But what about the next person? I know of one automotive writer that likes the heated seats on high (sore back) with the A/C at max (acclimated to cold weather).
Even my car, which is about a thousand times less sophisticated than a Tesla, knows who's driving. Either based on the smart key or your phone.
I've had the same experience as you. Lots of poorly designed user interfaces and, I think, those who criticize Tesla's approach are thinking of systems like those.
It's amazing. I'm also amazed by the fact that my car had the hardware to do this for nearly four years before the laws were changed to allow it and it was turned on. Driving down the freeway at night with moderate freeway traffic and everywhere that there isn't another car is lit up brightly while I can't even tell the color paint on the cars near me because they are still dark. I think this tech will spread quickly to all but the least expensive cars. It is that good.
This works really well. All of your settings, not just the seat position and mirrors, are saved for each driver. It recognizes your phone or your key card and sets everything to your liking. This includes everything in the settings menu, driving dynamics, autopilot settings, and all of your audio and entertainment settings (i.e. My Spotify account when I'm driving). If it gets it wrong, the profile name is at the top of the screen when you are in park. Touch it and select the profile you want.
My 1928 ford A Fordor (first release dealer showroom model with cowl vent and forged iron not stamped steel tail light and running board supports) still has the manual spark advance and backup hand crank if the starter doesn’t work. I would post a pic but it is currently going through wood replacement for dry rot on the front corner posts and header over the windshield.
It makes sense to the manufacturer, since all those pretty colors and features are really cheap to make and they impress the prospective buyer. All done via photographic processes and robotic assembly. Mechanical devices like potentiometers and push-pull cables or vacuum-driven devices are not cheap to make nor do they lend themselves easily to robotic assembly. The same reasons are why analog wristwatches cost so much more than digital watches. They're full of tiny gears and a tinier motor.
Me too. Last vehicle I had with wing windows was my 1951 International. It had the top-cowl vent, too, and it sure scooped in the air on hot days.
As above. It's all about cost, and the touchscreen is simpler and cheaper.
The original example was for an automotive writer. The pool is probably rotating every other day so setting up profiles each time is rather impractical. The one that I run into is that the vehicle's owner picks me up at the airport, makes me the designated driver and then hops in the passenger seat. I don't drive that car very often so I don't bother setting up a profile. But even if I did, the owner would delete it after my shift is over because "security".
Your profile is stored in Tesla's cloud and can follow you from car to car. It doesn't have to be programmed into each individual car that you drive. It will work in a car that you rent as long as you're given access in the app. My profile was available when I took a 2-hour demo drive in a Model Y.
Something slightly north of $400. That would buy a lot of knobs and potentiometers. Cars with only a touchscreen might be easier to assemble, but I doubt the parts cost less.
Did it still have a clutch (shiftomatic) or not (automatic)? Automatic trucks are weird. There's still a clutch, it just auto-engages at a few hundred RPM above idle. When you're trying to do a really precise backing maneuver and just want to inch along, they kinda suck. In stop-and-go city traffic, though, they're much more useful.
I like settings like that too... But you can sync driver profiles to the app/cloud and restore them in whatever Tesla you drive. I've used my own driver profile in my mom's Tesla as well as in a rental. It's pretty slick!
Agreed. "Car touchscreen interfaces suck, Tesla is a car with a touchscreen interface, it must suck." In reality, completely the opposite. It really is that different and that good.
I had no idea such a thing existed until I turned on the light show when I was parked just outside a closed garage and the headlights projected TESLA onto the garage door.
Then I dug into it and learned that I had the hardware but that the law hadn't yet caught up. Joe Biden signed some legislation in 2022 that started allowing the matrix lights and they were enabled in a software update.FWIW, it's not always a new unit. They're not going to take an otherwise good MFD with one bad button or knob and chuck the whole thing in the scrap heap, they refurbish them. I'd imagine they probably cannibalize subassemblies from the ones they get back, but it's highly unlikely that they do any component-level repair. No sense in the troubleshooting time nor desoldering to replace an 8-cent capacitor or whatever.
Those Swedes can be pretty shifty.I drove a bobtail Volvo VNL back from the east coast one time and its auto didn't seem to have any means of skipping gears. Every time I'd accelerate from a stop, it would catch all ten on the way up. Seemed like it spent more time shifting than holding a gear.
Agree. That part is pretty slick. Unless you're a privacy hawk. With both your A/C and seat heater on max, Tesla now knows you have an unhealthy back. You can expect to see painkiller ads in your X (formerly Twitter) feed now.
They only need so much monitoring because they're new to you and you don't trust them yet. After you get used to them and you understand their limitations, the workload decreases significantly.
This is one of the reasons I love my ten-ish years old Subaru. The climate control has knobs, so I can easily adjust if I want to. But! More importantly, it's got an "auto" mode that I use 100% of the time. I just tell it what temp I want and it does the rest. In the winter that means that it doesn't turn the fan on until the car has produced enough heat to start warming the cabin, then it runs the fans on high until things are warmed up and finally reduces them when things are comfortable and maintains the temp. Same in reverse. If it's set for "auto" and it's hot out, it runs the AC on high until the cabin is properly chilled and then goes into a maintenance mode.
I only have adaptive cruise and lane following, not anything that looks like FSD.
For me, I find I’m less fatigued after a long drive with the automation turned on.
For me, yes.
They both are.
“Bizarre Traits” is not a term I would like to hear about on either an Aircraft Autopilot or a motor vehicle.
I'm cheap. $100/month for FSD is not worth it. But it's nice when it's free. After a long, hard day at work, it's nice to just let the car drive.
In a 68 year-old 1957 Chevy, everything still works. How long will a vehicle with touchscreens be drivable? And repairable?
As long as certification isn’t a barrier and originality isn’t a concern, just as long as the ‘57 Chevy.
Sold volume alone guarantees we're gonna be awash in tesla parts probably longer than I'll be alive.Liability. No sarcasm, no hyperbole. It needs to be the human's fault if the car runs over a fireman, or drives you under a semi. Doesn't matter that it's not reasonable for a driver to react quickly enough to stop the car from doing so.
I have a 2024 Cadillac CT5 with Super Cruise that I purchased in May. I figured if I didn't have the Velocity that I should have something that make long trips easier. I recently had to drive solo up to Virginia Beach for a memorial service. I stopped about halfway on the way up and made the 13 hour drive back in one day. I only had my hands on the wheel for a short portion of the trip. My wife has her profile configured to change lanes automatically but I don't. So changing lanes required me to hit the turn signals when I wanted to go around other cars. Normally, after 13 hours on the road non-stop I would be worn out. Not on the this trip. Just not having to steer the entire trip makes things a little easier.
