8 ms·

In a sense, Teslas are the least safe cars on the road, because I'd kill every single one of you in order to own one.

johnward 13y ago
I would really love to drive a Model S. I'm not sure if all of the Californians on HN realize how special CA is for seeing awesome cars. I saw cars that I never thought I would see in person (in my lifetime) when I was in CA. Not only that but you would see them a handful at a time. I know of 4-5 Model S' in the Pittsburgh area but rarely see exotics.
- DEinspanjer 13y ago
  Check out the teslamotorsclub.com forums, become part of the community, make some friends, crash^H^H^H^H^H drop in on one of their outings or get-togethers. While it isn't every single owner, a surprising number of them are very happy to give detailed tours of their cars and even test drives. In that aspect, it is a very very different population from other luxury or high-performance vehicle owners.
- steveklabnik 13y ago
  Pittsburgh has more interesting cars than I'd expected: I've seen an orange lambo or two, and an Enzo... Not to mention all the cool stuff that comes out during the Vintage Grand Prix.
  - johnward 13y ago
    Hey Steve, not sure if you remember me from Vivisimo/PGH.RB but nice to see you drop here. I have yet to see an Enzo, I actually can't remember the last Ferrari I saw in the area. There is a GTR parked in front of the building every now and then and that is exciting in PA. In CA that's just an every day sight.
    - steveklabnik 13y ago
      :D Totally agree about the usual-ness. I see four or five Model Ses a day now.
- bjeanes 13y ago
  http://getaround.com/ModelS http://getaround.com/ModelS I've driven it 3 times now and plan to do so again. $25/hour makes for a really fun weekend outing.
  - johnward 13y ago
    That site basically works for CA and Chicago. This just proves my point about CA having awesome cars everywhere. You can rent a Model S for $25!
- vl 13y ago
  Really, it's actually quite simple, I clicked "Test Drive" button on their website, week later they called me, I showed up at show room and test-driven it for 30 min. Try it.
  - johnward 13y ago
    The problem with that was that I couldn't get to a showroom. Now that they've expanded the closest one is probably about a 2.5 hour drive. Still doable but for a car that I can't actually afford it's kind of tough to justify. Did sit in one when I was in LA and it was very nice.
DEinspanjer 13y ago
If you promise not to kill me, I promise to give you a single 15 minute or 5 mile test drive somewhere in the southern NH area, or possibly in some other area that I happen to road trip through.
- stephencanon 13y ago
  As a fellow NH-ite, who would almost certainly have bought one already if he still lived in California: how does the battery do on -15˚ mornings?
  - DEinspanjer 13y ago
    tl;dr: You'll lose maybe as much as 10% of your charge overnight if not plugged in, and the first 15 to 20 miles would cost double the amount of energy. Most people charge every night so you always have an 80% full battery whenever you want to go somewhere. If you left it unplugged on a very cold night, you could lose maybe as much as 20 or 30 miles off the rated range due to the car using electricity to run the battery heating system to prevent any damage to the battery. There are a lot of variables, the most important of which are how far you plan to drive, whether you pre-warm the car while it is on AC power, and how you drive it. The standard 80% charge for the 85kWh battery is about 230 miles. That range translates to an average consumption of 290 Watt hours per mile. If you jumped into the car on a cold morning and just started driving, you would probably be consuming upwards of 400 to maybe even 500 Wh per mile for the first 15 to 20 miles as both the battery and cabin were heated. After that, things would taper down and you could easily hit 300 Wh per mile for the rest of your trip. A bunch of starting and stopping such as running errands would make that worse because it would take longer to heat due to the cool-downs when parked. If you had it plugged in overnight and in the morning, you used the smartphone app to turn on the cabin heater though, it would use your AC power to not only heat the cabin but also start warming up the battery. Then, when you actually started driving, you would already be at that 300 Wh or so average. We have never had any issues with not having enough charge to go somewhere, even on the occasions where we forgot to plug it in overnight. Our typical daily errand trips can be between 15 and 40 miles.

I would really love to drive a Model S. I'm not sure if all of the Californians on HN realize how special CA is for seeing awesome cars. I saw cars that I never thought I would see in person (in my lifetime) when I was in CA. Not only that but you would see them a handful at a time. I know of 4-5 Model S' in the Pittsburgh area but rarely see exotics.

DEinspanjer 13y ago
Check out the teslamotorsclub.com forums, become part of the community, make some friends, crash^H^H^H^H^H drop in on one of their outings or get-togethers. While it isn't every single owner, a surprising number of them are very happy to give detailed tours of their cars and even test drives. In that aspect, it is a very very different population from other luxury or high-performance vehicle owners.
steveklabnik 13y ago
Pittsburgh has more interesting cars than I'd expected: I've seen an orange lambo or two, and an Enzo... Not to mention all the cool stuff that comes out during the Vintage Grand Prix.
- johnward 13y ago
  Hey Steve, not sure if you remember me from Vivisimo/PGH.RB but nice to see you drop here. I have yet to see an Enzo, I actually can't remember the last Ferrari I saw in the area. There is a GTR parked in front of the building every now and then and that is exciting in PA. In CA that's just an every day sight.
  - steveklabnik 13y ago
    :D Totally agree about the usual-ness. I see four or five Model Ses a day now.
bjeanes 13y ago
http://getaround.com/ModelS http://getaround.com/ModelS I've driven it 3 times now and plan to do so again. $25/hour makes for a really fun weekend outing.
- johnward 13y ago
  That site basically works for CA and Chicago. This just proves my point about CA having awesome cars everywhere. You can rent a Model S for $25!
vl 13y ago
Really, it's actually quite simple, I clicked "Test Drive" button on their website, week later they called me, I showed up at show room and test-driven it for 30 min. Try it.
- johnward 13y ago
  The problem with that was that I couldn't get to a showroom. Now that they've expanded the closest one is probably about a 2.5 hour drive. Still doable but for a car that I can't actually afford it's kind of tough to justify. Did sit in one when I was in LA and it was very nice.

DEinspanjer 13y ago

If you promise not to kill me, I promise to give you a single 15 minute or 5 mile test drive somewhere in the southern NH area, or possibly in some other area that I happen to road trip through.

stephencanon 13y ago
As a fellow NH-ite, who would almost certainly have bought one already if he still lived in California: how does the battery do on -15˚ mornings?
- DEinspanjer 13y ago
  tl;dr: You'll lose maybe as much as 10% of your charge overnight if not plugged in, and the first 15 to 20 miles would cost double the amount of energy. Most people charge every night so you always have an 80% full battery whenever you want to go somewhere. If you left it unplugged on a very cold night, you could lose maybe as much as 20 or 30 miles off the rated range due to the car using electricity to run the battery heating system to prevent any damage to the battery. There are a lot of variables, the most important of which are how far you plan to drive, whether you pre-warm the car while it is on AC power, and how you drive it. The standard 80% charge for the 85kWh battery is about 230 miles. That range translates to an average consumption of 290 Watt hours per mile. If you jumped into the car on a cold morning and just started driving, you would probably be consuming upwards of 400 to maybe even 500 Wh per mile for the first 15 to 20 miles as both the battery and cabin were heated. After that, things would taper down and you could easily hit 300 Wh per mile for the rest of your trip. A bunch of starting and stopping such as running errands would make that worse because it would take longer to heat due to the cool-downs when parked. If you had it plugged in overnight and in the morning, you used the smartphone app to turn on the cabin heater though, it would use your AC power to not only heat the cabin but also start warming up the battery. Then, when you actually started driving, you would already be at that 300 Wh or so average. We have never had any issues with not having enough charge to go somewhere, even on the occasions where we forgot to plug it in overnight. Our typical daily errand trips can be between 15 and 40 miles.