Tesla

[burritos]

I know this is a Tesla thread but any thoughts about the new Ford Mustang Mach e? Tesla rip off yes, but it looks promising.

[Nysoz]

not sure if it's a bug or not, but I wasn't able to find this thread from searching in the search bar on the top right part of the webpage

anyways, I recently got the new update for 5% faster acceleration and hold mode. full 1 pedal driving now. haven't been able to test out the extra acceleration yet as it's cold but I'm looking forward to it.

also, had my first problem with my car. had condensation in one of my tail lights. scheduled mobile service to come out to my house and they replaced it in 5 minutes. was pretty nice.

[Kamban]

HumbleInvestor wrote:

Wasn’t a fan of regenerative breaking and turned it off after few mins of driving. May be it’s better on highways.

Click to expand...

When I first took delivery of the car 100 miles away and drove it home, it was an awful ride due to the marked regen braking. For the first few days of use it caused so much jerking that I developed neck pain. I never had that feeling on the regen in my hybrid vehicles, where it was the pressure on the brakes rather than taking off my foot from the accelerator that caused the regen to occur.

But I persisted ( with a couple of naproxens). After a week or so I got the hang of it and it took a full month to do one pedal driving and not coast by taking my foot off the accelerator, like I used to do in the ICE cars. Now driving an ICE car has become difficult.

[burritos]

StarTrekDoc wrote:

True high speed rail along city corridors would make sense if we ever had the political will to accomplish it — we don’t.

The easiest is LA-Vegas.  Perhaps Elon will do his Boring on this —  who knows.

 

Click to expand...

Too much nimbyism cloaked in rules and regulations to get a real high speed rail in car dominated california.

[StarTrekDoc]

True high speed rail along city corridors would make sense if we ever had the political will to accomplish it -- we don't.

The easiest is LA-Vegas.  Perhaps Elon will do his Boring on this --  who knows.

 

[Lordosis]

Zaphod wrote:

Lordosis wrote:

No one is asking for perfection but at least the technology is advancing again.  For how long have we been waiting for flying cars?  I do not think we will get them because people suck at driving I could not imagine them flying.  But Self driving cars would really change travel.

Click to expand…

There are some pretty sweet drone type flying vehicles now, but you’d need basically point to point automation which is less difficult than driving kinds, and they are spendy and cant hold much. Issue with flying cars isnt the tech, much like supersonic jets, etc…the costs simply dont justify the use case.

Click to expand...

We have not improved travel times in a while.  It is hard to drive more then a mile a minute.  And I do not fly often but with all the airport issues it seems to be taking longer then I remember as a kid.  Maybe it just seems longer now that I have kids with me but oh well.

[Zaphod]

Lordosis wrote:

No one is asking for perfection but at least the technology is advancing again.  For how long have we been waiting for flying cars?  I do not think we will get them because people suck at driving I could not imagine them flying.  But Self driving cars would really change travel.

Click to expand...

There are some pretty sweet drone type flying vehicles now, but you'd need basically point to point automation which is less difficult than driving kinds, and they are spendy and cant hold much. Issue with flying cars isnt the tech, much like supersonic jets, etc...the costs simply dont justify the use case.

[Doc Spouse]

Regarding regenerative braking, it also depends on how noticeable it is.  Drove an x3 this past weekend as a rental and the regen braking in eco mode was horrible.  As soon as you took your foot off the accelerator, it felt like someone was pushing the brake 1/4 to the floor.  Not bad at low speeds, but anything over 40mph and it sent everyone in the vehicle against their seat belts.  I'm primarily a one-pedal driver as well, but coasting on the interstate was almost impossible and I actually used the brake/accelerator more than I would have otherwise.  Ended up driving around in sport mode for the trip.  I've never felt anything that bad in a Tesla.

[Lordosis]

No one is asking for perfection but at least the technology is advancing again.  For how long have we been waiting for flying cars?  I do not think we will get them because people suck at driving I could not imagine them flying.  But Self driving cars would really change travel.

[Zaphod]

Lordosis wrote:

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.  If you start at a higher altitude then the destination then I could see having a net gain from the braking.

Sometimes you have to slow slow down and you can transfer some of that energy back but nothing is 100% efficient.  I can think of many scenarios where the braking does more harm then good.  highway cruising.  Country roads with little stopping.

I can think of many where it will help to a measurable extent. Traffic , lights, lots of hills

Click to expand...

Agree. I do like one pedal driving, fun, intuitive, but maybe not perfect.

[Lordosis]

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.  If you start at a higher altitude then the destination then I could see having a net gain from the braking.

Sometimes you have to slow slow down and you can transfer some of that energy back but nothing is 100% efficient.  I can think of many scenarios where the braking does more harm then good.  highway cruising.  Country roads with little stopping.

I can think of many where it will help to a measurable extent. Traffic , lights, lots of hills

[hightower]

HumbleInvestor wrote:

Wasn’t a fan of regenerative breaking and turned it off after few mins of driving. May be it’s better on highways.

Click to expand...

That's funny.  Regenerative braking/one pedal driving is one of the things I like most about my EV.  I hardly ever touch the brake pedal (only for unexpected stops like someone cutting me off or whatever).  It takes some getting used to, but after awhile it's second nature.

I don't see how it could be wasteful though?  I'd really question the motives and sources of the "research" that tries to say it's wasteful.  I can easily recoup 0.5-1% battery power  while going down short hills around where I live.  That's real world range that I use to get home.  In an ICE vehicle that's energy lost to heat and wear and tear on your brakes.

[Zaphod]

HumbleInvestor wrote:

Wasn’t a fan of regenerative breaking and turned it off after few mins of driving.

I dont know if Tesla does this often or a sign of slowing sales, they offered I can take it home for 24 hours on weekdays so I get a better feel for it.

Click to expand...

New research is saying regenerative braking is dumb and wastes energy when you could just cruise, interesting topic.

Thats kind of cool though, get a more day to day feel for it.

[HumbleInvestor]

Its definitely the soundproofing of the car and the Tesla rep acknowledged (not sure if he intended to) that this car does not do a good job of. I drove with the radio off mostly to test that part. We have a 2 yr old Pilot that I was comparing it to and I agree with Zaphod that on highways it's mostly the road and wind noise. I wish they did a better job on the interior and sound proofing.

The drive itself was cool with toy car feel changing the lanes and accelerating on the ramp to hwy. Wasn't a fan of regenerative breaking and turned it off after few mins of driving. May be it's better on highways.

I dont know if Tesla does this often or a sign of slowing sales, they offered I can take it home for 24 hours on weekdays so I get a better feel for it.

[Zaphod]

StarTrekDoc wrote:

@zaphod – during any acceleration, engine noise is the primary factor. At cruising, road noise is the primary factor.  You’ll know if you’re on concrete vs new asphalt vs just a crappy road.  Wind noise doesn’t become an issue unless 70+ or you have the radio off completely.  Tires and their pressure make a huge difference.  Tesla has high efficiency tires on and they like to blow it up to 42 PSI.  Most forums agree that if you lower to 36-38 on the OEM tires, it makes a significant difference.  I did.   Even better, went to sports tires with the new pair –  lost 5% efficiency but even more fun and even quieter too now.

@lordosis – yep. That’s the main drawback/advantage of EVs right now.  If you have a garage and regular daily usage range is 200miles, overnight charging gives you full 100% without issue.  Same concept as destination chargers.   For road trips along distance stops, we’ve never had to wait.  The hard to predict ones are when you’re in a metro area and locals are using it to recharge because they have free supercharging.   I, for the life of me, have no idea why most people dropping $70K+ on a car is willing to sit around to supercharge their car to save a few dollars — like those driving 10 miles additional and sitting in 30min line for Costco gas.

I charge at home, non-issue.  Go on routine trips to LA and no supercharger needed unless several days there and no destination charger.  At those occasions, timed with local shopping mall shopping with family and recharged easily.  Only time used superchargers significantly are large roadtrips.  Didn’t wait at any of those pitstops with planned meals/breaks.

Click to expand...

Maybe true on the inside of the car, but probably more an insulation difference than anything else. On the outside, its a negligible difference starting at 30 km/h.

https://www.toi.no/getfile.php/1340825/mmarkiv/Forside%202015/compett-foredrag/Lykke%20-Silent%20Urban%20Driving.pdf

At slower speeds, like say urban ones EVs are significantly quieter overall.