I'm posting this to share what happened on this trip, to help other newbies prepare for their new Tesla's, and because I have some questions.
Circumstances dictated that I pick up the car on my way from Rochester, NY to Boston. So, we drove from Rochester to Oneida (at a just opened distribution facility) about 2 hours away and right on the path of our trip. Sweet. The folks were very nice and it was located on the top floor of the parking garage of a gambling casino. Pretty amusing, and they let us leave my wife's car there at no cost, so we'll pick it up on our way back.
They explained as much as they could, and made sure to answer every question I had. There was absolutely no rush on their part to get me out. That part of it was a GOOD experience. I'd also done as much homework ahead of time as I could, watching all the introductory videos and reading some of the online manual.
I THOUGHT I was all prepared. Turns out I really wasn't, never having taken it on more than 2 test drives.
Stuff I learned and experienced:
One remaining question: When on TACC, it felt like trucks were passing me way too close, even though I was centered in my lane. If a vehicle DOES get dangerously close, will TAAC move away from it, sound an alarm, turn itself off, or any combination of those 3 things?
Here's hoping this thread can help other new owners like myself!
- Richard
"0 Tesla Model Y 1" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Circumstances dictated that I pick up the car on my way from Rochester, NY to Boston. So, we drove from Rochester to Oneida (at a just opened distribution facility) about 2 hours away and right on the path of our trip. Sweet. The folks were very nice and it was located on the top floor of the parking garage of a gambling casino. Pretty amusing, and they let us leave my wife's car there at no cost, so we'll pick it up on our way back.
They explained as much as they could, and made sure to answer every question I had. There was absolutely no rush on their part to get me out. That part of it was a GOOD experience. I'd also done as much homework ahead of time as I could, watching all the introductory videos and reading some of the online manual.
I THOUGHT I was all prepared. Turns out I really wasn't, never having taken it on more than 2 test drives.
Stuff I learned and experienced:
- When using cruise control and setting the distance from vehicles to the max of 7 car lengths, it really didn't feel like that far away, and sometimes my car took me too close, making me feel like that really wasn't working correctly. Error on my part??
- When using TACC (Traffic-Aware Cruise Control) and signaling to change lanes, DO NOT RELEASE THE TURN SIGNAL UNTIL YOU ARE ACTUALLY IN THE NEW LANE!! If released too soon, the car sems to get confused and jerks back & forth a bit (scaring the crap out of my wife), forcing me to take manual control, which also resulted in cruise control dropping out and the car slowing way down until I got my foot on the gas pedal. I must have looked somewhat out of control to other drivers. I finally mastered it, but it WAS a bit alarming until I did.
- Micro-Adjusting speed from the steering wheel is a joy and beautifully implemented.
- The software controls, menus, etc,. are incredibly well thought out and designed. Excellent engineering. I'm a former IT guy, so I feel qualified to pass judgement.
- The rear-view mirror is a HUGE disappointment. It is tiny, dark, and hard to see what's behind you when there's anything other than a darker sky behind it in the front windshield. I'll be installing a Wolff mirror projecting from a camera mounted INSIDE the rear hatch soon as I get home.
- The navigation software routed us to a supercharger that was about an hour off our route! Plus, it happened to be rush hour, and it was on very crowded roads, slowing us down even more. I was really getting worried about running out of juice. Not only that, but when we finally got to the plaza, my wife yelled out not to go in because there was a MacDonald's in it and that's all SHE saw. Being an obedient husband, I drove on by and then immediately realized she was wrong. I'll leave out all the expletives. This was on the Boston Turnpike at rush hour, which is about as bad as traffic can get. The charge was getting low, about 10%, I couldn't remember how to bring up the charger locations on the map, and there were no upcoming exits, so I was getting very nervous.
Finally, and I'm not proud of this at all, I pulled over and BACKED UP 1-1/2 MILES, on the shoulder, to get back to the super charger location. Once I figured out how to position the 2 white lines in the best way to keep me centered on the shoulder, it ALMOST became like a video game. But it was very scary, truckers really disapproved and honked a lot, and I felt like a complete idiot. After finding the Superchargers, I made sure to TOP UP to at least 90%. Eventually, I started speaking to my wife again.
One remaining question: When on TACC, it felt like trucks were passing me way too close, even though I was centered in my lane. If a vehicle DOES get dangerously close, will TAAC move away from it, sound an alarm, turn itself off, or any combination of those 3 things?
Here's hoping this thread can help other new owners like myself!
- Richard
"0 Tesla Model Y 1" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail