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Having rented a Tesla via Hertz last year, here are some quick remembrances: -The car was not charged fully when I rented it. -I had to park in a pay parking

Having rented a Tesla via Hertz last year, here are some quick remembrances: -The car was not charged fully when I rented it. -I had to park in a pay parking lot at a shopping mall to charge the car. Charging to 100% cost me $7 but took 30 minutes of my time. -The UX of most of the basic car functions was much harder to learn than a typical rental car. I'm sure that Tesla's UX quirks start to feel normal after a while, but I had trouble locating basic car functions and had to text with Tesla-owning friends for advice. None of these things made me want to rent a Tesla again.

inciampati 2y ago
I tried and failed to rent a Tesla from Hertz. Paid for the EV manager special, and got a crappy compact car instead.
tootie 2y ago
The story has been that Tesla is losing market share even as EV sales rise. Early adopters were happy to buy in to a truly unique experience with a funky-looking vehicle and a complete rethinking of interiors and controls. Meanwhile, Kia, Hyundai, VW are producing EVs that just kinda look and drive like normal cars and the bulk of market prefer that. And that's indirectly causing backlash on Hertz because the drop in prices is what killed the financially viability of their deal. This is less about EVs being a bust and more that they put all their eggs in one basket and forgot to keep them warm.
- Kon-Peki 2y ago
  > Meanwhile, Kia, Hyundai, VW are producing EVs that just kinda look and drive like normal cars and the bulk of market prefer that. Kia.com -> View Inventory -> within 50 miles: EV9 = (263) 246 Available, 17 Arriving Soon EV6 = (153) 151 Available, 2 Arriving Soon Niro EV = (39) 38 Available, 1 Arriving Soon They all have $XXXX discounts on them. I'm not sure the market is falling all over itself to buy them.
  - Spooky23 2y ago
    How’s the Tesla shipments going? The industry saturated the market, which will lower the prices. People will buy them cheap. Market at work.
    - tootie 2y ago
      We're not at saturation exactly, sales are growing but growth has slowed and competition is much stronger. It's entirely possible Tesla has peaked and won't recover but that's speculation. I'm still confident EVs will be all or nearly all cars on the road in the near future but it's going to be more like 20-25 years than 10.
      - Spooky23 2y ago
        Personally, i think they’ll be 30-40% of cars. I think we’re entering a trough where the artificial incentives start to lose their effect and we really figure out what the market needs and navigate the FUD as we “digest” some of the lousy early cars. We’re still early in the market and tech breakthroughs make it unpredictable — Tesla’s survival is probably tied to delivering those.
        tootie 2y ago
        The deciding factor is going to end being politics. Democrats will continue pushing mandates and Republicans will try to block or undo them.
  - bobthepanda 2y ago
    I think Kia and Hyundai are dealing with reputation damage after their cars were so easy to steal for a couple years. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/business/hyundai-kia-thefts-increased-10-fold/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/business/hyundai-kia-thefts-i...
    - nblgbg 2y ago
      Its not completely true. Check their popular gas models like telluride etc, you still have to pay above MSRP or some crap accessories to get the cars. They are selling gas cars extremely well.
cowpig 2y ago
> Charging to 100% cost me $7 but took 30 minutes of my time Did you really charge to 100%? I guess people unfamiliar with Teslas aren't used to the idea of charging to 80-85% as a default
- tiahura 2y ago
  If you’re renting F battery life.
  - csa 2y ago
    > If you’re renting F battery life. It’s a time issue. The battery charges much faster when low on charge and slower when close to full charge. I imagine the op was at 80% or more within 10 minutes or less. My comment to people about teslas is that they will be disappointed if they try to drive it like an ICE car. It’s a different driving experience (e.g., you almost never want or need a “full tank”), and the good parts of EVs won’t be as noticeable if one doesn’t integrate those differences.
    - lelanthran 2y ago
      > My comment to people about teslas is that they will be disappointed if they try to drive it like an ICE car. Why would renters drive it any differently to any other rental car? > It’s a different driving experience The only experience car renters want is reliable transport now. The car is not the primary objective, their destination is. Anything that degrades the journey to the destination is a turn off.
      - csa 2y ago
        > Anything that degrades the journey to the destination is a turn off. I didn’t say it is a degraded experience. It’s just different. If someone feels like that’s a degraded experience, that’s an issue with them and their expectations rather than the car. As a simple example, some folks hate the Tesla controls, especially the touch screen. That’s fine. I love those same controls. Most common actions can be handled by the stems, most of the others by voice, and a few others require touch screen. If these things get a person bent out of shape, then a Tesla isn’t for them, and that’s ok. It works perfectly for me and my tastes. It’s a matter of expectations.
s1mon 2y ago
At one point I really thought that our next car would be a Tesla. So when Hertz had a Model 3 available after our Hyundai from Enterprise was stolen (yep Kiaboyz hack time), we tried it out. We had similar UX issues. It's crazy. I'm all for a very clean interface, but the affordances for very basic functionality are limited. It started with just getting into the damn car. I felt like an idiot just trying to unlock the door. After we struggled for a few minutes we finally had to ask a Hertz attendant. Similarly, there were a lot of cabin controls which are buried in the touchscreen UI. Because I like to play with new toys, I was willing to take the time while parked to watch some videos and figure things out, but a Model 3 is not an easy car to just get in and drive without some prior knowledge. What's also kinda crazy is all the ways that things can be customized (e.g. one pedal driving). I wonder if Hertz resets any of this to the lowest common denominator after a rental? Charging was a bit of a pain without access to charging at our hotel. There was a supercharger site not too far away, but sitting for 20-30 minutes in a mall parking lot is not my idea of fun. We definitely want our next car to be an EV, but only because we would install a charger in our garage. I'm still not sure I would make the EV choice without that. I rented a Model 3 again another time, but through Turo, and had hardly any issues, but that's because of this prior experience. These days, Elon Musk has turned into (or exposed himself to be?) such a nut job that I can't see buying a Tesla. It's very frustrating, because overall I still like the Model 3 better than most other EVs.
- vel0city 2y ago
  I'm a bit confused about your difficulty with unlocking and driving off. The car should have unlocked itself upon approach, and all you would have needed to do to drive would be to swipe the always on part of the screen to drive. Was it not this way with the rental? I don't own a Tesla and I'm not a fan of their extremely minimalist interior, but those two things should have at least been the easiest to do.
  - kccqzy 2y ago
    How does the car know it should unlock when approached by the right person but not a stranger? It has a Bluetooth connection to the phone. For a rental, the person renting probably doesn't have the Tesla app, and it's not obvious how to use the key card. None of this is easy for a rental. They are only easy for a person who bought the car and owns it.
jefftk 2y ago
> The UX of most of the basic car functions was much harder to learn than a typical rental car. I'm sure that Tesla's UX quirks start to feel normal after a while, but I had trouble locating basic car functions and had to text with Tesla-owning friends for advice. This was also my experience: "you'd only know if someone told you or you looked it up, and late at night after a cross country flight with two tired kids while poking at unfamiliar menu options on the dashboard tablet I was pretty frustrated with their minimally discoverable approach" https://www.jefftk.com/p/tesla-model-3-review https://www.jefftk.com/p/tesla-model-3-review
- 2sk21 2y ago
  That was an excellent write up! I am really surprised that the built-in navigation system does not enable you to search for charging + activity. That seems like it ought to be essential!
  - jefftk 2y ago
    Thanks! It's possible that searching for charging+activity is possible and I just didn't find it? But I spent a while looking!
- HumblyTossed 2y ago
  > The major downside of the cruise control was phantom braking. In about 450mi of driving up and down CA 101 I has three false positives, where we suddenly decelerated: > I was in the rightmost of two lanes and an SUV was parked in the breakdown lane with its hazards on. Why was this a false positive?? This is what you are supposed to do if you don't get over to the left.
  - dev_tty01 2y ago
    They said it 'suddenly decelerated.' That is NOT what you are supposed to do when a car is in the breakdown lane.
- shepherdjerred 2y ago
  For me, test driving a Tesla was a very scary experience because of this. They're not intuitive at all, though I'm sure those who own Tesla's are mostly familiar with the quirks.
khalilravanna 2y ago
Similar experience. - Rented Model Y. Show up and no Model Y. “We got a 3”. I’m driving to Vermont with snow but no choice now. “Ok sounds great.” - Have to stop every couple hours to charge. - Multiple times the GPS plotted us a route which would have battery hit 0% before arriving to charger. Nerve wracking. - Most of the full speed charging stations had lines and if we did the slow speed ones our entire weekend trip would be spent charging. - Regenerative braking is cool till you’re going down hill in snow with all season tires. Then it’s a great way to lock up and slide. Thankfully I’m not a noob. (Also not that I expected winter tires from a rental, even in Boston, but cmon Hertz.) My biggest takeaway is that if where we stayed had a charger for overnight charging it would have been fine. Without that it was undeniably worse than renting a gas car. We basically had to plan our days around the rental which is a bit insane. I don’t doubt that having one to whip around local with a charger at home would rule but for anything more than short drives I don’t think a rental electric makes sense.
- aftbit 2y ago
  >Rented Model Y. Show up and no Model Y. I don't understand how this isn't considered fraud. If you try to cancel your trip, they want to charge a crazy fee, but if they don't have the car that you reserved, sorry maybe we can offer you another one. Rental car companies need a good lashing from a government regulator.
  - FourHand451 2y ago
    It's been a while since I've rented, but I assume this is covered in the agreement when you make a booking. I'd guess their butts are covered from the fraud perspective. Maybe misleading advertisement though?
  - threeseed 2y ago
    As Jerry Seinfeld once said: They know how to take the reservation. They just don't know how to hold the reservation.
  - ilikepi 2y ago
    Generally you don't rent a specific model, you rent a "So-and-so or similar". And undoubtedly the rental agreement specifically gives them permission to make substitutions. It's unlikely this scenario has not been fully mitigated by corporate legal and risk management.
code_runner 2y ago
I had an almost opposite experience and ended up buying a tesla a handful of months later when it was time for a car. the UX was a bit of a pain at first and I didn't understand the regen braking, but I felt that I at least had menus instead of buttons with symbols in weird places. I have a theory that I'm not as good at remembering where my buttons are as other people because i've never thought twice about the buttons being on a screen instead.... I always have to glance at what i'm setting All that said: I would never want to drive or own one of the teslas without the turn signal stalks on the steering wheel and all that.... just seems like asking for trouble
robbyiq999 2y ago
> The UX of most of the basic car functions was much harder to learn than a typical rental car ... Strange there is no voice control, I mean the car is smart enough it can drive itself .... right?
- RandallBrown 2y ago
  There is voice control. https://www.tesla.com/support/voice-commands https://www.tesla.com/support/voice-commands
- vel0city 2y ago
  I don't want to use voice control to turn the wipers on or use my turn signals, and their radically different placement takes time getting used to.

inciampati 2y ago

I tried and failed to rent a Tesla from Hertz. Paid for the EV manager special, and got a crappy compact car instead.

tootie 2y ago

The story has been that Tesla is losing market share even as EV sales rise. Early adopters were happy to buy in to a truly unique experience with a funky-looking vehicle and a complete rethinking of interiors and controls. Meanwhile, Kia, Hyundai, VW are producing EVs that just kinda look and drive like normal cars and the bulk of market prefer that. And that's indirectly causing backlash on Hertz because the drop in prices is what killed the financially viability of their deal. This is less about EVs being a bust and more that they put all their eggs in one basket and forgot to keep them warm.

Kon-Peki 2y ago
> Meanwhile, Kia, Hyundai, VW are producing EVs that just kinda look and drive like normal cars and the bulk of market prefer that. Kia.com -> View Inventory -> within 50 miles: EV9 = (263) 246 Available, 17 Arriving Soon EV6 = (153) 151 Available, 2 Arriving Soon Niro EV = (39) 38 Available, 1 Arriving Soon They all have $XXXX discounts on them. I'm not sure the market is falling all over itself to buy them.
- Spooky23 2y ago
  How’s the Tesla shipments going? The industry saturated the market, which will lower the prices. People will buy them cheap. Market at work.
  - tootie 2y ago
    We're not at saturation exactly, sales are growing but growth has slowed and competition is much stronger. It's entirely possible Tesla has peaked and won't recover but that's speculation. I'm still confident EVs will be all or nearly all cars on the road in the near future but it's going to be more like 20-25 years than 10.
    - Spooky23 2y ago
      Personally, i think they’ll be 30-40% of cars. I think we’re entering a trough where the artificial incentives start to lose their effect and we really figure out what the market needs and navigate the FUD as we “digest” some of the lousy early cars. We’re still early in the market and tech breakthroughs make it unpredictable — Tesla’s survival is probably tied to delivering those.
      - tootie 2y ago
        The deciding factor is going to end being politics. Democrats will continue pushing mandates and Republicans will try to block or undo them.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  I think Kia and Hyundai are dealing with reputation damage after their cars were so easy to steal for a couple years. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/business/hyundai-kia-thefts-increased-10-fold/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/business/hyundai-kia-thefts-i...
  - nblgbg 2y ago
    Its not completely true. Check their popular gas models like telluride etc, you still have to pay above MSRP or some crap accessories to get the cars. They are selling gas cars extremely well.

cowpig 2y ago

> Charging to 100% cost me $7 but took 30 minutes of my time Did you really charge to 100%? I guess people unfamiliar with Teslas aren't used to the idea of charging to 80-85% as a default

tiahura 2y ago
If you’re renting F battery life.
- csa 2y ago
  > If you’re renting F battery life. It’s a time issue. The battery charges much faster when low on charge and slower when close to full charge. I imagine the op was at 80% or more within 10 minutes or less. My comment to people about teslas is that they will be disappointed if they try to drive it like an ICE car. It’s a different driving experience (e.g., you almost never want or need a “full tank”), and the good parts of EVs won’t be as noticeable if one doesn’t integrate those differences.
  - lelanthran 2y ago
    > My comment to people about teslas is that they will be disappointed if they try to drive it like an ICE car. Why would renters drive it any differently to any other rental car? > It’s a different driving experience The only experience car renters want is reliable transport now. The car is not the primary objective, their destination is. Anything that degrades the journey to the destination is a turn off.
    - csa 2y ago
      > Anything that degrades the journey to the destination is a turn off. I didn’t say it is a degraded experience. It’s just different. If someone feels like that’s a degraded experience, that’s an issue with them and their expectations rather than the car. As a simple example, some folks hate the Tesla controls, especially the touch screen. That’s fine. I love those same controls. Most common actions can be handled by the stems, most of the others by voice, and a few others require touch screen. If these things get a person bent out of shape, then a Tesla isn’t for them, and that’s ok. It works perfectly for me and my tastes. It’s a matter of expectations.

s1mon 2y ago

At one point I really thought that our next car would be a Tesla. So when Hertz had a Model 3 available after our Hyundai from Enterprise was stolen (yep Kiaboyz hack time), we tried it out. We had similar UX issues. It's crazy. I'm all for a very clean interface, but the affordances for very basic functionality are limited. It started with just getting into the damn car. I felt like an idiot just trying to unlock the door. After we struggled for a few minutes we finally had to ask a Hertz attendant. Similarly, there were a lot of cabin controls which are buried in the touchscreen UI. Because I like to play with new toys, I was willing to take the time while parked to watch some videos and figure things out, but a Model 3 is not an easy car to just get in and drive without some prior knowledge. What's also kinda crazy is all the ways that things can be customized (e.g. one pedal driving). I wonder if Hertz resets any of this to the lowest common denominator after a rental? Charging was a bit of a pain without access to charging at our hotel. There was a supercharger site not too far away, but sitting for 20-30 minutes in a mall parking lot is not my idea of fun. We definitely want our next car to be an EV, but only because we would install a charger in our garage. I'm still not sure I would make the EV choice without that. I rented a Model 3 again another time, but through Turo, and had hardly any issues, but that's because of this prior experience. These days, Elon Musk has turned into (or exposed himself to be?) such a nut job that I can't see buying a Tesla. It's very frustrating, because overall I still like the Model 3 better than most other EVs.

vel0city 2y ago
I'm a bit confused about your difficulty with unlocking and driving off. The car should have unlocked itself upon approach, and all you would have needed to do to drive would be to swipe the always on part of the screen to drive. Was it not this way with the rental? I don't own a Tesla and I'm not a fan of their extremely minimalist interior, but those two things should have at least been the easiest to do.
- kccqzy 2y ago
  How does the car know it should unlock when approached by the right person but not a stranger? It has a Bluetooth connection to the phone. For a rental, the person renting probably doesn't have the Tesla app, and it's not obvious how to use the key card. None of this is easy for a rental. They are only easy for a person who bought the car and owns it.

jefftk 2y ago

> The UX of most of the basic car functions was much harder to learn than a typical rental car. I'm sure that Tesla's UX quirks start to feel normal after a while, but I had trouble locating basic car functions and had to text with Tesla-owning friends for advice. This was also my experience: "you'd only know if someone told you or you looked it up, and late at night after a cross country flight with two tired kids while poking at unfamiliar menu options on the dashboard tablet I was pretty frustrated with their minimally discoverable approach" https://www.jefftk.com/p/tesla-model-3-review https://www.jefftk.com/p/tesla-model-3-review

2sk21 2y ago
That was an excellent write up! I am really surprised that the built-in navigation system does not enable you to search for charging + activity. That seems like it ought to be essential!
- jefftk 2y ago
  Thanks! It's possible that searching for charging+activity is possible and I just didn't find it? But I spent a while looking!
HumblyTossed 2y ago
> The major downside of the cruise control was phantom braking. In about 450mi of driving up and down CA 101 I has three false positives, where we suddenly decelerated: > I was in the rightmost of two lanes and an SUV was parked in the breakdown lane with its hazards on. Why was this a false positive?? This is what you are supposed to do if you don't get over to the left.
- dev_tty01 2y ago
  They said it 'suddenly decelerated.' That is NOT what you are supposed to do when a car is in the breakdown lane.
shepherdjerred 2y ago
For me, test driving a Tesla was a very scary experience because of this. They're not intuitive at all, though I'm sure those who own Tesla's are mostly familiar with the quirks.

khalilravanna 2y ago

Similar experience. - Rented Model Y. Show up and no Model Y. “We got a 3”. I’m driving to Vermont with snow but no choice now. “Ok sounds great.” - Have to stop every couple hours to charge. - Multiple times the GPS plotted us a route which would have battery hit 0% before arriving to charger. Nerve wracking. - Most of the full speed charging stations had lines and if we did the slow speed ones our entire weekend trip would be spent charging. - Regenerative braking is cool till you’re going down hill in snow with all season tires. Then it’s a great way to lock up and slide. Thankfully I’m not a noob. (Also not that I expected winter tires from a rental, even in Boston, but cmon Hertz.) My biggest takeaway is that if where we stayed had a charger for overnight charging it would have been fine. Without that it was undeniably worse than renting a gas car. We basically had to plan our days around the rental which is a bit insane. I don’t doubt that having one to whip around local with a charger at home would rule but for anything more than short drives I don’t think a rental electric makes sense.

aftbit 2y ago
>Rented Model Y. Show up and no Model Y. I don't understand how this isn't considered fraud. If you try to cancel your trip, they want to charge a crazy fee, but if they don't have the car that you reserved, sorry maybe we can offer you another one. Rental car companies need a good lashing from a government regulator.
- FourHand451 2y ago
  It's been a while since I've rented, but I assume this is covered in the agreement when you make a booking. I'd guess their butts are covered from the fraud perspective. Maybe misleading advertisement though?
- threeseed 2y ago
  As Jerry Seinfeld once said: They know how to take the reservation. They just don't know how to hold the reservation.
- ilikepi 2y ago
  Generally you don't rent a specific model, you rent a "So-and-so or similar". And undoubtedly the rental agreement specifically gives them permission to make substitutions. It's unlikely this scenario has not been fully mitigated by corporate legal and risk management.

code_runner 2y ago

I had an almost opposite experience and ended up buying a tesla a handful of months later when it was time for a car. the UX was a bit of a pain at first and I didn't understand the regen braking, but I felt that I at least had menus instead of buttons with symbols in weird places. I have a theory that I'm not as good at remembering where my buttons are as other people because i've never thought twice about the buttons being on a screen instead.... I always have to glance at what i'm setting All that said: I would never want to drive or own one of the teslas without the turn signal stalks on the steering wheel and all that.... just seems like asking for trouble

robbyiq999 2y ago

> The UX of most of the basic car functions was much harder to learn than a typical rental car ... Strange there is no voice control, I mean the car is smart enough it can drive itself .... right?

RandallBrown 2y ago
There is voice control. https://www.tesla.com/support/voice-commands https://www.tesla.com/support/voice-commands
vel0city 2y ago
I don't want to use voice control to turn the wipers on or use my turn signals, and their radically different placement takes time getting used to.