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This is my big objection to Tesla's "touch screen for everything" approach. I know Tesla fans love it, but in my modern car (a 2019 Honda Insight), if I want to

This is my big objection to Tesla's "touch screen for everything" approach. I know Tesla fans love it, but in my modern car (a 2019 Honda Insight), if I want to change the fan speed -- or anything else about the A/C -- I touch a physical button or twist a physical knob.

tyfon 7y ago
You can change the fan speed (and much more) in a tesla via buttons on the steering wheel.
- amluto 7y ago
  Yes. By pressing a scroll wheel to pop up a menu, then scrolling through the menu to select a mode, then pressing the scroll wheel again to select a mode, then scrolling once more to peform the desired action. This may well be better than using the touchscreen, but it's still bad.
  - tyfon 7y ago
    Yes the best way is to use voice control. You can tell the tesla to "set fan speed to 2" and it will do it. Voice commands are the safest imho. But at least in my car I only need to select fan speed in the first menu then scroll do actually change it. This in a model x. But I was really responding to the "100% touch screen" statement.
    - amluto 7y ago
      I have never gotten my Tesla to understand a voice command like this. I could get music and phone calls, and that was it. The second-to-last update that supposedly made it better instead broke voice commands almost completely. Supposedly the update from a couple days ago is better. In contrast, IIRC a 2007 Prius could do this type of voice command with no obvious difficulty.
      - tyfon 7y ago
        That was my experience before the christmas update but after that it understands almost everything I say both in my south-western Norwegian dialect (if I set it to Norwegian) and my English. The only bug I've found so far was when I said "open driver door" and it displayed "opening trunk" and it slammed it into my garage door!
        amluto 7y ago
        I’m guessing my particular combination of hardware versions just got broken. I have MCU1 and the old Mercedes-style wheel. After the Christmas update, it couldn’t recognize anything. I think I got it to make a phone call once.
    - WWLink 7y ago
      I'm going to say Tesla did this for no good reason. They could've added 3 knobs to the center console and nobody would have complained.
    - narimiran 7y ago
      > Yes the best way is to use voice control. You can tell the tesla to "set fan speed to 2" and it will do it. Voice commands are the safest imho. ...if you are from English-speaking country or you know English. Does Tesla understand every language in the world? Or: how would my father change settings in Tesla? Would he need to learn one English phrase ("Tesla/Alexa/Siri/Whatever, open Google translate"), then speak in his native language, then somehow speak the translated text to Tesla's system? Currently in his car, he does that by pressing a button. Done.
      - tyfon 7y ago
        It does understand Norwegian (even dialect) just fine at least if the car is set to Norwegian UI.
xedeon 7y ago
A recent software update introduced Natural Language Processing and opened up pretty much every control that would otherwise require a button or dial. I can literally tell it "Turn on driver seat heaters to 3 bacons" and it will set the seat heater to the max setting (1-3). https://youtu.be/mV8h2doorrc?t=58 https://youtu.be/mV8h2doorrc?t=58 https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/voice-commands-in-teslas-new-software-update-list https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/voice-command... So no, I disagree that physical buttons are safer than an NLP enabled infotainment/dashboard display where I can turn on/off and adjust things using voice. Without taking my eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.

tyfon 7y ago

You can change the fan speed (and much more) in a tesla via buttons on the steering wheel.

amluto 7y ago
Yes. By pressing a scroll wheel to pop up a menu, then scrolling through the menu to select a mode, then pressing the scroll wheel again to select a mode, then scrolling once more to peform the desired action. This may well be better than using the touchscreen, but it's still bad.
- tyfon 7y ago
  Yes the best way is to use voice control. You can tell the tesla to "set fan speed to 2" and it will do it. Voice commands are the safest imho. But at least in my car I only need to select fan speed in the first menu then scroll do actually change it. This in a model x. But I was really responding to the "100% touch screen" statement.
  - amluto 7y ago
    I have never gotten my Tesla to understand a voice command like this. I could get music and phone calls, and that was it. The second-to-last update that supposedly made it better instead broke voice commands almost completely. Supposedly the update from a couple days ago is better. In contrast, IIRC a 2007 Prius could do this type of voice command with no obvious difficulty.
    - tyfon 7y ago
      That was my experience before the christmas update but after that it understands almost everything I say both in my south-western Norwegian dialect (if I set it to Norwegian) and my English. The only bug I've found so far was when I said "open driver door" and it displayed "opening trunk" and it slammed it into my garage door!
      - amluto 7y ago
        I’m guessing my particular combination of hardware versions just got broken. I have MCU1 and the old Mercedes-style wheel. After the Christmas update, it couldn’t recognize anything. I think I got it to make a phone call once.
  - WWLink 7y ago
    I'm going to say Tesla did this for no good reason. They could've added 3 knobs to the center console and nobody would have complained.
  - narimiran 7y ago
    > Yes the best way is to use voice control. You can tell the tesla to "set fan speed to 2" and it will do it. Voice commands are the safest imho. ...if you are from English-speaking country or you know English. Does Tesla understand every language in the world? Or: how would my father change settings in Tesla? Would he need to learn one English phrase ("Tesla/Alexa/Siri/Whatever, open Google translate"), then speak in his native language, then somehow speak the translated text to Tesla's system? Currently in his car, he does that by pressing a button. Done.
    - tyfon 7y ago
      It does understand Norwegian (even dialect) just fine at least if the car is set to Norwegian UI.

xedeon 7y ago

A recent software update introduced Natural Language Processing and opened up pretty much every control that would otherwise require a button or dial. I can literally tell it "Turn on driver seat heaters to 3 bacons" and it will set the seat heater to the max setting (1-3). https://youtu.be/mV8h2doorrc?t=58 https://youtu.be/mV8h2doorrc?t=58 https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/voice-commands-in-teslas-new-software-update-list https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/voice-command... So no, I disagree that physical buttons are safer than an NLP enabled infotainment/dashboard display where I can turn on/off and adjust things using voice. Without taking my eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.