# Tesla - Taking the Plunge **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 3, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091 "2016-01-03T20:54:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/61 "2016-01-11T14:12:23Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Question for you, **zwede** : Are you getting the rated range in your 85+, or at least near it? I know there are circumstances that affect range, such as outside temperature. I’m not a road trip person, so I mostly drive it around town. When I’ve driven it for a while on the highway my energy usage gets pretty close to the usage they use for rated range. So yes, I’m confident I can get rated range driving on the highway. Around town in mild weather I get within 10% of rated range. In freezing weather it drops more, of course. But the range thing is all a big ‘do not care’ after a while. Whenever the range gets down to 80 miles or so I plug it in. For me this is once a week. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/62 "2016-01-11T15:09:01Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Here is one of Bjørn Nyland’s videos from a few months ago demonstrating [automatic parallel parking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cz9TBAwKto). If you ask it to park in a spot that’s too small, does the car say so? Or in other words, does it have the ability (via cameras and software) to analyze the appropriateness of the destination parking spot? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/63 "2016-01-11T15:15:04Z")
Or what if it’s a big spot, big enough for 2 cars so long as the first doesn’t plunk itself right in the middle? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/64 "2016-01-11T16:21:49Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > If you ask it to park in a spot that’s too small, does the car say so? Or in other words, does it have the ability (via cameras and software) to analyze the appropriateness of the destination parking spot? Yes, there is a reverse-imaged letter ‘P’ that appears in the HUD if the parking spot is adequate for the vehicle. If the spot is too small, the ‘P’ will not appear in the HUD and automatic parking will not be enabled. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/65 "2016-01-11T16:25:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Or what if it’s a big spot, big enough for 2 cars so long as the first doesn’t plunk itself right in the middle? I think the software works best if there is a single parking spot between two cars. I don’t know how it handles spots that are two or more car lengths. Something else for me to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/66 "2016-01-11T16:32:52Z")
Actually, what if there are no other cars, just a curb? A parking autopilot would seem totally unnecessary, but would it work at all? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/67 "2016-01-11T16:35:11Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Actually, what if there are no other cars, just a curb? A parking autopilot would seem totally unnecessary, but would it work at all? I agree that it would be completely unnecessary. I don’t know what it would do in such a situation. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/68 "2016-01-11T16:45:44Z")
On Saturday, my sales advisor said if I wanted to save a little more money I could decide not to get the autopilot option and add it later. As all the hardware for it is already in the car, I can add it later as it is simply installing and enabling the software for it. Autopilot provides auto steering, auto lane changing, auto parallel and perpendicular parking, and traffic-aware cruise control, so I am getting it, but it is nice to know that I can decide to add it later if I want. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/69 "2016-01-11T17:43:55Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > On Saturday, my sales advisor said if I wanted to save a little more money I could decide not to get the autopilot option and add it later. As all the hardware for it is already in the car, I can add it later as it is simply installing and enabling the software for it. > > Autopilot provides auto steering, auto lane changing, auto parallel and perpendicular parking, and traffic-aware cruise control, so I am getting it, but it is nice to know that I can decide to add it later if I want. That’s really the reason I’m considering a Telsa myself. Unlike most of the people looking at it I’m not interested in the performance aspect, the ludicrous speed upgrade for me will be a decision based on the effect it has on the resale value/maintenance/range not a “must have.” But I want a driverless car. I really want to be able to get into a car and read a book while I am moved from one place to another. Or carry on a conversation with friends without worrying about being distracted. Or get drunk and not worry about how I’m going to get home(ok, not really this one because I don’t drink, but I like the IDEA of being able to get drunk without worrying about how to get home). Heck, even surfing the SDMB while being transported from place to place. The Tesla isn’t there yet, but there is the possibility that the hardware is already in place and once the software catches up and laws and societal structure changes a bit more… Then people who have Teslas may just have to get a software upgrade to have driverless cars. Not just a driverless car, but one without the waste of the internal combustion engine. There was an interview with [Robert Ballard, the oceanographer most well known for discovering the Titanic](http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent&articleId=5760356) which has kind of the way I feel about the driving experience in it. Nothing to take away from those who enjoy it, but to explain how it seems to me. > [@](#): > > Ballard’s pioneering spirit has often outpaced the technologies of the day. In the 1970s, deep-sea explorers got around in mini-submarines armed with flashlights—“underwater Jeeps,” as Ballard calls them. But the subs were incredibly slow. > > The commute alone took five hours a day—two and a half hours to travel the 12,000 feet to the ocean floor, and two and a half hours back. That left only three hours a day for actual exploration—enough to cover just one nautical mile. > > “I was exploring a mountain range that was 42,000 miles long,” recalls Ballard, who directs the Center for Ocean Exploration, a research program for students at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. “It was frustrating because I was making discoveries but in slow motion.” > > Ingenuity Overcomes Technical Challenges > > Ballard relied on submarines for 25 years. But two years after his hydrothermal vents discovery in 1977, he had an epiphany. > > On a return trip to the vents, this time with an eager biologist, Ballard began fiddling with the digital camera attached to the sub’s mechanical arm, zooming in and studying a 6-inch monitor displaying the camera’s view. That’s when he realized the biologist, rather than peering out of the sub’s windows, was looking over his shoulder at the same monitor. The view, the biologist said, was better. > > “I thought, Wait a minute—we brought you halfway round the world, 9,000 feet down, we stuck you in a vent, and you’re looking at a TV monitor?,” Ballard says. “And a light bulb went off.” > > The light bulb was telepresence. Best known for helping companies reduce travel budgets or enabling virtual visits to doctors, in this context it promised to radically ease the cost, logistics and risk of transporting biologists and other experts to the ocean floor where they could evaluate new discoveries. > > Live Video from Under the Sea > > To bring his vision to fruition, Ballard had to wait for the advent of technologies such as fiber optics and Internet2, a high-speed version of the Web connecting research institutions. Rather than submarines, the system uses cameras mounted on unmanned ROVs capable of staying underwater for days at a time. > > Fiber optic cables pump live video to large plasma screens in a command center aboard the Nautilus. From there, via satellite, the video fans instantly across the telepresence network, where it can be seen live on the Web and shared in glorious high definition with experts, school kids and others—no matter how land-lubberly—at command centers around the United States. > > “Ultimately, this is electronic travel. We’re moving spirits and leaving our body behind.” > > — Dr. Robert Ballard, director, Center for Ocean Exploration, University of Rhode Island > > Although the kinks are still being ironed out, Ballard says the system is a massive improvement over the old approach. It runs round the clock and, in the event of a potentially significant discovery, an expert can be on hand within 30 minutes, he says. It also helps explorers like him do their jobs without long periods away from loved ones, and it brings the wonders of deep-sea exploration to a much wider audience. We’re not at the point where we can live our lives via telepresence, but the, to me, drudgery of a daily commute can be lightened by driverless cars and I’m willing to pay a premium for being on the leading edge of that revolution. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/70 "2016-01-15T04:25:46Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Yeah, it’s a vanity thing. I want a specific color Tesla doesn’t offer. Plasti Dip allows me to have the exact color and finish I want for just $800. I’d wait to do that. You may find (as I did) that when you’re driving, you really can’t even see the exterior color. I toyed with the idea of painting my new car, but after the first week, I noticed I was tired of staring at my car from different angles, and would just walk to it and get in. At which point, the interior was more important. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/71 "2016-01-18T14:28:35Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’d wait to do that. You may find (as I did) that when you’re driving, you really can’t even see the exterior color. > > I toyed with the idea of painting my new car, but after the first week, I noticed I was tired of staring at my car from different angles, and would just walk to it and get in. At which point, the interior was more important. Yep. Although I am considering altering the color, I haven’t committed to it. I will wait and see how I feel after taking delivery of the vehicle. Two and a half months and counting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/72 "2016-01-18T20:26:27Z")
If it’s any consolation I am feeling anxious on your behalf. I wish one were headed to my driveway! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/73 "2016-01-18T21:12:45Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > If it’s any consolation I am feeling anxious on your behalf. I wish one were headed to my driveway! Maybe by the time I get the call that it is ready the summon technology will have advanced to the point where the vehicle will be able to drive itself to my house. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/74 "2016-01-29T23:36:39Z")
I’m taking the plunge as far as scheduling a test drive at their Highland Park location tomorrow afternoon. 😛 I scheduled online and was surprised to get a phone call from them just a few minutes ago. Since the online form collected my zip code I was even a little concerned that they might know enough about my demographic that they were canceling me because of my income. But no, it was a pleasant call and I’ll be testing the S model. We talked briefly about the Model 3 and she said those wouldn’t be delivering until at least 2017 and possibly 2018. The April announcement will reveal some more detail about the car, but they don’t expect to start manufacturing until several months after that. I was surprised she mentioned that I might be interested in trying Ludicrous Mode. And I chuckled and said I had trouble imagining a safe place around Chicago even to try it, but she assured me there were safe places for it. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/75 "2016-01-30T01:01:24Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > But no, it was a pleasant call and I’ll be testing the S model. We talked briefly about the Model 3 and she said those wouldn’t be delivering until at least 2017 and possibly 2018. The April announcement will reveal some more detail about the car, but they don’t expect to start manufacturing until several months after that. > > I was surprised she mentioned that I might be interested in trying Ludicrous Mode. And I chuckled and said I had trouble imagining a safe place around Chicago even to try it, but she assured me there were safe places for it. You don’t have to be going 100 mph to experience Ludicrous Mode. It’s the instant torque slamming you in your seat that is the experience and that can be demonstrated from zero to 30 or 30 to 65 on a highway on-ramp. It’s not about going fast. It’s about accelerating quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/76 "2016-01-30T01:53:30Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I’m taking the plunge as far as scheduling a test drive at their Highland Park location tomorrow afternoon. 😛 > > I scheduled online and was surprised to get a phone call from them just a few minutes ago. Since the online form collected my zip code I was even a little concerned that they might know enough about my demographic that they were canceling me because of my income. Congrats on setting up the test drive. I am sure you are going to freaking love it. When I first scheduled my test drive, I was surprised to receive two phone calls; one from the Tesla store to confirm and to ask which Model S I wanted to test, and another call from Tesla’s headquarters in Fremont California to ask if I had any questions about the vehicle a few days before my test drive. All in all, dealing with Tesla has been a pleasurable experience. After I submitted my down payment, I was asked if I wanted to borrow a P85D for the weekend. I declined, but man I was salivating at the thought. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/77 "2016-06-18T19:21:19Z")
Well, Onomatopoeia, it’s June. Did you get the car? How do you like it? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/78 "2016-06-28T06:49:23Z")
> [@zwede](#): > > Well, Onomatopoeia, it’s June. Did you get the car? How do you like it? Yes, I picked it up the end of May, but purchased an available 90D instead of the P90D I originally ordered. Had I stayed with my original order, I still may not have the car today. There were two delays, one for exterior color, believe it or not. They offered me a 90D with all the options I wanted at $20K less than the P90D. I am satisfied. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zwede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ac91a4/32.png) [@zwede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwede)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/79 "2016-06-28T20:14:37Z")
Cool! Welcome to the future. I’m still happy with mine. Had it 2.5 years now, plan to keep it for quite a bit longer. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091/80 "2016-06-28T20:25:58Z")
Tesla sent me an email about 3 weeks ago that offered the model S 60 for $58 grand, with a financed loan payment $844/month. It was something of a shock to realize I can afford this, assuming I pour all my Uber income into it. I could even afford the $1200/month for the P90, without touching the income from my normal day job. Having Uber double my cash income is making me think somewhat dangerous pricey thoughts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-taking-the-plunge/742091.md?page=5)