One of the hardware pushbuttons now has no function: invent one

[Andyw2100]

Yes, thanks, i know that. I did not know about this mystery button on the end of the stalk. And there's no mention of it in the manual, that I can find.

Well, there is this from the V7 release notes:

Before V7 the button was definitely mentioned in the manual, as it toggled TACC on and off.

 

[grichard]

I'd also like a way to cancel autosteer while leaving TACC on. Seems like that'd be a better function for the button than a redundant way of canceling both.

 

[RAW84]

I'd also like a way to cancel autosteer while leaving TACC on. Seems like that'd be a better function for the button than a redundant way of canceling both.

While I'd like this option as well, I don't see them doing this because they'll want to be sure your hands are on the wheel once autosteer is disengaged (with speed maintained).

 

[scottm]

My old Mercedes, the ones that first came out with cruise (!), had a stalk on the left that was "always on" you just bump it up/down/forward/back to do things you'd expect.

I found on a few occasions, surprised to have activated cruise with a simple (accidental) bump up on the stalk. There was a second multifunction stalk on that same side, and in a brain fart moment... you touch the wrong one.

The "up" position was not only "set" but "set/accel" so if you bumped and held it there for a moment or two... you'd accelerate!

Every car I've driven since, has a two-part activation required to get cruise going. I assume because of this reason. You know, fear of "sudden acceleration" lawsuits from drivers who say the car mysteriously got away from them (not realizing it was cruise bumped on).

 

[Andyw2100]

I'd also like a way to cancel autosteer while leaving TACC on. Seems like that'd be a better function for the button than a redundant way of canceling both.

While I'd like this option as well, I don't see them doing this because they'll want to be sure your hands are on the wheel once autosteer is disengaged (with speed maintained).

I don't understand what you guys are asking for.

You put your hands on the steering wheel, and start steering. At that point autosteer is canceled, and TACC remains engaged. What could be simpler?

 

[RAW84]

I don't understand what you guys are asking for.

You put your hands on the steering wheel, and start steering. At that point autosteer is canceled, and TACC remains engaged. What could be simpler?

It's pretty clear what we're asking for, you just don't see it's utility.

You don't turn off auto-steer by just steering, you have to steer differently than auto-steer is steering which can be a bit jerky as you overcome the control. The button would provide a seamless transition to TACC, particularly useful on straight stretches of road where I'd want to take control in advance of a situation I know auto-steer can't handle well or can't handle at all.

For instance, there's a stretch of highway where the sections are missing regular lane markings as the remnants of construction. Auto-steer will ping over these sections, sometimes it handles it poorly (shorter sections) sometimes not at all (longer stretches). I'd rather just manually disengage auto-steer than have the car fight to turn the wrong way before it automatically disengages.

 

[Andyw2100]

It's pretty clear what we're asking for, you just don't see it's utility.

You don't turn off auto steer by just steering, you have to steer differently than auto-steer is steering which can be a bit jerky as you overcome the control. The button would provide a seamless transition to TACC, particularly useful on straight stretches of road where I'd want to take control in advance of a situation I know auto-steer can't handle well or can't handle at all.

For instance, there's a stretch of highway where the sections are missing regular lane markings as the remnants of construction. Auto-steer will ping over these sections, sometimes it handles it poorly (shorter sections) sometimes not at all (longer stretches). I'd rather just manually disengage auto-steer than have the car fight to turn the wrong way before it automatically disengages.

Actually it wasn't clear if everyone asking for a way to disengage the autosteer only, while keeping TACC engaged knew that overriding the steering would do that. Clearly you did, but the question as to whether or not doing that is possible has been asked in the past, so it was not unreasonable for me to think that perhaps some people just didn't know how to do it.

I do see why you would want to disengage autosteer, rather than just override it by steering to disengage it. This does seem to be something that wouldn't come up all that often, however. And you can accomplish what you want to by a quick flick of the cruise lever away from you, and then a quick pull of it towards you. I realize that technically that is not disengaging autosteer only. but rather disengaging both autosteer and TACC, and then re-engaging TACC. But if done in quick succession, the effect should be the same. And it would be two actions on the same stalk. It's not that different from the two actions required to engage autosteer--pulling the lever towards you twice, in quick succession. And it has the benefit of using the same cruise control stalk used for all other cruise features, as opposed to using some other method of interacting with one of the cruise / autosteer functions.

Having said this, I haven't tried it myself. Is there an issue with timing, where the car doesn't allow you to do this fast enough, and it starts slowing down before TACC can be re-engaged? If not, I would think the above would be a reasonable solution.

 

[RAW84]

The situation doesn't come up all that often in highway driving, I agree, but it comes up all the time in city driving (yes I know, neither TACC, nor auto-steer are designed for city driving).

The solution of disengaging both then re-engaging TACC is exactly what I do now. TACC will not re-engage quickly enough to avoid the slow down of regenerative braking, so I use the accelerator to make this process go smoothly.

This thread is about offering a suggestions for the button, I'm not writing Tesla to request this feature. Disengaging TACC + auto-steer seems redundant when you can push on the stalk to do the same exact thing.

I don't expect Tesla will ever address the button, because so few cars have it, and I don't even think disengaging auto-steer is a good use for the button for the reason I stated above. I actually like the 'coast' mode suggestion the best.

 

[garygid]

As AP evolves, we might want to indicate to the car how it should handle the next lane split,
or exit lane, or left turn lane. Basically this is a follow left lane edge or right lane edge, with
the greater control of speed (usually slowing) as needed for exits and left turn lanes, and
for some interchange lane splits.

How could we best indicate this?

A slight tug on the steering wheel perhaps, or
possibly use the AP stalk button to momentarily enter a lane-preference mode,
where a small up (or down) would indicate adjustment to the lane centering bias,
and a full up (or down) would indicate setting the follow-right (or -left) option.

Perhaps Tesla already has plans to control the lane-centering bias and
the lane-following (left or right) setting.

 

[Cebe]

The button at the end is different than before - "stand by" means it will be on when you "restart" the car. Before, if it was off when you left the car, it'd still be off when you come back.

Now, as far as what to use the button for - adjust to the new speed limit would be my vote, accounting for the offset you have specified, or perhaps the current offset. So, if the speed limit is 50, and I'm driving 60, and the speed limit changes to 70, pressing that button would get me up to 80.

 

[Andyw2100]

Now, as far as what to use the button for - adjust to the new speed limit would be my vote, accounting for the offset you have specified, or perhaps the current offset. So, if the speed limit is 50, and I'm driving 60, and the speed limit changes to 70, pressing that button would get me up to 80.

We already have the ability to do that, (at least with respect to the currently specified speed assist offset,) with the cruise stalk.

From the manual:

--
To cruise at the speed limit that is currently being determined by Speed Assist, pull the cruise control lever toward you and hold momentarily (about half a second). See Speed Assist on page 82.
--

 

[jcoverton]

I like this idea a lot.

But to elaborate and clarify, as I see it, it would basically just be a "coast" button. From the time it is pressed, the Model S would not use any additional energy until it was overridden by the driver using the "Go" pedal. And until that time, the Model S would either coast or regen as necessary, based on the TACC. In other words, if it had nothing in front of it requiring it to stop, it would coast. If it needed to stop, it would regen and eventually brake.

Another possibility as an improvement to this idea would be to allow a second press of the button to force the car from the mode above into regen mode--you'd be actively increasing the rate at which you slow down, useful for the times when there is nothing in front of you, but you need to stop anyway.

And again, once the button has been pushed, a simple application of the "Go" pedal sets everything back to normal, such that if TACC had been engaged, it reengages at whatever set speed, etc. was previously set.

I REALLY like this idea!

Great Idea +1

 

[beeeerock]

I'd like it to set a follow distance with TACC.

Currently, the longest follow is '7' (car lengths). The radar evidently sees farther ahead than that. In lousy conditions I'd like to be able to set a longer follow distance so I don't get covered in spray... or worse... gravel from winter 'sanding'. So with TACC engaged, as you catch up to a car, pushing the button would fix the follow distance to the distance at the time of push.

 

[Andyw2100]

I'd like it to set a follow distance with TACC.

Currently, the longest follow is '7' (car lengths). The radar evidently sees farther ahead than that. In lousy conditions I'd like to be able to set a longer follow distance so I don't get covered in spray... or worse... gravel from winter 'sanding'. So with TACC engaged, as you catch up to a car, pushing the button would fix the follow distance to the distance at the time of push.

That's an interesting idea, but I don't think Tesla needs to "waste" the use of the button to accomplish that.

If they were so inclined, they could simply add a "9" setting to be the greatest following distance possible that the radar can detect another vehicle at, and an "8" somewhere between "9" and "7", and you'd have a pretty good approximation of what you're trying to accomplish.

 

[mgboyes]

Having recently switched from a P85 with old stalks to a P90D with new ones, I'd definitely prefer there to be an on/off switch for TACC/AS.

A few times I've tried to indicate right and instead accidentally enabled TACC and started accelerating.

Also I've not found any way to clear the previously set TACC speed after you've finished using it. If I've for example been cruising at 85mph but having left the motorway I'd rather the evidence of that did not persist, how do I clear that speed from the instrument cluster without re-enabling TACC at a lower speed?

 

[Cyclone]

A few times I've tried to indicate right and instead accidentally enabled TACC and started accelerating.

I do this on loaners. Freaks me out every time!

Also I've not found any way to clear the previously set TACC speed after you've finished using it. If I've for example been cruising at 85mph but having left the motorway I'd rather the evidence of that did not persist, how do I clear that speed from the instrument cluster without re-enabling TACC at a lower speed?

You can't.

 

[Lex]

All hard buttons should be configurable in an Advanced Settings tab, for advanced users.

However, it seems Tesla wants to make the experience as generic as possible, but these are soft settings that can be tied to the user profile. Or perhaps it's because they know that overall the doctors and lawyers who seem to make up 2/3 of the MS and probably MX drivers may want it to "just work" and us computer guys are just the last 1/3 of the typical Tesla buyer, so far anyway...

 

[artsci]

All hard buttons should be configurable in an Advanced Settings tab, for advanced users.

However, it seems Tesla wants to make the experience as generic as possible, but these are soft settings that can be tied to the user profile. Or perhaps it's because they know that overall the doctors and lawyers who seem to make up 2/3 of the MS and probably MX drivers may want it to "just work" and us computer guys are just the last 1/3 of the typical Tesla buyer, so far anyway...

I think you have the balance of owners inverted. In my neck of the woods 2/3s of the owners I've met have some connection to the IT world and few are lawyers or physicians. Admittedly this is totally anecdotal.

 

[JBourke]

My experience with this button is that it is still active for the sole purpose of cancelling the AP without having to tap the brake or take-over the wheel.

 

[kirkbauer]

Since it's on the end of the AP stalk, I'd like to see it associated with AP. Therefore, I'd vote for a "coast up to this light with slight regen" button, instead of the car hauling butt at 65 mph towards a stopped car until the radar picks it up and then slamming on the brakes late.

I like this a lot. Really it could mean "cars are slowing down ahead, go ahead and start slowing down unless you see cars ahead actually speeding up". Could apply to a traffic light, or even to a big amount of traffic you see piling up ahead.