Dave Rat Blog - More Observations 10K miles in a Tesla

Well alright, if you have Tesla curiosity, here is another round of stuff and continuing on:

11) Mr Auto Pilot holds a grudge. It keeps track of whether you fail to pay attention to driving. You let him know by grabbing the steering wheel on a regular basis. If you don’t pay enough attention to him, give you a time out and banish you from auto pilot for the rest of the trip. First he beep-yells and messages while flashing the screen perimeter, until you take control of the car and then tells you he is no longer be available and you will actually need to drive the car all by yourself. You can still use cruise control though and he will still still be around to slam on the brakes if you try and crash. But to get back in his favor, you need to pull over and shut off the car and pretend you are on a new adventure.

12) The air condition on ‘auto’ tends to leave me a bit toasty when set at 72 which was the perfect temp in my last car. Boost the fan speed or drop the temp and you can stay cool in 110 weather, even when parked, it’s chilly and awesome.

13) Running air conditioning while parked is all good and uses minimal battery life compared the battery used while driving. I guess moving the car sucks the real power. Plus being parked with air conditioning doesn’t overheat the engine like it can on gas cars.

14) An uphill drive to Big Bear Lake was a power glide of pure awesome. Smooth zip up the hill, amazing four wheel drive traction and a huge battery sponge. Maybe I got 2/3 of the mileage of flat land or less, make sure you have plenty of energy for hill climbs.

15) Passing cars is during the passing zones, uphill is like cheating and playing unfair. No more wondering if your car has the juice to get ahead of the other car in time before the lanes squeeze into one. Just zip and done.

16) The car loves downhill. Driving home from from Big Bear when I reached the bottom of the mountain, I had more battery miles availabe than when I started at the top of the hill.

17) All that roof glass sure looks good but need to be tinted more, the internal cabin temp is just too dependant on the solar exposure for me. Got all glass tinted nice and dark with UV blocking and it is way better.

18) Unlock and drive away without the car keys is cool. Just open the app on your phone and unlock the doors, and /or allow the car to be started. I have accidentally driven away without my keys a few times, the car tells you, “no key in the car”. I tell the car, ” no biggie, I have my phone”

19) Being out of range of cell service is a bit of a bummer. All those cool features like the phone app, streaming Slacker radio, Google maps and keyless access all come to grinding halt and you are forced to run old school. Aaargh.

20) Kind of cool that the car will parallel and perpencular park itself. That said, if you have reasonable parking skills, it’s easier but way less fun to do it yourself. What I really want is to pull up in front of the store, hop out and send the car off to find a parking spot on its own. And it there are no spots, just drive to a remote parking lot till I’m ready to leave and then come back and get me. AutoValet Mode please.

OK, more to come including the solving the mystery vibration from hell.