Yes I think you know this but you made it sound pretty scary. For anyone reading, the car drives as normal, can still smoke pretty much any... let's not mention brands here, but suffice it to say, there's nothing to prove, and everything continues to work just fine. The UI comes back in a few seconds.
Well, it is pretty scary. The UI crashing and you not knowing how to restart it is a big deal.
It's not even like a traditional car where you can "restart" the electronics by turning it off and on again. It's a very specific sequence detailed in the manual...which most people aren't going to memorize.
It sounds like you haven't had experience with doing a soft reboot.
And yet, apparently you have, from your parent of parent comment... bizarre.
You make it sound like some elaborate easter egg that's hard to remember and is only buried deep in the manual as a crazy special detailed long sequence of steps.
It's neither some very mysterious sequence, nor hard to memorize, nor hard to learn about. And you don't even need to know it.
As you well know it's just holding down two buttons which are right on the steering wheel basically where your thumbs are already resting as you drive. So why are you spreading FUD?
You don't even need to take your eyes off the road. Not even for one second. The buttons are right there where you can feel them.
And no, it's not something you could or would ever do accidentally unless you were trying odd stuff just to see what would happen. And if you did, it would be no big deal, and the car would continue driving just fine, and the UI would come back by itself after a few seconds. But again, this wouldn't happen.
>It's a very specific sequence detailed in the manual...
That is overly dramatic. Like, to the point where you should win an award. And the manual is not the only source for this "vErY sPeCiFiC sEqUEncE."
It's one step: hold the two buttons for a few seconds. As you said yourself.
In the unlikely even that A) a person driving the car doesn't know about this, B) they are running software that most cars don't have any more, C) they are using their web browser while driving, and D) they loaded a strange site that contained a hack, then they could just pull over and call for advice from service.
Service would tell them to press the buttons for a few seconds, and they could be on their way in under a minute including the time for the phone call.
Well the scary for a newbie part I can agree with! So that one slight criticism didn’t lead to that essay.
It’s was the other stuff: “very specific sequence detailed in the manual” which got me, because the wording is so amped up and over dramatized. I mean I almost mentioned “JFC” myself before you did, but explained it instead. You can’t please everyone though.
I think it’s interesting how Tesla has addressed all the different UX challenges of the car. Fascinating really. I know UX people and they have my utmost respect because they often solve problems like this one in such effective ways.
