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Using a touch screen to control wiper speed seems insane. In fact, most of what you wrote sounds incredibly unintuitive and frankly stupid. Things like wiper

by lm411 2y ago

Using a touch screen to control wiper speed seems insane. In fact, most of what you wrote sounds incredibly unintuitive and frankly stupid. Things like wiper speed need to be brain-dead simple muscle memory controls - and similar in behaviour to other vehicles. I own three (cheap and old) vehicles, and I can easily switch between them and control the wipers even if I haven't driven one for 6+ months. Vehicle control interfaces and design peaked long ago. True of many things in the modern world in my opinion. I do under these modern designs are cheaper and that is generally the push for them.

nsguy 2y ago
When I picked up my new Model 3, about 5 years ago, I headed home and it started raining. I had no idea how to turn the windshield wipers on and was barely able to find a place to stop on the side of the road as I tried to figure it out. I do love the car overall but this certainly wasn't thought through and the auto mode is pretty bad. It's one of those quirks you get used to...
csa 2y ago
> Using a touch screen to control wiper speed seems insane. Honestly, I think that this is overblown. Tap the end of the left stick and then use left scroll wheel to adjust. Or use the voice command (e.g., “turn on wipers” or “increase wiper speed by 1”). The “bad” part of the wipers is that some folks new to the car don’t know how to operate them if they have not read the manual. Shitty drivers are going to do stupid things when it’s raining. No amount of UI is going to fix that. All the designers can do is minimize the degrees of freedom of stupidity. Tesla controls are somewhere between fine and quite optimized by this metric.
- tempestn 2y ago
  Yes, now you can tap the button and then use the scroll wheel to adjust, but as I said, that option has literally only been available for a week or two, at least on my car. For the first three years of ownership you were stuck with the touchscreen. (And even with that ability you need to change it constantly because the auto level is rarely right, for reasons in the OP, and you can't bias it up or down.) Ha, or yes, voice controls. Don't get me started on how many times I tried "set wiper speed to 1" or similar and instead got max speed, before I eventually gave up and used the screen or "manual" control.
  - csa 2y ago
    > For the first three years of ownership you were stuck with the touchscreen. Tap end of left stick and hit setting on bottom left of screen (in US) with peripheral vision or a tiny fraction of a second of a glance. I mean, none of this required navigating menus or staring at a complex/busy screen unless someone was trying to be obtuse. If this tiny fraction of a second is actually an issue for anyone, then I think that either: 1) they have other issues (e.g., irrational levels of control expected), or 2) they’re just a really bad driver, or 3) they didn’t rtfm on their car with a unique design. As a simple example, one will trivially look at the controls of a rental car or a friend’s or family member’s waaaaaay more than the wiper controls on a Tesla, yet no one that I am aware of is writing about those on HN or other mainstream social media. The Tesla system is new and different, and so people just seem to like to bitch about new stuff, especially when it involves Tesla. > Don't get me started on how many times I tried "set wiper speed to 1" or similar and instead got max speed Regarding your voice controls, I hope you see why your input was unclear (“to/two one”). From the manual: BEGIN QUOTE Windshield Wipers Update the windshield wiper speed and frequency based on changing road and weather conditions: "Speed up the wipers" "Increase/decrease windshield wiper speed by..." "Turn on/off the wipers" END QUOTE Have you tried these exact commands? They have worked very consistently for me.

by lm411 2y ago

nsguy 2y ago

When I picked up my new Model 3, about 5 years ago, I headed home and it started raining. I had no idea how to turn the windshield wipers on and was barely able to find a place to stop on the side of the road as I tried to figure it out. I do love the car overall but this certainly wasn't thought through and the auto mode is pretty bad. It's one of those quirks you get used to...

csa 2y ago

> Using a touch screen to control wiper speed seems insane. Honestly, I think that this is overblown. Tap the end of the left stick and then use left scroll wheel to adjust. Or use the voice command (e.g., “turn on wipers” or “increase wiper speed by 1”). The “bad” part of the wipers is that some folks new to the car don’t know how to operate them if they have not read the manual. Shitty drivers are going to do stupid things when it’s raining. No amount of UI is going to fix that. All the designers can do is minimize the degrees of freedom of stupidity. Tesla controls are somewhere between fine and quite optimized by this metric.

tempestn 2y ago
Yes, now you can tap the button and then use the scroll wheel to adjust, but as I said, that option has literally only been available for a week or two, at least on my car. For the first three years of ownership you were stuck with the touchscreen. (And even with that ability you need to change it constantly because the auto level is rarely right, for reasons in the OP, and you can't bias it up or down.) Ha, or yes, voice controls. Don't get me started on how many times I tried "set wiper speed to 1" or similar and instead got max speed, before I eventually gave up and used the screen or "manual" control.
- csa 2y ago
  > For the first three years of ownership you were stuck with the touchscreen. Tap end of left stick and hit setting on bottom left of screen (in US) with peripheral vision or a tiny fraction of a second of a glance. I mean, none of this required navigating menus or staring at a complex/busy screen unless someone was trying to be obtuse. If this tiny fraction of a second is actually an issue for anyone, then I think that either: 1) they have other issues (e.g., irrational levels of control expected), or 2) they’re just a really bad driver, or 3) they didn’t rtfm on their car with a unique design. As a simple example, one will trivially look at the controls of a rental car or a friend’s or family member’s waaaaaay more than the wiper controls on a Tesla, yet no one that I am aware of is writing about those on HN or other mainstream social media. The Tesla system is new and different, and so people just seem to like to bitch about new stuff, especially when it involves Tesla. > Don't get me started on how many times I tried "set wiper speed to 1" or similar and instead got max speed Regarding your voice controls, I hope you see why your input was unclear (“to/two one”). From the manual: BEGIN QUOTE Windshield Wipers Update the windshield wiper speed and frequency based on changing road and weather conditions: "Speed up the wipers" "Increase/decrease windshield wiper speed by..." "Turn on/off the wipers" END QUOTE Have you tried these exact commands? They have worked very consistently for me.