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New Car Arrived - bzzzz - bzzzzz - its ALIVE! ..... no it really is.....

cutting42

cutting42

Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
Actually arrived a week or so ago but not got around to posting about it until now. A Tesla Model 3 Performance model as I have mentioned a few times in other threads.

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I have done two reasonable round trips 140 miles or so but nothing long yet. Range is significantly less than published ... sort of as expected. Declared max range is supposed to be 330 miles but when raining in the dark when under 5 deg it has been around 200 I would say. As temps increase the range will increase significantly according to a friend who has had one for over a year.

Also worth saying that as it is a new toy, I have been generous with the application of power so I am sure as my mental age increases again the mileage will improve as well.

Initial impressions:
Good - Performance is epic, Satnav Google Maps so excellent, screen size is massive, regen braking is amazing, a life changer. All around cameras and general awareness of surroundings. Seats are very comfortable and highly adjustable. The car displays all other vehicles around you inc bikes giving great situational awareness. This is all linked to the self driving future of the car (I don't have the option but you get most of it thrown in). Lots more good things but more later as I get time or if folks are interested.

Bad - The voice recognition is terrible, build quality is OK but not great for a car that is nearly £60k. Auto dim headlights are too slow, you get irritated flashes from oncoming cars something I never got in various BMW's. Auto windscreen wipers are very random, sometimes going ballistic with rain having stopped.

Very Bad - It has a very sophisticated cruise control that as well as holding a speed can match speed to car you come up behind (not that amazing as many other cars have this) but it can also Autosteer in and out of lanes to overtake in dual carriageways. It does have a fair bit or autonomy and I was introduced to a feature known in Tesla circles as phantom braking. I was driving up the A1 to pick up my dad for Christmas and came off the motorway section onto the pure A road bit and about 100 metres ahead a car slowed to turn off on one of the A1's typical side roads with a very short deceleration bit of extra lane. To be clear I was doing around 70 ish in lane 1 but in no need to change speed or lane before the car turning off would have been well out of my way. Suddenly the Tesla hit full emergency brakes, completely taking me by surprise. If someone had been following me even at a sensible distance I have no doubt they would have hit me or at the very least reported me for brake testing them.

I am very wary using the cruise feature now and TBH probably defer to not using it. I have used it since and it has not done anything like this since but a bit of searching finds instances when folks have been using the full Autosteer function and it has done high speed lane swaps as well.

Conclusions - On the whole a very good car as long as you don't use the Auto steer or active cruise control. I certainly will not be looking for full self driving for a very long time if ever. I love driving it and it is the future in many ways.
 
Did the car unbuckle your seat belt when it did the emergency brake on the A1 ? It might be trying to kill you like that car that Stephen King wrote about.

I assume the straight line acceleration is frightening but how does it do on corners and twisty A roads ?
 
cutting42 said:
I was introduced to a feature known in Tesla circles as phantom braking. I was driving up the A1 to pick up my dad for Christmas and came off the motorway section onto the pure A road bit and about 100 metres ahead a car slowed to turn off on one of the A1's typical side roads with a very short deceleration bit of extra lane. To be clear I was doing around 70 ish in lane 1 but in no need to change speed or lane before the car turning off would have been well out of my way. Suddenly the Tesla hit full emergency brakes, completely taking me by surprise. If someone had been following me even at a sensible distance I have no doubt they would have hit me or at the very least reported me for brake testing them.

I am very wary using the cruise feature now and TBH probably defer to not using it. I have used it since and it has not done anything like this since but a bit of searching finds instances when folks have been using the full Autosteer function and it has done high speed lane swaps as well.
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I’d expect that if there was a following car, the degree of braking would not be so severe as to present the risk of being rear ended, just as the high speed lane swap isn’t going to happen if there is traffic in the other lane. This would have to be Autonomous Driving 101.
 
sean99 said:
I assume the straight line acceleration is frightening but how does it do on corners and twisty A roads ?
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A friend has just taken delivery of the same model as the OP’s and he loves the ride and handling. However, for the last 12 years or so he’s been driving family buses, so I’m not sure how much water his opinion holds.
 
I found this review interesting on the Y and seems to reflect some of your findings.

 
Tony Lockhart said:
A friend has just taken delivery of the same model as the OP’s and he loves the ride and handling. However, for the last 12 years or so he’s been driving family buses, so I’m not sure how much water his opinion holds.
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I imagine the ride might be helped by the weight of the thing, and the handling by the fact that most of that weight is at floor level, so it’s probably better than a similarly sized ICE vehicle, but I’d not expect Lotus, Porsche or Alpine to be quaking in their boots.
 
cutting42 said:
Very Bad - It has a very sophisticated cruise control that as well as holding a speed can match speed to car you come up behind (not that amazing as many other cars have this) but it can also Autosteer in and out of lanes to overtake in dual carriageways. It does have a fair bit or autonomy and I was introduced to a feature known in Tesla circles as phantom braking. I was driving up the A1 to pick up my dad for Christmas and came off the motorway section onto the pure A road bit and about 100 metres ahead a car slowed to turn off on one of the A1's typical side roads with a very short deceleration bit of extra lane. To be clear I was doing around 70 ish in lane 1 but in no need to change speed or lane before the car turning off would have been well out of my way. Suddenly the Tesla hit full emergency brakes, completely taking me by surprise. If someone had been following me even at a sensible distance I have no doubt they would have hit me or at the very least reported me for brake testing them.
Click to expand...

I've had ACC in the last two cars (both Audi) and never had that kind of problem. I don't know if it's true of the Tesla, but you can dial in the preferred distance to the car in front - heavily influenced by German legislation which defines the minimum distance on e.g. autobahns. Tailgating is only possible manually, in which case it's your fault if you're nicked. I'm not saying you were tailgating, but from my experience, the car would have slowed down quite a lot before even coming anywhere near to the turning vehicle, by which time you can flip out of cruise and do what you would normally do.

If I'm on a long trip, I drive just using the sticks on the steering column. It saves fuel and also means I don't get tickets (any more)

PS : Nice car by the way - congratulations!
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I imagine the ride might be helped by the weight of the thing, and the handling by the fact that most of that weight is at floor level, so it’s probably better than a similarly sized ICE vehicle, but I’d not expect Lotus, Porsche or Alpine to be quaking in their boots.
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They're a bit of a boat when pushing on proper, but I'd suspect in day-to-day use under normal circumstances nobody would know or care.

Handling starts at 2:35 but it's only a short video anyway

 
Tesla has a higher stock market value than the top 8 marques combined apparently.

I personally wouldn’t have one as they don’t work for my needs but I can totally see the appeal.
 
sean99 said:
Did the car unbuckle your seat belt when it did the emergency brake on the A1 ? It might be trying to kill you like that car that Stephen King wrote about.

I assume the straight line acceleration is frightening but how does it do on corners and twisty A roads ?
Click to expand...

LOL

Yes the acceleration is extraordinary but it corners very flat and is pretty nimble so far. However wet and cold roads along with new car have led to circumspect driving as far as pushing on in the corners so far. It feels very planted and confidence inspiring, I am looking forward to dry days and better roads to explore the handling.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I’d expect that if there was a following car, the degree of braking would not be so severe as to present the risk of being rear ended, just as the high speed lane swap isn’t going to happen if there is traffic in the other lane. This would have to be Autonomous Driving 101.
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You would hope so, but given its poor decision to brake that hard in the first place I have my doubts.
 
Nero said:
I've had ACC in the last two cars (both Audi) and never had that kind of problem. I don't know if it's true of the Tesla, but you can dial in the preferred distance to the car in front - heavily influenced by German legislation which defines the minimum distance on e.g. autobahns. Tailgating is only possible manually, in which case it's your fault if you're nicked. I'm not saying you were tailgating, but from my experience, the car would have slowed down quite a lot before even coming anywhere near to the turning vehicle, by which time you can flip out of cruise and do what you would normally do.

If I'm on a long trip, I drive just using the sticks on the steering column. It saves fuel and also means I don't get tickets (any more)

PS : Nice car by the way - congratulations!
Click to expand...

Yes you can customise the following distance and it does that very well. It does analyse speed differential and distance so if you come up behind a car doing say 50 and you are doing 70, it starts slowing quite a long way out, say 100 meters and if you change to a clear lane it will accelerate gently. However if you drift slowly up to a car around 5 mph slower, it drives up fairly normally to the set following distance pretty much as I would do manually.

Trying to think about it, I think the phantom braking in my case was caused by the large speed differential with me at 70 and the car 100 meters ahead virtually at a standstill but a person driving the car could see it was moving out of the lane whereas the Tesla could not determine this so took extreme action.
 
Nearly bought one about a year ago, but two medium-large dogs and two kids meant we had to rule it out. Bought an i3s instead, which bizarrely works great for 4+2 dogs. Not quite the range nor performance of the Tesla but carbon fibre bodywork means no rust worries (since we live right on the coast) and it saved enough cash to buy Ardens and a Luxman and a Planar 8 and a month’s holiday to NZ and .... ;)
 
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cutting42 said:
LOL

Yes the acceleration is extraordinary but it corners very flat and is pretty nimble so far. However wet and cold roads along with new car have led to circumspect driving as far as pushing on in the corners so far. It feels very planted and confidence inspiring, I am looking forward to dry days and better roads to explore the handling.
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what is the drivetrain on those things? Rear, front, four? Not sure I'd feel safe on rear wheel drive with that torque and mass
 
Nice looking car (but not as good looking as an 'S') and if they work for you, go for it. I'd love to go to an EV but as I've stated elsewhere, range is the deal breaker at the moment. Not keen on the model 3's choice of having all instruments centrally mounted (very 2000s-tintage X-Trail) - I know it's to enable volume manufacture but I think it's quite dangerous.
 
Seeker_UK said:
I'd love to go to an EV but as I've stated elsewhere, range is the deal breaker at the moment.
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I've got a hybrid on order, as a sop to the environment. But I need to find out what 'mild hybrid' means :)

I'm curious about the tyre wear on some of these EVs. A lot of mass and torque = lots of tyres?
 
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