4 ms·

>I'd never in my life have thought I'd have bought a car > $50,000 and here I am with a AWD LR Model 3 and loving it! My other car was a 2011 Ford Fiesta. If yo

by tmh88j 7y ago

>I'd never in my life have thought I'd have bought a car > $50,000 and here I am with a AWD LR Model 3 and loving it! My other car was a 2011 Ford Fiesta. If you don't want to purchase one, don't do a test drive What about the Model 3 swayed your opinion enough to spend 2-3x more on a car than you previously had? I love that Tesla has finally brought "cool" electric cars to the market that don't look like they were purposefully designed be a science experiment (Honda Insight, older Priuses, etc...). However, as a long time auto enthusiast I can't help but wonder how many people who share your sentiment of "once you drive it you'll need it" would end up in a different car if they had also test driven other similarly priced performance cars like the M3/M4, RS3 and C63 AMG. I find it interesting that a tech company has been able to convince people to spend significantly more on a car than they ever would have, and the only two reasons I can come up with are the convenience of charging at home and the big screen. I'm not suggesting Tesla makes sub-par products by any means, only that exciting cars packed with features have been around forever. Many driver's assists like auto pilot and self-parking that people rave about have been offered by Mercedes and BMW for longer than Tesla has even existed, so I don't think that's it, but of course people could be unaware of those features. I'm excited to see what other boundaries Tesla pushes, because every other manufacturer has no option but to play keep up now.

SEJeff 7y ago
I answered this a bit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181145 and: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181755 TL;DNR: I buy in to self driving vehicles being good for humanity as well as electric vehicles being good for humanity. I purchased a Tesla to help make the future Elon opines about into closer to reality (even after the Elon distortion field is removed).
- tmh88j 7y ago
  Interesting. From what I've read is it fair to say that you're not primarily concerned with the driving experience, but rather the convenience a Tesla provides and supporting them as a brand? I hope I'm not at all coming off as judgemental, I'm genuinely curious about what draws people to the cars they own. I'm a huge auto enthusiast and I too couldn't care less about luxury. The driving experience is about 90% of my consideration when I'm shopping for cars, so I find it interesting to see what factors other people consider. I ended up with a GT-R, which I'm sure a lot of people think I'm absolutely insane for being willing to shell out that much for a Nissan. I can't wait to see the Tesla Roadster in action, it's really going to shake up the world of drag racing.
  - SEJeff 7y ago
    No the driving experience is utterly incredible. It is unlike anything I've ever driven, but the fanciest car I've ever driven on a regular basis was an early 2000s Camaro Z28 (in the early 2000s). Tesla is not remotely unique in having a lot of nice driver assist functionality, but the stuff they have does a great job to reduce driver fatigue. It is the little stuff, like the wheel vibrating when the autopilot sensor suite notice you're drifting off into another lane (either side). It is the radar that bounces under the car in front of me to the car in front of it and back. The tesla alerts me that the car in front of the car in front of me (via the radar) just slammed on their brakes. I slow down and about a 1/2 second later, the car in front of me slows down. This has prevented me from rear ending people 3x now. Some people see autopilot as a party trick, but I see it as something that enhances me as a driver, but doesn't replace me. I'm able to get a better situational awareness of what is going on around me while not really worrying about the accelerator / brake pedal or turning the steering wheel. Much like when I was a UAV (drone) pilot in the Army, I've developed an "instrument scan" while on autopilot and part of my scan involves checking cars to my sides and behind me. I'm literally more aware of the road because of autopilot and end up after long drives more refreshed and less exhausted. The only thing that I'm not fully a fan of (yet) is the auto lane changes. Sometimes it gets spooked by shadows and will swerve back into the lane you started from. This seems to have stopped since the major V10 software update a few weeks ago, but traditionally has been a pain point. Things like Caroke and Theater Mode (netflix mainly) are huge hits with my daughter and keeping the kids happy is a huge part of making a drive enjoyable or utterly miserable. As I've also said elsewhere, the OTA updates are a real game changer. When I first purchased my Model 3 AWD LR, it didn't have a Dashcam or an Alarm system. I setup a gopro for a dashcam and was considering an aftermarket alarm system. After someone tweeted Elon and asked, he directed his engineers to create TeslaCam, which is an always on dashcam using the autopilot cameras (of which there are 8 I believe). Now if there is something bad, I can push a little icon and the last 10 minutes of footage will be permanently saved (it deletes old clips in a rolling fashion to keep free space on the disk). Then Sentry mode was rolled out and suddenly, I've got a free vehicle alarm system which will send notifications to my phone when it is triggered. This is great! The features of the vehicle continued to increase. It is kind of a pain in the butt to crack the windows because after you close the door the car rolls all of the windows up. The new V10 software has a "vent" mode where it will open all of the windows a crack with 1 push of a button in the app (this can also be done remotely if you so choose) and ditto to roll the windows up remotely. Then there was the time consumer reports said the Model 3 had poor braking distance and showed it. About two days later, a software update was released and Elon admitted the algorithm driving the braking wasn't ideal so they'd fixed it. Consumer reports re-tested and agreed the problem they brought up was indeed fixed. How many cars get safer after you purchase them? This really is the future. There are lots of reasons to love a Tesla, believing in the future Elon is attempting to build is one of my bigger ones. It isn't the only one however :) Hopefully that helps answer your question?

by tmh88j 7y ago

SEJeff 7y ago

I answered this a bit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181145 and: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21181755 TL;DNR: I buy in to self driving vehicles being good for humanity as well as electric vehicles being good for humanity. I purchased a Tesla to help make the future Elon opines about into closer to reality (even after the Elon distortion field is removed).

tmh88j 7y ago
Interesting. From what I've read is it fair to say that you're not primarily concerned with the driving experience, but rather the convenience a Tesla provides and supporting them as a brand? I hope I'm not at all coming off as judgemental, I'm genuinely curious about what draws people to the cars they own. I'm a huge auto enthusiast and I too couldn't care less about luxury. The driving experience is about 90% of my consideration when I'm shopping for cars, so I find it interesting to see what factors other people consider. I ended up with a GT-R, which I'm sure a lot of people think I'm absolutely insane for being willing to shell out that much for a Nissan. I can't wait to see the Tesla Roadster in action, it's really going to shake up the world of drag racing.
- SEJeff 7y ago
  No the driving experience is utterly incredible. It is unlike anything I've ever driven, but the fanciest car I've ever driven on a regular basis was an early 2000s Camaro Z28 (in the early 2000s). Tesla is not remotely unique in having a lot of nice driver assist functionality, but the stuff they have does a great job to reduce driver fatigue. It is the little stuff, like the wheel vibrating when the autopilot sensor suite notice you're drifting off into another lane (either side). It is the radar that bounces under the car in front of me to the car in front of it and back. The tesla alerts me that the car in front of the car in front of me (via the radar) just slammed on their brakes. I slow down and about a 1/2 second later, the car in front of me slows down. This has prevented me from rear ending people 3x now. Some people see autopilot as a party trick, but I see it as something that enhances me as a driver, but doesn't replace me. I'm able to get a better situational awareness of what is going on around me while not really worrying about the accelerator / brake pedal or turning the steering wheel. Much like when I was a UAV (drone) pilot in the Army, I've developed an "instrument scan" while on autopilot and part of my scan involves checking cars to my sides and behind me. I'm literally more aware of the road because of autopilot and end up after long drives more refreshed and less exhausted. The only thing that I'm not fully a fan of (yet) is the auto lane changes. Sometimes it gets spooked by shadows and will swerve back into the lane you started from. This seems to have stopped since the major V10 software update a few weeks ago, but traditionally has been a pain point. Things like Caroke and Theater Mode (netflix mainly) are huge hits with my daughter and keeping the kids happy is a huge part of making a drive enjoyable or utterly miserable. As I've also said elsewhere, the OTA updates are a real game changer. When I first purchased my Model 3 AWD LR, it didn't have a Dashcam or an Alarm system. I setup a gopro for a dashcam and was considering an aftermarket alarm system. After someone tweeted Elon and asked, he directed his engineers to create TeslaCam, which is an always on dashcam using the autopilot cameras (of which there are 8 I believe). Now if there is something bad, I can push a little icon and the last 10 minutes of footage will be permanently saved (it deletes old clips in a rolling fashion to keep free space on the disk). Then Sentry mode was rolled out and suddenly, I've got a free vehicle alarm system which will send notifications to my phone when it is triggered. This is great! The features of the vehicle continued to increase. It is kind of a pain in the butt to crack the windows because after you close the door the car rolls all of the windows up. The new V10 software has a "vent" mode where it will open all of the windows a crack with 1 push of a button in the app (this can also be done remotely if you so choose) and ditto to roll the windows up remotely. Then there was the time consumer reports said the Model 3 had poor braking distance and showed it. About two days later, a software update was released and Elon admitted the algorithm driving the braking wasn't ideal so they'd fixed it. Consumer reports re-tested and agreed the problem they brought up was indeed fixed. How many cars get safer after you purchase them? This really is the future. There are lots of reasons to love a Tesla, believing in the future Elon is attempting to build is one of my bigger ones. It isn't the only one however :) Hopefully that helps answer your question?