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Ars Technica reviews the P85D

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anticitizen13.7

Not posting at TMC after 9/17/2018
Dec 22, 2012
3,638
5,870
United States
http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/05...l-s-p85d-double-your-engines-double-your-fun/

Reviewer liked: insane acceleration, great handling, quiet cabin. Better overall fit and finish than the P85 reviewed in prior years.

Reviewer disliked: some interior material described as cheap, lag in touch screen response.

Overall a positive review.

Owners: Does the touch display really have the lag as described? I hope Tesla either upgrades the processor used, or tweaks the software for better responsiveness.
 
Sometimes, yes. I can also get it to freeze -- like 10+ seconds of no response -- when Slacker wigs out.

The Tegra3 chipset from nvidia is severely underpowered for what they are using it for when combined with the graphs requirements. Things like song lists with album art, calculating long trips, and simply just bringing up the controls for popping the trunk is noticeably laggy. And if it's noticeable to the user, the perception will be the interface has problems.
 
Compared to an iPad Air 2 as the gold reference standard, I think it is very laggy. Hope they will provide the option of upgrading the cpu after model x has shipped with the supposed next gen one. It would be a nice upgrade of one of the few parts of the original design that does not feel to have aged as nicely. That being said, it is usable for the core stuff (settings), but quite underpowered by today's standards. P85d, .188.
 
The Tegra3 chipset from nvidia is severely underpowered for what they are using it for when combined with the graphs requirements. Things like song lists with album art, calculating long trips, and simply just bringing up the controls for popping the trunk is noticeably laggy. And if it's noticeable to the user, the perception will be the interface has problems.

Agree, the entire UI of the car is seriously laggy, and it's a hardware problem. At first I thought it was my own impatient nervous system, but then I've read enough comments like yours to see that it's a common perception. By entire, I mean everything from the nav system, to "transmission" shifting; user presets to door handles. When music is playing, add 50-100% lag. The UI lag prevents the car from feeling like it fits like a glove, to me, which is unfortunately out of sync with the electric driving experience.

UI problems become more prominent the longer you own the hardware. After 60,000 miles the laggy MS has started to become annoying. Not anywhere near as annoying as the engine, brake or turbo lag of my other drivers of course, but one starts to find faults after a while and honestly my mind has fixed on this. Shifting into reverse more than once to go backwards; fudging for the key fob instead of waiting for the touch screen so I can open the frunk; stuff like that.

I imagine Tesla designed the car's computer in 2011-12 and used the available chipset, but the ambition of their software requirements have outstripped it's ability to keep up. Fortunately recent interviews show that they are looking at the latest and greatest hardware updates so I guess they're on it. I'll be looking to buy a model X in 2016-7 and would imagine the problem of laggy UI will be taken care of by then.
 
I think a lot of folks perceive lag of screen/CPU when it is really lag due to 3g/network.

That is possible, but not in my experience. Both devices would use the same wifi. Try interacting with the map for example. Then try it on an iPad. Not same universe. It feels more like an iPhone 4s in terms of responsiveness

Another simple test is to just switch top/bottom panes, it is not exactly glass smooth if I put it that way.

I do like the car a lot, but this will need to be improved soon.

- - - Updated - - -

And to be perfectly clear, this would not stop me from buying it again. It is just one of the few things that I would expect to be high on Teslas todo list.
 
Speaking of laggy UI response, yesterday I pushed the Restore button on my driver profile (I'd moved the seat while napping at a Supercharger) and it was a good 30 seconds before the seat began moving. I mean, I'd given it up for lost and was considering whether to reset the seat manually when it finally started to move.
 
I tend to agree with several comments. Considering the price points I think we should have both an upgraded chipset (installed free to all owners) and 4G. That should be able to cure many latency problems which clearly grow more irritating as capabilities go up. I also would not mind paying a little for the hardware upgrades; that doesn't mean I'll like that but I would put up with it.

Frankly, the slow responses to everything from media selection to frunk/trunk/charge management and internet access are all subpar for 2015. Methinks many of our quibbles could be eliminated or reduced by improved graphics processing speed and better internet access.
 
There's been some pondering about if Tesla will switch the chipset before the 7 year design cycle they talked about previously. This will mean a split code-base since a new chipset will mean new features that the old one couldn't do and there may be certain functions that are deprecated or eliminated in the new one.

The Tegra 3, while it was cutting edge at the time it came out (late 2011, early 2012), was outdated within a year. Now it's a really old and slow chip by today's standards, but unfortunately that is going to be the case with any SoC they choose.
 
The Tegra3 chipset from nvidia is severely underpowered for what they are using it for when combined with the graphs requirements. Things like song lists with album art, calculating long trips, and simply just bringing up the controls for popping the trunk is noticeably laggy. And if it's noticeable to the user, the perception will be the interface has problems.

Sorry, but how can you state definitievely that the Tegra3 is "severely underpowered" when you have no data to support that statement other than what you see on screen.
I would contend that the majority of lagginess is either due in part to 3G connectivity and/or a some dependencies/multithreading in the software that remain to be ironed out.

Lets say you put a processor in that is twice as powerful, your one second delay becomes 0.5sec and is obviously still laggy albeit slightly less so.

As an example, some versions of Android are noticeably more laggy than others in some parts of the software, yet my N5 processor remains unchanged.
 
There's been some pondering about if Tesla will switch the chipset before the 7 year design cycle they talked about previously. This will mean a split code-base since a new chipset will mean new features that the old one couldn't do and there may be certain functions that are deprecated or eliminated in the new one.

The Tegra 3, while it was cutting edge at the time it came out (late 2011, early 2012), was outdated within a year. Now it's a really old and slow chip by today's standards, but unfortunately that is going to be the case with any SoC they choose.

FWIW the Tegra3 wasn't even that great at the point it came out, Qualcomm's Snapdragon beat it in both GPU & CPU, Arm matched in on CPU and Mali was a better GPU. As much as it would be nice to see an upgraded part I don't think we'll see anything new until the next rev of the S.
 
FWIW the Tegra3 wasn't even that great at the point it came out, Qualcomm's Snapdragon beat it in both GPU & CPU, Arm matched in on CPU and Mali was a better GPU. As much as it would be nice to see an upgraded part I don't think we'll see anything new until the next rev of the S.

or possibly when the Model X launches they could standardise on a new part then to keep inventory down and s/w dev matched across models?
 
There's been some pondering about if Tesla will switch the chipset before the 7 year design cycle they talked about previously. This will mean a split code-base since a new chipset will mean new features that the old one couldn't do and there may be certain functions that are deprecated or eliminated in the new one.

The Tegra 3, while it was cutting edge at the time it came out (late 2011, early 2012), was outdated within a year. Now it's a really old and slow chip by today's standards, but unfortunately that is going to be the case with any SoC they choose.

Isn't the code base already split though? Some Model S have autopilot hardware, while others do not.

I'd be surprised if Tesla was pushing the same firmware to both new and legacy vehicles.


or possibly when the Model X launches they could standardise on a new part then to keep inventory down and s/w dev matched across models?

This is what I hope will happen. A much faster processor and an LTE baseband chip should be standard for a Tesla in 2015.
 
Isn't the code base already split though? Some Model S have autopilot hardware, while others do not.

I'd be surprised if Tesla was pushing the same firmware to both new and legacy vehicles.




This is what I hope will happen. A much faster processor and an LTE baseband chip should be standard for a Tesla in 2015.

God I hope not, maintaining separate codebases is a total pain.

My guess is they just have a feature matrix and select based on HW capability, but who knows. I'd love to see what their firmware management is for all the other various embedded micros across the car.