As of today, we’ve had our Tesla Model 3 for one month. Is the thrill gone? Well, some of the early tingles and excitement have of course worn off, but the core point and core feeling is the same: this is the best car on the market. There are basically just four difficult things for me, which I’ll note at the end. First, though, I’ll run down the main items.
A 7 year old Tesla Model S with nearly 100% original battery capacity, $1.01/watt commercial solar pricing from Tesla, a quick-as-hell Tesla Model S on the Nürburgring, the coming Tesla Model Y, and more — check out the most popular CleanTechnica stories of the past week in case you missed any of them! And be sure to share all 20 stories on all 107 social media networks. Or else.
As I wrote a few hours ago, Tesla’s new V10 software is rolling out to Early Access program members and I happened to land in one of those people’s cars. I wrote a quick summary and first impressions of many of the new features in that article, but it seemed like improvements to Autopilot warranted their own dedicated piece.
The improvements seem to fall into two categories: 1) the visualizations for the driver, and 2) the car’s ability to naturally drive itself.
Yes, Tesla cars are cool. They’re the quickest cars on the market, the safest cars on the market, and the highest tech cars on the market. It’s hard to overstate or even properly explain why they stand out and are genuinely in a class of their own. However, it’s not just that they’re quick, safe, and high tech. Tesla is starting to transform what it means to be a car.
I got quite lucky tonight. I was walking along Sesame Street minding my own business when I all of a sudden got plopped into a Tesla Model 3 with Tesla’s new V10 software. I know, I know — you shouldn’t talk to strangers. But when you get an opportunity like this, you just have to take it.
Let’s run through the various improvements coming to Tesla vehicles in V10.
Aside from the usual swarm of Tesla stories that catch readers’ attention more than anything else, hot topics this past week on CleanTechnica were the semi-arrival of the Volkswagen ID.3 and how it competes against other electric hatchbacks, the Honda E, and enormous sea level rise. (One of these is not like the other.)
Seemingly, one of the most controversial things about Tesla cars is its Autopilot feature, a driver-assist feature that helps drivers navigate and pilot their vehicle. Oddly, while news of exciting Autopilot features comes out regularly, general information about exactly what Autopilot is, what the options are, and what it can and cannot do seem to be few and far between.
Cracking the code of what people want in their electric vehicles is not that complicated, even though analysts at Edmunds seem to think otherwise.
In an article published by the San Diego Union Tribune, a market analyst at Edmunds said that electric car buyers “don’t seem to be EV fans, they seem to be Tesla fans.” She also said that, “It’s been really hard for any other company to crack the code of what people want in an EV.”
The first confirmed upgrade to Tesla’s new Full Self Driving hardware version 3 took place today after a customer took his 2018 Tesla Model S P100DL into the Santa Barbara service center to get a new HEPA filter. After the service, Twitterer and longtime Tesla supporter Sofiaan Fraval noticed that a line on his service documents indicated that the new hardware had been installed at the appointment as well (h/t to Vincent for spotting this one).
Drowsy driving is more common than you think.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point out that “no one knows the exact moment when sleep comes over their body. Falling asleep at the wheel is clearly dangerous, but being sleepy affects your ability to drive safely even if you don’t fall asleep”.
