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Switching between Metric and US Units

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mknox

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2012
10,104
1,901
Toronto, ON
There was a discussion a while back on this that was moved to "Off Topic" because it had devolved into a debate on the merits of Metric and US units. Also, Production cars hadn't been delivered, so no one really knew the answer to the question of whether the user could switch display units. Forum members and even Tesla reps said it would be available when cars ship.

Now that cars have been delivered I'd like to ask the question again: Can the driver switch ALL display units between US and Metric?

I can't find anything in the Users Guide, and the only thing I recall seeing on the touch screen is the ability to switch temperature units between F and C.

What I want is what I have in my current car (Cadillac CTS): When I switch from US to Metric, it flips inside and outside temperature, speedometer, odometer, trip odometers, GPS (both display and spoken instructions), tire pressure (kPa / PSI) and everything else I can't think of right now.

Anyone taken delivery and can check this out for me?

Thanks!
 
If you click on the temperature in the upper lefthand corner it does this. You can also switch temperature units from the controls-> settings to metric or back to US. I don't see how to switch the range from miles to km or speed from mph to kmh.
 
If you click on the temperature in the upper lefthand corner it does this. You can also switch temperature units from the controls-> settings to metric or back to US. I don't see how to switch the range from miles to km or speed from mph to kmh.

Thanks. In spite of previous assurances, that is what I was afraid of. I'm assuming Canadian cars will be "locked" in Metric units.
 
Thanks. In spite of previous assurances, that is what I was afraid of. I'm assuming Canadian cars will be "locked" in Metric units.

No problem. That's my guess. I appear to be locked into miles and mph but that would be a simple software update to fix this. E-mail your rep to let them know you want each item a separate control switch under settings. Maybe it'll show up some day.
 
No problem. That's my guess. I appear to be locked into miles and mph but that would be a simple software update to fix this. E-mail your rep to let them know you want each item a separate control switch under settings. Maybe it'll show up some day.
I hope that this deficiency is addressed in a future software upgrade. When I drive to Canada, I'd prefer to shift to kilometers to match the road signage. A really slick option would be to allow automatic switching, based on the GPS-determined location.
 
No problem. That's my guess. I appear to be locked into miles and mph but that would be a simple software update to fix this. E-mail your rep to let them know you want each item a separate control switch under settings. Maybe it'll show up some day.

The rep was one of the Tesla folks that said it would be available when customer deliveries began. It was just a "verbal", so perhaps a written request is the way to go.
 
I was at the Dania Beach store this past weekend. The demo car (on Software 1.13.16) you could not select kilometers, but could select Celsius. On the Beta inside (I didn't check software version but it was older) I could select km and Celsius from the screen. I imagine it is just a software update from being available.
 
I was at the Dania Beach store this past weekend. The demo car (on Software 1.13.16) you could not select kilometers, but could select Celsius. On the Beta inside (I didn't check software version but it was older) I could select km and Celsius from the screen. I imagine it is just a software update from being available.

Cool. I wonder if they'll have to have different software versions for Canada? For instance, in Canada DRLs cannot by law be switched off, but in the US they can. There may be other subtle differences that I'm not aware of as well.
 
Not being able to switch to km for the speedometer is unbelievable. We haven't had a car since the 70's that didn't at least have a printed km scale on the speedometer dial. Our newer cars had push button conversion of everything to metric. Are we the only owners who have a second home in Canada, or who vacation there regularly? It just never occurred to me that the Model S would lack a feature that every other U.S. car has in some form or other.
 
Two words: software upgrade.

The car doesn't even have a charging timer yet. There are lots of features that haven't been rolled out yet. I don't see this as a big deal.

It's a very big deal to me, and Tesla did tell me it would be in place by the time production cars shipped. I'm sure it can be dealt with in a software update, and my car is still months away, so fingers crossed it will be in place by the time I see mine. (Charging timer and mobile phone app are much needed too, especially in TOU electricity areas).
 
Two words: software upgrade.

The car doesn't even have a charging timer yet. There are lots of features that haven't been rolled out yet. I don't see this as a big deal.

Well, we spend half our time in Canada, we have our Signature, and I can tell you that over this past week trying to convert MPH to metric every time there is a speed limit change (school zones, city streets, etc.) is a very big deal. It's very distracting and puts us at risk for traffic violations, at least until I get a LOT better at on-the-fly mental conversions.
 
Well, we spend half our time in Canada, we have our Signature, and I can tell you that over this past week trying to convert MPH to metric every time there is a speed limit change (school zones, city streets, etc.) is a very big deal. It's very distracting and puts us at risk for traffic violations, at least until I get a LOT better at on-the-fly mental conversions.

Converting Km to Mi, just subtract roughly 40%. That should be enough to stop you getting tickets.
 
Converting Km to Mi, just subtract roughly 40%. That should be enough to stop you getting tickets.
The easiest way to convert Kph to Mph is to remove the last zero and multiply by 6.
60 Kph on the road sign, remove the last zero = 6 multiply by 6 = 36 Mph. 110 Kph road sign, remove the last zero = 11, multiply by 6 = 66 Mph.
The actual figures are 60 Kph = 37.2823 Mph and 110 Kph = 68.35 Mph so its pretty close and has a small safety factor built in for speed cameras.:eek:
This comes in useful when I drive my 1969 classic car in speed camera obsessed Australia with a Mph speedometer.
 
I just found this picture. It shows the dash in kilometers, but only the usage is still in Wh/mile?

TeslaModelS-31.jpg