What's the purpose of Recuperation on the Settings screen?

[Gino]

Regen (recuperation) has nothing to do with converting friction and heat from the braking system into electricity. Regenerative braking is achieved by the car turning the electic motors into generators when you lift off the accelerator or step on the brake. The generators require force to fight the magnetic field controlled by the Electric Power Control Unit. The higher the field the more force is needs so the more braking force is applied. Your mechanical brakes are controlled by another system and are blended into the braking action as needed. Typically, aside from track use, EV’s mechanical brakes can last for 100,000 miles or more.
The regen settings control that balance between regenerative braking, mechanical braking and coasting.

Excellent description! You saved me from explaining it and I couldn't have explained it better if I tried...

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[ShiftyWolf]

Is there any way to program the recuperation to automatically come on or does it have to be set each time you turn the car on?

It will always reset, like the drive mode, when you shut off your car. You can, however, customize the Individual driving mode, so recuperation is on/off/auto when you switch to your Individual driving mode.