, they made a nice media player (the original), and now it is pretty lame. Why this happened is anyone's guess.