Well, that was disappointing!

Well, that was disappointing!  A little while ago I got a notification that the software upgrade on my Tesla Model X had completed.  Yay!  Time to go out and take it for a spin and try out all the new features!  Auto-driving here I come!

Oops.  Not so much.

First I read through the release notes, on the car's center console.  This isn't the all-singing, all-dancing upgrade I was thinking I'd be getting.  It is, instead, a small step in that direction.  This upgrade gives me traffic-aware cruise control (in other words, it won't crash into the car in front of you), some very limited auto-steering (apparently only on restricted-access highways, which we only get onto when we travel to Salt Lake City), and a few other things.  There was also some language about the need for calibration, which might take a day or three of driving.

So, expectations set down, we drove it out for a test.  I tried to put it in cruise control, and ... got an error display and a chime.  Huh?  Turns out even normal cruise control is disabled while the camera is calibrating.  So right now my Model X isn't even working as well as it did before the update.

Dang.

I'm a little worried that “calibration” might take a long time out here where we live, as many of the roads have no painted lines at all, or only the center line.

Double dang...

Paradise ponders, plentiful moose edition...

Paradise ponders, plentiful moose edition...  I spent most of the day yesterday snow-plowing and working on our paperwork, but Debbie and I did take a nice drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon.  For most of the drive we were in a snow storm, occasionally with very heavy snow falling.  We saw a lot of wildlife, though we're not sure why.  I lost track of the number of deer and elk we saw, including the group of does right next to the road in the photo at right.  We also had four separate sightings of moose, some of which were also quite close to us. 

This morning I had a notification from Tesla: the long-awaited HW2 update for my Model X is now available.  Yay!  It takes almost two hours to install it, and I just started that process.  A little later today I'll take it for a spin and see if I can tell any difference.

Now back to paperwork I go.  Likely I'll be shoveling and plowing later today, too...