How to Improve the Clarity

These were all great suggestions for additional features. I would like to suggest improvements of existing features. There are several Information Messages involving engine startup, for instance, "Engine Started for Oil Circulation" (page 110 of the Owner's Manual). Wouldn't it be great if Honda included other informational engine messages.

Something like "High Revs due to increase Power Needs" or "Battery Safety requires increased Charge Generation", etc. I think the appearance of such messages would make the sudden occurrence of amplified engine sounds less startling.
 
It would be nice if the back button on the infotainment screen actually went back to the previous screen. It would be convenient to toggle between the audio and energy screens without stepping through 3 screens to get to energy every time.
 
Agreed its all way too slow. Another slow thing in this car and every other car I've ever been in are the power seats. Why do they have to be so slow? That was one more reason for me to get the base model to avoid them, I can just slide from my wife's setting in an instant and be on my way.

Reviving an old thread.

If you program the seat position to your key fob it will move to your setting when you unlock the door.

Why couldn’t they make the passenger seat 8-way adjustable like the drivers seat? I like to bring the front of the seat up and the back, down, even as a passenger. Even though I find the seats comfortable, a lumbar support would have been a nice addition.

I’ll think of more improvements later.
 
I wish that the hand hold notch on the right inside of the truck lid that is used to help close the trunk lid were duplicated on the left side. This addition would allow left handed people would have an easier time closing the trunk lid.

LeoP
 
I found this advice on a Civic site in response to similar complaints, "The Quick Service guys said that to do a hard reset of the infotainment system, you need to hold down the dimmer switch while pressing the audio off and menu buttons at the same time. Hold them down for a long time, until the screen asks if you want to reboot. (You may have to let go and hold them down more than once.) Select yes, and the system will reboot. That fixed my problem! The guy said that they recommend doing this every six months or so, since a lot of data can cache in these systems, and the reboot clears it. Hope this is useful."

I haven't tried it yet so no guarantees.

Just press and hold the audio button.

Skip to 8:30

 
A TPMS that displays individual tire pressure.
Recessed or more aerodynamic door handles.
A less busy front end. It certainly can’t be aerodynamic.
Make it look like an Acura TL.
 
I would like more information on the screens. There is enough screen real estate to show range, mpg, & power distribution at once in one screen even on the smaller center dash screen. Plus there should be screens with all sorts of dada available those of us that like that sort of stuff even if the default is to hide it from those that don’t.
 
After almost a year, here's my big list in rough priority order
  • Heated steering wheel. I've used heat when I could get away without it because my hands are cold
  • Lumbar--it's crazy that I need a lumbar pillow in a new car. Also, my lumbar pillow blocks part of the heated seat
  • Real blind spot
  • Parking sensors and/or 360 (the car is bigger than my last, and I park in a commercial garage)
  • Ventilated seats
  • Heat pump to save electricity when heating in cool but not cold temps
  • More data, and the maintenance minder should use the data
  • Video from the cameras saved to USB or phone
  • Better programmed charging-for example stop at a %age, or be 100% by a certain time
 
I've said this one before but permit one to select HV and leave it in HV mode across restarts. I'd just make the setting (whatever it is) persistent. Users could still opt for what they like. If you like and use EV exclusively so be it. Select EV and leave that. If you on long trip and want HV for each start for a few days, let the car automatically stay in HV.
-Dan
Oh yeah! I like this.
I would love to be able to keep it in ev mode.

I don't like the way they did the various drive modes. The only way to get sticky regen braking is in sport mode, but sport mode also changes the mapping of the accelerator pedal, and then I often inadvertently kick the ICE on.

Personally I think changing the mapping of the go pedal is always a stupid idea in any car. I want to have muscle memory that tells me how much go I get for a pedal movement. Changing it up with eco or normal or sport, is silly, it doesn't make the car any more powerful or any more economical it just makes you move your foot more or less. Instead the modes should be EV, HV, and a toggle between regen braking sticky or not.

Someone talked about putting it in neutral to coast. I have tried and it would not let me do that while moving.
 
Oh yeah! I like this.
I would love to be able to keep it in ev mode.

I don't like the way they did the various drive modes. The only way to get sticky regen braking is in sport mode, but sport mode also changes the mapping of the accelerator pedal, and then I often inadvertently kick the ICE on.

Personally I think changing the mapping of the go pedal is always a stupid idea in any car. I want to have muscle memory that tells me how much go I get for a pedal movement. Changing it up with eco or normal or sport, is silly, it doesn't make the car any more powerful or any more economical it just makes you move your foot more or less. Instead the modes should be EV, HV, and a toggle between regen braking sticky or not.

Someone talked about putting it in neutral to coast. I have tried and it would not let me do that while moving.
Try long pressing the Neutral button with no pedal input. Works for me but I never use it.
 
I think what the Clarity needs is a Gear Mode indicator that isn't almost hidden in a tiny graphic.

Maybe a heads up display that flashes GEAR MODE!!! in bright orange across the windshield every 5 seconds?

Maybe the voice of Jeremy Clarkson that shouts YOU HAVE NOW ENTERED GEAR MODE!!!

Maybe a DEFCON1 klaxon with flashing lights whenever gear mode is activated?

Just a few suggestions from someone who has never found gear mode at all interesting but has found the many conversations about it here to be fascinating:):)
 
I use N on a downhill to clean the rust off my rotors once in a while.
We didn't drive our Clarity for 2 weeks last winter and the rotors accumulated so much rust that no amount of heavy braking (and attendant tire wear) could fix it. Our dealer had to clean the rotors to cure the "swish-swish-swish" sound always present when not using the brakes. I hated how it disturbed the normally quiet EV travel.

The only benefit of this problem was that I was able to hear the sound change when the brake calipers were activated. I could tell that the brake calipers activated the instant I touched the brake pedal. That means our Clarity uses both regen and calipers from the first touch of the brake pedal, not regen first and calipers later. Perhaps Honda activates the calipers from the start, but only slightly, and then increases their contribution to braking as I continue pressing the brake pedal. That might be a strategy for eliminating the change in braking feel (both pedal feel and deceleration feel) as one method hands off to the other. It might also be a strategy to minimize brake-disc rusting (if so, it failed me). The Clarity's braking is a lot smoother than in my old Insight, so that aspect of braking is great.

Now I'm wondering what happens in BEVs that offer such significant regen braking that the brake calipers and discs get almost no use? Do those cars have special no-rust discs? Is there such a thing?
 
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