I am now four months and over 5000 miles into Telsa ownership, err, leasership? Blog rules dictate that an update is in order.
I don’t think I have anything super profound to say. For the most part, I love the car and EV life. I would say it has been a 90–95% positive experience, with mostly small things annoying me. At the same point in my Audi lease, I bet I would have said the same thing.
Driving an EV has ruined driving a traditional, gas car for me. S’s Telluride has a decent amount of power. I was endlessly frustrated driving it to Florida when, while merging onto a highway for example, I punched it and the pickup wasn’t instant. One-pedal driving is still a little odd, but odder is getting back in a traditional car and not getting the expected response when you back off the gas.
I rarely drive very fast or floor it. Yet there is still a thrill in going from a full stop at a red light to 40 or so in the blink of an eye, all in relative silence.
I’m not a mechanical expert, nor a professional car reviewer, so it is hard for me to articulate this next point. Perhaps my favorite thing about the Tesla is how the power and steering are so closely tied to each other. I love the feeling of total control when I’m in a turn. I don’t know if that is just how the steering wheel provides feedback or if it is something else that I don’t understand. In comparison, when I drive the Telluride, I get a little freaked out because the steering is so loose and disconnected from the transmission that I feel like I’m going to miss the first couple turns until I get used to its feel.
To balance that, I have a point for Kia and against Tesla. I drove a lot on our trip to Florida, and Kia’s Highway Driving Assist 2 system seemed to work way better than Tesla’s driving aids. When traffic was manageable I would let it steer and it remained in the middle of the lane, comfortably followed smooth turns on the highway, and never felt like it was being too aggressive. I kept my hands on the steering wheel and it honestly felt like I was turning even when I made no effort to move the wheel. We even let it change lanes a few times and although quirky, that seemed to work when there was plenty of space to do so.
On the other hand, Tesla’s Full Self Driving freaked me out and I only used it a handful of times in the months I had a free trial subscription. Instead I’ve tried to use Auto Steer on highway trips, but it seems super wonky and often disengages for reasons I don’t understand. When I can get it to work, it feels to me like it incorrectly measures big, sweeping highway turns where you can keep your speed pegged at 75–80 without any fear. It feels late rather than early when steering, making me think it is going through the turn then correcting rather late to stay in the proper lane. Tesla also seems to explore the space of the lane you are in a little more than the Kia. It doesn’t exactly ping-pong, but neither does it stay anchored to the center. Maybe I just need to use it a little more. I tried to turn it on once on my trip to Cincinnati over the weekend and it immediately yelled at me and disengaged, so I stuck to adaptive cruise the rest of the trip.
Another Tesla complaint: some of the sight lines are really bad. You can’t see the hood of the car at all because of the angle it sweeps away, so it is difficult to know where your nose is. And, of course, the car doesn’t have a front camera so when pulling into garages, parking spots, etc you have to rely on the parking assist radar image, which I find way too conservative in telling you where you are. I get a little nervous when pulling through a parking spot as sometimes it will insist there is something there when I know there isn’t.
Same goes for looking backwards. The tailgate window view is small – which is more because of the interior than the window itself – as is the rearview mirror. I really struggle to get a good view of what is behind me. I think Tesla should project the image from the rear-facing camera on the rearview mirror. Polestar is doing something a little like this on their upcoming Polestar 4, but that car doesn’t even have a back window so they kind of had to go that route.
I got used to having everything on the main screen pretty quickly. I still wish there were dedicated, physical buttons for some controls. But that just ain’t the Tesla way. And more and more automakers are going away from that model so we all need to get used to navigating screens to control our vehicles.
Every few weeks there seems to be another online debate about the necessity of Apple CarPlay. I can say I survive ok without it. If I can’t have CarPlay, I much prefer a new EV company like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, etc to design the software I am being forced to use. Pretty much every legacy car manufacturer makes crap software and it makes no sense to me why they don’t include CarPlay and Android Auto.
I would much prefer the ability to use Apple Maps on my car display, because I think Google Maps sucks for navigation. So many times Google tries to send me on crazy routes. Even to places where I go routinely. It doesn’t seem to learn based on my past actions, which I thought was a core part of Google’s overall mission. It is also terrible when it comes to regular traffic conditions. If I want, I can run Apple Maps on my phone and mount it off the car display to view it (I generally do this with Waze when I’m on a trip), but full integration into the car’s display would be better.
Where I miss CarPlay is in dealing with text messages. The Tesla will notify me that I’ve received a text, and if I react quick enough, will read it to me. But I can’t get it to send a response via dictation correctly. Maybe it’s me and not the software. If I ignore the initial notification, because I’m, you know, driving, I can’t go back and find it without touching my phone. I like how CarPlay will show a list of all your texts, you can select one that Siri will read to you, then respond via voice easily.
Seems like there should be some kind of middle ground where Apple and Tesla work together, but I doubt that will ever happen.
Charging continues to be fine. The Tesla app claims I’ve saved over $500 compared to a gas car in four months. I think that number is a little conservative, but I’d rather it underestimate than overestimate. I believe my driving will slow down for the next couple months until high school basketball begins, but I’ll remain on track to meet the estimated annual gas savings I used as part of my budgeting process.
You may recall I was having some issues with getting comfortable in the driver’s seat. After several weeks of that, I decided it was more an issue of my body than the car. My back would hurt in whichever of our cars I drove. I mixed in some new back exercises and that seemed to help, although Tesla could make their seats more luxurious and less harsh.
Obviously there is one big annoyance with owning a Tesla, related to someone who thinks they need to be in the news often to prove how smart they are. If that person would just go away I think not only would driving a Tesla be more satisfying, but the world would be a better place, too.
I would continue to recommend getting into the EV space to anyone who has the ability to charge at home and doesn’t need to make frequent, lengthy trips. When I drive to Cincinnati or Louisville, I always need to make a 10–12 minute charging stop on the way home. I can make the same round trip without stopping for gas in the Telluride. Driving to Kansas City, for example, would require at least three stops, compared to one stop for gas. Making our trip to Florida in the Tesla would have required five stops totaling roughly 75 total minutes. As I get older I find I need to stretch my legs more often, but I’m not super excited about adding a full hour to a 12-hour trip. Unless you love to stop or have over $100,000 to drop on a Lucid, long trips in an EV remain problematic.
I am looking forward to seeing how my experience changes when we get to the winter. Gas cars see a drop in mileage in very cold weather, but EVs suffer much more in the same conditions. It takes longer to charge and you lose the charge quicker because of both the ambient temperature and the battery drain to heat the car. I’ve already been studying tips to make that drop in efficiency less noticeable but won’t really know until I have to drive around for a week when the temperature doesn’t get about freezing.
As I said, no real deep thoughts. After the initial rush of switching to an EV, it quickly turned into a normal experience for me. Knock on wood it stays that way.