Great news on all fronts!
For my part, I did indeed meet the amazing young man in the flying Model 3 at close to 1 am on Saturday night, the 23rd. I was among a group of about 15 excited enthusiasts.
After almost flying down Rt 5 at 85 mph at times (verified by the gps tracker he has on the car) the young man arrived at 12:40 pm. After a few introductions and verification of IDs of those like me who had requested a test drive, I got a ten minute drive on empty streets near the Fountain Valley SC.
I was very pleased with the car. Interior materials on this Premium Upgrade Car were excellent, soft touch suedes and high quality plastics. The screen is highly visible, with high contrast graphics. I was disconcerted by the blank space where an instrument panel should be, and by the fact that the owner likes to see km/h displayed, so that I was registering 100 after one acceleration run.
I floored it one time and I wasn’t amazed at the power, but we had 4 adults on board, so an extra 450 to 500 pounds of weight.
I loved the size of the car and the responsiveness to steering inputs. After the test drive, I have no doubt that I’ll place an order as soon as I get the chance.
My misgivings are the following:
A. That the driver must use the touch screen for everything from adjusting wiper speed to adjusting Autopilot speed settings. Though I know I’ll get used to the single screen, looking away from the road for these frequently needed settings is unnecessarily distracting.
B. Visibility to the rear and rear corners is obstructed by the car’s rear pillar structure, the fixed rear headrests and the small vertical height of the rear glass area.
C. Compounding the above, apparently the rear camera is of less than desirable resolution, has a fisheye effect, and can be laggy (I forgot to check this out for myself). And because of the size and orientation of the instrument panel, you can’t keep the rear camera view and the nav screen up at the same time like you can on Model s and X.