Electric Vehicles: Tesla specific talk, current firmware, purchasing, modifications

Eric

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Sounds like Tesla is imploding.
I see them as innovative, they really brought the EV into the mainstream. Now that every other manufacturer is onboard though it's changed the dynamic completely. I may hate the owner but I love the car, just not enough to buy another one without Apple CarPlay.
 

Citysnaps

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I may hate the owner but I love the car, just not enough to buy another one without Apple CarPlay.

Yeah, there appears to be a lot of excellent choices out there now. I'd also need to have ACP.

However... since Teslas are now sporting a yoke, factory equipped ailerons for 2024 could tempt me. :)
 

Eric

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Yeah, there appears to be a lot of excellent choices out there now. I'd also need to have ACP.

However... since Teslas are now sporting a yoke, factory equipped ailerons for 2024 could tempt me.
I would ask @Cmaier his thoughts on the yoke, they've been around for a long time on the higher end models. Personally, I would never want one.
 

Cmaier

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I would ask @Cmaier his thoughts on the yoke, they've been around for a long time on the higher end models. Personally, I would never want one.

The yoke was new in the last year or so - my car has an actual wheel :) When they introduced the S/X with the 3/Y-like screen configuration they added the yoke. I‘m pretty sure that was new for the 2022 model year.

They recently changed it so you can special order an actual wheel. Before that, there were lots of YouTube videos showing people how to make the change themselves (it essentially involved an allen wrench). There are even several third parties who sell yoke replacements, of all varieties. Some of them take your old yoke and mod them into full wheels.

The yoke is such an Elon thing to do, though. The retracting door handles are another. Cool idea, but they break constantly. The service guys told me that they get a constant stream of door handle repairs.
 

Eric

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The yoke was new in the last year or so - my car has an actual wheel :) When they introduced the S/X with the 3/Y-like screen configuration they added the yoke. I‘m pretty sure that was new for the 2022 model year.

They recently changed it so you can special order an actual wheel. Before that, there were lots of YouTube videos showing people how to make the change themselves (it essentially involved an allen wrench). There are even several third parties who sell yoke replacements, of all varieties. Some of them take your old yoke and mod them into full wheels.

The yoke is such an Elon thing to do, though. The retracting door handles are another. Cool idea, but they break constantly. The service guys told me that they get a constant stream of door handle repairs.
For some reason I thought it had been around for a while. Seems like it would be more novelty than functional, I'll stick with the traditional wheel personally.
 

Cmaier

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For some reason I thought it had been around for a while. Seems like it would be more novelty than functional, I'll stick with the traditional wheel personally.
Yeah. Funny thing is, this is what the car I’m probably going to buy looks like, and BMW people are complaining because it is not round enough :) (They did it this way, apparently, to make it more comfortable to keep your hands on the wheel when you are letting the car steer itself)

1683908178481.png
 

Eric

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Yeah. Funny thing is, this is what the car I’m probably going to buy looks like, and BMW people are complaining because it is not round enough :) (They did it this way, apparently, to make it more comfortable to keep your hands on the wheel when you are letting the car steer itself)

View attachment 23598
Hmmm, interesting. Not sure how to feel about it just looking but at least there are no negative spaces on it so there's that. Also, not that it will matter to you but if it's like the last BMW I owned the steering wheel will have haptic feedback, as opposed to feeling for movement, to ensure your hands are on it. IMO it's a far more efficient system but you can't chear it with a counterweight. :mrgreen:
 

Cmaier

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Hmmm, interesting. Not sure how to feel about it just looking but at least there are no negative spaces on it so there's that. Also, not that it will matter to you but if it's like the last BMW I owned the steering wheel will have haptic feedback, as opposed to feeling for movement, to ensure your hands are on it. IMO it's a far more efficient system but you can't chear it with a counterweight. :mrgreen:
In certain situations the bmw doesn’t require your hands on the wheel. Instead it monitors your eyes to make sure you are watching the road.

For example, in stop and go traffic under 40-something MPH, or up to 85 MPH on highways (I think. Their documentation is a little confusing).
 

Eric

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In certain situations the bmw doesn’t require your hands on the wheel. Instead it monitors your eyes to make sure you are watching the road.

For example, in stop and go traffic under 40-something MPH, or up to 85 MPH on highways (I think. Their documentation is a little confusing).
To me, this is counter intuitive in some ways. I know you should never take your eyes off the road but there are times we all do and if the car is managing itself for a few seconds as we do it then it's that much safer in my experience. I took my wife's older rig out on a drive recently and if you fiddle about (get something from the glove box, change the radio station, etc.) the car is veering around, so it's far less safe. When you take your eyes off the road for a second and the car sounds all the alarms it's way freakier to me.

All of these manufacturers are playing big brother in order to be compliant with regulations and I understand that but it also makes them less safe or useless in many cases.

However, one thing I really loved about the BMW is that when you drove below 37 MPH it automatically went into Traffic Jam Assist (I think that's the name of it) and it gave you longer time without having to touch the wheel when stuck in traffic, I actually looked forward to it because you can relax a bit.
 

Cmaier

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To me, this is counter intuitive in some ways. I know you should never take your eyes off the road but there are times we all do and if the car is managing itself for a few seconds as we do it then it's that much safer in my experience. I took my wife's older rig out on a drive recently and if you fiddle about (get something from the glove box, change the radio station, etc.) the car is veering around, so it's far less safe. When you take your eyes off the road for a second and the car sounds all the alarms it's way freakier to me.

All of these manufacturers are playing big brother in order to be compliant with regulations and I understand that but it also makes them less safe or useless in many cases.

However, one thing I really loved about the BMW is that when you drove below 37 MPH it automatically went into Traffic Jam Assist (I think that's the name of it) and it gave you longer time without having to touch the wheel when stuck in traffic, I actually looked forward to it because you can relax a bit.
Yep. I think traffic jam assist may be below 45mph now. (And no hands required, at least on the IX)
 

Cmaier

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Ran across this guy again while walking back from lunch.
 

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diamond.g

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For some reason I thought it had been around for a while. Seems like it would be more novelty than functional, I'll stick with the traditional wheel personally.
The S/X no longer come with the yoke. To get the yoke is actually a $250 upcharge now.
 

Eric

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This should come as no shock to anyone. Musk is a snake oil salesman.

Tesla was so swamped with complaints about driving ranges that it created a secret team to cancel owners' service appointments, source says​

  • Tesla exaggerated the driving range of its vehicles for years, Reuters reported.
  • To suppress complaints, the EV maker created a secret team to cancel appointments, per the report.
  • The cars often did not need to be repaired and the performance had merely been overstated, it added.
 

Cmaier

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This should come as no shock to anyone. Musk is a snake oil salesman.

Tesla was so swamped with complaints about driving ranges that it created a secret team to cancel owners' service appointments, source says​

  • Tesla exaggerated the driving range of its vehicles for years, Reuters reported.
  • To suppress complaints, the EV maker created a secret team to cancel appointments, per the report.
  • The cars often did not need to be repaired and the performance had merely been overstated, it added.
Apparently the way it works is that the projected range is a lie. Once you get down to 50 percent, it starts to tell the truth more or less, and keeps 15 miles on reserve in case the lies cause you to run out of juice.
 

Eric

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Apparently the way it works is that the projected range is a lie. Once you get down to 50 percent, it starts to tell the truth more or less, and keeps 15 miles on reserve in case the lies cause you to run out of juice.
As one who used to utilize a full charge for many of my trips I can say that I never trusted it anyway, I try to plan to be within 25% or so before my next charge just to be on the safe side.
 

Cmaier

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The drivers who called the Diversion Team weren't just lied to, they were also punished. The Tesla app was silently altered so that anyone who filed a complaint about their car's range was no longer able to book a service appointment for any reason. If their car malfunctioned, they'd have to request a callback, which could take several days.


Plus:

Meanwhile, the diverters on the diversion team were instructed not to inform drivers if the remote diagnostics they performed detected any other defects in the cars.

The diversion team had a 750 complaint/week quota: to juke this stat, diverters would close the case for any driver who failed to answer the phone when they were eventually called back. The center received 2,000+ calls every week. Diverters were ordered to keep calls to five minutes or less.

Eventually, diverters were ordered to cease performing any remote diagnostics on drivers' cars: a source told Reuters that "Thousands of customers were told there is nothing wrong with their car" without any diagnostics being performed.

If you buy a Tesla at this point, it’s all on you.
 

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