The Tesla Experience Part 4

I know, its been a few. I have been having a great time learning about all the things the car can do. It is definitely part of the fun of ownership. The car was pressed into service immediately. No transition time. We parked the 2011 Dodge Caliber and never looked back. Daily life with a Tesla is very easy. The car has performed exceptionally well in daily use. The features that are not labeled as BETA all function flawlessly. The phone key, the app, adaptive cruise, collision avoidance and lane assist are all rock solid. The car parks itself with ease, both parallel and straight in. I have now got 6,000 miles on it. Still no squeaks, rattles, noises. Believe me, if it did you’d hear them, the damn thing is silent.

We have driven it daily on our 10 mile commute. We use the autopilot. Traffic is no problem. In this situation the car drives itself, we talk, drink coffee, read. It is a bit unsettling at first to have a car that drives itself. It has not had a single instance of confusion in this situation. I mean how hard is it to keep a set distance from the car in front of you and stay in your lane? It even adapted to a moron forcing his way in front of us. We have taken it camping. It held all our gear with room to spare and we tent camp. However, putting the canoe on a glass roof is not on my list of stupid things to try. If I need to I can get the roof racks, but the Caliber carries the canoe very nicely so why change?

The cool thing about camping is Wisconsin campgrounds have nema 14/50 plugs so recharging at the campsite is easy. The Frunk also made a great food pantry. In our travels we have used Superchargers, Destination chargers, The ChargePoint network and of course we charge at home. That is the ideal way to go. I have talked with Tesla about charging and battery life. They recommend charging to 80% for daily use and only going to 100% for road trips. They caution that using superchargers as the only charging option will reduce the battery much faster than “standard” charging. Standard charging is in the 8 to 16kw range. Which is more than adequate to fully recharge the car overnight.

For road trips we charge to 100 at home. Drive for several hours, stop for lunch near a supercharger. Then on down the road for a few more hours. Maybe a 20 minute stretch and bump charge good for another 200 miles range and then off for another few hours before stopping at the hotel where the destination charger has us fully powered by morning free of charge. The cars navigation system routes us by way of the chargers based on our itinerary. Many restaurants now offer destination chargers or ChargePoint service. For driving in most civilized areas you will never have to worry about charging. While you weren’t looking there have been several companies installing chargers all over the place.

We went down to Galena Ill. For the Halloween parade. It was great. But Galena is not a big town by any means, Population less than 3,500. We ate at the Galena Brewing company. They have two Tesla destination chargers and ChargePoint. We were fully charged by the time we left that night. The Culvers also has two ChargePoint chargers as do the municipal services building.

Now you want to travel out Northwest, I recommend a gas car or some very careful routing. The charger infrastructure is not well established in those states where you have fewer people than our average size cities. Of course there aren’t that many gas stations either. Point of fact, there are more gas stations in the city of Milwaukee than there is in all of Wyoming. Also more people. Not saying you can’t have a Tesla in Wyoming, but you will need to install your own charger at home. But that is just common sense. Why would you not charge at home? Why would you still be slaves to the gas pump thinking? People and paradigm shifts. LoL As for cost to charge, Supercharger rates vary depending on the utility company. The ChargePoint system is also tied to local utility rates. In Wisconsin the cost is pretty much the same anywhere you go. To charge our Model 3 from 20% to 100% on a supercharger costs $5.00. We have never fully charged on the ChargePoint network. We use it when we are at the grocery store because its free. We have been monitoring our utility bill and the Tesla has added 20.00 to our monthly cost during the fall when we road trip a lot. In December it cost us 12.00. Yes, that is the increase over last years usage. $12.00.

We go to the grocery store. Woodmans. They have two free Chargepoint stations. Aldi’s has a Chademo and Hyvee has 8 superchargers and 4 chargepoint stalls. Ok, so this is Madison Wisconsin, one of the few places in America that is actually in the 21st century. We use our Tesla like any other car. We transport grandkids, we go places and do things. The car takes us where ever we want to go. We drive the car down into the teens before charging, usually four or five days between charges.

There is nothing about a Tesla that requires you do anything differently besides how you power it and that is as convenient as your cell phone. Now if you have trouble remembering to plug your cell phone in, then I would not recommend a Tesla for you. That’s just common sense

I have had a service call. The auto wipers were slow coming on and we had some wind noise. Which in a car this quiet is very noticeable. I contacted Tesla Service. They scheduled an appointment and sent a truck to my house. They were able to correct the wiper sensitivity with a quick over the air update. He adjusted the trunk lid which was out of alignment and the noise is much improved. All told, done and down the road in under an hour, no charge. A decible meter is really the only way to determine if you have a wind noise issues because the car is so quiet. You really do not understand how noisy our gas and diesel cars are until you get in an electric car.

I mentioned this before but it is striking so I repeat, on one of our trips we came around a corner on a back road to find a doe and two fawns standing at the side of the road. The Doe looked up and twitched her ears trying to figure out why this car didn’t sound right. The two fawns didn’t even know we were there. They never looked up and the doe did not signal for them to run. It’s that freakin quiet. As we pulled away they all just stood there watching as we drove off.

We had not planned on driving it over the winter much, but it sure is nice to have the car all warm and ready to go in the morning. Seats all toasty. I can do this from the app from anywhere. I turn it on for my wife about a half hour before she gets off, from the break room of my plant 5 miles away. We had Santa mode on all Christmas season. The grandkids loved it. The last update allows us to leave the cars temp control on. It will maintain the car at the set temp until the battery is down to 20%. It will then notify you on the app and shut down to conserve battery. This is part of the “winter” update. Trying to alleviate those winter challenges like frozen windows and doors and the charge port hatch. If I leave the car sitting in the grocery store lot for an hour with the temp control on and the car plugged in it will draw from the line and not use battery. On battery it draws about 2% an hour to keep the car at 72 in 14 degree ambient.

We have noticed a drop in potential range in the cold, but not its prohibitive. It is less noticable if the car is garaged as opposed to left outside, even plugged in. On a garage kept morning I have full battery function, plugged or unplugged. An outside kep,t plugged in, I have half regen ability. If not plugged in I have virtually no regen and limited acceleration until the battery warms up. About 10 to 15 miles. (limited acceleration = 5.0 Mustang vs normal =rocket ship)

As for driving on snow and ice, I do not have winter tires on. I am still running the Continental summer radials. I have had no reason to want to put snow tires on it. At a little over 4,000 pounds it has no problem with finding traction. The control system is great. You hardly feel it engage and there is none of the squirrellyness. Not to say you can’t break traction or slide if you want to, I can turn it off and go nuts should I desire. So far I haven’t had any ‘moments’ where I wondered if the car would stop in time or hold the turn and not slide off the road as my Caliber was want to do.

Our Tesla is not scheduled for regular service for two years. That’s right, Two years. Try that with a gas car. The one issue that would have prompted a trip to the garage in other cars was fixed over the air. And speaking of over the air. Several over the air, incremental updates as well as the full Ver. 9 download have booted to our car since we got it. This changed some of the display set ups in the model 3, added some features and refined some functions, but most of the stuff was geared to bring the earlier S and X models up to the level of the Model 3. We have the Navigate on autopilot feature active and the enhanced Summon is active. Both of these are learning programs that get better over time with use. Example, the navigate feature is supposed to take you from on ramp to off ramp which it did the first time I used it. Now I activate it when sitting at the light around the corner from the ramp. It goes under highway, signals the turn, makes the turn onto the ramp, accelerates up the ramp, signals to merge and merges and then begins the three lane shift to be in the correct lane for the interchange ramp. It signals and takes the ramp adjusting speed accordingly, then it signals to merge onto the interstate. It drives us down the road making lane changes to avoid slower cars, then adjusts itself into the correct lane to exit, takes the exit runoff and then signals again to take the ramp where it decelerates and brings us to a stop at the correct stop sign. Freaking amazing!

We also now have the ‘emissions testing mode” and Romance mode as well as the Atari games suite and of course, more cowbell!

So as far as what a car is required to do, a Tesla is just like any other car. When you start talking technology, that is where the Tesla sets itself apart from the rest. There is no other car on the market like it. None. No one has even come close. That shouldn’t really be surprising when you consider that being an electric vehicle gives it a huge head start on Tech from the get go. Consider how complex a system is required to remotely start a car. Ensure the engine actually started and not grind the starter to dust. Then maintain it’s speed, temp, power levels let alone the interior temp and make sure it doesn’t end up in gear. Literally dozens of sensors and control solenoids, a mile of wiring, and a full computer just for that one thing. This is why it is not common even among expensive cars. Then to be able to set and hold temp, anywhere, without exhaust issues, without theft issues. To be able to leave the car at 72 degrees when its 14 outside and not worry about it being stolen, overheating, or some other mechanical failure that isn’t even possible in a Tesla. And to be able to do this from anywhere, as long as the car has cell service or WiFi my phone will find it and connect to it and control it.

Is this a car for everyone? No, not yet. This is a car for those who want the latest tech, the most modern systems and are capable of understanding and using the technology. More importantly, don’t use any of the “Beta” features if you do not understand what that word means in computer tech fields. I read on message boards all the time people who bought the hype, the hot ticket item, the status symbol but had no clue what it was they were buying. It is especially funny to read the posts of those who literally, actually, believed it was a self driving car. I mean how dumb is that?

Ok, I have had to re evaluate the supposed intelligence level of my fellow Americans in the last few years and not for the better sadly. I saw a video on Youtube around Christmas of some blonde in Cali trying to put gas in her new Model S. Yes, the girl was at a gas station. At the pumps, Hose in one hand, cell phone in the other, trying to figure out how to put the gas nozzle in the charge port. So just keep that image in mind when you read the next negative rant, it is probably from someone like this girl who simply did not understand what they were buying.

I am not a Tesla expert. I own one. That’s it. I am learning just like everyone else who has bought one. This is a very complex piece of tech. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have. I live in Madison Wisconsin so if you are driving through I would be happy to meet up and let you take the wheel and check it out for yourself. At the 5 month mark I am still just as sold on this car as ever.

My next piece will cover the garage door debacle and its aftermath.