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Just bought a Tesla so kind of new to the whole touchscreen thing. The big thing I noticed is the bulk of what you need to use while driving is either on the st

Just bought a Tesla so kind of new to the whole touchscreen thing. The big thing I noticed is the bulk of what you need to use while driving is either on the steering column or exceedingly easy to get to on the touch screen. Wipers, cruise settings, basic music controls, are all right there. Climate control is right on the bottom and easily adjustable. The thing which does bother me is it can be a rabbit-hole getting at some of the other features. If you want to enable seat heating on the back seats? It’s about 3 clicks in which is bad. Since the car has pretty damned good drivers assist technology it’s very easy to let the computer do the driving while you poke at the screen. Which... is not good. I love the autopilot. But it is very easy to lean on when you shouldn’t.

lostmsu 6y ago
The comment just above yours tells less rosy story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26280823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26280823
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Shrug I’ve owned the car for 2 weeks and it’s rained nearly every day. Turning the wipers on has been a non-issue. If they don’t automatically turn on, tap the stalk (not unlike on any other car) and they are on for 4-5 seconds and the control is up on your screen. Tap the speed you want. But auto works so well its something that has never bothered me. Why this guy hit a tree or whatever is beyond me, I’m not a Tesla expert by any means, but it seems to me like tapping the stalk or saying “Wiper on” doesn’t require looking away from the window..
kinghajj 6y ago
> If you want to enable seat heating on the back seats? It’s about 3 clicks in which is bad. IIRC, you can use voice commands for that particular case. "Turn on the right rear seat heater." There's definitely other use cases that still aren't covered by voice commands, at least the last time I tried. I can't exactly recall what those cases are, though. I should check the latest user manual, in case there's an exhaustive list of all supported voice commands...
- ntsplnkv2 6y ago
  Voice controls do a help a lot in many usecases, but are still slower than a physical button in many others.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    Most of the time “Slow” isn’t the problem, the important/ urgent controls are on the stalk.
    - ntsplnkv2 6y ago
      Yea that's what I said - you need to have important/urgent controls physically on the stalk because it's faster than voice commands. What am I not getting? Slow is clearly the problem - that's why they're on the stalk.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  I’ll have to try the voice controls more, that would be perfect. It’s not entirely intuitive to talk to your car, but maybe if I do it for a while it’ll work.
- diggernet 6y ago
  I'm sorry, but why doesn't the person in the right rear seat have a button to control their own seat heater, without interrupting whatever conversation is going on? Can they at least operate their own window still?
  - kinghajj 6y ago
    As for "why," your guess is as good as mine. The entire design of the Model 3 eschews buttons in favor of the screen interface, so this likely is another example of that. In practice, I usually ask passengers before we start driving if they'd like their seat heated, if it's cold enough outside that it's a reasonable question to ask. Window controls do remain physical switches, in the standard configuration (e.g., the driver can control all four windows, and each passenger window has a nearby switch as well.)
Lendal 6y ago
The single worst feature with Tesla is it takes at least two taps to turn on wipers. During that time, it has just started raining, which is a dangerous time to take your eyes off the road. And you must take your eyes off the road because the taps are in two different locations on the screen, and there is an animation involved, and after that animation you must decide which speed setting to tap on. All this time your eyes are not on the road. There is an Auto setting there, but Tesla's rain-sensing tech is unusably bad. I never use Auto. All my other luxury cars with rain-sensing I've always used Auto, but not Tesla.
- Loopsnut 6y ago
  Doesn't hitting the button on the end of the left stalk turn on the wipers for you for a short period? Should cover any dangerous just started raining scenario. Maybe it's gotten better over time but the auto setting seems to work fine for me
- ggreer 6y ago
  There are other ways to trigger the wipers: - Half-press the button on the left stalk to trigger the wipers once. Fully press it to do wipers with fluid. - Press the voice command button (right scroll button on the steering wheel) and say "turn on wipers" or "increase/decrease wiper speed". It's not as nice as physical controls, but it's much safer than futzing with a touch screen while driving.
  - kleer001 6y ago
    > - Press the voice command button Star Trek was an outstanding achievement on so many levels and for so many decades. However it did burden us with the idea that voice controlled computers would be a good idea. They're not and for many non-obvious and non-trivial reasons. But the idea is pernicious and doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. In fact I bet there's a very similar essay like this one about voice control. Several, posted every few months for the last two decades. /rant
    - ogre_codes 6y ago
GhostVII 6y ago
The new Model S has no more stalks for turn signals and wipers and shifting. So at least some of that is being moved to the touch screen, or touch buttons on the wheel.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  There are buttons on the yoke for turn signals, wipers, high beam, horn?, and their voice control. These are in addition to the dial controls on the existing cars. So seems like nothing is being offloaded to the touch screen. https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/tesla-model-s-redesign-look-past-the-weird-steering-yoke-and-see-the-future https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/tesla-model-s-redesign-look-p...

lostmsu 6y ago

The comment just above yours tells less rosy story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26280823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26280823

ogre_codes 6y ago
Shrug I’ve owned the car for 2 weeks and it’s rained nearly every day. Turning the wipers on has been a non-issue. If they don’t automatically turn on, tap the stalk (not unlike on any other car) and they are on for 4-5 seconds and the control is up on your screen. Tap the speed you want. But auto works so well its something that has never bothered me. Why this guy hit a tree or whatever is beyond me, I’m not a Tesla expert by any means, but it seems to me like tapping the stalk or saying “Wiper on” doesn’t require looking away from the window..

kinghajj 6y ago

> If you want to enable seat heating on the back seats? It’s about 3 clicks in which is bad. IIRC, you can use voice commands for that particular case. "Turn on the right rear seat heater." There's definitely other use cases that still aren't covered by voice commands, at least the last time I tried. I can't exactly recall what those cases are, though. I should check the latest user manual, in case there's an exhaustive list of all supported voice commands...

ntsplnkv2 6y ago
Voice controls do a help a lot in many usecases, but are still slower than a physical button in many others.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Most of the time “Slow” isn’t the problem, the important/ urgent controls are on the stalk.
  - ntsplnkv2 6y ago
    Yea that's what I said - you need to have important/urgent controls physically on the stalk because it's faster than voice commands. What am I not getting? Slow is clearly the problem - that's why they're on the stalk.
ogre_codes 6y ago
I’ll have to try the voice controls more, that would be perfect. It’s not entirely intuitive to talk to your car, but maybe if I do it for a while it’ll work.
diggernet 6y ago
I'm sorry, but why doesn't the person in the right rear seat have a button to control their own seat heater, without interrupting whatever conversation is going on? Can they at least operate their own window still?
- kinghajj 6y ago
  As for "why," your guess is as good as mine. The entire design of the Model 3 eschews buttons in favor of the screen interface, so this likely is another example of that. In practice, I usually ask passengers before we start driving if they'd like their seat heated, if it's cold enough outside that it's a reasonable question to ask. Window controls do remain physical switches, in the standard configuration (e.g., the driver can control all four windows, and each passenger window has a nearby switch as well.)

Lendal 6y ago

The single worst feature with Tesla is it takes at least two taps to turn on wipers. During that time, it has just started raining, which is a dangerous time to take your eyes off the road. And you must take your eyes off the road because the taps are in two different locations on the screen, and there is an animation involved, and after that animation you must decide which speed setting to tap on. All this time your eyes are not on the road. There is an Auto setting there, but Tesla's rain-sensing tech is unusably bad. I never use Auto. All my other luxury cars with rain-sensing I've always used Auto, but not Tesla.

Loopsnut 6y ago
Doesn't hitting the button on the end of the left stalk turn on the wipers for you for a short period? Should cover any dangerous just started raining scenario. Maybe it's gotten better over time but the auto setting seems to work fine for me
ggreer 6y ago
There are other ways to trigger the wipers: - Half-press the button on the left stalk to trigger the wipers once. Fully press it to do wipers with fluid. - Press the voice command button (right scroll button on the steering wheel) and say "turn on wipers" or "increase/decrease wiper speed". It's not as nice as physical controls, but it's much safer than futzing with a touch screen while driving.
- kleer001 6y ago
  > - Press the voice command button Star Trek was an outstanding achievement on so many levels and for so many decades. However it did burden us with the idea that voice controlled computers would be a good idea. They're not and for many non-obvious and non-trivial reasons. But the idea is pernicious and doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. In fact I bet there's a very similar essay like this one about voice control. Several, posted every few months for the last two decades. /rant
  - ogre_codes 6y ago

GhostVII 6y ago

The new Model S has no more stalks for turn signals and wipers and shifting. So at least some of that is being moved to the touch screen, or touch buttons on the wheel.

ogre_codes 6y ago
There are buttons on the yoke for turn signals, wipers, high beam, horn?, and their voice control. These are in addition to the dial controls on the existing cars. So seems like nothing is being offloaded to the touch screen. https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/tesla-model-s-redesign-look-past-the-weird-steering-yoke-and-see-the-future https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/tesla-model-s-redesign-look-p...