kabre

What's frustrating about questions like this with the driving mode is that AFAIK, there is no information to say what these the different modes are supposed to do. The only real different I notice between any of them is the throttle response. I'd really like to know what Range mode is supposed to do to presumably extend the range - because I not convinced that there is any difference to the range in comparison to the Tour mode.

The data gathering is an interesting subject - in the same way that Tesla supposedly capture data from their drivers to "train" their autopilot, you'd think that it would be sensible for Lotus to do similar. I've often wondered whether that is the data that the data sharing setting references on the data privacy screen!? But totally agree w.r.t. getting priorities right: fix / improve the features people already have before creating new things like track driving tutors. But until the car can be properly trusted to drive at a constant speed on a straight bit of motorway, it seems odd to think it can help to teach people drive around a track! I'm also always very keen to be a beta tester. I'd far rather be in a position to provide positive feedback about soon to be released features (with the expectation that beta versions will have some issues), than feel like I am complaining when calling out features not being good enough after they have been released!

Lots of potentially interesting things there.

I've just had a strange / annoying issue with the key fob battery - bit of a warning to everyone else with it as it very nearly left me stranded! Just had to pop out in the car - fortunately only local journey! I have the setting turned on to auto unlock the car on approach - but when I walked up to the car it didn't unlock. Not the first time that has happened - so I pressed the button on the fob, unlocked the car, and drove off. 5 mins later, getting back to the car to drive home the car didn't unlock again. Again, pressed the button again, car unlocked. However, this time, on trying to drive off the car would not go into drive via the gear selector. Then a message popped up on the display to say it couldn't detect the digital key! Sat in the car, I pressed the button to lock, then unlock it again, tried again, and again, and again, but still car kept telling me it didn't recognise the digital key and to try moving it around and trying to select a gear again after 5 seconds. Eventually, after getting out of car, locking, unlocking for about the 5th time, it decided to recognise the key fob and I was able to drive home. When I collected the car back in December, I remember the dealer mentioned that it might not be a bad idea to replace the battery straight away because they don't last long. So I figured this might again be an issue with the fob battery, so I've just swapped the battery again (CR2032 - fortunately have spares) and that fixed it. Old battery reads 2.3V, now one 3.3V, I tried swapping back to old battery, and again car would not detect the fob to unlock on walking up to it - but the fob button still working to unlock. However, very strange that the key fob battery can drain to a state to have enough power to unlock the doors, but not enough to be recognised to allow you to drive it! Considering the last new battery only lasted a few months, and the fact that this happening can seemingly leave you stranded, I am now going to carry a spare CR2032 and a SIM card tool in the car!

I guess the issue with being able to purchase later is that given such a choice, people might prefer to wait until they work properly before paying for them! 🤣 That said, salary sacrifice means that I would have chosen to pay for Highway Assist upfront anyway, I do find that makes motorway driving less tiring even with the current limitations. Parking Assist is not something I would have chosen up front, but didn't really get a choice as mine was a pre-spec'd car. I've always found it too much of a pain to remember how to turn it on, and when parking there isn't usually much time to mess about with menu's when other cars are invariably waiting for you to get parked - though I guess I just need to spend some time practising. One thing I would be interested in would be if the park assist included the ability for the car to pull out of a parking space on it's own - for cases where someone has parked too close to the driver's side door, which happens all too often in car parks with narrow bays.

I had long drive at the weekend to take my son back to uni to test 1.4.0x. Initial thoughts are: Android Auto works very well so far - very happy with that!. One thing to note is that if your phone was previously already paired with the car, the easiest way is to enable AA is to unpair / forget on both your car and phone, and then start the pairing again from scratch. The car and phone asks all the correct questions to enable AA and transparently do whatever is needed for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth necessary to support AA. The only slight annoyance is that the AA display will often overlay the native satnav screen, but you can still see an inch of the native map above the window for Android Auto. That would be fixed with the mentioned future full screen option, but I do quite like the view of the road and other cars / objects that are detected in the right third of the screen. It would be great if AA could use the full screen height, but have the option to tile with the right hand display side - and to turn off the native satnav display when running. I was pleased to see that the sat-nav next turn instructions from either Google Maps or Waze running in AA also display on the HUD - but the miles to KM bug on the HUD still exists with that. I'm hoping the HUD can be updated as part of the OTA - I was previously thinking it was the native sat nav app telling HUD the wrong information, but it is clearly an issue with the HUD itself. Highway Asist now seems nag less often about hands on the steering wheel, but it still requires far too much force to be put into the steering to confirm that hands are on the wheel. I don't ever take my hands off the wheel, I trust the Lotus far less with highway assist than I have been inclined to with other cars previously, it is very annoying to be told to do something I am already doing. I can confirm that the auto emergency braking doesn't turn on again automatically despite either amber or red warning messages about hands on the wheel. Therefore still keen to know exactly what the monitoring system needs to think it has detected me not doing before turning such things back on again!? It is great that the map now works in the app to show the car location. There was a note in the release updates about the traffic sign recognition warning volume, not sure I've noticed that, but they don't seem to have done anything to improve the actual recognition of road signs. Several times at the weekend I drove through temporary speed restrictions that were very clearly signposted - but the car mostly just ignored the signs and told me the default speed for the road which I assume it gets from the sat nav maps. Sign detection is far from being new tech, Lotus should do doing a lot better with this. My car had/has the indicator tick problem with 1.3.0w, but this seems greatly improved with 1.4.0x, though not convinced it is totally fixed. Lotus have told me this is a hardware / wiring loom issue, but I suspect the software, and specifically the prioritisation / muting of different types of system noise being played through the speakers. There was a couple of times on my weekend road trip when the ticking briefly disappeared, but those instances were very brief and seemed more linked other system sounds interrupting the ticking noise, and the ticking started again later during the same turns - that was never the case with 1.3.0. More driving needed to get a better understanding, but I am not keen on having wiring looms replaced unless it is definitely necessary - that has the potential to cause more problems that it solves!

Is that an "R" only feature? I've not seen a spoiler page, I always assumed the spoiler settings were all just automatic and tied to the drive mode of Sport, Tour, Range.

That's great to hear and somewhat reassuring, fingers crossed they sort it! A useful feature for things like this would be that if ever the car does intervene and do something as drastic as emergency, the car could store the previous 5 or 10 seconds of video feed from all the cameras for later download / review, possibly with an the option to upload it to Lotus so they can properly review instances of false positives.

The update fairies have been very kind after all whilst my car is at Lotus Silverstone, it is now showing 1.4.0x on my app! Hoping I do not have the same issue as @RichEV in getting AA to work. Not sure if this is of any help in getting it to work (I won't get to try AA in mine until I collect it on Saturday), but when I test drove an Eletre back in September last year, the demo car had AA enabled - though it was too buggy to properly connect my Google Pixel phone. But to manage the connection, there was a subtle extra icon for AA along with the icons for music and phone Bluetooth connectivity for the phone under the drop down Bluetooth menu from the icon at the top left of the screen. Clicking that icon to enable it tried to start turning things on my phone, but it kept crapping out. I'm assuming that the interface for that has not really changed. I think there might also have been something under the Lotus Apps - but less convinced I am remembering that correctly!

My car is currently in at Lotus Silverstone, and part of what I was hoping they would be able to sort is the software update to 1.4.0. However, just heard from them that dealers are not able to control when software updates for cars are done, they don't even seem to have an easy way to request that any given car is updated. That seems a bit mad based on the number of genuine problems with cars that software updates can address these days! I am very impressed with the Lotus Silverstone thus far, so I'm pretty sure they are not fobbing me off with that as an excuse. Not clear why the updates take so long to roll out, but it is frustrating! When the update comes, does anyone know whether it will be straight from 1.3.0w to 1.4.0x, or does the 1.4.0w update need to happen before the 1.4.0x update?

I'm keen to know whether the child lock rear screen option just stops kids in the back buggering about with the front seats, or whether it locks the entire rear touchscreen. The former is a suggestion I made after the first time teenagers sat in the back of my car (grrrr!), but it has always been possible to disable the entire rear touchscreen from the settings menu - but doing so stops them being able to adjust the climate control, roof dimming, etc. which is far less annoying / potentially dangerous than the seats! Very odd if there are no release notes, even if it is only a minor version of a minor version release it is still a different version with noticeable changes in the release! And you'd have thought they'd have numbered it 1.4.1w rather than 1.4.0x - I was previously thinking the "w" referred to the territory.

I've just had the 1.4.0w update email too - fingers crossed the update happens soon - really looking forward to getting Andriod Auto back! As per comments earlier in this thread - the idea that the car re-enables things that were manually turned off - especially when the reason for turning them off is because the features themselves are potentially very dangerous - is beyond belief! If, when my car is updated, turning these things back on happens with any sort of regularity then I will be apoplectic!

I remember hearing the same - but never seen it happen. One to add to the list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/136ag-BqMYswhvNTx6dDiCegB3kZ6E4XsHhY7twuk6NA/edit?pli=1

There might be an issue with the resolution of the HUD, but other than that I see no reason why not - it is just down to what resource they will continue to commit to improving the Eletre software.

The emergency braking especially, but also and the red flashing warnings really bother me - they both happen far too regularly. Not being able to permanently turn them off is madness - I would not mind if they worked properly, but they don't, it makes passengers and other road users think you are a a bad driver. I think they are dangerous - as it stands I am sure they will cause accidents rather than preventing them.