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Comment by ForTheKidz | Hacker News Reader

For those of us who don't own a tesla, what on earth is "auto mode"?

You set the temperature and the hvac adjusts the fan speed and turns on the air conditioner or heating as needed.

Honestly, after setting my car to my preferred temperature months ago, I never had to touch the hvac ever since. No idea why people keep wanting to fiddle with theirs.

That is one of my most hated features of modern cars. People don't feel hot or cold based just on ambient temperature, and everything with auto controls makes "blow hot air" far more complicated than just turning a knob.

Modern cars? My Honda did this in the 90s. It's a thermostat. The technology has existed for over a century.

> People don't feel hot or cold based just on ambient temperature

This is well known, and it is why sun-load sensors have been commonplace in cars for decades.

Automotive engineering is quite mature.

Because sometimes you have a down jacket on and sometimes a t-shirt depending on the wildly changing weather.

I think some people would do well travelling a tid bit more.

Because some of us live in a climate where we have 0 Celsius in the morning and 20 Celsius at 2pm.

It doesn't matter, auto mode does the right thing. My BYD Seal has the same, and it's actually pretty good. I can't say it's perfect, sometimes it'll blow cold air when the car is hot but I'm not that hot, but I've never really had to touch it beyond setting it to 21 C when I got the car.

It's good it works for you. But it certainly does matter, and no, it doesn't always work. Like with anything on the internet, though: my experience vs your experience.

Never got in the car having one layer too many and having to turn down the temp? Or the other way around: not enough layers on and realise 10 minutes into the drive that it’s a bit chilly? Is your preferred temperature the same as the one of you passenger? Or you get in the car from a massive rain and you need to blast that aircon and bump the temp to deal with humidity completely obstructing the windshield?

Yeah but there are buttons for those things. My point was that the external temperature doesn't matter, not that your circumstances don't.

If your car has crappy thermostat control, then how does that universally apply to other cars?

My thermostat just works. I don’t live in an extreme climate, so layering isn’t a thing. The car has a button specifically for defogging your windshield, so that is treated separately from climate control. You can hit max if you want drastic temperature change, but it’s a heat pump so thermostat is the only way to go really.

> I don’t live in an extreme climate, so layering isn’t a thing.

See, you don’t. It’s okay.

“It barely ever rains in California. I don’t understand why we need wipers. And when it rains once in 10 years, I can stop… I don’t understand why everyone cannot just stop. Why do we spend money on those little engines and wipers.”

Yes, so in the morning the auto will heat your windows, turn on your seat and steering wheel heating and make it warm to your set temperature, then dial it down to keep the temp. When warmed it will cool as needed. This is not new or Tesla specific.

And maybe it will work. Thanks! But maybe, you know, sometimes I just want to knock it off a notch while driving. I must be so complicated… why would I want to regulate temperature manually. Or change some other obscure setting a genius from California never considered to be useful because “it works in my climate”.

By the way… there’s nothing preventing auto aircon and having a manual dial to change the setting rather than through a touchscreen. It safer. You know, in case if you have to. Which you don’t have to, apparently. That’s cool.

Ah, so just as terrible as auto mode home thermostats. I miss the days of simple rotary dials where you twist to the temp you want right now then forget.

Setting the desired temp is 'auto mode'

AC auto mode is not a Tesla special thing. Most car AC have had this setting or button for many years. E.g. a 2011 Ford Territory has it.

The AC auto button takes the needed action to get to the temperature you set. In On Tesla this was mostly set and forget.

Lexus has had this since 1991 or earlier. Except Lexus also had actual dedicated buttons, because sometimes you want to tweak it (due to sunlight or whatever clothing you were wearing or your mood).

The car knows better than you what you want your climate settings to be.

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