I am not a native English speaker of course, but by "adding manual options to the smart features" I meant alternatives, additional ways of achieving the same as the smart features currently do. I hope that was clear enough when I said "would be a preferable option on the side".
I think you're right on. Have two options: "Learning/Automatic" and "Manual".. Manual having a time setting like charging does.
And have it stay on until the car is started... none of this 30 minutes stuff.. we frozen northerners need 1+ hours of pre-heating on the coldest days.
I like the calendar idea too. If the first calendar entry has an address in it, then precondition in preparation for it--and take into account drive time from current location to calendar item destination and start preconditioning 1 hour before you would have to leave.
-m