Gave an older gentleman a ride today…

[carcrazyguy]

Went to visit my in-laws at their retirement community today for Mother’s Day. My father in-law has a friend there that heard we bought an EV. He was curious as he has only seen stories about them on TV. I told him to come by after he finished lunch and I would take him for a ride. Anyway we go for a ride and he is completely in sensory overload trying to take it all in. He can’t figure out whether to watch the dash touch screen or out the windows. Apparently the TV coverage he has seen was not favorable to EV’s. He could not believe he was riding in an ELECTRIC car. He had a vision that electric cars are clunky, sluggishly slow and unrefined. We only went for about a 5-7 mile ride on city streets. I used autopilot for more than half the trip to demonstrate a little bit of what the car was capable of. He absolutely was amazed that a car could stop, go and steer around a corner all by itself, AND do it smoothly! I made sure he put his head back on the seat and gave it a small tap on the accelerator so he could feel a little bit of what it was capable of. The look was priceless. It was only 1/3 to half throttle. I wasn’t trying to scare him I just wanted to show him an electric vehicle wasn’t what he thought it was. He definitely was shocked with the overall experience. I know he will be asking for more rides as he was overwhelmed with all the technology. He could not believe that cameras could pick up and filter through all the signs, construction cones, people, cars and road markings. I was just glad to make his day as he definitely enjoyed the experience.

 

[carcrazyguy]

When I mentioned around a corner…this is one of the streets we took. It has a pretty good curve and I let autopilot handle it. Of course I was never far off the wheel but just enough he could tell I had no input on what the car was doing.

 

[carcrazyguy]

After we made that curve and he had more questions about how the car could read its surroundings. We went to a road that he travels quite often to see what it would do somewhere he was familiar with. He was shocked that it had zero issues navigating it “as smooth as anyone he had every ridden with”…

 

[Watts_Up]

Interesting story and nice visiting older folks for such special events.

This remind me about a family story, of some older parents talking about
a Xerox salesman making a demonstration at their office of the first copy machine.
And everybody at that time seem to be some much in ecstasy.

While also scared to lose their job by such advanced new device technology.
At the time there were no text processors, to cut and paste content.
So using scissors you could modify a text without having to retype the full page.

 

[ncridgerunner]

My aunt turned 100 last year and her daughter took her for a ride in their new EV. She was concerned about not hitting puddles on the road because of the "shock hazard". She also wanted to know if EVs had to obey the speed limit. It is really fun to introduce EVs people who do not really understand the technology.

 

[carcrazyguy]

My aunt turned 100 last year and her daughter took her for a ride in their new EV. She was concerned about not hitting puddles on the road because of the "shock hazard". She also wanted to know if EVs had to obey the speed limit. It is really fun to introduce EVs people who do not really understand the technology.

We have heard about every “hater myth” out there already!

Battery fires.
Battery explodes.
Shock when driving in water.
Electrocution when it rains.
More likely to get hit by lightning.
Car will accelerate out of control on its own.
Brakes won’t work when battery is to low.
Cars get hit by metal objects in the road because the magnets in the motor.
If we go to WW3 you won’t be able to charge because they will knock out power grid.
Government will eventually regulate days/time you can charge.
Home insurance will cancel if you have EV in the garage.
Home insurance will deny fire claim if EV is involved.
Cameras watch you while at home.
Camera footage is accessible to all government agencies (Police, FBI, IRS)
Your insurance company watches your cam footage when it alerts hard acceleration and hard braking, to raise your rates.

We have heard all the TIN FOIL HAT theories! It is really comical to hear how paranoid haters are! Honestly wonder if people lay in bed and dream up all these scenarios!

 

[jebinc]

Went to visit my in-laws at their retirement community today for Mother’s Day. My father in-law has a friend there that heard we bought an EV. He was curious as he has only seen stories about them on TV. I told him to come by after he finished lunch and I would take him for a ride. Anyway we go for a ride and he is completely in sensory overload trying to take it all in. He can’t figure out whether to watch the dash touch screen or out the windows. Apparently the TV coverage he has seen was not favorable to EV’s. He could not believe he was riding in an ELECTRIC car. He had a vision that electric cars are clunky, sluggishly slow and unrefined. We only went for about a 5-7 mile ride on city streets. I used autopilot for more than half the trip to demonstrate a little bit of what the car was capable of. He absolutely was amazed that a car could stop, go and steer around a corner all by itself, AND do it smoothly! I made sure he put his head back on the seat and gave it a small tap on the accelerator so he could feel a little bit of what it was capable of. The look was priceless. It was only 1/3 to half throttle. I wasn’t trying to scare him I just wanted to show him an electric vehicle wasn’t what he thought it was. He definitely was shocked with the overall experience. I know he will be asking for more rides as he was overwhelmed with all the technology. He could not believe that cameras could pick up and filter through all the signs, construction cones, people, cars and road markings. I was just glad to make his day as he definitely enjoyed the experience.

You made his day. Very kind of you to take him out and feel “life” once more. We can only hope someone will do the same when we are him.

 

[carcrazyguy]

Another thing I like to do when giving the hater crowd a ride. Before I give them a good acceleration feel. I usually go about 1/4 throttle and look over like “oh that was all of it! What did you think?”… I don’t say a word I just look to see if they have any reaction. Most of the time they say, “well that isn’t too bad considering it’s electric”…. Then I move on to how much technology the car has. Let the car drive a little bit and navigate the curves in the road on its own. Let it slow down for the traffic/lights and take off on it own. By then most everyone is shocked how smooth and seamless it really is. Then (provided they are not elderly) I give it a nice hard acceleration! I don’t even look over at them after. Usually they can’t stop laughing and talking at that point.

 

[JMGNC]

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

 

[tashtibet]

awesome deed-you gave him joy & hope! I have been awakening & inspiring my neighbors to go EV since 2016. Today there're 4 BEV in our short neighborhood street. Last November one of my neighbors hesitating bought a used 2015 Nissan Leaf. Two weeks ago she told me she would never go back to ICE, period. Makes me happy!

 

[ncridgerunner]

We have heard about every “hater myth” out there already!

Battery fires.
Battery explodes.
Shock when driving in water.
Electrocution when it rains.
More likely to get hit by lightning.
Car will accelerate out of control on its own.
Brakes won’t work when battery is to low.
Cars get hit by metal objects in the road because the magnets in the motor.
If we go to WW3 you won’t be able to charge because they will knock out power grid.
Government will eventually regulate days/time you can charge.
Home insurance will cancel if you have EV in the garage.
Home insurance will deny fire claim if EV is involved.
Cameras watch you while at home.
Camera footage is accessible to all government agencies (Police, FBI, IRS)
Your insurance company watches your cam footage when it alerts hard acceleration and hard braking, to raise your rates.

We have heard all the TIN FOIL HAT theories! It is really comical to hear how paranoid haters are! Honestly wonder if people lay in bed and dream up all these scenarios!

I believe you read my post wrong. My aunt was 100 years old. Not a hater. She just had trouble processing this new technology. I can assure you that she had not read any info about EV's either positive or negative. We just thought it was comical that she came up with these questions. BTW she enjoyed the ride.

 

[carcrazyguy]

I believe you read my post wrong. My aunt was 100 years old. Not a hater. She just had trouble processing this new technology. I can assure you that she had not read any info about EV's either positive or negative. We just thought it was comical that she came up with these questions. BTW she enjoyed the ride.

I was not directly referring to your aunt. It was adding to the list of funny comments that people say about Teslas, in general. I mentioned “hater” because the list of comments could be considered a generalization of hater comments. It had nothing to do with your aunt. I truly enjoy sharing our Tesla with anyone interested in a real world experience with the car. The older generation is by far my favorite. They are blown away by how far technology has come, all while being done right under their noses. They genuinely had no idea what was available because they largely don’t participate in internet/social media to the point of knowing what technology is out there for the cars. They simply go to a dealer and buy what they either like or what they had in the past.

 

[Yelobird]

We have heard about every “hater myth” out there already!



We have heard all the TIN FOIL HAT theories! It is really comical to hear how paranoid haters are! Honestly wonder if people lay in bed and dream up all these scenarios!

If you think of the Global impact and disruption this will cause to service centers, car dealerships, auto parts stores, trans shops, oil change places, big oil, gas stations, unions (UAW), brake and muffler shops and Many more I can imagine they are working night and day on the next conspiracy FUD articles as fast as they can while they can. Change is a difficult pill to swallow. This one will take a Big gulp.

 

[ncridgerunner]

I was not directly referring to your aunt. It was adding to the list of funny comments that people say about Teslas, in general. I mentioned “hater” because the list of comments could be considered a generalization of hater comments. It had nothing to do with your aunt. I truly enjoy sharing our Tesla with anyone interested in a real world experience with the car. The older generation is by far my favorite. They are blown away by how far technology has come, all while being done right under their noses. They genuinely had no idea what was available because they largely don’t participate in internet/social media to the point of knowing what technology is out there for the cars. They simply go to a dealer and buy what they either like or what they had in the past.

I agree. It's hard to imagine how much we have progressed in 100 years. When she was born at home there was no electricity or indoor plumbing available to rural residents of the Western North Carolina mountains.

 

[carcrazyguy]

I agree. It's hard to imagine how much we have progressed in 100 years. When she was born at home there was no electricity or indoor plumbing available to rural residents of the Western North Carolina mountains.

Even beyond that. Say even 10 years ago when most people in retirement centers were still driving. They weren’t thinking about a car being able to drive itself to the point it could stop, take off and make a curve without needing input from the driver. Now all of a sudden they get to experience it themselves. Heck when most of that age group were still independent and driving. It wasn’t that long ago. Not much had changed. If you had power windows, locks and cruise control you had the best! Then air bags and antilock brakes were the only real tech change in what 20 years? Now we use our phones to control the car… A lot of them have never even had a smart phone…so that really blows them away when you control the AC from the phone before you get in! . I know they probably sit down after the experience and try to sort out, “did that really just happen? Are they playing with me? Is there a gas engine hiding in there? How did they make it so quiet? How does your car work from a phone? Did that TV on the dash really show a person walking in the street? I think I saw a construction cone on the dash TV? Who was pushing the brakes at the stop light?…. That was weird and not sure what happened?”