Tesla Model 3 - Now I get the hype.

Not the reason --- remember (weather you agree or not with the vision) Self driving is the goal and the right/left drive is not the issue..
I get it that it will not be soon or in all corner cases but the man has put his stamp on the vision.

On the wiper front ... the intent is for verbal commands for stuff. (already works for Navigation, radio and some other modes, and the quoted article is out of date as the wiper is controlled for a single swipe, and the speed control for cruise control is now the right scroll wheel.

The entertainment for the day -- wake up and see what is new :)
 
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If you’ve lost the mental and physical capacity to drive, then you shouldn’t even be in a self driving vehicle either. If your faculties are so bad that you can’t remember the rules of the road, then they aren’t good enough to program a self driving vehicle. If your muscles / joints can’t push a gas pedal and steer a wheel, then you’re in no shape to even enjoy the destination in a self driving vehicle in the first place. You’ve become completely debilitated and need to be on a short bus. If I ever get to the point of not being able to drive, then I’m at the point where I shouldn’t ever be traveling alone.
 
I guess you would not approve with a dead person being transported as well. :)

Somewhere on the continuum to this extreme and the class 1 drivers license there will be a rational self driving solution for a bunch of folks who should have assistance.. I think we agree that if we were in your example the desire to move around would be low..

I suggest there will be a lot of cases where it would be appropriate. But I respect your view and respectfully disagree the future will not be better for the tech improvements. After driving on the freeway with advanced cruise control the assist is quite useful. In stop and go situations it is delicious :)
 
Velocity173 said:
If you’ve lost the mental and physical capacity to drive, then you shouldn’t even be in a self driving vehicle either. If your faculties are so bad that you can’t remember the rules of the road, then they aren’t good enough to program a self driving vehicle. If your muscles / joints can’t push a gas pedal and steer a wheel, then you’re in no shape to even enjoy the destination in a self driving vehicle in the first place. You’ve become completely debilitated and need to be on a short bus. If I ever get to the point of not being able to drive, then I’m at the point where I shouldn’t ever be traveling alone.
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Actually my parents disagree. They are hoping that self driving vehicles occur before they need to stop driving. They are looking at it from a few perspectives.
1. Makes road trips easier, they can read, relax, talk and do other things instead of paying attention to traffic and navigating. They drive about 30K miles a year alsmost completely on road trips; and nether likes driving.
2. Reaction time. As you age it gets slower. At some point it is slow enough that you are unsafe on the road. However, you are perfectly safe working the grill, stuff in the kitchen...

Point 2 is about maintaining independence.

Tim
 
tspear said:
Actually my parents disagree. They are hoping that self driving vehicles occur before they need to stop driving. They are looking at it from a few perspectives.
1. Makes road trips easier, they can read, relax, talk and do other things instead of paying attention to traffic and navigating. They drive about 30K miles a year alsmost completely on road trips; and nether likes driving.
2. Reaction time. As you age it gets slower. At some point it is slow enough that you are unsafe on the road. However, you are perfectly safe working the grill, stuff in the kitchen...

Point 2 is about maintaining independence.

Tim
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But that’s not independence if a computer is doing all the work. Same as flying in GA. If I’m not in control I don’t want to take part in it. The trip, the visual aspect is only a minor enjoyment. True enjoyment is doing it yourself.

To each his own I guess.
 
Velocity173 said:
It’s not just the awkwardness of the display either, it’s the fact you have to take your attention off of driving just to activate the wipers. Sometimes physical controls work better than touch screens.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/reviews/2018-tesla-model-3-long-range-review/
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I've enjoyed trouble-free driving in my Model 3 since May 1st. Here are a few corrections to some misconceptions in this thread:

1. The center screen is weird for about 30 miles. Not bad, just weird. After that, it is totally normal. In fact, when I drive my truck now, I miss it.

2. Screen ergonomics are excellent. They obviously spent a lot of time laying everything out to be logical and accessible.

3. Windshield wipers turn themselves on automatically when it rains. If you want a single swipe (or squirter) it's a physical button on the end of the turn signal stalk.

I'm a car guy. I own and regularly use 9 vehicles. Aside from my classic cars, I had come to regard modern cars as appliances. Good, reliable transportation-- nothing more, nothing less.

I now find myself trying to find excuses to drive the Tesla. It's restored the fun to driving, with its stellar performance. I thoroughly enjoy every drive.

And I use the autopilot all the time. Just like in the plane, it's a tool to be used wisely and for your comfort and convenience.

I LOVE picking up pilots at the airport in it, because most have never ridden in one. When I let it drive us back to the hotel, they are always astounded!

It's just a great car -- light years ahead of everything else on the road. I plug in every night at the hotel, and have been unable to discern any change in the (admittedly large) electric bill.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk
 
Velocity173 said:
But that’s not independence if a computer is doing all the work. Same as flying in GA. If I’m not in control I don’t want to take part in it. The trip, the visual aspect is only a minor enjoyment. True enjoyment is doing it yourself.

To each his own I guess.
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I suppose it depends on the situation. I'm not fond of slow traffic, in general. I'm happy to let someone (or something) else drive to work and deal with the fools playing with their phones while driving. I agree there are situations where it's fun to drive.
 
Velocity173 said:
But that’s not independence if a computer is doing all the work. Same as flying in GA. If I’m not in control I don’t want to take part in it. The trip, the visual aspect is only a minor enjoyment. True enjoyment is doing it yourself.

To each his own I guess.
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The fun with doing yourself I get. I drive a stick shift because I like it.

I strongly disagree with it not being independence. Level 5 self-drive would definitely help many people remain independent longer. From old to handicapped to injured people.

I have a nephew that has celeriac palsy. It hit his fine motor control. He’ll never be able to drive. During school breaks he works, but his mother has to drive him to and from work.

As people age they start to become less and less safe driving. They can depend upon family and friends, get taxis or ride share, or be stuck at home. They can be fine to take care of themselves, just not as safe driving any more.

What happens if one becomes injured? Maybe just a right leg/foot injury that makes driving not possible or safe. Just get taxis/Ubers until healed?

Being able to go on their own schedule, not having to depend upon family or waiting for a taxi/Uber for every trip definitely gives one independence.
 
wayne said:
The fun with doing yourself I get. I drive a stick shift because I like it.

I strongly disagree with it not being independence. Level 5 self-drive would definitely help many people remain independent longer. From old to handicapped to injured people.

I have a nephew that has celeriac palsy. It hit his fine motor control. He’ll never be able to drive. During school breaks he works, but his mother has to drive him to and from work.

As people age they start to become less and less safe driving. They can depend upon family and friends, get taxis or ride share, or be stuck at home. They can be fine to take care of themselves, just not as safe driving any more.

What happens if one becomes injured? Maybe just a right leg/foot injury that makes driving not possible or safe. Just get taxis/Ubers until healed?

Being able to go on their own schedule, not having to depend upon family or waiting for a taxi/Uber for every trip definitely gives one independence.
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I’m referring to my current physical/ mental state, not what’s down the road for me. I’m also not saying that when I can no longer physically and mentally drive that I still wouldn’t want to travel. I’m saying if it’s gotten that bad mentality, I’m not going to be able to safely program a self driving car. Not to mention if my motor skills have deteriorated to the point I can’t take over physically when it fails, then I’ve become a road hazard. In that case, I would really need to be driven by someone else. That’s not independence because I’d have to rely on someone else.

What it all comes down to is, knowing when to hang up the keys and call it quits. For me, I’m going to try in stay in the game as long as possible because like flying, I still enjoy hands on control.
 
Question for those of you with Teslas or other pure electric vehicles: have you been through a hurricane? What did you do for driving when the power was out? It just occurred to me this week as we in Florida were scrambling to prepare for Dorian and I was following a Tesla. If the power is out for a week or 10 days, what do you do?
 
jsstevens said:
Question for those of you with Teslas or other pure electric vehicles: have you been through a hurricane? What did you do for driving when the power was out? It just occurred to me this week as we in Florida were scrambling to prepare for Dorian and I was following a Tesla. If the power is out for a week or 10 days, what do you do?
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Tesla solar roof and power bank? Generator?

P.S. I am not a Tesla owner
 
Velocity173 said:
What it all comes down to is, knowing when to hang up the keys and call it quits. For me, I’m going to try in stay in the game as long as possible because like flying, I still enjoy hands on control.
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I'm also hoping I can fly into my 80's. I know a couple of gentlemen that are doing that today. One flies his 182 into back country turf runways and the other is still flying Angel Flight missions in his SR22.

While I love to drive a car with a manual transmission (my daily ride is a Convertible Mustang with a 6 speed), I hope there's a Level 5 car available when I'm in my 90's.

When I get old enough that driving isn't quite as safe anymore it would be really nice to get in my own car and say, "Take me to Publix", have it drop me off at the curb, go park on it's own, keep the car cool/warm in the summer/winter and come back and meet at the curb after I paid for my groceries, then drive me home. Same for any other store, or going to the movies/theater/whatever. Yes, Uber/Lyft/etc are options in many urban locations, but not everywhere. There can easily be a 10 or 15 minute wait for them to arrive; not long, just annoying. Plus for trips that are too short for flying to make sense I could hop into the car have it drive me there and I could watch a movie, catch up on news, or take a nap while it drives me there.

Not sure how long it will take to get to Level 5. I see some challenging construction zones at times that might stump those systems.

We live where we can walk to many things, but the closest grocery store is just over a mile away. At least one, if not two very busy streets (six lanes) have to be crossed to get to it. Well, there is one, but it's some oddball organic grocery, that doesn't have much organic food in it, but does carry CBD oil, powdered protein, an untold number of vitamins/supplements and 37 types of bottled water. o_O I'd be more than happy to give up my car once I'm too old if I could walk to a local grocer, pharmacy, and restaurants. Then I could just get a ride-share when I want to go farther in town. Still wouldn't cover the "too short to fly" distances, but....
 
wayne said:
Not sure how long it will take to get to Level 5. I see some challenging construction zones at times that might stump those systems
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Some of those constructions zones stump me.:eek:
 
jsstevens said:
Question for those of you with Teslas or other pure electric vehicles: have you been through a hurricane? What did you do for driving when the power was out? It just occurred to me this week as we in Florida were scrambling to prepare for Dorian and I was following a Tesla. If the power is out for a week or 10 days, what do you do?
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Generator.

Same problem if the power is out for the gas stations.
 
jsstevens said:
Question for those of you with Teslas or other pure electric vehicles: have you been through a hurricane? What did you do for driving when the power was out? It just occurred to me this week as we in Florida were scrambling to prepare for Dorian and I was following a Tesla. If the power is out for a week or 10 days, what do you do?
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We had a weeklong power outage in Seattle about a decade ago. The biggest issue I had was with buying gasoline - gas stations were closed for 30 miles around me and beyond the lines were a mile long.

If I had an EV at the time and solar or natural gas generator at the time it would have been a lot less stressful.
 
Some people have converted their Volts to emergency power generators.

 
I got a chance to drive my friend Trip’s last week...

upload_2019-9-1_14-26-19.jpeg

Felt like a nice, solid car. Only drove it 14 miles on country roads, but liked it a lot. Very impressive acceleration. It’s a Model 3. I think it came in at just over $40k with enhanced autopilot and maybe one other thing.
 
FEA87595-3BA4-4F12-A983-D5555CD03CC9.jpeg
Jay Honeck said:
Generator.

Same problem if the power is out for the gas stations.
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Interestingly, the old style gas pumps (see picture, so not that old) had a manual crank handle you could put in the base and pump gas. I’ve used them in Uganda. They still measured the gas so you could pay for it.

I guess if you’ve got a generator and enough fuel that’ll work. Pour the gas into the generator, fire it up and wait for it to charge.

Anyway, genuine question not a Tesla dig. It never occurred to me until this week.

In central Florida during Irma the power was out in pockets for 7-10 days but many commercial areas had power in a day or two so gas could be found and purchased.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
If the power is out for a week or 10 days, you ain't getting gasoline either.
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In the past two years, since hurricane Matthew, most of the gas stations around here have acquired backup generators if they didn't already have them. Now, as long as they can get gas, they can pump it.

If you have an electric car, and you don't have a generator, you ration your driving. Every person I know that has an E-Car (about 5 people) also has an ICE car as well.

People that live in these hurricane prone areas have learned that after a hurricane, we adapt. We do more yard work (cleanup), we sleep without air conditioning, we take cold showers, we ration our ice that we hoarded before the storm. We do what it takes. If we have portable generators, we tend to them by running extension cords and cycling them on and off every few hours to keep the fridge cold.

Then between storms, we enjoy living in paradise. And we lie and exaggerate about all the hardships we endured.

This too shall pass.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
If the power is out for a week or 10 days, you ain't getting gasoline either.
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No but I’ve got gas “cans” in my garage with gas in them. And when Irma went through central Florida while my power was out for a week, commercial areas nearby had power and I could get gas within a day or so. If everything’s out, sure. You’re down to what’s in your tank (and whatever external storage cans) you’ve got.
 
Reading this thread has me thinking.

In my truck if I run out of fuel I can call AAA and they will bring me 5 gallons to get to a station.

What if, for some explicable reason a Tesla is ran until there is no charge left. What then.??
 
Zeldman said:
Reading this thread has me thinking.

In my truck if I run out of fuel I can call AAA and they will bring me 5 gallons to get to a station.

What if, for some explicable reason a Tesla is ran until there is no charge left. What then.??
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I was wondering this. Currently it seems the only option is to tow/flatbed it to a charging station. I wonder if there will be electric vehicle service trucks towing a generator(or maybe a PTO powered generator) and a charger, but then again they'd still have to hang around long enough for it to get enough charge for them to go to the nearest charger.
 
Zeldman said:
Reading this thread has me thinking.

In my truck if I run out of fuel I can call AAA and they will bring me 5 gallons to get to a station.

What if, for some explicable reason a Tesla is ran until there is no charge left. What then.??
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Call a tow truck. Really not a big deal.
 
1RTK1 said:
Probably some grant they received for going green, don't want to get into a chase with a low battery.
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I dunno about that... Teslas actually would make pretty good police cars. They can sit in one place powered on for a LONG time while using very little energy. They can out-accelerate anything else. They require much less maintenance and are much cheaper to operate. I would think that as long as they kept the batteries above 25% during their shift (not hard at all) they should be fine for whatever they run into.

Velocity173 said:
If you’ve lost the mental and physical capacity to drive, then you shouldn’t even be in a self driving vehicle either. If your faculties are so bad that you can’t remember the rules of the road, then they aren’t good enough to program a self driving vehicle. If your muscles / joints can’t push a gas pedal and steer a wheel, then you’re in no shape to even enjoy the destination in a self driving vehicle in the first place. You’ve become completely debilitated and need to be on a short bus. If I ever get to the point of not being able to drive, then I’m at the point where I shouldn’t ever be traveling alone.
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Disagree. You don't "program" a self-driving vehicle, you tell it where you want to go. Done.

This weekend, I was riding in a rental car with my dad, who's going to turn 78 in a few months. He's always been a good driver, but nighttime on a highway in an unfamiliar city... Well, I kinda wished I was the one driving. It'd have been safer with a self-driving car (I'm talking level 5, not today's Teslas), and I hope they're viable before too long so I can buy my parents one and let them remain mobile. They still "enjoy the destination" just fine - They're returning from doing two bicycle tours around parts of Alaska over the last month.

jsstevens said:
Question for those of you with Teslas or other pure electric vehicles: have you been through a hurricane? What did you do for driving when the power was out? It just occurred to me this week as we in Florida were scrambling to prepare for Dorian and I was following a Tesla. If the power is out for a week or 10 days, what do you do?
Click to expand...

Well, if you have one of the cars with a software-limited battery, Tesla has been known to unlock the full battery capacity on any cars in the danger zone temporarily.

For evacuations, I've not heard of any problems, it sounds like the Supercharging stations are much LESS crowded than the gas stations are.

If you're staying in place, charge it up beforehand and leave it plugged in so that you can be in good shape. You won't have to wait at a gas station because you can charge it up at your house right up until the power goes out. And after that, until things are cleaned up, you're not likely to be driving long distances anyway, so whatever charge you have should be good for quite a while. And if you have solar, or a generator, or any other power source, you can still add some... And finally, if you can make it to the nearest Supercharger, they're fairly likely to be up and running pretty quickly since they're equipped for a huge demand during normal times, so they often have some other infrastructure nearby that will be fixed first.

All in all, I think I would rather have electric than gas during such a crisis. Even if it's something sudden, you've likely got a full charge on your EV already, while your gas car may well be well under 1/4 tank. That's one of the best things about EVs, you leave home every day with a full "tank"!
 
Around my parts: power outages are generally due to thunderstorms knocking down trees or transformers, and ice storms doing much of the same. Living in tornado alley also has its moments. Power could be out as long as a week - locally. It’s likely that power to one neighborhood could be out for a while but the next neighborhood over might be OK.

Hurricanes are a whole ‘nother story. I think about what happened to Jay and Mary in Port Aransas. Not only was power out, along with gas and water, but with all the debris on the ground simply trying to drive at all meant flat tires.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
This weekend, I was riding in a rental car with my dad, who's going to turn 78 in a few months. He's always been a good driver, but nighttime on a highway in an unfamiliar city... Well, I kinda wished I was the one driving.
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Might take your dad to an eye doctor to check for cataracts.
 
deonb said:
Call a tow truck. Really not a big deal.
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A real question- can it get recharged, at least in part, during the tow? I'm thinking the same mechanism as the regenerative braking.
 
Has anyone else ever pondered the potential negative health effects that could arise from driving electric vehicles, if any?
 
Ryanb said:
Has anyone else ever pondered the potential negative health effects that could arise from driving electric vehicles, if any?
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As opposed to an ICE vehicle, where you handle a fuel that is a known carcinogen, and breath exhaust emissions loaded with poison? lol

I'm not understanding your question. Are you worried about magnetic fields? Being electrocuted? What health effects could there be?
 
Jay Honeck said:
As opposed to an ICE vehicle, where you handle a fuel that is a known carcinogen, and breath exhaust emissions loaded with poison? lol

I'm not understanding your question. Are you worried about magnetic fields? Being electrocuted? What health effects could there be?
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Hundreds of studies worldwide have shown that living next to high voltage power lines and other parts of the power transmission network increases your risk of cancer and other health issues. The closer you are, the more you are affected by dangerous EMFs. So, you have to ask yourself, is sitting inside a vehicle where you’re exposed with great concentration to electricity circulating around your body healthy? Just food for thought - something of which I’ve greatly thought about.
 
Ryanb said:
Hundreds of studies worldwide have shown that living next to high voltage power lines and other parts of the power transmission network increases your risk of cancer and other health issues. The closer you are, the more you are affected by dangerous EMFs. So, you have to ask yourself, is sitting inside a vehicle where you’re exposed with great concentration to electricity circulating around your body healthy? Just food for thought - something of which I’ve greatly thought about.
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I'd be much less concerned about the magnetic fields from DC than those from AC high-tension transmission infrastructure.

In any event, as Jay mentioned, I rather suspect that what risks exist in operating an EV are likely less, in the aggregate, than those inherent in operating an ICE-powered car. For that matter, the risks uniquely associated with one means of propulsion or the other fade into insignificance in comparison to the risk of sharing the road with the mouth-breathing masses of idiocy and ignorance who dominate.

Biggest risk, from what I can see, is the ache in your face from grinning too much.
 
Ryanb said:
Hundreds of studies worldwide have shown that living next to high voltage power lines and other parts of the power transmission network increases your risk of cancer and other health issues. The closer you are, the more you are affected by dangerous EMFs. So, you have to ask yourself, is sitting inside a vehicle where you’re exposed with great concentration to electricity circulating around your body healthy? Just food for thought - something of which I’ve greatly thought about.
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There are way more volts present in most locomotives (both diesel electric and straight electric). I would suspect if there were health risks associated with long term exposure to electrical fields from electrically powered vehicles, the railroad folks or their unions would know about it.
 
SCCutler said:
For that matter, the risks uniquely associated with one means of propulsion or the other fade into insignificance in comparison to the risk of sharing the road with the mouth-breathing masses of idiocy and ignorance who dominate.
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That is a truth which can not be argued.
 
1RTK1 said:
Hmmm, never thought about it, are there any studies on it?
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There seems to be some small correlation between some childhood cancers and proximity to power lines in some studies, but the data is sparse and correlation may not equal causation.

Google “power lines cancer” and peruse the articles from respected journals. Come to your own conclusion.

But, in general, non-ionizing radiation is harmless, so it’s hard to find anything in an EV worth worrying about.
 
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