Release 7.0 for Classic Teslas

Classic Teslas like mine do not have the hardware that enables the autopilot features.  The new software release that all cars received last Friday works for both the Classic Teslas and the ones with the autopilot hardware, which costs $2,500.  This release has a few significant highlights and unfortunately a couple of lowlights for Classic Cars such as mine.

1. The look and feel has changed in several small ways.  Some of the fonts and style has changed a little bit with the current fashionable flat 2-D icons.  When Apple first released their 2-D icons, I missed the older ones, but I largely think this is just a current style trend that will eventually change again.

Much More Useful Display of Driving Stats Since Beginning a Trip and Last Charge

2. For long road trips, the information on the dashboard for energy usage is much clearer.  Now instead of looking at a strange screen with Trip A and Trip B monitors, you are looking at the information since the last time you started the car on top, and since your last charge below.  On long road trips when I was running dangerously low on energy, I would always bring up the Trip screen to get this information since last charge.   The Trip A and B information is still available on the 17” screen if people plan their energy use that way.

I like this change because I can monitor how much energy I have used since my last charge very succinctly.  I like the kWh usage number and I can easily mentally compare that to my 85kWh battery and compare my Wh/mi usage to the 300 Wh/mile standard.  Here in the hills of California, I never average as low as 300 Wh/mile.  Only on some very flat freeways can the average be maintained at that low level.

Curb Rash Preventer With Automatic Window Tilt in Reverse

2. Tesla has finally found a solution to my curb rash! Now the rear view mirrors adjust downwards while backing up.  I have only tried using this feature once but now I imagine I can parallel park much nicer even without auto-pilot. Of course, I could have done that manually in the past, but I couldn’t imagine messing with my mirrors every time before and after parallel parking.  I’m really excited about this feature because for some reason I’ve never been a great parallel parker.  In my entire life I just have never lived anywhere where I parked parallel with any frequency.

After visiting so many superchargers, I’m really good at backing up into tight spaces though.

Dash Display on Left and Center

 

3. The center of the dash has grown and changed to accommodate an area for the autopilot in the middle of the speedometer.   For those without autopilot the area is a bit excessive.  The car will have indication lights such as when it is braking as in the picture, but typically this information does not change much and can be a bit annoying.  Owners with red cars have reported they cannot really see the red indicator lights as it blends too much with their car color on the display.

To make space for the larger center display, the battery level was moved to the left and the date, time and temperature removed from the standard dash set up.  You can see the time at the far upper right of the 17” screen, and the date through the calendar app.

To appease those of us who may want to have an easier glance at the time, they added a new clock widget.  The response to the clocks widget is that it is almost universally esthetically displeasing.  And with all of that space, why can’t the date and day of the week also be listed?

Upper Left of 17″ Screen Includes Lock / Unlock Button

4.  Tesla added a tiny lock and unlock button on the top row of the 17” screen.

I like this improvement because it took a while to fiddle around the 17” screen to unlock the doors for someone who was trying to get into the car.   They moved the outside temperature reading up here too along with a new button for bringing up the charge screen.

I think the temperature needs to go back to the dash permanently.  I am a bit obsessive about the outside temperature.  I adjust the inside temperature control a lot depending upon the outside temperature and whether or not it is sunny.  This fall has been so warm here in California.  Today is the first day of the year that even feels like fall not summer so I’ve been watching the temperature this year a bit obsessively.

The new charge button brings up the charge screen, which to me is a bit strange.  I am always fiddling a bit to find the unlock charge port button more than anything else on that screen. I’d prefer that this lightning bolt just unlocked the charge port.

Other Details

The release also includes a few other minor changes on the dash board that I will not mention such as a full screen control of the media player.  There are also some efficiency improvements but I have not driven the car much yet to notice any differences.  Newer cars also get a full four wheel tire pressure monitoring sensors that will report on each four tires.  My car’s vintage is unfortunately too old.  I don’t know if there are any bug fixes to the bug challenged trip planner.

All in all, I think 7.0 is an improvement even with a few trivial mistakes on the UI.

P85D Loaner Report

A P85D in My Driveway (only Temporarily)

I recently had the great pleasure to take a P85D loaner while having my car serviced.  Actually I was just getting the center consoled installed!  While they installed the console, I drove the P85D for 125 miles.  One trip over the mountains to the coast and back, and the second morning finding some errands to run around town.  During the extended test drive, I found a number of small things about the D that I was not expecting.

Acceleration

As has been reported many times, the acceleration is insane and very reminiscent of my four year Roadster experience.  Super fun and smooth from a dead stop.  In 2013, I had driven a P85+ loaner and was not overly impressed with it.  I did not like the car’s reaction to full acceleration from a dead stop as the front lurched up and the wheels squealed a bit.  The D was very fun; I kept it in insane mode for the day and never tried the sport mode.   I definitely used a higher rate of kWh/mile than normal while enjoying this faster acceleration.

Motor Noise

Interestingly enough the motor noise was substantially different.  At first I felt like a small jet was flying by.  The volume was definitely louder than my S85.  But after the first 30 minutes of driving I no longer noticed the noise difference.

Handling

The P85D loaner seemed to handle exactly like my S85; both cars are equipped with air suspension.  I couldn’t really tell a difference.  I did take a good drive over and back to the coast on some really fun twisty mountain roads.

Radio Reception

During my Roadster driving days, I had horrible radio reception.  I still listen to some AM and FM radio on a somewhat regular basis.  The FM signal was not as crisp as in my car, but the AM station was completely inaudible.  I suspect with two motors, the electromagnetic interference is worse.  I easily showed this to the valet that picked up my car as we listened to an AM and an FM station side by side in the loaner and in my car and the difference was very noticeable.

Parking Sensors

False Edge Warning with Sensors

While driving, the car indicated several times that I was quite close to some mysterious objects in the road. I have driven several loaners in the past with parking sensors and do not recall ever getting these warnings.   The camera screen warned me more than once that I was close to a physical object.  Also twice the dash flashed a warning in red graphics that I was about to hit a car or person in front of me.  I like to drive away from all traffic and am by no means a tailgater. I did not have enough hours with the loaner to determine the true cause of these warnings.

Car “Smell”

When I first got into the car, I noticed an astringent strong smell.  This smell was so distracting, I rolled down the windows for a long period.  I spent most of the 125 miles with the sunroof and windows down in one configuration or another.  The weather varied between 60 and 75 degrees, so driving in this top down fashion was appropriate, but that smell took about 24 hours to not be noticeable.

I don’t know if this car smell is because of some new surfaces in the manufacturing process, unusual behavior by another driver, or a chemical in the mysterious spray bottle I saw being used on the car before I picked it up.  I can’t quite identify the nature of the smell other than unpleasant; my nose and sense of taste can’t determine the list of spices in restaurant food either.   I know whoever that I am quite sensitive to the smell of cleaning agents.

Higher Rear Headrests

The newer rear headrests are so high, I almost wonder why there is even a rear window!  At this point I largely depend upon the cameras, side windows and rear view mirrors.  Only when changing lanes in dicey situations do I use the rear window, But with the new seat backs, the rear window almost useless.

Why Even Have a Rear Window?

Conclusions

I think Tesla now has a wonderful option for folks who feel the need for speed.  I was not fond of the P85+ but the P85D characteristics are really nice.  My area is in a big economic boom with more and more people and traffic.  It is getting harder and hard to find places where I could really enjoy the insane acceleration.  To trade in my 39,000 mile S85 to a P85D at this point would be a large outlay in dollars that I could not justify.

However if I were buying my first Model S right now, the P85D would be in serious contention.  The dual motors would work both for having a lot of fun and the occasional trips to the snow.  I could potentially no longer keep the Toyota Highlander Hybrid that spends most of the time in the garage.  Unfortunately with climate change, the California Sierra Nevada mountains have had so little snow in recent years, I almost don’t even need a 4WD vehicle anymore.

Audio Dash Display

Song Title, Album and Artist Information from The Radio

On the far left of the dashboard display lists the current audio selection.  When you are listening to something from your phone or USB drive, the information seems very redundant as it is available on the 17” touchscreen.  And if you already own the music, you likely are familiar with the artist and song title.

I speak Spanish reasonably well and like to keep my Spanish fresh.  One method I have found is to listen to Spanish radio.  I generally prefer talk radio but I mostly find music on the local Spanish stations.  

During this process, I found that seeing the artist and album display that is playing on the radio could actually be useful.  If you liked an unknown artist, you can easily read the dashboard display while it is playing.  Sometimes just reading the title can be helpful for me as translating song lyrics in a second language is not always easy.

Stuck and Self Opening Door

I have had my Model S for two months now and I have been a bit plagued by a minor problem.  On the two Tesla forums on the web there have been several reports of various issues with the retractable door handles.  I have experienced a similar but not the same problem.  I am hoping it is fixed but am not 100% confident that it is.

About a week after I got the car, I found I simply could not open the passenger door.  The door handle appeared but the door was still locked.  The door would not open from the outside no matter how much pressure was applied.  Although the problem was a bit annoying, it was not a huge problem as the door could be open from the inside.

I emailed Tesla service in Menlo Park to have them look at it.

Self Opening Door

Time went buy and the problem occurred a total of four times.  Three with the passenger door and a fourth time with the rear driver’s side door.  The spooky part of this issue is that the doors would self open at a later date!  Fortunately, none of these self opening doors occurred in an unsafe location and the car was always parked.  Although a door did become stuck at a time when I was showing the Model S to some friends, who are potential future electric car buyers.

Eventually I called Tesla Menlo Park again after having too many incidents of this same issue as they had not gotten back to me.  I had it in for service and fixed two other minor issues:  a small noise in the pano roof and the spot that was on the car at delivery.  They replaced the offending door handles, and the machinery in the door.

Surprisingly, the next morning the door handle presented itself without any LED lights and was again stuck.  All other incidents the door handles had the LED lights on as far as I can remember.  I opened the door from the inside.  I did call Menlo Park and they indicated they wished to talk to headquarters that it was perhaps a problem fixed in the software update, which I had not yet received.  And they would get back to me.

I have noticed that the door seal of this door has always been a bit tighter than the others.  Two weeks later, the problem has not resurfaced and the seal of the door feels more like the other doors.

I have not yet heard back from the service guys but I did receive my software update.  I am hoping this problem is truly fixed now with the combination of the new door mechanism and the software update, but I really do not know.

The individuals in Tesla service have all been very nice.  They are simply overburdened with work.  I am a bit skeptical on the claims of profitability if they do not have enough individuals in the service departments.  I do appreciate that if you do call Menlo Park service and they can’t answer, you end up speaking to helpful folks in Fremont.

I would like to see Tesla expand service outside of their own service departments and have authorized service centers throughout the country.  I suggested this to my local garage and they are interested.  Perhaps this type of program would help everyone?

Any Song Any Time

Okay, so I didn’t know my car had the “play any song any time” feature.  But I have not yet cracked open the manual. Elon Musk just demonstrated this to Bloomberg news here.

I decided to try what Elon was doing in the video.  The feature is basically searching through Slacker.  You can do it either through the touchscreen or through voice commands.  I found the touch screen to be easier.

Search Slacker

On the video, Elon and the reporter were doing it through voice commands.  On the steering column is a small voice button.

Voice Command Button

In the manual on page 19, it says you can use the following commands:

Listen to Any Song – “Listen to” or “Play”  name of song follow it with the word “By” and  album or artist.

Phone Call – say “Call” or “Dial” followed by the first and last name.

Navigate – say “Drive”, “Navigate” or “Where is” followed by an address, business name, business category or landmark.

Once you hit the button, the screen says “Recording”.  HOLD the button down while you are speaking.  Otherwise it will stop recording and you will get the “Unable to Process” error.  I assumed at first it was my voice as these machines generally have not liked me, but Todd Burch on the Tesla Motors Club Forum, clarified that the speaker button requires you to keep it held down.

Unable to Process

I asked for Beautiful by James Blunt, and it brought up the screen, and I was able to select the correct song, when I held the button down.

Beautiful