After having review the Model S and Model X, then buying a Model 3, I’ve got a great appreciation of what’s on offer in Tesla vehicles. After having owned my Model 3 for almost 6 months now, it’s hard not to take what is already a great platform and imagining how to improve it even more.
There’s a great site, teslaideas.ideascale.com which has a great collection of ideas from the wider community. After scanning through the ideas I’ve selected a list of 10 of the best ideas that Tesla should implement.
Prevent hitting cyclists
When in park, all the rear cameras would look for cyclists (or cars) coming up from behind and show some kind of alert so you don’t door a cyclist. When you’re parked next to a bike lane, show a warning when in park to look out for cyclists.
My take
The technology in a Tesla focuses heavily on reducing the mental input required by a driver. Automatic headlights, windscreen wipers, Autopilot and eventually FSD, so it makes lots of sense to remove the need to check for cyclists, just don’t let the door open in there’s a cyclist coming.
Use Deep Rain to close windows
If you forget to close a window and leave the car, use the ‘Deep Rain’ to close it if it rains or snows, or get a warning on the Tesla app so we can close it from the app?
My take
A Tesla has sensors on almost everything and combining the inputs and outputs of each of the vehicle systems enables some very interesting possibilities. If the car knows it’s raining, then a quick check of the position sensor of each of the 4 windows, would enable the system to determine and then respond if they should be closed.
Acing in like a self-preservation mode, the car could close the windows to save the interior from being damaged and a repair bill of thousands. In the even you leave the windows down on a sunny day and a rain event occurs, it’d be nice to know there’s no way rain could get in as the windows would automatically close.
There’s potential for Tesla to go to the next level with this. Use the cellular connectivity in the car to check weather radars against the current location of the vehicle and close the windows as a storm front approaches. Once it passes, then it could return the windows to the previous state.
Weather radar overlay on the map
A feature which will overlay a scaleable live weather radar image over the map on the touchscreen.
This would give a visual warning of rain or approaching storms, etc.
My take
Similar to the one above, weather integration presents some great opportunities. While GPS routing will help you avoid congestion, it’ll let you drive right into a hail storm.
With live weather integration, the car could alert you and potentially re-route you along a path that would avoid any potentially damaging hail or wind storms.
Passive blindspot detection
When AutoPilot is not activated, and turn signal is activated make a chime or sound play to alert driver to someone existing in blind spot. Similar to the mirror light blind spot functions other cars have. Instead of just a last second avoidance feature or visual on the screen which is not very safe to be looking at whilst driving.
Could make another kind of “clicking” sound to passively let the driver know someone is in their blindspot.
My take
There’s been a number of times where I’ve still had to do a head check to be confident there was no cars beside me, before changing lanes. With the addition of blindspot detection and a better representation of surrounding traffic on screen, you could simply look at the environment around you and know confidently there’s no potential for unseen objects to be hidden.
Tesla offers the idea of a 360 picture of what’s around the vehicle. Despite the rear, side and forward-facing cameras, forward-facing radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors, there are times where objects aren’t seen on the display and cars beside you are often represented as being further back than they actually are.
“OK Tesla”
Remove the requirement to hit the button on the steering wheel to activate voice commands. The idea would be to enable active listening of a specific keyword similar to Alexa, Siri, etc.
Bonus points: configurable activation keywords such as “OK Elon” or “OK [name of your car].
My take
As someone who loves using Alexa around the home, shouting commands feels very natural in controlling smart home devices. This makes having to press a button to activate the Tesla voice assistant feel a little antiquated.
Being able to say OK Tesla, then giving a voice command would certainly allow the interaction with the car feel more natural. I’d love to be able to string commands together like “play Windows Weekly, then Ride the Lightning, followed by The Joe Rogan Show.” Also navigate entry could also be enhanced with “navigate to Melbourne via Wangaratta where I’ll stop for lunch”.
All great suggestions. I would only add that a heads-up display would be fantastic. I know this is old news but my dreams ate renewed every day.
Looking out for cyclists certainly tops my list.
Not so sure about the voice commands without hitting the button. That could be triggered by so many conversations in the car, often with the word Tesla involved. It would also mean that the car was listening to everything said in the car. (Not sure this isn’t already happening!)
I think the passive blind spot warning and the head up,display essential both are safety features! I had them both in my past
Mercedes Benz