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I find the Tesla Model 3 aesthetically beautiful, and other cars rather grotesque in comparison. It’s extremely forward thinking and intelligent design, allowin

by zaroth 7y ago

I find the Tesla Model 3 aesthetically beautiful, and other cars rather grotesque in comparison. It’s extremely forward thinking and intelligent design, allowing for the user experience to constantly improve and be enhanced with the regular software updates to come down. There are now dozens of features in my car which didn’t even exist when I bought it. UI refinements actually improve my driving experience one month to the next. This is a level of service which is impossible to provide with a hard-wired UI. It’s also crucially important to acknowledge that all the main driving interfaces are tactile buttons immediately within reach. Steering, blinkers, wipers, high beams, gear select, AutoPilot, cruise speed, volume, track selection, follow distance, windows, and hazard lights are all perfectly positioned physical controls. There is only a single control which might require a time sensitive activation which is on the screen, and that is the defog. Tesla also does a remarkable job automating away the need for many tasks which in other cars might have you reaching for a knob or switch of some kind.

helpPeople 7y ago
This is one of those things that you can't trust a customer to answer truthfully. You say you like it, but when Ford or similar does it, it's annoying. It's not that Tesla quality is good either. It's one of those things that we tell ourselves we like. I believe there isn't a correct answer, but rather our psychology decides what we like rather than true performance
- zaroth 7y ago
  I understand what you’re saying. Personal bias is hard to self-monitor. But on many objective measures Tesla’s touchscreen is worlds apart from any of car touchscreen. It is iPad-like responsiveness as far as touch recognition and refresh rate. I always said I would never want a GPS/Nav system in a car, because what would be the point?! Low quality maps, no decent POI, no decent user input for querying POI, bad routing, no pinch-to-zoom in a complicated intersection, slow to load, etc. My wife’s Mercedes has Nav and we used it exactly once. By contrast I always use Nav in the Tesla because I can map to Work or Home in two taps in 1 second, boom, the map routes and zooms to show the overview and I have a traffic aware route with an accurate ETA. The live traffic lets me see if traffic is slowing ahead on the highway. Often times I will slow down to the speed limit when approaching a red zone ahead on the highway. Someone behind will swerve around me and accelerate hard just to come to a screeching halt around the bend. Craziness. I think “build quality” and “materials quality” is way more subjective and harder to quantify. But the screen interface is on a different level.
  - clouddrover 7y ago
    > I think “build quality” and “materials quality” is way more subjective and harder to quantify. But the screen interface is on a different level. Not really. The robustness of the screens in Teslas is particularly poor: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows-why-automotive-grade-matters https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows... Tesla didn't go with automotive grade screens which is why the screen failure rate is so high.
    - zaroth 7y ago
      This was true in the original Model S/X, because a screen that size didn’t exist in automotive grade. They resorted to using an industrial grade screen which they qualified for use in the car, but it’s had the yellowing issue. My understanding is all the new screens are tested to Grade 2 instead of Grade 4 like the original screens from Innolux. [1] - https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows-why-automotive-grade-matters https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows...
      - clouddrover 7y ago
        Where does your understanding come from? You've just listed the same link I provided.
        zaroth 7y ago
        Oh hah, that’s funny. It says in that article they made revisions to the screen. > Tesla appeared to mostly fix this problem with its "cabin overheat protection" feature ... as well as revisions to the Innolux panel. For what it's worth, the TM3 appears to use an LG LA154WU1-SL01, but I can't find a detailed spec sheet on it.
        clouddrover 7y ago
        The article doesn't say it's now a grade 2 screen. The article does quote Mentor Graphics saying, "defining the boundary conditions for Innolux’s system is the responsibility of their customer, not Innolux." So Innolux will quite happily sell Tesla a screen, but it's up to Tesla to use it appropriately. I think your understanding is wrong.
V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago
Counterpoint, as a Model 3 owner. The lack of tactile controls for things like climate controls, sound system, etc., is very frustrating. I find myself having to mess around with the touchscreen much more than I'd like while driving. You get used to the central screen in lieu of a traditional dashboard pretty quickly, but I'd prefer more traditional dashboard functions to be aligned to display(s) on the driver's side. I despise the lack of a traditional keyfob or non-phone means of locking/unlocking the car other than the awkward keycard (only useful through the driver's side). It represents an extremely opinionated way of doing things. If you love life with your iPhone and Apple's extremely opinionated way about how it should work and how you should work with it, the Model 3 gives you something approaching that. Smartphones have their utility, but I'm not the kind of person that lives my digital life through one. I therefore have no love for the idea of my car as a roadgoing smartphone. I also couldn't possibly give less of a shit over Autopilot as we are so far away from that technology being rigorous. Interior materials, particularly the carpet, are cheap. There are also significant privacy implications associated with the connectivity, which Tesla does not do enough to address. Things I do enjoy: the refreshing minimalism, the styling (though body panel alignment still has room to improve), and the energy & drivetrain technology. It is definitely enjoyable to drive. Driving our other combustion engine hybrid is a steep step backward into a cruder era. Bottom line: Tesla's energy & drivetrain technology are years ahead of other manufacturers; if that matters to you, there is no current package like Tesla's. I look forward to the time when more traditional auto manufacturers catch up and I have well-engineered choices that don't require me to live with Tesla/Elon's opinions on how an EV should work.
- mulcahey 7y ago
  You can buy a key fob from Tesla that supports passive entry https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-key-fob https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-key-fob Personally, I am sticking with the phone, and I think that’s true for most people.
  - V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago
    Cool, thanks! I hadn't spent any time researching options to deal with this issue yet, so take this message as tempering that line of criticism.

by zaroth 7y ago

helpPeople 7y ago

This is one of those things that you can't trust a customer to answer truthfully. You say you like it, but when Ford or similar does it, it's annoying. It's not that Tesla quality is good either. It's one of those things that we tell ourselves we like. I believe there isn't a correct answer, but rather our psychology decides what we like rather than true performance

zaroth 7y ago
I understand what you’re saying. Personal bias is hard to self-monitor. But on many objective measures Tesla’s touchscreen is worlds apart from any of car touchscreen. It is iPad-like responsiveness as far as touch recognition and refresh rate. I always said I would never want a GPS/Nav system in a car, because what would be the point?! Low quality maps, no decent POI, no decent user input for querying POI, bad routing, no pinch-to-zoom in a complicated intersection, slow to load, etc. My wife’s Mercedes has Nav and we used it exactly once. By contrast I always use Nav in the Tesla because I can map to Work or Home in two taps in 1 second, boom, the map routes and zooms to show the overview and I have a traffic aware route with an accurate ETA. The live traffic lets me see if traffic is slowing ahead on the highway. Often times I will slow down to the speed limit when approaching a red zone ahead on the highway. Someone behind will swerve around me and accelerate hard just to come to a screeching halt around the bend. Craziness. I think “build quality” and “materials quality” is way more subjective and harder to quantify. But the screen interface is on a different level.
- clouddrover 7y ago
  > I think “build quality” and “materials quality” is way more subjective and harder to quantify. But the screen interface is on a different level. Not really. The robustness of the screens in Teslas is particularly poor: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows-why-automotive-grade-matters https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows... Tesla didn't go with automotive grade screens which is why the screen failure rate is so high.
  - zaroth 7y ago
    This was true in the original Model S/X, because a screen that size didn’t exist in automotive grade. They resorted to using an industrial grade screen which they qualified for use in the car, but it’s had the yellowing issue. My understanding is all the new screens are tested to Grade 2 instead of Grade 4 like the original screens from Innolux. [1] - https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows-why-automotive-grade-matters https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows...
    - clouddrover 7y ago
      Where does your understanding come from? You've just listed the same link I provided.
      - zaroth 7y ago
        Oh hah, that’s funny. It says in that article they made revisions to the screen. > Tesla appeared to mostly fix this problem with its "cabin overheat protection" feature ... as well as revisions to the Innolux panel. For what it's worth, the TM3 appears to use an LG LA154WU1-SL01, but I can't find a detailed spec sheet on it.
        clouddrover 7y ago
        The article doesn't say it's now a grade 2 screen. The article does quote Mentor Graphics saying, "defining the boundary conditions for Innolux’s system is the responsibility of their customer, not Innolux." So Innolux will quite happily sell Tesla a screen, but it's up to Tesla to use it appropriately. I think your understanding is wrong.

V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago

Counterpoint, as a Model 3 owner. The lack of tactile controls for things like climate controls, sound system, etc., is very frustrating. I find myself having to mess around with the touchscreen much more than I'd like while driving. You get used to the central screen in lieu of a traditional dashboard pretty quickly, but I'd prefer more traditional dashboard functions to be aligned to display(s) on the driver's side. I despise the lack of a traditional keyfob or non-phone means of locking/unlocking the car other than the awkward keycard (only useful through the driver's side). It represents an extremely opinionated way of doing things. If you love life with your iPhone and Apple's extremely opinionated way about how it should work and how you should work with it, the Model 3 gives you something approaching that. Smartphones have their utility, but I'm not the kind of person that lives my digital life through one. I therefore have no love for the idea of my car as a roadgoing smartphone. I also couldn't possibly give less of a shit over Autopilot as we are so far away from that technology being rigorous. Interior materials, particularly the carpet, are cheap. There are also significant privacy implications associated with the connectivity, which Tesla does not do enough to address. Things I do enjoy: the refreshing minimalism, the styling (though body panel alignment still has room to improve), and the energy & drivetrain technology. It is definitely enjoyable to drive. Driving our other combustion engine hybrid is a steep step backward into a cruder era. Bottom line: Tesla's energy & drivetrain technology are years ahead of other manufacturers; if that matters to you, there is no current package like Tesla's. I look forward to the time when more traditional auto manufacturers catch up and I have well-engineered choices that don't require me to live with Tesla/Elon's opinions on how an EV should work.

mulcahey 7y ago
You can buy a key fob from Tesla that supports passive entry https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-key-fob https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-key-fob Personally, I am sticking with the phone, and I think that’s true for most people.
- V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago
  Cool, thanks! I hadn't spent any time researching options to deal with this issue yet, so take this message as tempering that line of criticism.