- [Michael Fisher] Since you are alive and breathing in 2018
you probably know about Tesla.
Both because of its efforts to revolutionize
the auto industry with its electric cars.
And the catastrophic results when
that revolutionization goes awry.
Well as Mr. Mobile, I've drive the Tesla Model S,
Model X, and the new Model Three
but those videos only gave me a chance
to give you the 10,000 foot view of each car.
This time, I want to talk about the little things.
From the pleasures to the pitfalls.
I'm Michael Fisher and these are seven things
you might not know about Driving a Tesla.
(reflective techno music)
For some of the driving in this video,
I went hard core with a monster Model S P100D.
I'll explain what those numbers mean in a second
but it's basically the baddest Tesla
you can buy short of a roadster.
I rented it from teslarents.com.
And if you live anywhere near Boston
you can rent this same car, or the 70 D at the same website.
A warm thank you to Tesla Rents
for the loan that made this video possible.
I wanna reverse my usual habit
and start with some of the pain points.
You see, Tesla has this kind of mystique around it.
Kind of like Apple does.
And while it's not entirely undeserved.
Well, let's just say park a Tesla under a tree
and it'll get just as dirty as an old LeBaron will.
So number seven.
Tesla's are high tech cars,
and high tech anything can have bugs.
I'm talking about stuff like the backup camera
sometimes refusing to open when I put the car in reverse.
I'm talking about the auto parking feature
just not working a lot of the time in the Model Three
even in ideal conditions.
And less a bug than just an annoyance
even in this crazy futuristic car
the USB ports still only kick out enough power
to charge your phone at a trickle.
C'mon guys.
The upside?
The first two can be corrected with software updates.
And just like your smartphone, Teslas get those
over the air pretty regularly.
Also just like your smartphone, a Tesla can be rebooted
just by pressing and holding the steering wheel joysticks.
Just be sure to clean your screen off before you do it.
'Cause uh, gross.
Number six.
Driving a Tesla feels like driving any other car
except for a couple tiny little things.
First off, when you're in gear in
a regular gas burning automatic
and you let your foot off the break
the car will creep forward.
By default, a Tesla will not.
It'll just sit there until you press the accelerator.
Well fortunately for creeps like me
there's an option for this in the software.
Enable it and the car will advance
slowly forward at idle speed.
Second, Teslas don't break the same.
Whenever you let your foot of the go pedal at speed
the electric motors essentially reverse roles
to become generators recapturing some of
your inertial energy and putting it back into the battery.
That slows a Tesla much more quickly than a typical car.
But it extends your range
and also saves wear and tear on the brakes.
Other EVs do this, too.
Chevy calls it one pedal driving.
Once you get used to it,
it is a much more efficient way to drive
than by bouncing your foot between pedals all the time.
Number five.
Acceleration isn't just for jerk bags.
See, even the most conservative Tesla has more get up
and go than you'll have ever have felt behind the wheel
of a regular car.
And this P100D,
well,
- Here we go.
Whoa! - Oh (beep)!
(laughs)
- Whoa.
- Oh my God.
- [Michael] But the thing is footage like this tends
to emphasize all the wrong aspects of power.
You know, that it's only useful for drag racing.
Used properly, acceleration is safety.
In a Tesla, you never wonder if you're gonna have the speed
to merge safely.
You never have to put pedal to the metal
and wait for the shifting of gears to let you pass
by that big truck.
My friend Crackberry Kevin has owned a Model S for years
and he says it's that instantly available torque more
than anything else that's likely to keep him a Tesla driver.
Speaking of power, here comes number four.
There's a lot you can tell about a Tesla just by looking
at that number on the back.
Take this P100D.
The number represents the nominal battery capacity.
In this case, 100 kilowatt hours.
The P indicate the car has the performance package
with a larger main motor for more go fast.
And the D suffix tells you it's a galaxy class starship.
The fifth to carry the name Enterprise.
(disc scratching)
Oh, wait. No.
It tells you the car has dual motors.
One driving the fronts and one for the rear ones.
Finally, if there's an underline,
it means the car you're looking at has ludicrous mode.
Aka, enough acceleration to turn you into chunky salsa.
Number three.
Autopilot is terribly named.
This combination of adaptive cruise control
and automatic lane keeping blew me away
when I first tried it in 2016.
Yes, the car will drive itself,
and yes, it's pretty good at it.
But it still can't tell a traffic light from a tree.
Nor will it stop for a stop sign.
Nor will it save you from a collision in all circumstances.
This is why Tesla's always insists you pay attention
to the road even under autopilot.
And the car confirms every few moments
that you're keeping your hands on the wheel.
It can tell.
If you don't, it'll disable the feature
for the rest of your drive.
That's a great safety measure but it doesn't stop people
from routinely overestimating the car's abilities.
Bottom line,
autopilot is no where close to being
a fully self-driving solution,
so it shouldn't carry a name that implies that it is.
Hitting the home stretch with number two.
Teslas do indeed work in the winter time.
See most of the Tesla owning mobile nations team lives
in colder climes.
Derek, the Tessler Kessler, in Ohio
and the aforementioned Crackberry Kevin in Winnepeg.
We all have nicknames because we're all adults.
Kevin parks his Model S outside
in minus 30 degree temperatures.
But he uses the remote preheating function
so he never gets into a cold Tesla.
But you may be saying,
most batteries aren't very happy at very cold temperatures,
so how does this battery-driven car perform
after it's been in the deep freeze
of a Chicago winter overnight?
Well, as this helpful blog post points out,
you can hope into a frozen Tesla and take off, no problem.
But you will lose performance and range.
I've seen reports of up to 40% temporary range reduction
in cold weather.
This is a problem all EB's have to contend with.
And another important thing to note,
you won't have regenerative braking
until the battery warms up
since charging a cold battery can damage the cells.
Remember, regenerative braking is just
recharging the battery with the motors.
This helps explain why I see a lot more Teslas in Florida,
than in Boston.
The number one thing you might not know
about driving a Tesla also applies to any electric vehicle.
If you're an American buying an EV because you want
to be more environmentally-conscious,
you've probably wondered just how green you're being.
If the power you use to charge that car comes
from, say, coal or gas power plants.
Well, according to this excellent article in Wired,
the answer varies depending on where you reside.
If you live in, say, Missouri,
driving an electric vehicle does as much damage
to the environment as does a gas car
that gets 39 miles a gallon
because Missouri gets most of its power from coal.
If you live in California,
which will generate half of its power
through renewables by 2020,
driving an EV is like driving a car
that gets 109 miles per gallon.
And as the country as a whole moves away
from fossil fuels over time,
electric vehicles on the whole get cleaner,
which doesn't happen with gas-burning cars.
Now, these cars are not 100% clean by any means.
There are other issues to consider when it comes
to battery sourcing and recycling.
I'll have to cover that in a separate piece.
If you're interested, let me know in the comments,
and please subscribe so you don't miss future videos.
Before you go scampering off,
I've got a bonus fact for you,
which also relates to charging.
See, it pays to stick around to the end.
You probably know that a Tesla super charger
is like a gas station just for Teslas.
Tops them up much faster than
a regular charging station will.
But did you know that your charging speed actually depends
on which space you choose?
See, each stall is numbered and each pair
of stalls shares a transformer.
So for the fastest charging on the go,
pick a super charger where both of the pair are unoccupied.
If you can.
That tip from Derek Kessler, one more thanks to him,
to Kevin Michaluk and of course,
to telsarents.com for the time behind the wheel
in this ridiculous P100D.
Thanks for sticking with me through this longer form
than usual video.
Please leave your own Tesla tips and questions
down in the comments.
Until next time.
Thanks for watching and stay mobile my friends.