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

[gglockner]

There are lots of non-standard interface items in the car.

This is the problem in a nutshell. The Tesla interface throws out the baby with the bathwater. If the Tesla interface was intuitive, we wouldn't be asking for a Valet Mode to explain how to drive the car to others. Or how many of us forget to lock a non-Tesla car when we walk away - because we're so accustomed to the automatic locking on the Tesla.

Buttons are not necessarily good either. There are plenty of bad button-based car interfaces. But Tesla decided to do things so differently that it can be distracting.

 

[CliffG]

This is the problem in a nutshell. The Tesla interface throws out the baby with the bathwater

And that may be the irritant behind where this thread has gone to - sounds like many agree with you that the baby got tossed, while many (like me) feel the baby was kept and the grot got flushed.

Can we agree to disagree and get on with arguing about other stuff? Until the UI is empathic, none of us is going to get exactly what we dream of.

but..., more voice control would be nice... maybe a UI to teach it commands? hey - a guy can hope...

 

[dsm363]

Brake pedal.

You learned that. I don't see the big deal with stopping the car to pick someone up, keeping your hands on he steering wheel and pushing park/unlock doors, they hop in and you put it in drive and take off. Less time than taking hands off wheel to push button. Unless you plan on doing a rolling stop and having your passengers hop into a moving car I really don't see the issue. Sure, it isn't something you are used to but so is pushing the break to turn the car on.

 

[dsm363]

If Tesla had no steering wheel buttons I'd be upset with using the screen all the time. They got the balance pretty well I think. Adding another button for unlock is unnecessary but would make some people happy it sounds like.

 

[detlefo]

I love the fact that the car has no separate emergency brake. Tesla's implementation is so obvious and intuitive. After all when have you ever put a car in drive and not disengaged the E Brake, or put the car in Park and not set it? My CRV has a really annoying (worse than a wife) voice telling me to disengage the emergency brake if I momentarily forget. Tesla has rethought many common operations and simplified them. I see using the Park button to unlock the car in the same light. It is an enhanced safety feature coupling these actions and really only requires a single action. Pushing a button. The one change I would support is being able to easily lock the doors while seated in the car. I sometimes think that the original design team brainstormed all the things that most cars do that are annoying and then eliminated them or improved them.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I love the fact that the car has no separate emergency brake.

I actually think this will lead to some confusion down the road as more of these cars hit the streets. In any other ICE car, you have two methods to prevent movement of the car -- the e-brake and either the parking paul in an auto-trans, or first-gear (or reverse for some people) in a manual trans. The Tesla only has the e-brake and no backup. I've been on a ferry a few times recently where they tell you to put the car in "Park" AND set the e-brake. If for some reason, the MS e-brake fails, the car is going to roll free. I don't find that an "improvement" or innovation -- I see it as a risk. Sure, a pretty low one, but someday, a Tesla e-brake will fail, and then what?

 

[liuping]

If the Tesla interface was intuitive, we wouldn't be asking for a Valet Mode to explain how to drive the car to others.

Using that logic, if driving an ICE car was intuitive, no one would ever have to be taught to drive.

I don't find Tesla changes distracting at all. However, when I go back to drive an regular car, I am annoyed constantly by all the bad design decisions. It feel like a giant leap backwards to get in a normal car now.

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I actually think this will lead to some confusion down the road as more of these cars hit the streets. In any other ICE car, you have two methods to prevent movement of the car -- the e-brake and either the parking paul in an auto-trans, or first-gear (or reverse for some people) in a manual trans. The Tesla only has the e-brake and no backup. I've been on a ferry a few times recently where they tell you to put the car in "Park" AND set the e-brake. If for some reason, the MS e-brake fails, the car is going to roll free. I don't find that an "improvement" or innovation -- I see it as a risk. Sure, a pretty low one, but someday, a Tesla e-brake will fail, and then what?

When you put the Model S in Park, it engages the e-brake automatically. It is not any riskier than putting your old car in park and pulling the handbrake.

In fact I would say it is much safer, since you cannot forget to engage the e-brake when you put the car in park. You also cannot forget to release the e-brake when you put the car in drive. Both are improvement on the "old way"

 

[HankLloydRight]

When you put the Model S in Park, it engages the e-brake automatically. It is not any riskier than putting your old car in park and pulling the handbrake.

In fact I would say it is much safer, since you cannot forget to engage the e-brake when you put the car in park. You also cannot forget to release the e-brake when you put the car in drive. Both are improvement on the "old way"

You missed my point. The Model S only has ONE mechanism to prevent the car from moving when "parked" -- the e-brake. Pretty much every other ICE car has TWO -- the e-brake and the transmission.. so if both were set (say on a steep hill or ferry boat) and one failed, the ICE would still be prevented from moving.

The Model S only has one system to "park" the car, not two. So no backup or failover in case the e-brake fails.

 

[brianman]

... we wouldn't be asking for a Valet Mode to explain how to drive the car to others. ...

Hold up a second. That's not what I want as "Valet Mode". I just want limiters so to minimize joyride trauma to me and my vehicle. No manuals, just firmware knobs with some locking mechanism (PIN/code/whatever).

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This is the problem in a nutshell. The Tesla interface throws out the baby with the bathwater. If the Tesla interface was intuitive, ... Or how many of us forget to lock a non-Tesla car when we walk away - because we're so accustomed to the automatic locking on the Tesla.

Um, that's an argument for Tesla's interface being intuitive and sticky -- even after years of being raised on non-Tesla cars. That's frankly damn impressive, "I don't care who you are."

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Until the UI is empathic, none of us is going to get exactly what we dream of.

I know you wanted to move on but...

I don't want the UI to be empathic. AI aside, that still is NOT what I want.

 

[gglockner]

Hold up a second. That's not what I want as "Valet Mode". I just want limiters so to minimize joyride trauma to me and my vehicle.

That's only half the reason for valet mode. The other half is to train the valet how to drive the car, since Tesla controls are unlike nearly every other car in the market. Basically, the Tesla apologists are saying that Tesla is right and everyone else is idiots. There is merit in the Tesla interface, but there is merit in standard controls as well.

 

[CliffG]

Hold up a second. That's not what I want as "Valet Mode". I just want limiters so to minimize joyride trauma to me and my vehicle.

This+

I know you wanted to move on but...

I don't want the UI to be empathic. AI aside, that still is NOT what I want.

Well, you could always tell the car to mind it's own business... (ignoring the infinite regress that leads to for convenience' sake)

 

[liuping]

That's only half the reason for valet mode. The other half is to train the valet how to drive the car, since Tesla controls are unlike nearly every other car in the market. Basically, the Tesla apologists are saying that Tesla is right and everyone else is idiots. There is merit in the Tesla interface, but there is merit in standard controls as well.

I have not run into a Valet yet who does not know how to drive a Tesla (I always ask), but then again they are pretty common around here.

Even still the special instruction to "train" the Valet are approximately 3 sentences:
1) "Press brake and put the car in gear start the car (e-brake release is automatic) to drive"
2) "Press the park button to put the car in park (e-brake setting is automatic) to park"
3) "Take the fob with you when you leave (the car will turn itself off)"

Don't really need Valet mode for that, just leave a note.

 

[K9s and Me]

.

Never thought I would miss having a button to open the trunk as well. Very useful when picking someone up who needs to put something in the trunk.

I don't understand.

My rear trunk/hatch can be opened three ways: from the touch screen, with my fob, and touching the button under the S while standing outside the car.

Where else do you want a button?

Are you saying you want a button for the frunk too? (I really am kind of confused what you're looking for).

 

[jamieb]

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.

I think the biggest issue with the screen-only / minimal buttons approach that Tesla has taken is that it's almost impossible to develop 'muscle memory' for commonly used functions – even if you have the muscle memory to hit the target on the screen, you still have to glance at the screen to make sure you're in the right mode (context); in that sense something like an area of customizable 'soft buttons' along the drivers-side or bottom of the center screen could be combined with a tactile feel to the bezel, with a slight scalloping or other tactile cue along the inner frame so that one could feel for the specific 'soft button' without taking your eye off the road. The frame could include a series of solid state switches to recognize that the user is touching the bezel to tell the UI that you're trying to hit a soft button and not something else; Users could custom-assign these soft buttons to different functions as they see fit.

Would also be nice to have voice controls to assign the right steering wheel button control temporarily rather than digging through the menu (which I find times out too quickly and still requires me to take my eyes off the road some times). So... "Right button controls fan speed"... "Right Button controls sunroof" voice commands would be welcome, if not direct voice commands ("open sunroof 50%"), which would obviously be preferable.

Overall I like the UI and agree with the others who don't want to clutter the cabin with more buttons (though I wouldn't mind an overhead button for the sunroof); that said, I think that tweaking the UI in a way to allow muscle memory to take over for commonly-used tasks and avoid taking one's eyes off the road would be an improvement.

 

[brianman]

I think the biggest issue with the screen-only / minimal buttons approach that Tesla has taken is that it's almost impossible to develop 'muscle memory' for commonly used functions – even if you have the muscle memory to hit the target on the screen, you still have to glance at the screen

I have a thought on this, and I'm sure someone has an implementation somewhere. TEG will probably find a link.

Perhaps using brightness they could make certain portions of the screen warmer than others. This might allow the user to detect locations by heat -- "heat braille" if you will.

 

[CliffG]

I have a thought on this, and I'm sure someone has an implementation somewhere. TEG will probably find a link.

Perhaps using brightness they could make certain portions of the screen warmer than others. This might allow the user to detect locations by heat -- "heat braille" if you will.

Similarly, and in the spirit of "a man's reach should exceed his grasp", I wonder if the kind of technology used by Leapmotion could be used to teach one's car to understand gestures without even having to touch the touchscreen. Probably too distracting now, but with more refinement in the autopilot software (so the driver can look away momentarily, in the absence of a HUD system), maybe not in the future.

 

[brianman]

Similarly, and in the spirit of "a man's reach should exceed his grasp", I wonder if the kind of technology used by Leapmotion could be used to teach one's car to understand gestures without even having to touch the touchscreen. Probably too distracting now, but with more refinement in the autopilot software (so the driver can look away momentarily, in the absence of a HUD system), maybe not in the future.

<press the voice command button>
Bug Report: Every time YMCA plays in my car the navigation freaks out.
<release the voice command button>

 

[CliffG]

<press the voice command button>
Bug Report: Every time YMCA plays in my car the navigation freaks out.
<release the voice command button>

rofl!

 

[paulkva]

With no hardware changes, it would be possible for all Model S vehicles to support gestures. Not gestures in the air (though thanks for the great visual, brianman), but rather touching or swiping your fingers on the touchscreen in certain ways.

It would be nice if I could assign custom actions to a gesture. For example, double-tap with 2 fingers anywhere near the top of the screen and my garage door opens or closes. Or swipe 3 fingers up/down/left/right for AC temperature and fan speed. Or trace a half-circle to swap the top and bottom half displays, like switching tabs on the iPhone version of Chrome. These types of gestures don't require accuracy in terms of where you touch the screen, so presumably they'd be easier to do without taking your eyes off the road. The trickiest part from a software perspective, I think, would be distinguishing these gestures from "normal" taps and swipes. But given that Tesla already supports multi-touch gestures on the map, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult.

I think gestures plus enhanced voice commands would make an already good user experience even better.

Edited to add: there's a 2-year-old thread in the User Interface sub-forum discussing a very similar idea...
Multi-Touch Capability

 

[brianman]

With no hardware changes, it would be possible for all Model S vehicles to support gestures. Not gestures in the air (though thanks for the great visual, brianman), but rather touching or swiping your fingers on the touchscreen in certain ways.

It would be nice if I could assign custom actions to a gesture. For example, double-tap with 2 fingers anywhere near the top of the screen and my garage door opens or closes. Or swipe 3 fingers up/down/left/right for AC temperature and fan speed. Or trace a half-circle to swap the top and bottom half displays, like switching tabs on the iPhone version of Chrome. These types of gestures don't require accuracy in terms of where you touch the screen, so presumably they'd be easier to do without taking your eyes off the road. The trickiest part from a software perspective, I think, would be distinguishing these gestures from "normal" taps and swipes. But given that Tesla already supports multi-touch gestures on the map, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult.

I think gestures plus enhanced voice commands would make an already good user experience even better.

Edited to add: there's a 2-year-old thread in the User Interface sub-forum discussing a very similar idea...
Multi-Touch Capability

SDK. When they build it, these type of gestures will come. I'd rather see the enthusiast / aftermarket investing their resources here, so Tesla can focus on stuff that only Tesla can do (as the OEM).