HomeLink shortcomings...

[evanevery]

Anyone get the "save position" function work to automatically bring up their HomeLink page as the GTK App says it should? Not me! No matter how many times I saved the position, I still have to open the HomeLink screen manually. So, I assigned the "User Definable" button on the right of the instrument cluster. But it doesn't end there...

Its yet another stupid GUI implementation that I have to:

- MANUALLY open up the HomeLink Screen as I back out of my garage to close my garage door
- and then CLOSE my Backup Camera Window to actually ACCESS the underlying HomeLink Screen
- and then MANUALLY re-open the Backup Camera if I want to use it again!

Who writes this stuff? Why can't we have a little pull down window so the HomeLink menu can COEXIST with the backup camera? Am I the only guy who backs out of his garage? Why do I always feel like I am playing a concert piano when I have to do anything with the user interface? It doesn't need to be this complicated!

I guess there is no chance we will ever get the HomeLink system to automatically open/close a garage door based on GPS location (like Tesla) as it pretty much WON'T DO ANYTHING wrt GPS location....

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[Gogs]

Yes agree, there are large short comings with the gui

 

[wemct]

Anyone get the "save position" function work to automatically bring up their HomeLink page as the GTK App says it should? Not me! No matter how many times I saved the position, I still have to open the HomeLink screen manually. So, I assigned the "User Definable" button on the right of the instrument cluster. But it doesn't end there...

Its yet another stupid GUI implementation that I have to:

- MANUALLY open up the HomeLink Screen as I back out of my garage to close my garage door
- and then CLOSE my Backup Camera Window to actually ACCESS the underlying HomeLink Screen
- and then MANUALLY re-open the Backup Camera if I want to use it again!

Who writes this stuff? Why can't we have a little pull down window so the HomeLink menu can COEXIST with the backup camera? Am I the only guy who backs out of his garage? Why do I always feel like I am playing a concert piano when I have to do anything with the user interface? It doesn't need to be this complicated!

I guess there is no chance we will ever get the HomeLink system to automatically open/close a garage door based on GPS location (like Tesla) as it pretty much WON'T DO ANYTHING wrt GPS location....

You aren’t missing much. When location did work, all it did was launch the home link screen. It did not open the garage. I now have a gate and garage on home link so location doesn’t do anything. I have homelink launch programmed on the diamond shortcut on the steering wheel.

 

[evanevery]

Its like Porsche never did any usability testing with the GUI in this car!

There are so many issues with stuff actually working, missing functions (ever try to delete a "favorite" nav location?), missing physical controls (swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe,...), and very counter-intuitive function locations...

Most of this (except the swipe-craziness) can likely be solved with a software update... Here's hoping they give us something more usable in the future...

 

[moballa]

Anyone get the "save position" function work to automatically bring up their HomeLink page as the GTK App says it should? Not me! No matter how many times I saved the position, I still have to open the HomeLink screen manually. So, I assigned the "User Definable" button on the right of the instrument cluster. But it doesn't end there...

I also assigned the homelink task to the user definable button on the instrument cluster. I only have one homelink assignment in my list and it works fine for me. I push the instrument cluster button to open and again to close. It doesn't open the homelink screen on the PCM...it just sends the signal to operate the door.

(the saved position doesn't do anything for me either)

 

[evanevery]

I also assigned the homelink task to the user definable button on the instrument cluster. I only have one homelink assignment in my list and it works fine for me. I push the instrument cluster button to open and again to close. It doesn't open the homelink screen on the PCM...it just sends the signal to operate the door.

(the saved position doesn't do anything for me either)

So, let me see if I understand what you are implying...

* I have three garage doors. All at the same location.. Each has its own HomeLink definition ("Left", "Middle", "Right").

Are you saying that:

1. If I only had a single assignment, then the User Defined button would just activate it (instead of bringing up the menu)

and/or

2. I could have all THREE assigned, but only save the GPS location for ONE of them, then THAT door would open automatically using the user-defined button? (instead of bringing up the menu)

I don't think we can "clear" the GPS location on the HomeLink definitions without having to delete the entire definition and then having to relink the button all over again. (Yet another GREAT GUI feature...) I guess I could try just resetting the GPS location to somewhere else on the other two buttons...

What do you think?

 

[LonePalmBJ]

So, let me see if I understand what you are implying...

* I have three garage doors. All at the same location.. Each has its own HomeLink definition ("Left", "Middle", "Right").

Are you saying that:

1. If I only had a single assignment, then the User Defined button would just activate it (instead of bringing up the menu)

and/or

2. I could have all THREE assigned, but only save the GPS location for ONE of them, then THAT door would open automatically using the user-defined button? (instead of bringing up the menu)

I don't think we can "clear" the GPS location on the HomeLink definitions without having to delete the entire definition and then having to relink the button all over again. (Yet another GREAT GUI feature...) I guess I could try just resetting the GPS location to somewhere else on the other two buttons...

What do you think?

I only have one Homelink profile, "garage" and I mapped it to the joker button on the driver display.

Press once: Garage door opens
Press again: Garage door closes

It doesn't change anything on either display screen or bring up any menus.

Also. it's a short press/tap, not a long press like I hear you have to do through the Homelink UI

I don't bother with the GPS at all. My guess is that if you deleted the other two profiles you would get the same behavior I have, but I'm not sure of any way to keep all three profiles but have the joker button just work for one of them.

 

[evanevery]

I only have one Homelink profile, "garage" and I mapped it to the joker button on the driver display.

Press once: Garage door opens
Press again: Garage door closes

It doesn't change anything on either display screen or bring up any menus.

Also. it's a short press/tap, not a long press like I hear you have to do through the Homelink UI

I don't bother with the GPS at all. My guess is that if you deleted the other two profiles you would get the same behavior I have, but I'm not sure of any way to keep all three profiles but have the joker button just work for one of them.

Thanks,

I just tested it and you are correct.

Although you CAN delete a GPS position, it appears you CAN NOT delete a button definition. I seem to remember when I initially set up HomeLink, I had to actually delete my ENTIRE PROFILE and re-establish my log in in order to clear my HomeLink button definitions. If anyone knows some other way, I'ld surely be interested... There doesn't appear to be a "delete" option for any of the individual button definitions and there also doesn't appear to be a "clear" option for the entire set of HomeLink definitions. It appears the only way is to delete your entire driver's profile!

So, I did "delete" the GPS location for the other two buttons and left the GPS definition for my "main" button and it made no difference. The User Def button still brings up the entire HomeLink menu (albeit UNDERNEATH the backup camera screen)...

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Thanks,

I just tested it and you are correct.

Although you CAN delete a GPS position, it appears you CAN NOT delete a button definition. I seem to remember when I initially set up HomeLink, I had to actually delete my ENTIRE PROFILE and re-establish my log in in order to clear my HomeLink button definitions. If anyone knows some other way, I'ld surely be interested... There doesn't appear to be a "delete" option for any of the individual button definitions and there also doesn't appear to be a "clear" option for the entire set of HomeLink definitions. It appears the only way is to delete your entire driver's profile!

So, I did "delete" the GPS location for the other two buttons and left the GPS definition for my "main" button and it made no difference. The User Def button still brings up the entire HomeLink menu (albeit UNDERNEATH the backup camera screen)...

In other places the UI makes use of a decidedly nonobvious left swipe to expose edit or delete options. If you have three homelink profiles listed see if you can press and swipe one of them to expose a delete option

 

[svp6]

Although you CAN delete a GPS position, it appears you CAN NOT delete a button definition. I seem to remember when I initially set up HomeLink, I had to actually delete my ENTIRE PROFILE and re-establish my log in in order to clear my HomeLink button definitions. If anyone knows some other way, I'ld surely be interested... There doesn't appear to be a "delete" option for any of the individual button definitions and there also doesn't appear to be a "clear" option for the entire set of HomeLink definitions. It appears the only way is to delete your entire driver's profile!

Swipe left to delete..... First time I had to reprogram the Homelink altogether.... As you already said, who designed this?

Here is my experience with the Homelink (reposted):


My latest Taycan bug is the spinning wheel on the PCM when I start the car, with the message on the dash "Maps loading". I can be patient, but it is annoying - can take 20-30 seconds in the morning. Since the Tesla is not smart enough yet to close the garage door automatically (why, oh why? - second thing I miss from my Tesla) this can be a nuisance, as there is no apparent way to touch the homelink garage door button. I had this once as I drove home, screen did not recover until my arrival. So I am thinking how in the world I am going to get in the house when I had vision - pushed blindly on the screen where the button is usually located. Just like magic, the door opened . Now this is what I call a real hidden button....

Still love the car......

 

[evanevery]

Most of this CRAP could be resolved with a firmware update I think.

The only GUI shortcoming which would be hard to resolve with just an update would be all the swipe, swipe, swipe BS required to move through a vertical list (like when you have a couple hundred albums you would like to BROWSE through). Swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, OOPS a "select" by mistake, BACK KEY, start over! ABBA is definitely getting more air time in my car than ZZTop...

So we are a victim of "Porsche Design". They clearly did not want any knobs or physical controls on the console (Form over Function). So "usability be damned". This is what happens when you design a car for car shows and not for drivers.

However, it might be possible to implement a vertical "slider" on the console (in software) but I think you would also need to etch/print the bar (like the "back" button) so the user could actually find it. Using a vertical bar, a user could simply slide their finger up/down to move the list. The further up or down (from the middle) the faster the list would scroll.

Clearly, no one actually USED the GUI during whatever "testing" they did... I imagine lots of guys in white coats with clipboards and check boxes but no one actually spending much time in the car taking leisurely drives...

 

[Dlurker20]

Swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, OOPS a "select" by mistake, BACK KEY, start over! ABBA is definitely getting more air time in my car than ZZTop...

This cracked me up because it’s so true! This failure is not restricted to Porsche design. Apple and their renown UI design is irritating AF with CarPlay and scroll/swipe for exactly the same thing. So many times in my BMW I’ve just given up and selected whatever song/artist I’ve gotten to. Lists are a PITA for GUI, I get it, but they really ought to think through how to use it if you have more than 10 in a list!

 

[cjne]

Is voice control a viable option to scrolling, can it be told to play some ZZ Top for example?

 

[evanevery]

This cracked me up because it’s so true! This failure is not restricted to Porsche design. Apple and their renown UI design is irritating AF with CarPlay and scroll/swipe for exactly the same thing. So many times in my BMW I’ve just given up and selected whatever song/artist I’ve gotten to. Lists are a PITA for GUI, I get it, but they really ought to think through how to use it if you have more than 10 in a list!

NOT an Apple fan (for other reasons), but I also don't use Android Auto in my other vehicles (which actually have it) either. I prefer to have my phone available as an additional display and input device to augment the Nav system...

...and folks will argue that you can just type in the name of the Artist or Album you are searching for. But that's not the point of BROWSING, is it? You can walk into a restaurant and simply ask for exactly what you want - or you can browse the menu to see if something peaks your interest. A simple wheel (like BMW iDrive) could have easily solved this very frustrating interface problem.

Here's hoping someone at BMW gets my suggestion for the "vertical slider" on the touchpad so we can get this addressed in a future software update. I don't know how they would retrofit the printing on the touchpad, but I would certainly try to use it "blindly" if needed...

 

[evanevery]

Is voice control a viable option to scrolling, can it be told to play some ZZ Top for example?

As above... That's not BROWSING. Most times I just want to scroll through my music (165 GB) to see if something interesting pops up. Its also pretty much required for passengers who want to select something from my collection.

If all you do is ask/search for stuff, you will very often find that much of your music collection may go unlistened to...

Point is... This could have been implemented in a much more usable interface!

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