I have had my Model S, SSL#40, VIN#37 for a few days now. Here are some pictures and first thoughts.
Where the Roadster is full of raw power and gusto, the Model S is full of a wonderful quiet, refined power. The Roadster roars with electric power, and the Model S is so quiet, you are doing 70 mph without even noticing. Here are my beauties:
Saturday, I had the fun of trying out what we could load in to the car and go high in the Rockies. We drove from Boulder up to Estes Park with 3 adults and a 65 lb dog, then added two more adults and drove up Fall River Road and back over Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park and back to Boulder. Trail Ridge tops out at 12,183 ft, so I will claim this as the highest Model S so far. :biggrin: The car performed incredibly well. 5 adults were comfortable, and there was plenty of room for gear and the dog in the hatch back. This is no Roadster.
I got a little worried about range in the middle of the climb when I saw energy use as high as 1,300 W-Hr/mi and predicted range of 57 miles. This part of the trip was 11 miles long, at an average speed of 11 mph and grades as steep as 17%. However, I quickly realized from Roadster experience, that I would have much better performance going back. In fact, as you can see from the second, fuzzy shot below, it went to 23,496 miles at one point.
My overall stats for the trip were 136.9 mi; 43.1 kW-Hr; 315 W-Hr/mi, not bad for a full load and mountain driving. Of course the average speeds were low.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts:
The maps need a lot of work. Here is a typical view that I had in the mountains with weak or no cell coverage.
As you can see, I drove out of cellular coverage. With a little work in the nav app, it could easily cache data ahead of need when the cellular coverage is good. This would also help when the cellular coverage is weak because of location or traffic load on the network.
The auto day/night mode on the displays is easily fooled. When I drove through a brightly lit tunnel at night, I was almost blinded as the displays went to day time mode. The GPS can easily calculate day/night status and assist the day/night display modes and brightness.
I was annoyed at the big jumps in the cruise control speed that you get from pushing the cruise control lever up and down. I learned today from the Denver service manager that a little push gives you 1 mph change adjustment and a big push gives you a 5 mph change, much better. Also, when you do a big correction (5 mph), the speed change is pretty abrupt, not jarring, but a little too much jerk.
The key fob does not work or works poorly when in the same pocket as an iPhone. My educated guess is that this is because the key fob is a challenge-response, two-way device and the iPhone is interfering with the key fob's receiver.
The map needs the ability to set waypoints. Even Google Maps on the iPhone has this. Many destinations, like trail heads, do not have addresses.
The map really needs a direction of travel up. This is very common in GPS's and extremely useful in the moving map mode.
Routes cannot be modified for local knowledge, more scenic route, go through a specific place, etc.
I sometimes drive for miles on gravel roads, the suspension can be set to "high" mode, but goes back to normal mode at 16-18 mph. For these gravel roads, I want a way to keep the suspension high to stay away from flying gravel and have a little more bump buffer. An adjustable "go to normal" threshold speed would be nice.
After cold soaking at 45˚ for an hour and a half at dinner, the handle would come out on the driver's door, but the door would not open. This happened multiple times, and the only way to open the driver's door was to reach in through the passenger door. After warming up overnight, the problem went away. I have not had the opportunity to try to recreate this problem.
I was able to recreate the "lock the fob in the hatchback" problem that Rod and Barbara discovered. With the driver's window down and the second fob in the kitchen, and the car locked, I opened the hatchback, tossed the fob in the back, and closed the hatchback. Sure enough, there was no way to open the car. I reached in the open window, unlocked the driver's door, used the screen with fob2 to open the hatch back, and recover fob1.
Tesla already has this list and it is being fed up the corporate ladder.
Overall, I am overjoyed to have two electric cars that use way less energy than I produce at my home, PV, grid-tied, powerplant. Cottonwood Annual Comparison
Where the Roadster is full of raw power and gusto, the Model S is full of a wonderful quiet, refined power. The Roadster roars with electric power, and the Model S is so quiet, you are doing 70 mph without even noticing. Here are my beauties:
Saturday, I had the fun of trying out what we could load in to the car and go high in the Rockies. We drove from Boulder up to Estes Park with 3 adults and a 65 lb dog, then added two more adults and drove up Fall River Road and back over Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park and back to Boulder. Trail Ridge tops out at 12,183 ft, so I will claim this as the highest Model S so far. :biggrin: The car performed incredibly well. 5 adults were comfortable, and there was plenty of room for gear and the dog in the hatch back. This is no Roadster.
I got a little worried about range in the middle of the climb when I saw energy use as high as 1,300 W-Hr/mi and predicted range of 57 miles. This part of the trip was 11 miles long, at an average speed of 11 mph and grades as steep as 17%. However, I quickly realized from Roadster experience, that I would have much better performance going back. In fact, as you can see from the second, fuzzy shot below, it went to 23,496 miles at one point.
My overall stats for the trip were 136.9 mi; 43.1 kW-Hr; 315 W-Hr/mi, not bad for a full load and mountain driving. Of course the average speeds were low.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts:
The maps need a lot of work. Here is a typical view that I had in the mountains with weak or no cell coverage.
As you can see, I drove out of cellular coverage. With a little work in the nav app, it could easily cache data ahead of need when the cellular coverage is good. This would also help when the cellular coverage is weak because of location or traffic load on the network.
The auto day/night mode on the displays is easily fooled. When I drove through a brightly lit tunnel at night, I was almost blinded as the displays went to day time mode. The GPS can easily calculate day/night status and assist the day/night display modes and brightness.
I was annoyed at the big jumps in the cruise control speed that you get from pushing the cruise control lever up and down. I learned today from the Denver service manager that a little push gives you 1 mph change adjustment and a big push gives you a 5 mph change, much better. Also, when you do a big correction (5 mph), the speed change is pretty abrupt, not jarring, but a little too much jerk.
The key fob does not work or works poorly when in the same pocket as an iPhone. My educated guess is that this is because the key fob is a challenge-response, two-way device and the iPhone is interfering with the key fob's receiver.
The map needs the ability to set waypoints. Even Google Maps on the iPhone has this. Many destinations, like trail heads, do not have addresses.
The map really needs a direction of travel up. This is very common in GPS's and extremely useful in the moving map mode.
Routes cannot be modified for local knowledge, more scenic route, go through a specific place, etc.
I sometimes drive for miles on gravel roads, the suspension can be set to "high" mode, but goes back to normal mode at 16-18 mph. For these gravel roads, I want a way to keep the suspension high to stay away from flying gravel and have a little more bump buffer. An adjustable "go to normal" threshold speed would be nice.
After cold soaking at 45˚ for an hour and a half at dinner, the handle would come out on the driver's door, but the door would not open. This happened multiple times, and the only way to open the driver's door was to reach in through the passenger door. After warming up overnight, the problem went away. I have not had the opportunity to try to recreate this problem.
I was able to recreate the "lock the fob in the hatchback" problem that Rod and Barbara discovered. With the driver's window down and the second fob in the kitchen, and the car locked, I opened the hatchback, tossed the fob in the back, and closed the hatchback. Sure enough, there was no way to open the car. I reached in the open window, unlocked the driver's door, used the screen with fob2 to open the hatch back, and recover fob1.
Tesla already has this list and it is being fed up the corporate ladder.
Overall, I am overjoyed to have two electric cars that use way less energy than I produce at my home, PV, grid-tied, powerplant. Cottonwood Annual Comparison
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Great to hear more about peoples' experiences as they get the car. It helps me formulate questions for when I am finalizing and for my personal delivery. Much appreciated.
