Tesla

[lloyd3]

Spent the last few days being hauled around Tampa in a new Model X. Hard to compare it to anything I've ever ridden in before. Full self-driving mode was emplyed by it's owner regularly and with zero problems. My initial instinct was to not like it but...I have to admit it was pretty impressive.

Blazing fast luxury is hard to arge with.

[b5blue]

Welcome to Tampa, not far from me. 

[Kern Dog]

No gasoline engine = NOT interested.

[Mike DC]

Yeah, the immediate throttle response of those things is something else.  The gasoline world is just fundamentally different.   

Right now we still have a reprieve because of the battery limitations of electrics.  But it probably won't last.  What they are calling "solid state" EV car batteries are getting closer, and that would be a game-changer.  Much more power per size/weight.   


Self-driving (on any commercially produced car) should never have been legal.  The legal/liability problems have not been worked out and they are significant. 

The airline industry decided years ago that fully self-driving stuff is the wrong way to go.  The wiser approach is to just heavily assist the operator. 

We don't actually know the safety record of the Tesla system.  They programmed it to automatically turn off the self-driving feature if it senses a crash, even if the self-driving mode has already committed the car to the crash and it's a split-second away from happening.  So almost all their crashes are recorded as happening in human-driven mode whether they really were human error or not.

[b5blue]

Well Florida like other areas floods and you know what that will do to electronics! 

[lloyd3]

Don't get me wrong, I'm never going to be an advocate for electric or self-driving cars (I'm too-cheap and too-curmudgeonly to start now).

But...this automobile was quite impressive. My nearly 70-year old buddy suffers from various health-challenges (including Parkinson's Disease) and he's understandably concerned about losing his driving privileges. He sees this Tesla as a way to allow for him to maintain his independence for a few more years now.

Artificial intelligence has come a very-long way (obviously!) and we're all going to have to deal with it in one form or another and fairly-quickly now. This car is merely an example of the "new world" that is rapidly approaching us all. It costs my friend $31 a month in "fuel" for this Tesla (he charges it overnight in his garage-mounted  220-volt Tesla charging station). His previous car (an older 570 Lexus) used ~$400 a month in gasoline. Tampa is a warm place and he doesn't need to go very far to get his needs met. This car works for him, but it wouldn't likely work for me.

That mostly boils down to the difference between cities and more-rural areas, and then "cooler" versus "warmer" climates. I also very-much "like" to drive and I don't find any of the current "all-electric" offerings very attractive, but check back in with me in...say 5-years. I may have a different perspective by then.

We all might. This car was "scary" fast. "Neck-snapping" doesn't begin to describe it. If performance is your God...

[b5blue]

I never thought how helpful that could be!    (My uncle has Parkinson's.)

[70 sublime]

Daughter has a Tesla also up here in Canada
Was her first winter for the car
I have gotten a ride in it a few times and takes a little getting used to with the screen in the middle and not in front of steering wheel
She bought it used but made sure to get a AWD version that came with the larger battery
She noticed the range was down when it was -24C  the other day but had no troubles geting around with it to where she had to go
She probably puts at least 500km a week on her car with her job and very happy with her fuel savings
And her company pays milage also

[lloyd3]

Sublime:  I don't see many Teslas when I drive across the country to get to my former father-in-laws place up on the Canadian border with Minnesota. Chargers (not Dodge!) are few and far-between in the midwest, and even up there. Your daughter must be in a more-urban area? Not surprised to hear that 24-below zero badly affected it's range, although they're probably working on that.

There are plenty of Teslas (& others) here in Denver. I haven't heard too-many horror stories about them so they're clearly a viable option here anymore too.  The initial capital cost of an electric car seems to keep many at bay (myself included), but that's changing. As more charging stations become available, they will inevitably spread out further and become more-common. 

I have another buddy (who has driven a hemi-Dodge truck for almost 20-years now) who just got a great deal (shockingly cheap, with huge Federal and State tax breaks) on a "last-year of production" Nissan Leaf. He lives just outside of Boulder, Colorado and uses it much like my friend in Tampa does, to run everyday errands. He still uses his hemi Dodge truck for elk hunting with me, but we both noticed a Tesla charging station in nowhere Craig, Colorado last fall (a bedroom community for Steamboat Springs). 

Here's how I see it all now. More electric cars can only mean more & hopefully "cheaper" gas (& possibly even a few cheaper cars?) for the rest of us low-tech "mouth-breathers" and, as long as there is a "choice" in the matter (& seemingly now there is?), we can simply keep on doing as we wish. Hallelujah, right?

That is until we're seriously old and we need a little assistance to get around, and that one's coming for us all.

[70 sublime]

There are a lot of Teslas around my part of the world 
See at least one everytime I go anyplace
We live on a farm just outside a town of 10 000
In town there is a Tesla super charger station
Next town over has a Tesla super charger station also
Getting more and more of them all the time

We have a Hyundia electric Kona in our driveway beside my Ram truck
Drive the electric ever chance I get
Figure we have saved $9000 in fuel costs so far

We have installed a level 2 charger in the farm shop
Plug it into the same 220 plug the arc welder plugs into
Did not need to do any fancy wiring to hook it up
So over night and less than 8 hours the cars will get 400 km range added back into the battery for less than $5 worth of hydro

We did not buy electric cars to save the planet
Just wanted to give them a try and seems to be working out so far

[Kern Dog]

To me, like everything else, if the car is a choice and not a mandate, I'm okay with it. Go for it.
I don't like the idea of a silent running car. I change the mufflers in all the V8 cars I have owned because a quiet car just doesn't seem right.
I love the smell of gasoline and combustion. I love the feel of an engine, the sound of it....

 

[lloyd3]

Everybody sees a car differently. Is it a toy? Is it a necessity? Is it an investment? Is it a luxury?

I've always been a bottom-line guy. At first, I needed an inexpensive car for work, then school, then fun and then for dating. Like most folks, my early cars were pretty humble but...they improved over time. There is a societal component to cars for some, as they can imply a message about a person's success (or a lack thereof).  My muscle cars were many things but they were also a deliberate investment on my part in the pleasure of driving them and moreover...in the hopes of improving my dating options in the 1970s & 80s. As I look back over the years I would have to say that the "hot" car investment paid-off for me, and in spades.

Fast-forward to now.  Cars are still fun, but since I'm now closing in on 70 (i.e. "older"), I'm less interested in all the hard work so I'm drawn to "convenience" (and I will pay for that privilege).  My 1968 R/T car is a truly a "toy" to me now. It requires almost no work (as it's fully restored) and is nostalgic in every possible way for me, but it is used very sparingly and then very-deliberately. I still love how it looks (& sounds & smells) and drives but...it's simply not for everyday now. My "everyday" car is my old Dodge pickup. It's still convenient to use for errands but not perhaps for long distance (too thirsty). I had an '06 Honda Civic that we bought new that was a great everyday car, but we gave it to our son for school and he wrecked it last winter, thus the old truck. Maybe a new(er) truck will happen someday, but only after we're not supporting a college student? Maybe even another Honda?

I'm certainly used-to and comfortable with gasoline engines. While electric cars still have a ways to go before I'd invest in one, I'm not horrified by them. My primary objection to them all along was that they were being forced upon us.

Never say never. The economics of life keep changing and I will change along with them for as long as I can.