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got valet mode, now we need an "arriving home" and "at home" mode

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scottm

Legacy account
Jun 13, 2014
3,070
2,387
Canada
Tesla seems to be into good "experiences" and "conveniences"... being the California company that it is, here's a few things that bug me and could be solved with some geo-location sensibility and definition of a "home" location, information that is already available to the car:

1) When the car is parked in home location (garage) and I want to get something out of it I need to run and grab the key to get the handles to present. Want: When the car is at home in the garage I want the handles remaining extended all day long, car unlocked, ready to pull. Or maybe, if I use fob to unlock car with button presses while at home, handles STAY that way extended (and their little LEDs can go off) until I lock the car with the fob. Or if that can't be done, then my second choice is to ditch the auto-present handles altogether when the car is in my garage... just "mute" the feature. Make me touch the handle or explicitly unlock with fob to present handles. Then my many passes-by while working in the garage won't be doing needless handle spinning. It's cute the first 100 times, then... it's a wear item.

2) When I'm arriving home and driving into my garage during the day, the car senses going into darkness and turns on the headlights automatically, (my switch stays on auto), only to have the headlights go off two seconds later when I put the car in Park and get out. Cycling headlamps on/off is the hardest part in their lifecycle. Want: If my headlights aren't already on when I'm driving into the garage, leave them off. At night, when my headlights are automatically on and I drive into the garage, fine, leave them on. Conversely, when hopping in and leaving the garage in the morning, WAIT a bit until car senses I'm leaving that location before it samples darkness to determine if headlights need to be automatically on.

A) This one not strictly related to being at home, I always want this anywhere. When I park the car and get out... all the exterior lights go dark immediately. Want: keep a full perimeter of lighting ON not just door handle lamps (if/when daylight sensor says it's dark) for a minute or so, or until the fob goes out of range. Let me see my way to the door! This is a feechur on much lesser cars and missing on Tesla S. Tesla is half way there... because on the flipside, when I am approaching the car and it senses the fob handles present and other perimeter lighting turn on to help me see around the car to get into the car. Just need to finish the job on this one.

4) Geo-locate mirror folding actions, like air suspension does. Doing this in a general sense would be best because there are other frequented locations like parking at work where this may be necessary. But if that can't be done in the general sense, then make it part of the "at home" preference set, and let the user decide if mirrors should be folded going into the garage and unfolded automatically when the car determines it is leaving the location.

5) When I'm at home, I have different charging needs. Nissan Leaf is better in this area. Want: user sets up a profile that automatically sets their charge preferences. E.g. for me, on weekdays set charge range limit to 80%, charge rate 40A is fine, scheduled to begin charge after midnight or when it gets plugged in, whichever is first ... And on weekends, for me, range to 90% limit, rate 80A and charge-now (not scheduled). When I'm not at home, on any given day weekday or weekend I want charge limit 90% unschedule / "now", pulling maximum. When I'm more than 100km radius from home, charge limit bumps to 100% maximum rate. Set and forget, probably for the life of the car. I just manage the exceptions, when I know I'm going on trip from home and want 100% I'll take the time to do so... as part of my trip preparation. Suggestion: allow setting up very flexible schedules that aren't limited to "weekday vs. weekend" choices... every day of the week has its own flexibility. Allow user to define as many time brackets as they want, and don't try to use AI and outsmart or "learn" user patterns... eesh.

...

you probably have some frequent "diddling" you do at home, and "undo" when not at home... feel free to add to this list!

Cheers
Scott
 
Awesome.

I'm not crazy about the car remaining unlocked in my garage - my wife insists that cars must be locked whereever they are parked. She worked for the Sherriff's department, so I can live with her choice.

But as for the rest of it, nice improvements. :)
 
I hear you on all of them, including the locking while in garage, I hate that. I'm actually just leaving my keys inside the home and using the app to unlock when needed, however, the app is slower and it's just something I shouldn't have to worry about to begin with. I think the "At Home" mode is a great idea.
 
The problem with an "at home" geofence is that it really isn't accurate enough to tell if the car is in the garage or 10 ft away outside in the driveway.

Maybe a Bluetooth beacon that could be programmed with settings....

I've said this in other threads. If you are within GPS range of the "home" location and you are plugged in, the proposed home setting would apply. It is an easy way to fix the GPS location inacurracy issue.

I agree strongly with #1 and #2. I haven't noticed a need for #3 or is it #A?). I have a classic S40 so folding mirrors and setting charge to anything other than max don't apply. But I'm with you. These are easy convenience fixes.

To add to the justification for #2, when backing out of the dark garage, the screen is dark. It makes it hard to hit the right homelink button. I can't tell you how many times I have opened the wrong garage door when I meant to close the one I just backed out of.
 
This all sounds like stuff that could be added to the auto park system. There's supposed to be a way to automatically park the car in your garage coming and all the excellent "at home" features you're suggesting should be part of that feature.
 
The problem with an "at home" geofence is that it really isn't accurate enough to tell if the car is in the garage or 10 ft away outside in the driveway.

Maybe a Bluetooth beacon that could be programmed with settings....

Currently, we make the S learn the garage remote while parked in front of the garage door pointed at it.

This is the "home" point.

Once that's done the 'open door' prompt opens on the console at exactly the same spot on the driveway when driving to the garage, every time, consistent. (This point is about 30 feet further away from the house than where the opener got learned.)

This spot where the prompt pops up for garage door is the "arriving home" threshold.

The car can easily measure distance from wheel rotation. (speed * time)... probably to the nearest inch.

If you drive through the arriving home threshold, the car will know that N feet moving in a forward direction is "in the garage". Being plugged in is confirmation that would remove any doubt. Anything measured short by 20 feet (or more) is still "on the drive pad" (not parked at home).

MAYBE this should be called "Garage Mode" not "Home" mode. Because, unless you have a secured garage, you might not want all the door lock changed behaviour.

- - - Updated - - -

when backing out of the dark garage, the screen is dark. It makes it hard to hit the right homelink button.

..or sometimes the console is just sluggish or trying to wake-up. I've already backed out and am waiting on the drive pad for the console to wake-up or catch-up or whatever... so I can hit the door close button. Just this a.m. while this scenario was happening, my son hopped out ran to the door, entered the code on the outdoor keypad and ran back to the car... And the console was just waking up when he'd re-buckled his seatbelt.

Hey! My kid is faster than a Tesla. And it's true.
 
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While we are talking about homelink, I find it inconvenient to have to reach out and hit the screen to open my garage door. I usually start opening it before entering my driveway so that it is open once I actually get there. Why not allow homelink as an option in the dash? That way we can open the garage from the steering wheel.
 
One of the driving forces for 'modes' is the headlights going off and on inappropriately, shortening the life of the headlights.

This may be theoretically true, but I've only had one (halogen, BTW) headlight over the last 15 years in a 2 car, 2 driver family with the cars having lights automatically going on and off every time they were driven.

Is this really something to be concerned about?
 
Regarding A (3), you know there's a setting for the headlights to stay on for a couple of minutes after exit, right? This also leaves the taillights/decorative lights on as well for about 2 minutes after exiting the vehicle. But agree, the decorative lights should stay on regardless of the headlight after exit setting.

Regarding the door handles, there's perhaps a better solution that avoids the wear on the handles but preserves security:

If you're parked within what GPS considers to be home (might even be out on the driveway), and you walk by the car with the FOB, the handles should extend and remain extended unless you explicitly lock with the fob. However, the car would remain locked unless you pull on the handle, in which case if it detects the FOB would unlock and open. If you then walk away, it would lock automatically but handles would remain extended unless you explicitly press the FOB button.

That way, the car will still lock but if you frequently walk by with the fob in your pocket the handles won't keep extending/retracting.

I like the other ideas.
 
While we are talking about homelink, I find it inconvenient to have to reach out and hit the screen to open my garage door. I usually start opening it before entering my driveway so that it is open once I actually get there. Why not allow homelink as an option in the dash? That way we can open the garage from the steering wheel.

The part of this that I find difficult is that the button to open the right door is so small that its somewhat difficult to hit. How about if instead it puts up a really big pop up dialog box in the middle of the screen with really big buttons for each door?
 
The problem with an "at home" geofence is that it really isn't accurate enough to tell if the car is in the garage or 10 ft away outside in the driveway.

Maybe a Bluetooth beacon that could be programmed with settings....

If it's an Autopilot car with always active full coverage sonar, the car certainly knows the difference between "in the garage" and "on the driveway" whenever it is on - unless you have a garage that is over twelve feet from the closest part of the car in most/all directions. (Which sounds more like an airplane hanger to me. :) )

A little bit of sensor fusion can make life so much easier. :)