3 ms·

That mere 70 miles of buffer made me a little nervous, especially after I missed an exit and added a few miles to the trip. I followed Tesla's recommendations a

That mere 70 miles of buffer made me a little nervous, especially after I missed an exit and added a few miles to the trip. I followed Tesla's recommendations and kept the cruise control pegged to between 60 and 65 much of the way and kept the climate control at 72 degrees. And I minimized stops. But I made it What's the point of having a car that costs north of $50K and as much as $90K if you have to worry about missing an exit? This whole thing is bad press for Tesla, they thought they had the "gotcha" moment ("he went in circles in the parking lot" for a whopping.......0.6 miles while trying to find the charging station) but it just showed a prospective buyer how fragile this very expensive car. Let me repeat it: this car is very expensive and cannot be relied to go for a few hundred miles because it has so many variables. This is a niche car at best, a rich person maybe can brag about it while having other normal cars. Hybrids would probably be best for me.

rdl 14y ago
I'd like a Model S (although, ideally, something more BMW 3-series sized, same performance, and slightly cheaper, and AWD), with the 300 mile range, specifically for daily use in the Bay Area. It is unlikely I would need to worry about range, and just plug in every night (although plugging in at the office would make sense, too) Being able to periodically ferry it between locations using the supercharger would just be a bonus; I'd be fine with a car which could never leave a 75 mile radius of Palo Alto, provided I also either had a second car (ideally diesel, 45+mpg or a diesel truck), or could rent one whenever I left. I suspect most people who can afford $100k cars can afford multiple cars, or don't do 400 mile road trips on a regular basis.
dkhenry 14y ago
I see you have never missed an exit on the NJ turnpike. Even with a ICE you can easily run out of gas due to the large distance between exits and Service plazas. Thats one _more_ point towards the car, Even during a normal disturbance it can still work just fine if you you know actually charge it.
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  they are a lot of differences: You can exit and drive a few miles into a town to find a gas station and fill up in 2 minutes. If you filled your tank you know what you have inside, it will not drop due to temperature (relatively speaking) A tow truck can ultimately bring you gasoline. All these things rule the electric car out for me and many others, unless I am worth $20 million and buy one as a third car. I'd be scared of running out of power all the time. Yes, for the record even with GPS I got lost.
  - dkhenry 14y ago
    If what your saying is true, then there is no reason for there to be tow trucks with gasoline , but there are. I know we have better infrastructure for ICE. We have built it out over 100 years , and because of that I think we still have a bias against switching to electric vehicles, but the real takeaway is that the problem is now infrastructure level. The cars are as good as if not better then their ICE counterparts (in many ways they are better and forced to be better due to the infrastructure limitations) There is always going to be the chance that your going to run out of juice. I would say its marginally greater then the chance your going to run out of gas , but thats not a car problem, and from just the car standpoint the number of things that can break is greatly reduced.

rdl 14y ago

I'd like a Model S (although, ideally, something more BMW 3-series sized, same performance, and slightly cheaper, and AWD), with the 300 mile range, specifically for daily use in the Bay Area. It is unlikely I would need to worry about range, and just plug in every night (although plugging in at the office would make sense, too) Being able to periodically ferry it between locations using the supercharger would just be a bonus; I'd be fine with a car which could never leave a 75 mile radius of Palo Alto, provided I also either had a second car (ideally diesel, 45+mpg or a diesel truck), or could rent one whenever I left. I suspect most people who can afford $100k cars can afford multiple cars, or don't do 400 mile road trips on a regular basis.

dkhenry 14y ago

I see you have never missed an exit on the NJ turnpike. Even with a ICE you can easily run out of gas due to the large distance between exits and Service plazas. Thats one _more_ point towards the car, Even during a normal disturbance it can still work just fine if you you know actually charge it.

OGinparadise 14y ago
they are a lot of differences: You can exit and drive a few miles into a town to find a gas station and fill up in 2 minutes. If you filled your tank you know what you have inside, it will not drop due to temperature (relatively speaking) A tow truck can ultimately bring you gasoline. All these things rule the electric car out for me and many others, unless I am worth $20 million and buy one as a third car. I'd be scared of running out of power all the time. Yes, for the record even with GPS I got lost.
- dkhenry 14y ago
  If what your saying is true, then there is no reason for there to be tow trucks with gasoline , but there are. I know we have better infrastructure for ICE. We have built it out over 100 years , and because of that I think we still have a bias against switching to electric vehicles, but the real takeaway is that the problem is now infrastructure level. The cars are as good as if not better then their ICE counterparts (in many ways they are better and forced to be better due to the infrastructure limitations) There is always going to be the chance that your going to run out of juice. I would say its marginally greater then the chance your going to run out of gas , but thats not a car problem, and from just the car standpoint the number of things that can break is greatly reduced.