Electric Vehicles: Tesla specific talk, current firmware, purchasing, modifications

[DT]

Just setup a service appointment for two issues, first is that on hills in San Francisco (when the car self-breaks) it squeaks really loud and has been this way since the beginning. The other is that when I go to start the car after it's been sitting for a while the USB drive shows disconnected and I have to reseat it, I've tried with multiple drives so it's on the car side.

Other than that it's been great to me so far, I also added liners I got on the cheap from Amazon to the roof because the sun really heats it up, hoping to shave a few degrees off in there and save some battery life.

Are they doing at home service? Though if you're close to an SC, it's probably easier for a service that might require the wheels to be removed (for a brake inspection, etc.)

Funny you just ordered some sun shades ...

I've never used anything in the front window for any car I've owned, but since the windows is so huge and we're taking a trip where it will likely be sitting outside for a week, figured for $25, it couldn't hurt.

Also ordered this:

Figured if I can find a nice shady spot under a tree, it'll keep stuff out of the AC intake better

 

[Eric]

Are they doing at home service? Though if you're close to an SC, it's probably easier for a service that might require the wheels to be removed (for a brake inspection, etc.)

Funny you just ordered some sun shades ...

View attachment 14629


I've never used anything in the front window for any car I've owned, but since the windows is so huge and we're taking a trip where it will likely be sitting outside for a week, figured for $25, it couldn't hurt.

Also ordered this:

View attachment 14630


Figured if I can find a nice shady spot under a tree, it'll keep stuff out of the AC intake better

It's at the dealership and I'll probably have my wife follow me over as I'll assume it's going to be a drop off since they're dealing with breaks and stuff.

Since it's so hot where I live we already have shades for the front windshield when parked, I got these for the roof where it really radiates heat, even when it's only like 70 out they still get almost too hot to touch and fry your brain lol. Installed in just a couple minutes, seems great so far.

 

[quagmire]

Just setup a service appointment for two issues, first is that on hills in San Francisco (when the car self-breaks) it squeaks really loud and has been this way since the beginning. The other is that when I go to start the car after it's been sitting for a while the USB drive shows disconnected and I have to reseat it, I've tried with multiple drives so it's on the car side.

Other than that it's been great to me so far, I also added liners I got on the cheap from Amazon to the roof because the sun really heats it up, hoping to shave a few degrees off in there and save some battery life.

Did the USB drive thing just occur? And what was the message? “Dashcam unavailable check USB drive”?

That appears to be a bug in the latest software. Future update will fix that supposedly.

 

[Eric]

Did the USB drive thing just occur? And what was the message? “Dashcam unavailable check USB drive”?

That appears to be a bug in the latest software. Future update will fix that supposedly.

I'll have to look again but I do think that is the message, it then has a red x on it. I pull it and put it back in and it works again.

 

[DT]

Took the Tesla down to The Keys, the round trip and all "local" driving wound up being 964 miles.

We had a "worst case" charging cost: no destination chargers (or option for using the mobile charger), only Superchargers at the peak rate (missed the early/late rates which are about 1/2 as much, just decided to leave later on both ends ...), and in South Florida, high rates ($0.44-$0.48 kWh). Even with that, the "fuel" costs still worked out to ~$0.12/mile. Hitting two of the long charges at the 50% rate would put us at around $0.09/mile.

Also that was running 76-77 for at least 3/4 of the trip, could've dropped the consumption rate down a decent amount sticking to 70 (probably hit $0.10-0.11 at the max rates cost). Like I was seeing 330-335 Wh/mile at 75+ MPH speeds, where 65-70 it's down around 305, and as a reference point, knocking around in the local 45-50 MPH areas, it can drop to around 250-260 Wh/mile.

Stops were basically two up and back, the locations changed a bit as we wanted max battery in the Keys, and left with 100% vs. leaving with 75%-ish, and didn't care how much we had when we got home (though I like to leave a good buffer). About 35 minutes coming back, going since I really loaded up (and that last 10% can be slow, especially on a V2 Supercharger), it was more like 50 minutes total, but we shopped on the second stop which we had to do anyway, just about perfect timing all around

The space in this vehicle still amazes me, we took:

SUP board, paddle, hand pump
large tub with several towels, snorkel gear, inflatables/rafts/donuts
Small soft cooler
Large hard cooler (ICE'ed up with goodies) and a dolly
2 rollers
1 duffle
2 backpacks (both stuffed)

2 extension cords (l20')
1 TMC (mobile charger) and adapters
Tire plug kit
Electric tire pump

Stopped for groceries, got several packs of drinks, beer, coolers, breads, coffee, lots of snacks, other misc supplies.

Plus the 3 of us with plenty of room. No seats down or weird configuration, had the one backpack and small cooler in the rear floorboard (which is flat all the way across), all those cords/adapters/safety items in the frunk, everything else in the trunk.

 

[SuperMatt]

There have been 273 Tesla ”autopilot” crashes in the past year, far more than previously thought. The NHTSA released findings today.

https://wapo.st/3xT6GXW

(paywall removed)

 

[Eric]

There have been 273 Tesla ”autopilot” crashes in the past year, far more than previously thought. The NHTSA released findings today.

https://wapo.st/3xT6GXW

(paywall removed)

Interesting article, there's a lot to unpack there. Tesla did claim this:

Tesla has argued that Autopilot is safer than normal driving when crash data is compared. The company has also pointed to the vast number of traffic crash deaths on U.S. roadways annually, estimated by NHTSA at 42,915 in 2021, hailing the promise of technologies like Autopilot to “reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes and save thousands of lives each year.”

Data pitting normal driving against Autopilot is not directly comparable because Autopilot operates largely on highways. Tesla CEO Elo

It also doesn't really differentiate between FSD and autopilot but in my personal experience the autopilot feature in this car is hands down better in every way than it was in my 2020 BMW, it does have some issues with phantom breaking but otherwise it's solid and feels way safer when I use it than driving without it on at all on freeways.

 

[SuperMatt]

Interesting article, there's a lot to unpack there. Tesla did claim this:


It also doesn't really differentiate between FSD and autopilot but in my personal experience the autopilot feature in this car is hands down better in every way than it was in my 2020 BMW, it does have some issues with phantom breaking but otherwise it's solid and feels way safer when I use it than driving without it on at all on freeways.

There are over 250 million vehicles on the road. There are about 200,000 Teslas on the road.

There were 392 accidents related to driver-assistance technologies in the past 10 months. 273 of those were Teslas.

Less than 1/1000th of cars on the road... but about 70% of all driver-assistance tech accidents.

 

[Eric]

There are over 250 million vehicles on the road. There are about 200,000 Teslas on the road.

There were 392 accidents related to driver-assistance technologies in the past 10 months. 273 of those were Teslas.

Less than 1/1000th of cars on the road... but about 70% of all driver-assistance tech accidents.

With a grain of salt, there is a lot in this article that is subject to the data provided.

”Companies such as Tesla collect more data than other automakers, which might leave them overrepresented in the data, according to experts in the systems”

 

[SuperMatt]

With a grain of salt, there is a lot in this article that is subject to the data provided.

That is a perfectly valid point, as is the fact that the Tesla driver assist software is used more than most. But even considering that, the numbers are too high…

 

[DT]

There are about 200,000 Teslas on the road.

Tesla sold an estimated 360,000 cars in the US in just 2021.

(They've exceeded 2,000,000 globally)

 

[SuperMatt]

Tesla sold an estimated 360,000 cars in the US in just 2021.

(They've exceeded 2,000,000 globally)

Good point, my data was out of date!

 

[quagmire]

Some blame is definitely on Musk at the very least for being overtly "optimistic" on how autopilot/FSD functions giving off false sense of capabilities of the system.

Drivers themselves deserve the same blame because they are treating Autopilot/FSD as Level 5 when they are level 2. They don't pay attention, they get complacent, etc and then the system gets into a situation where it doesn't know how to handle and boom crashes where if driver was ready to take over, probably could have been prevented.

So this is probably a marketing and drivers being idiots issue.....

 

[Eric]

Some blame is definitely on Musk at the very least for being overtly "optimistic" on how autopilot/FSD functions giving off false sense of capabilities of the system.

Drivers themselves deserve the same blame because they are treating Autopilot/FSD as Level 5 when they are level 2. They don't pay attention, they get complacent, etc and then the system gets into a situation where it doesn't know how to handle and boom crashes where if driver was ready to take over, probably could have been prevented.

So this is probably a marketing and drivers being idiots issue.....

This was me initially, expecting the car to do way more than it did before experiencing all of the limitations. Now I see it more like the car assists with certain tasks but that's the extent of it, if you expect too much out of it things can go bad quickly.

IMO the benefits far outweigh the risks and in the larger picture there are far more accidents from driving manually, the bottom line is once you learn to use the features right they make it safer but you'll always have to be the driver.

 

[DT]

There's some murmurings about EAP being offered again. I don't need a fancy "summon" function, just want pull forward and back, in a straight line

 

[DT]

My Premium connectivity runs out in a couple of days. I had considered just using a tethered iPhone (since you can use WiFI while driving now), but the integrated connectivity is so much simpler, improves things the nav, works with the remote camera view, etc., so for $99 for a whole year, I'm just going to swipe that purchase in the car

I'm writing a one year review, I'll post in the next day or two.

 

[quagmire]

My Premium connectivity runs out in a couple of days. I had considered just using a tethered iPhone (since you can use WiFI while driving now), but the integrated connectivity is so much simpler, improves things the nav, works with the remote camera view, etc., so for $99 for a whole year, I'm just going to swipe that purchase in the car

I did the same with my 3, though I elected to do it back in April. So when it hit my credit card back on the 10th( since that is when the trial ran out) I went, " WTF" for a few minutes trying to figure out what I bought from Tesla.....

I would like lane change on autopilot and dumb summon would be nice too. So EAP would be nice, but not sure how much I would be willing to spend on it. Still need to repurchase acceleration boost.

Just washed my 3 for the first time since November( it’s been parked since getting a new job that didn’t need me driving it too much) and just the got my moms new Y back from getting Xpel done.

 

[Eric]

My Premium connectivity runs out in a couple of days. I had considered just using a tethered iPhone (since you can use WiFI while driving now), but the integrated connectivity is so much simpler, improves things the nav, works with the remote camera view, etc., so for $99 for a whole year, I'm just going to swipe that purchase in the car

I'm writing a one year review, I'll post in the next day or two.

Totally worth it IMO.

 

[DT]

Yeah, given this:

Where even with a WiFi connection (like via a phone tether), you lose Live Traffic, Sentry Live View, Sat-Maps, plus have to establish that connection each time, might be dealing with different phone, blah blah blah, vs. ~$8/month? No contest.

 

[Eric]

Taking it in for loud breaks on hills but also mentioned the USB drive and this was their response. As of now it flat out does not work anymore.