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| Ava, The Quickening |
Wow. What a fun week! The car is amazing! Here are some random highlights:
What's In A Name?
In the Tesla software, you can name your car. I tested out an Easter egg by naming my car 42 - which was changed to "Life, The Universe, And Everything." I ended up going with a suggestion from my wife: Ava, which was the name of the robot from Ex Machina. Not sure if that means she thinks the car is going to kill us. |
| The Original Ava |
Charging
I've set the car to charge nightly to 80% battery capacity. This gives me about 250 miles of energy. Tesla recommends charging to 80% to 90% for day-to-day use and only going to 100% for long trips. This is to help extend the life of the battery. I drove to and from work Monday and Tuesday, about 62 miles round trip each day and, without charging it Monday night, I was down to 28% charge on Tuesday night.
My car is scheduled to charge at 12:30 AM and the Tesla app tells me when it stops charging. On Tuesday night, to go from 28% to 80% took 3 hours and 15 minutes using the high power wall charger. Sadly, my local electric company does not offer a time-of-use plan for residential customers where power costs at night are lower. Still, I'm just going to leave my car programmed for doing scheduled charging at night.
I haven't tried a Supercharger yet, nor have we done a long road trip where we need one, but one is in the works. As part of planning for that, I also signed up for free cards from the ChargePoint and Blink charging networks. The cards are free and give you a discounted price when you use their chargers. I don't plan on using anything other than Tesla Superchargers, but it pays to plan for contingencies.
I'll be the first to admit these aren't the most exciting Tesla videos out there, but I wanted to show the dashboard display and the early morning hours seemed a good time, with it being dark out and all. You can see the Tesla detect cars in the adjacent lanes as they approach. I like that the image of my car changes - when the car slows, the brake lights on the car image come on and, as you can see, when the headlights are on, the image shows headlights. I am easily amused.
The displays to the left and right of the center image are configurable. To the left, I keep mileage and trip energy usage data. To the right is a graph showing my energy usage over the last 5, 15, or 30 miles. But if you don't like those, you can display other data - the air pressure of each tire, a navigation display, an analog clock, phone contacts, or media player info (either FM or XM radio or media from a connected phone, or some other internet streaming service). The left image changes to a turn-by-turn navigation map when you are using navigation.
The car uses GPS location to intelligently perform some tasks. For example, when I approach or drive away from my house, it will automatically open or close my garage door. I have the air suspension option and the car remembers the location of where you set it to the High or Highest position. Whenever you return to that location, it automatically raises the car. This is nice because I have a steep driveway and my Prius was always bottoming out. Now, whenever I am near home, the suspension raises. When you hit 35 MPH, the suspension automatically drops from Highest to High and at 45 MPH, it drops from High to Standard. For less wind resistance at higher speeds, you can tell the car to drop to the lowest position over XX MPH. (It defaults to 90 MPH.)
I can use the Summon feature on the Tesla app to have my car remotely pull out of or into the garage. Out of the garage works fine, but going into the garage has some problems. Because my driveway is so steep, the car won't go forward until at least the front wheels are in the garage and on a flat surface. But Summon actually works anywhere, so if I'm in a parking lot and someone has parked too close to let me open my doors, I can have the car pull forward so I can get in.
The car doors have a high threshold. I find I have to raise my leg fairly high to get out of the car. Maybe I just have my seat too low. You can set it to adjust the seat and steering wheel when you park to make entering and exiting the car a bit easier.
I also would like to first try it on a straight stretch of road, which is hard to come by in Washington. I am looking into racing tracks around the area. Seriously.
Only $5,682! My purchase qualified for the $7,500 tax credit, which means even taking out a loan, I'm still coming out $1,818 ahead.
My car is scheduled to charge at 12:30 AM and the Tesla app tells me when it stops charging. On Tuesday night, to go from 28% to 80% took 3 hours and 15 minutes using the high power wall charger. Sadly, my local electric company does not offer a time-of-use plan for residential customers where power costs at night are lower. Still, I'm just going to leave my car programmed for doing scheduled charging at night.
I haven't tried a Supercharger yet, nor have we done a long road trip where we need one, but one is in the works. As part of planning for that, I also signed up for free cards from the ChargePoint and Blink charging networks. The cards are free and give you a discounted price when you use their chargers. I don't plan on using anything other than Tesla Superchargers, but it pays to plan for contingencies.
Tech Goodies
I love Autopilot!! It makes my commute so easy, especially on the way home when I sometimes hit stop and go traffic. Autopilot takes care of the tedious starting and stopping. Here are a couple videos I made of Autopilot in action on my way to work.I'll be the first to admit these aren't the most exciting Tesla videos out there, but I wanted to show the dashboard display and the early morning hours seemed a good time, with it being dark out and all. You can see the Tesla detect cars in the adjacent lanes as they approach. I like that the image of my car changes - when the car slows, the brake lights on the car image come on and, as you can see, when the headlights are on, the image shows headlights. I am easily amused.
The displays to the left and right of the center image are configurable. To the left, I keep mileage and trip energy usage data. To the right is a graph showing my energy usage over the last 5, 15, or 30 miles. But if you don't like those, you can display other data - the air pressure of each tire, a navigation display, an analog clock, phone contacts, or media player info (either FM or XM radio or media from a connected phone, or some other internet streaming service). The left image changes to a turn-by-turn navigation map when you are using navigation.
The car uses GPS location to intelligently perform some tasks. For example, when I approach or drive away from my house, it will automatically open or close my garage door. I have the air suspension option and the car remembers the location of where you set it to the High or Highest position. Whenever you return to that location, it automatically raises the car. This is nice because I have a steep driveway and my Prius was always bottoming out. Now, whenever I am near home, the suspension raises. When you hit 35 MPH, the suspension automatically drops from Highest to High and at 45 MPH, it drops from High to Standard. For less wind resistance at higher speeds, you can tell the car to drop to the lowest position over XX MPH. (It defaults to 90 MPH.)
I can use the Summon feature on the Tesla app to have my car remotely pull out of or into the garage. Out of the garage works fine, but going into the garage has some problems. Because my driveway is so steep, the car won't go forward until at least the front wheels are in the garage and on a flat surface. But Summon actually works anywhere, so if I'm in a parking lot and someone has parked too close to let me open my doors, I can have the car pull forward so I can get in.
Fit And Function
The interior of the car has a very minimalist look. In fact, there are no storage pockets in the doors, there are no handholds on the ceiling and, something Tesla owners have been complaining about for years, there are no coat hooks. After a couple of days, I did find one storage area right under the main view screen. Unfortunately, this area does not have a door to it or even a small lip. When stuff is in there, it tends to come flying out when you accelerate quickly 😄The car doors have a high threshold. I find I have to raise my leg fairly high to get out of the car. Maybe I just have my seat too low. You can set it to adjust the seat and steering wheel when you park to make entering and exiting the car a bit easier.
Buzz
We went out to dinner Wednesday night and I had my first instance of Tesla time. Tesla time is the term owners coined for the time Tesla owners spend answering questions from curious strangers about their cars. The waiter had seen me park and asked some questions about my Model S. He was fairly knowledgeable and commented that he hadn't seen many P100Ds around.I'm A Scaredy Cat
I haven't tried Ludicrous mode yet. The car accelerates so quickly in standard mode, I'm honestly more than a bit scared to see what the faster mode is like. You want to know why I am scared? Read this Motor Trend examination of what happens during Ludicrous acceleration. One point four one g at 0.4 seconds after launch! Zero to sixty in 2.28 seconds! It hits 30 MPH after traveling 1.5 car lengths!I also would like to first try it on a straight stretch of road, which is hard to come by in Washington. I am looking into racing tracks around the area. Seriously.
Show Me The Money
My monthly car payment is a bit lower than I planned. I also will pay less total interest over the life of the loan than I calculated. I originally thought I would pay about $6,800 dollars in interest. It turns out, I will pay significantly less (because I ended up putting more down).Only $5,682! My purchase qualified for the $7,500 tax credit, which means even taking out a loan, I'm still coming out $1,818 ahead.
Beautiful car, and interesting read. Is there a track nearby where you could safely try out the Ludicrous Mode?:-)
ReplyDeleteThere is one an hour or two away and they also offer a performance driving class. I think it's only one day a week and takes place rain or shine. Since the rainy season is approaching here, I might wait until next year so the odds of my class getting rained on are less. On the other hand, being taught in rainy conditions can have some advantages... Still haven't decided though. I also need to check for a charger near the track, as I'd want to start the class with a full battery.
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