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> In the field, everything started looking different from what was on the spreadsheets. Unlike EV owners comfortable with the idea of charging a car battery at

by nunez 3y ago

> In the field, everything started looking different from what was on the spreadsheets. Unlike EV owners comfortable with the idea of charging a car battery at home and on the road, business travelers and vacationers suffered from range anxiety and didn’t want the hassle or worry of having to find a charger in the wild. Rudy Gardner, who as president of Teamsters Local 922 represents Hertz workers at Washington, DC’s Dulles and Reagan National airports, says travelers after a long flight would arrive at those Hertz locations to find that Teslas were the only vehicles available. “People didn’t want to charge them,” he says. “At the end of the night that’s all we had left, so they’d go to Avis.” This is incredibly true. I travel a lot for work. Many (MANY!) of my colleagues don't want to deal with electric cars. They (Teslas) are too different, and charging them (non-Teslas) is an ordeal. This was (and still is) amazing for me, as I can rent very nice EVs at low corporate rates, but there is no way this is good for Hertz or Avis. > Hertz’s Teslas got into accidents four times more often than the company’s other vehicles This is a wild, but very unsurprising, stat. Teslas are so, so, so different from regular cars. You have to _want_ to get plugged into this ecosystem. It's great for Turo (where you know what you're getting into) but horrible for the salesperson who has a meeting in two hours and needs a car RIGHT NOW.

atonse 3y ago
100% agree. And that is even for Tesla drivers. I drive a Model 3 and it took some getting used to, but that as my car. But recently I had to drive a friend's Model X (to take him to the doctor twice), and I felt so lost EVEN coming from a Model 3. The first hour of driving feels so distracting cuz you're just trying to figure things out. I can imagine it being doubly frustrated in a work/sales meeting situation. You're already stressed about your meeting, without having to also worry about how to drive this TOTALLY DIFFERENT car.
- pizzalife 3y ago
  What were the main factors making the Model X feel so different?
  - atonse 3y ago
    The main was the fact that the X has two displays (one where a gauge cluster would be behind the steering wheel in a car, the other in the center between the two front seats), whereas the 3 has one (just in the middle). So there are various functions that are on the X's main display (but not on the side display). I was used to keep checking my speed and all that on the 3 on the center display, but instead had to keep checking in the main one. Same with nav showing the next turn with your perspective. In the X it shows in the main cluster, but not in the MASSIVE map on the huge display. So I initially kept feeling unnerved not knowing when to turn. The 3 uses one stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel to handle autopilot, Park, Reverse, everything. The X has another stalk for autopilot and cruise control and it's hidden behind the steering wheel. (my friend had to show me) so it's not obvious. The doors on the X open up differently, and by themselves. That's just weird. I don't like that the door auto-opens when I walk up to the car. It's a thousand papercuts. But that's for me as a Tesla driver where I already understand 95% of the concepts (even if I can't find the Autopilot stalk for example). I can't imagine how complicated it is for a first-timer who isn't playing with it in their garage for a couple hours.

by nunez 3y ago

atonse 3y ago

100% agree. And that is even for Tesla drivers. I drive a Model 3 and it took some getting used to, but that as my car. But recently I had to drive a friend's Model X (to take him to the doctor twice), and I felt so lost EVEN coming from a Model 3. The first hour of driving feels so distracting cuz you're just trying to figure things out. I can imagine it being doubly frustrated in a work/sales meeting situation. You're already stressed about your meeting, without having to also worry about how to drive this TOTALLY DIFFERENT car.

pizzalife 3y ago
What were the main factors making the Model X feel so different?
- atonse 3y ago
  The main was the fact that the X has two displays (one where a gauge cluster would be behind the steering wheel in a car, the other in the center between the two front seats), whereas the 3 has one (just in the middle). So there are various functions that are on the X's main display (but not on the side display). I was used to keep checking my speed and all that on the 3 on the center display, but instead had to keep checking in the main one. Same with nav showing the next turn with your perspective. In the X it shows in the main cluster, but not in the MASSIVE map on the huge display. So I initially kept feeling unnerved not knowing when to turn. The 3 uses one stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel to handle autopilot, Park, Reverse, everything. The X has another stalk for autopilot and cruise control and it's hidden behind the steering wheel. (my friend had to show me) so it's not obvious. The doors on the X open up differently, and by themselves. That's just weird. I don't like that the door auto-opens when I walk up to the car. It's a thousand papercuts. But that's for me as a Tesla driver where I already understand 95% of the concepts (even if I can't find the Autopilot stalk for example). I can't imagine how complicated it is for a first-timer who isn't playing with it in their garage for a couple hours.