Wired - What Tesla Needs to Fix Before It Gives Us a New Model S

[Tasdevil]

The benefit of buttons is in most cases 1 button does the job and with minimum distraction.
My radio, air, ac, demister, even my window button are between my centre consol and gear lever and positioned so I can press all 4 with 4 fingers (1hand).
I can jump in the car and turn what I want on/off very quickly and easily (even when driving).
Going to different pages to change car settings is longer and takes more concentration. And some people would argue it uses the same amount of concentration as using your phone.
It sounds like something topgear could do "have a race!" See who can preform a list of Auxilary functions the fastest. Tesla might loose to a civic.
From what people are saying on here it would loose to my 2001 Ozzie car.

 

[Brass Guy]

Sure the door lock/unlock is unconventional, but so is a lot about the MS. Putting the car in park is a simple and quick single push, and a safety feature. I'm sure you're not driving away before your passenger has their seatbelt on, so you have plenty of time to find R or D.

I really like the touch screen interface, but I'll admit to a couple of odd choices. I don't have a sunroof, but in loaner cars I have found its control inconvenient. I'd rather not assign a scroll wheel to that. Also I agree: the glove box control struck me as odd when I first saw it. Emergency flashers make perfect sense, but how does the companion control get assigned such a trivial function? My guess is they wanted the symmetry but didn't have a logical function to put there, so glove box release.

 

[XrstalLens]

But that requires changing screens, bringing up the "Controls" screen, and looking for and finding the "unlock" button on the screen. When someone is outside waiting to get inside, like if it's cold or raining out, it a bit of an imposition and frankly, embarrassing... the first thing the passenger says when getting in is "you can't just unlock the doors??!?!". Nope, you can't. Sorry Tesla, that is NOT progress when you piss off people who need to USE your products.

Just like the sunroof comment above, a SIMPLE, SINGLE real button sometime is better than fumbling around with a VIRTUAL interface, especially while driving (in case of the sunroof).

Just because you can make everything accessible on the touch screen does not mean that it is automatically the best solution from a USER INTERFACE perspective.

This just tells us that you haven't been using it for very long. Like any car or device, it takes a while to get familiar with things. I can do the three or four most common things I do with barely a glance at the screen: set the headlights to off (so they don't turn on in the garage), open and close the trunk, unlock the doors, and set the radio to FM. 3 of those are accessed from the controls screen, which I don't have to look at all because it's in the bottom left corner and I have the muscle memory for it. Just because you don't like it, aren't familiar with it, and your lack of familiarity has embarrassed you in front of others doesn't mean that everyone else has the same struggles. A physical button still has to be learned too for someone unfamiliar with the car.

Also, you are incorrect that "you can't just unlock the doors." You can - in the lower left corner of the controls screen, in a perfect place for muscle memory. And it doesn't require changing screens at all - the Controls screen always pops on top of anything showing.

It's definitely a paradigm shift. In 20 years we'll all look back and say "remember all those confusing buttons cars used to have...?"

 

[CHG-ON]

What Tesla Needs to Fix Before It Gives Us a New Model S | WIRED

Summary of the article:

1. Adaptive Cruise Control
2. Active Safety Features (Blindspot detection, lane keeping systems, cross trafic alerts).
3. Disable touch screen while driving.
4. Add buttons.
5. Better storage space.
6. More cupholders

1. Agreed
2. Agreed
3. Crazy MF writing that!
4. Nope. Though I must say that working the screen while driving is hard because I must move my eyes off the road to ensure I am hitting the right area on the screen. The screen is laid out quite well and the "button area" for each control has a wider space than a typical touch screen (on an iPad) would have, but one must still look at it. Wearing bifocals makes that particularly difficult. And face it, many of us who can afford this babe are of the older ilk. I also think voice control needs to be greatly expanded. Teachable voice commands would be the solution. It takes coding, but not a lot else.
5. Oy Veh! I can't even store a compact umbrella in my girl without it rattling around. Makes me crazy!!! And yes, I ordered the CCI, which I view to be a COMPLETE RIP OFF, but I really do need it....Funny, all the women I have talked to love the open space for their purse. But I'm a guy!
6. Yup. And better ones than the armrest ones that fling my cups to the back seat at every chance they get.

- - - Updated - - -

More knobs means less ability to update functionality through software. No thanks.

AHHHgreeed! More voice commands!

 

[Iz]

I think item #2 (safety features) is a key point. Recently test drove a 2008 Volvo S80 to purchase for my wife and it had some of these. Was wondering why my 2013 MS60 does not. This is probably one of my very few "need to have" items on the S.

 

[StephenM]

I've had my MS for a year and a half with about 25k miles of driving, so I could do any of the everyday functions blind (except drive). That being said, you would have to look around a little while initially to do some pretty basic functions when you are acclimating to your first Model S. You learn pretty quickly, and although I personally wouldn't want more buttons, I don't think it would kill anybody to have one more button on the door for lock/unlock duty.

 

[dsm363]

If they added a door lock/unlock button near the windows I wouldn't mind at all. I just don't see that it's really that bad the way it is either. Maybe this is one of those Model S 2.0 things they'll take into account when a major redesign happens of the car and interior.

 

[ArtInCT]

I feel that a portion of the 17" touchscreen should be devoted to a customizable area into which you can "pin" your often used controls so that those controls "stay" there until you "un-pin" them. This would be great IMHO.

 

[ggies07]

I feel that a portion of the 17" touchscreen should be devoted to a customizable area into which you can "pin" your often used controls so that those controls "stay" there until you "un-pin" them. This would be great IMHO.

ah, yes, good idea. Now THIS is what Wired should have said instead of 'more buttons'.

 

[TexasEV]

I really like the touch screen interface, but I'll admit to a couple of odd choices. I don't have a sunroof, but in loaner cars I have found its control inconvenient. I'd rather not assign a scroll wheel to that.

Then don't. That scroll wheel is customizable. I have mine set to control the fan speed. You can use it for almost anything (except locking and unlocking the doors).

 

[TexasEV]

And in another scenario, if I'm parked somewhere "unsafe", I'd like to know that my doors are locked, so someone can't just walk up and tap the handles to get in the car.

You can. The bottom left corner of the dashboard screen always displays an icon showing if the doors are locked or unlocked.

Regarding the controversial use of the park button as one of two options for unlocking the doors, I propose to satisfy some critics by suggesting that the button on the end of the stalk be renamed the "unlock door" button. Pushing the unlock door button unlocks the doors. And by the way, as a safety measure, when it unlocks the doors it also puts the car in park.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Not amused. Also, it doesn't serve as a "door lock" button either. It's the PARK button. Just calling it something else with a separate UNRELATED function doesn't change the fact that there is no dedicated lock/unlock button.

 

[Doug_G]

Just crack the driver's door... all the door handles extend.

 

[AnOutsider]

Then don't. That scroll wheel is customizable. I have mine set to control the fan speed. You can use it for almost anything (except locking and unlocking the doors).

There's a thought though...

 

[deonb]

The point is that the door handles extending is linked to the gear the car is in...
It's faulty logic to tie those two things together WITHOUT offering some other DIRECT button to lock/unlock the doors LIKE EVERY OTHER CAR OUT... also flies in the face of a user interface STANDARD for people who might not know how the Tesla works, that there is no "Unlock" button anywhere in the car other than the GEAR SHIFT or the touch screen...

No it's not. The park button doesn't have anything to do with gears. It engages the parking break.

I've also seen no other car that does this.

Should Tesla instead add this on a 3rd pedal so that it's "LIKE EVERY OTHER CAR OUT THERE"?


My dad once drove my car and couldn't find the parking break when he parked against a steep hill. I had to tell him: "Press that button". The horror.

 

[HankLloydRight]

No it's not. The park button doesn't have anything to do with gears. It engages the parking break.

Pedantic much? It serves the same PARK function.

 

[deonb]

Pedantic much? It serves the same PARK function.

But you had to learn what that does first.

You also had to learn that there is no 'off' button in the car.

You also had to learn that there is no 'on' button in the car.

When letting someone new drive, I have to go through those things. And when I get a new passenger I have to show them how to emergency stop the vehicle.


There are lots of non-standard interface items in the car. I'm not sure why you pick on the unlock specifically.

I unlock the door for other passengers a lot less frequently than I enter/exit the car. And when I enter/exit the car I always lower/raise the suspension, and change my driver profile from/to 'exit'. So if you want to add another physical button - I'd much rather have one that does that! Especially considering in this case, if the driver profile is set up for my wife, I can't get into the car - so now I have to reach out to the console from the side to change the settings, and wait for it (in the rain) to change.

But I know I'm in the minority there (though I know for a fact that I'm not the only one), so I wouldn't want to clutter someone else's experience to solve my specific problem.

Having said that - one programmable action on the remote, and one programmable action at the top row of the display panel will probably do wonders to improve everybody's experience.

 

[HankLloydRight]

You also had to learn that there is no 'on' button in the car.

Brake pedal.

 

[TexasEV]

Brake pedal.

Is that a problem too, that to turn the car on you sit in the driver's seat and depress the brake rather than using an "on" button? I remember when you first got the car many of us had to convince you that it's ok to just get out of the car, that you didn't need to turn it off by going to the control screen to shut all systems down before you got out of the car. This car was designed with a clean sheet. It takes some getting used to, like not having to turn it on, or turn it off before you get out. That's part of what makes the Model S so compelling.

 

[JohnQ]

Brake pedal.

And thus you've shown that a common car control (the brake pedal) can be combined with another common car control (the ignition or "on" button) without causing any angst.