Posted on 08/10/2018 6:18:40 PM PDT by logi_cal869
A guy I know harbors the atypical lefty viewpoints on climate, government, the right, etc. Liberalism in general, but totally hypocritical on other issues such as trade and firearms.
He & his wife put deposits on twin Model 3s and wait...and wait...and wait...until finally they got theirs earlier this year.
One day I noticed that his old car was being driven so I poked around and got the skinny:
His brand-spankin-new Model 3 was taken for a cross-country trip and ended up with a very minor problem which any mechanic could have fixed in 30 minutes. In this case, it turns out he was now in New Mexico. Most reading this and familiar with Tesla will know why there are no Tesla service centers in New Mexico (others can look it up).
Tesla flies in a mechanic from out of state prompting him to stay while the rest of his posse who accompanied him on his trip venture homeward. Sure enough, it was a simple fix and he was back on the road within hours of the mechanic getting his hands on the car (took 2 days to get him there).
On the way home, he plugs in to a supercharging station.
Nothing. Won't charge.
He plugs in the trickle chargers.
Nothing.
After an eternity on the phone with Tesla support, he's warned DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHARGE. They end up sending a truck to trailer the car 2 states away and he flies home.
He is not being compensated for the hotel or 2 plane tickets.
The look on his face being picked up from the airport would have been worth gold.
Bruce Clark of Moody’s Investors Service expects that Tesla will need an additional $2 billion—in the form of equity, convertible notes, or debt—in order to cover 2018 cash burn and $1.3 billion of existing convertible debt that comes due by 2019. Short sellers remain convinced that Tesla is on the verge of an epic meltdown. Famed investor Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates has predicted the company is headed for a “brick wall.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-burns-cash/
...who also happen to have extra SUVs sitting around to drive when the Tesla's can't be driven.
The record in a real car is about 29 hours.
funny how without the government subsidies Tesla is in deep trouble. I guess we all lost an opportunity to have the government (IE:taxpayers) subsidize our startups under Obama.
I suspect that for liberal owners, the element of "I feel good about myself for saving the planet!" contributes more to feelings of owner satisfaction than the car's actual performance.
Ed Bolian, 28 hours, 50 minutes.
It would seem to me that having so much of the vehicle's operation done through the touchscreen is downright dangerous. It means taking your eyes off the road while you search for the correct tiny little button on the screen and try to hit it on the first try. And how well does it work in direct sunlight?
ML/NJ
I suspect that for liberal owners, the element of “I feel good about myself for saving the planet!” contributes more to feelings of owner satisfaction than the car’s actual performance.
...
How many reviews have you read?
Vivid! Enjoyed reading that.
23, ha... back in the late 70's a friend had an old International Harvester bike support truck named Oil Can Harry that took 30+ to get from the Glen to the Ohio Nationals and back, they even had funnel line through the firewall into the cab so they never needed to stop
Hard to top that ! These days We would be arrested under the Clunker Laws for Mosquito Fogging...
i think it was blowing more than burning, except on the exhaust...
at least it dint leak when not running/standing still
Fueled by private and government cash, scientists and technicians have been working on autonomous driving long enough to know the issues and regard them as tractable. Eventually, despite practical and technical obstacles, autonomous driving will be made to work, just as airline travel was made remarkably astonishingly safe and reliable despite its inherent risks. Musk bought into the effort early enough to have a head start that has commercial value secured by IP laws.
Glad you liked it...for me, it was a little trip down memory lane, for sure!
Your post played in my mind like a movie. Like the other poster said, I can almost see the old Italian man. Your recollection reminds me of a road trip I took a few years ago from Alabama to California. I took the I-40 route and there was this incredible scene as I was approaching Albuquerque from the east. The sun was setting over that eastern ridge line with horizontal shafts of light grazing over the flat plains below. That visual is all I have of that trip and I doubt I will ever forget it. Somehow we are hardwired to respond to dramatic lighting!
So what did it look like?
I have been fortunate enough to visit the Southwest, and the light is beautiful out there...just beautiful. Your description was vivid, when you referenced the "shafts of light grazing over the flat plains below". I could see that in my mind. And you don't remember anything else of that trip?
Funny...speaking of lighting in that area, my wife and I went to Sedona some years back, and just stayed a few days there. Now, that place has a lot of old hippies there, some who looked like they stared at the sun a little too long, if you get my drift. Long, gray stringy ponytails on the back, a balding pate in the front. Eyes squinting.
So, the first night there, my wife is reading about the town, and sees that there is a great place to watch sunset, up on some mesa near a small airport, where you could look far to the west. So we drive out there, and the place seemed filled with these old hippie types, the guys with their graying white hair, the women also graying, wearing clothes reminiscent of those they wore when they were a teenager.
It was a living stereotype, and it was kind of funny, not bad or irritating in any way...:)
But my vision of that sunset was not the sun or sky to the West, it was stopping to take the whole scene in, all these old hippies, the couples, the groups, gazing out to the West, and their faces lit with that golden sun, I almost burst out laughing, not in ridicule, but it reminded me 100% of the scene from Close Encounters of The Third Kind where the hippies hold up the welcome signs for the aliens!
I had a good time that trip!
No idea, but easy to imagine. I wasn’t the one to pick him up from the airport.
That was beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
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