I made a prototype. Elon Musk didn’t like it. Then the internet went nuts.
How I found myself in a battle of ideas with Elon Musk
(For folks who prefer to listen instead of read, you can watch a video version of this article here.)
After much anticipation, Tesla’s v11 interface update was finally arriving, and for the Tesla faithful, this was like a yearly holiday. They waited for their yearly Christmas present from Jolly Old St. Muskalous, hopeful for the kinds of great new features and upgrades that have arrived in this manner in years past.
Unfortunately, as people started to use it, this excitement soon turned to disappointment, which evolved into anger. The problem was a common one – in the process of making the interface more ordered, logical, and easier to learn, it had been transformed into something that was harder to use day to day. The learning was easier; the using was harder. Being that this crowd was full of experienced Tesla drivers, these changes dealt a one-two punch: they’d have to spend effort learning an interface that required more effort in the long-term. They were being made to invest effort in something that made their use harder, not easier. Folks weren’t happy.
Being a product designer myself, I decided I’d explore the issue, if for no other reason than to satisfy my own curiosity. Much of the feedback on v11 centered around no longer having direct access to certain settings in the UI, so I focused my efforts there. As I’ve seen time and time again, words pale in comparison to being shown an example, and a well-made mockup or prototype can get a blocked team out of a jam in a hurry. My hope was that, if people seemed to like it, the folks at Tesla would have a clearer signal as to what the public was looking for. Having worked for some tech giants myself, I’d have loved to have access to this kind of broad feedback while designing. I hoped the folks at Tesla would feel the same and see it as both constructive and instructive.
Over the next few days, I remade the Tesla UI pixel-by-pixel, matching it against raw HDMI output from the car for the highest realism. The project took me over 20 hours, all told, so I was more than a little nervous when it came time to post the concept online. Would people like it? Would the folks at Tesla even see it? I filmed a walkthrough of the prototype running on my iPad with my phone, added a watermark, held my breath, and clicked “Send”.
The reaction was swift. The video quickly went viral, bringing in over 58K views in the first three days. Before too long, the video was picked up by the Teslarazzi, being covered by several popular Tesla news sites and Twitter accounts. This is where Elon Musk comes in.
In response to a tweet about it, he replied:
Not exactly the warmest reception.
I have seen the internet get excited by Tesla news, but I’ve never seen anything like what happened next. The pushback was enormous. Replies came flooding in to defend my proposal and to give examples of how and why they wanted to be able to control things themselves. It was written about in Inc. Magazine. Even former presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig weighed in. The prevailing sentiment: “Automation should assist users, not tell them what they get.”
It’s a strange feeling, finding yourself pitted against the latest Person of The Year – only to discover the crowd has your back, not theirs.
I can’t presume to know all the reasons his response received the vitriol it did, but here’s how I understand it:
- A car is a tool. Over time, the efficiency and comfort of a tool becomes more important than however easy it was to learn. This “ergonomic” effort becomes more important the longer the tool gets used. (Incidentally, it’s also something I’m writing a book about.)
- Some of Tesla’s changes did wonders for the learnability of the UI, but increased the level of ergonomic effort required, doubling or tripling the number of taps to access many common features.
- Experienced Tesla drivers have learned how to use their vehicles already, so improvements to learnability offered them no benefit. Meanwhile, things that used to be easy to do would now require more effort. This was frustrating.
- Many drivers who saw my prototype could see how it would reduce the ergonomic friction in the interface. They knew that the way they were doing things wasn’t the easiest way it could be done, and felt like they were effectively wasting effort was a result. They wanted a better way.
- Elon commented on it, seemingly shrugging off the problem. This led many to feel as though he was trivializing what was a real painpoint for them. Many considered this a bad take, which lead to anger and disillusionment. A few have called it his “You’re holding it wrong” moment — a nod to when Steve Jobs used a similar line in response to product feedback, drawing ire and condemnation in the process.
But with any luck, this is heading in a good direction. The folks at Tesla, who I sincerely believe are talented, capable folks, are no doubt aware of the issues with v11, and are also aware of the exuberant public support for this proposed interface. This interface concept is free for them to use, gratis. Hopefully, as with the waypoints feature before, Elon will hear the crowd, ask “Ok, does everybody here really want this?” and after a loud cry from the audience, say “Alright, fine, we’ll do it.” It’s happened before, and with enough outcry, it may happen again.
As for me, I’m already planning my next prototype. I hope you like it, Elon.
Update (Apr 2022): Tesla has now released a software update with the ability to put shortcuts back in the bottom bar.
Get connected
If you want to see new prototypes like these, you can follow me on Twitter and YouTube, where I’ll be posting more like this in the coming days and weeks.
If you’re curious about design or UI Ergonomics, you can learn more about the book I’m writing or follow me on my main Twitter account (@verbiate).
Full disclosure: I own Tesla stock.
