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I drove a rental Tesla recently. We were parked in a long line waiting to board a ferry and I was playing chess on the main console. When the line started to mo

I drove a rental Tesla recently. We were parked in a long line waiting to board a ferry and I was playing chess on the main console. When the line started to move, I tried to too and car just wouldn't go or start. People stuck behind me started getting impatient and honking while I was trying to figure out what had happened, turning off and on again, pressing random buttons, accidentally popping the trunk, etc. It took several minutes to realize that the car wouldn't start while you were playing a game on the console, so I had to quit the game, and then drive. My point with this anecdote is that it seems to me that Tesla has many such features, some of which may change with software updates, and, given the expansive definition of "reliability" used here, perhaps this is a driver of issues. I wonder what the rates would be if you restricted it to "issues requiring professional repair" or something like that.

brianwawok 6y ago
As a Tesla owner, I think it’s not a great rental car. A lot to learn.
- ex3ndr 6y ago
  I think it is clearly opposite: media in mazda is insanely hard to learn.
  - gambiting 6y ago
    I bet that Mazda is stupidly easy to get into, start, put it in gear and drive though, and I bet it will behave predictably on the road like a normal car would. Everything else is secondary. Teslas definitely have a learning curve if you have never driven one.
    - ex3ndr 6y ago
      No, tesla behaves just like a normal car. Changing gear is the same as Mercedes, default settings makes tesla same as any other car. If you will change it's settings to something different than it is have to learn something. Chill Mode + No recuperation + no "one pedal driving" and you will get typical Mazda behavior. The biggest issue with tesla is that it is freaking powerful if you are moving from other car.
      - kbenson 6y ago
        > Chill Mode + No recuperation + no "one pedal driving" and you will get typical Mazda behavior. And how likely are you to get exactly that after receiving a rental that someone else has played with all the settings for? My guess is that the combined effect of rental agencies not taking the time to reset settings (bluetooth pairing is never empty on anything I rent) and people wanting to play with all the extra settings Tesla gives you means you more than likely receive a Tesla rental in a configuration that is not entirely the same as driving other cars.
        brianwawok 6y ago
        Also, I don't think that is fully normal car driving. Does a normal car have a situation where you need to reboot the MCU (media control unit, basically the computer that powers the screen) in order to open the glovebox? Does a normal car have 2 ways to open the door, one of which damages the trim? Does a normal car have no obvious way to "lock" the doors when you leave? I am a _VERY_ happy Tesla owner as I said. There is still a lot to them that I think might be a bit much to throw on someone for a 1 day rental.
      - Rebelgecko 6y ago
        This doesn't sound like a normal car to me. I've never driven a car where doing the wrong thing on the infotainment screen would prevent the car from moving. Typically cars do it the other way around- if you're doing something you're not supposed to while driving, they just freeze or back you out of the infotainment screen but allow the car to move
        brianwawok 6y ago
        To be clear, you can drive without the infotainment screen in most cases. You won't be able to see your gear nor your speed, but it should go forward.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    Mazda gives you CarPlay / Android Auto and has buttons for things like climate control, I haven't driven one but I imagine it's a lot easier to drive without bothering to learn how the screen works at all. EDIT: though IIRC Mazda's screen isn't a touchscreen, so you need to figure out how to control CarPlay with the knob. Interaction is more like an old iPod than an iPhone. Perhaps less intuitive as a new user, but better for muscle memory so you can keep your eyes on the road?
    - aidenn0 6y ago
      Mazda's screen is a touch-screen at least up to 2019; you can use the knob as well (and I exclusively use the knob because finger-prints make the screen unreadable when the sun is behind you).
      - wlesieutre 6y ago
        Looks like they started dropping touchscreens in 2019: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...
        crooked-v 6y ago
        Also, along with dropping the touchscreens, they've gone on a hard bent towards keeping the "driving only" information on physically separate displays from the "infotainment" part. Pure vehicle operation stuff is always straight ahead for the driver, while navigation and music is always on a separate screen a little to the right.
        aidenn0 6y ago
        That's interesting. My car (2019MY) must be a transition model because I have the 7-way controller in the center console, but the screen can still be touched.
        wlesieutre 6y ago
fiftyfifty 6y ago
Yeah, the biggest problem with Teslas is they don't follow a lot of established conventions in the auto industry. Things like the windshield wiper controls or opening the glove box are not in the standard place. You definitely have to take the time to learn how to use the car.
netsharc 6y ago
If the car doesn't display a warning along the lines of "Exit game to drive car", then I would consider it poor design. My car has a little "dot matrix" display that displays warnings like "Door open", I'd expect the many displays of a Tesla to be able to display such warnings...
- dkonofalski 6y ago
  This was quickly fixed in an update. If you shift into drive now, the entertainment/toybox sections of the display automatically exit.
jeffbee 6y ago
I drive a Honda and it has this glitch where it will get into a state when it says "Depress brake to start" but what it wants is the opposite: it will NOT turn on if you are depressing the brake. This once caused a great deal of honking, at me, in traffic. The purpose of my anecdote is that many carmakers are not great at software development.
- kbenson 6y ago
  Personally, I hate when they use the word depress to mean "to press something down", because that's what I think of "press" as meaning, and depress to me immediately makes me think "opposite of press" or "stop pressing". To my eyes, it would be much clearer to say "press the brake" or "activate the brake pedal".
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    I have the same mental ambivalence about "engage the clutch". Is it engaged when the engine is connected to the transmission? Or when they are disconnected? But this is English and we have words like "inflammable".
root_axis 6y ago
To your point about changes with software updates, since I've owned the car, if you attempt to drive while the game is open it will just automatically close the game.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  That's a MUCH better solution. It would've saved me some embarrassment.

brianwawok 6y ago

As a Tesla owner, I think it’s not a great rental car. A lot to learn.

ex3ndr 6y ago
I think it is clearly opposite: media in mazda is insanely hard to learn.
- gambiting 6y ago
  I bet that Mazda is stupidly easy to get into, start, put it in gear and drive though, and I bet it will behave predictably on the road like a normal car would. Everything else is secondary. Teslas definitely have a learning curve if you have never driven one.
  - ex3ndr 6y ago
    No, tesla behaves just like a normal car. Changing gear is the same as Mercedes, default settings makes tesla same as any other car. If you will change it's settings to something different than it is have to learn something. Chill Mode + No recuperation + no "one pedal driving" and you will get typical Mazda behavior. The biggest issue with tesla is that it is freaking powerful if you are moving from other car.
    - kbenson 6y ago
      > Chill Mode + No recuperation + no "one pedal driving" and you will get typical Mazda behavior. And how likely are you to get exactly that after receiving a rental that someone else has played with all the settings for? My guess is that the combined effect of rental agencies not taking the time to reset settings (bluetooth pairing is never empty on anything I rent) and people wanting to play with all the extra settings Tesla gives you means you more than likely receive a Tesla rental in a configuration that is not entirely the same as driving other cars.
      - brianwawok 6y ago
        Also, I don't think that is fully normal car driving. Does a normal car have a situation where you need to reboot the MCU (media control unit, basically the computer that powers the screen) in order to open the glovebox? Does a normal car have 2 ways to open the door, one of which damages the trim? Does a normal car have no obvious way to "lock" the doors when you leave? I am a _VERY_ happy Tesla owner as I said. There is still a lot to them that I think might be a bit much to throw on someone for a 1 day rental.
    - Rebelgecko 6y ago
      This doesn't sound like a normal car to me. I've never driven a car where doing the wrong thing on the infotainment screen would prevent the car from moving. Typically cars do it the other way around- if you're doing something you're not supposed to while driving, they just freeze or back you out of the infotainment screen but allow the car to move
      - brianwawok 6y ago
        To be clear, you can drive without the infotainment screen in most cases. You won't be able to see your gear nor your speed, but it should go forward.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  Mazda gives you CarPlay / Android Auto and has buttons for things like climate control, I haven't driven one but I imagine it's a lot easier to drive without bothering to learn how the screen works at all. EDIT: though IIRC Mazda's screen isn't a touchscreen, so you need to figure out how to control CarPlay with the knob. Interaction is more like an old iPod than an iPhone. Perhaps less intuitive as a new user, but better for muscle memory so you can keep your eyes on the road?
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    Mazda's screen is a touch-screen at least up to 2019; you can use the knob as well (and I exclusively use the knob because finger-prints make the screen unreadable when the sun is behind you).
    - wlesieutre 6y ago
      Looks like they started dropping touchscreens in 2019: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...
      - crooked-v 6y ago
        Also, along with dropping the touchscreens, they've gone on a hard bent towards keeping the "driving only" information on physically separate displays from the "infotainment" part. Pure vehicle operation stuff is always straight ahead for the driver, while navigation and music is always on a separate screen a little to the right.
      - aidenn0 6y ago
        That's interesting. My car (2019MY) must be a transition model because I have the 7-way controller in the center console, but the screen can still be touched.
        wlesieutre 6y ago

fiftyfifty 6y ago

Yeah, the biggest problem with Teslas is they don't follow a lot of established conventions in the auto industry. Things like the windshield wiper controls or opening the glove box are not in the standard place. You definitely have to take the time to learn how to use the car.

netsharc 6y ago

If the car doesn't display a warning along the lines of "Exit game to drive car", then I would consider it poor design. My car has a little "dot matrix" display that displays warnings like "Door open", I'd expect the many displays of a Tesla to be able to display such warnings...

dkonofalski 6y ago
This was quickly fixed in an update. If you shift into drive now, the entertainment/toybox sections of the display automatically exit.

jeffbee 6y ago

I drive a Honda and it has this glitch where it will get into a state when it says "Depress brake to start" but what it wants is the opposite: it will NOT turn on if you are depressing the brake. This once caused a great deal of honking, at me, in traffic. The purpose of my anecdote is that many carmakers are not great at software development.

kbenson 6y ago
Personally, I hate when they use the word depress to mean "to press something down", because that's what I think of "press" as meaning, and depress to me immediately makes me think "opposite of press" or "stop pressing". To my eyes, it would be much clearer to say "press the brake" or "activate the brake pedal".
- jeffbee 6y ago
  I have the same mental ambivalence about "engage the clutch". Is it engaged when the engine is connected to the transmission? Or when they are disconnected? But this is English and we have words like "inflammable".

root_axis 6y ago

To your point about changes with software updates, since I've owned the car, if you attempt to drive while the game is open it will just automatically close the game.

ALittleLight 6y ago
That's a MUCH better solution. It would've saved me some embarrassment.