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Frankly, I think the lack of a shifter is a bad idea. It'll be like the removal of the dedicated rain sensors, but with much worse results.

But I see how it can work.

The car already knows what all around it via the ultrasonic sensors and the cameras. When I bought my Model S, most of the cameras weren't active. Only via OTA has the car gained features and enabled their use. E.g., only with an update 3 months ago did AutoPilot start to stop at traffic lights and stop signs.

When you are in a parking spot, the car sees the lines all around. Thus, it will use this to decide to back up vs. go forward. They've already enabled this logic in the "Come to me" Summon Option that allows the car to autonomously leave a parking spot and drive across a parking lot to you.

They used the same sensors to prevent people from short-range SUA - the car will not go forward from a standstill if it detects an obstacle in front of it.

I can imagine the car will get the shifter selection right about 95% of the time. The other times you need to override it on the touch screen, and that will be annoying. And 5% annoying is too much.

For example, sometimes I need to move my car in the garage back 3 feet (so I can open the ladder and get into the loft in front of the car). This is one thing I use summon for; I just use my phone and tell the car to back up. But sometimes I'll have my fob, and it's still quicker to jump in the car and backup. I'm pretty sure the car will always guess correctly to go into reverse. But then an hour later when I want it to move the car back forward 3 feet, I'm sure every time it will decide I want to back all the way out of the garage. And so I'd have to tap the touchscreen. Not that big of a deal, but annoying.

(And I'm typing this thinking this is another post I'll create and then just delete, because here at MNL you are all too busy talking about dying 12V batteries, "can my car make this 30 mile commute", and other mundane things to actually have a useful discussion about Tesla).
 
jlv said:
(And I'm typing this thinking this is another post I'll create and then just delete, because here at MNL you are all too busy talking about dying 12V batteries, "can my car make this 30 mile commute", and other mundane things to actually have a useful discussion about Tesla).

THis is a Leaf forum after all, not a Tesla forum.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
After watching this, is it just safer to stay/go with an S rather than a 3?

https://youtu.be/U6uRheKeI6Y
I briefly watched his video. From what he said in it, his problems are nothing compared to some of the 1st few years of Model X horror stories I've heard. And, he didn't (from that video) have something catastrophic like a failed drive unit that would leave him w/reduced or no propulsion.

Also, Model S is in https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/10-least-reliable-cars/ and as such, didn't have a good showing in https://web.archive.org/web/20201121044411/https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars/.
 
Below has a few pics.
https://twitter.com/nickrgeorge/status/1363392600468643841?s=20
Spotted a #Tesla #ModelS #Plaid test mule in Carmel, CA today. New interior, but a regular steering wheel, no yoke! Wheel arches and overall stance is noticeably wider.
 
It was 4 years ago that I brought home my Model S. Still the most amazing car I've ever owned. Even with barely driving anyway the last year (because of Covid-19), I put far more miles on it in 4 years compared to the 4.5 years I had the LEAF. But that's because the LEAF pretty much only went from home to work and back, and an occasional "long trip" of 35 miles into Boston. Without Covid-19 I suspect Model S would have had another 10K miles on it from trips to work along with a 5 trips to Maine for skiing (400 mi rt), plus probably another trip to Buffalo (900 miles rt). I still kept the LEAF as my daily driver until we sold it 1.5 years later (to replace my wife's car with the Model X).

Never have I had a car that gained features after I already owned it. The list is long: auto lane change, dashcam, sentry mode, stopping at traffic lights, all the continuous improvements to Autopilot, etc. Actually, AP2 was still running in crippled mode when I got the car, with a max speed 50 MPH. For a year it was only usable on the highway. Over the last 2 years it's gotten very good on side roads. It's close but not 100% capable of handling a nearby New England backwoods curvy road (actually, most people are close but not 100% on driving on that road as they all tend to drift over the line).

Now I'm facing with a new twist: I just retired. That means even less regular driving, but hopefully more trips up to the mountains in NH and ME.
 
I should add:

Had I not bought the Model S and instead invested what I paid for the car in TSLA stock, I would have well over $1M today. :shock:
 
jlv said:
I should add:

Had I not bought the Model S and instead invested what I paid for the car in TSLA stock, I would have well over $1M today. :shock:

Buy the stock first then buy the car!
 
cwerdna said:
Very brief video of:
"New gear shifting in the s/x refresh"
https://twitter.com/teslaownersSV/status/1374589809344266243?s=20

I have no idea what Tesla was thinking. And this video only makes things more confusing. There is no way to tell if the car is in PRND. He keeps swiping and it does not appear to change anything. I hope they go back to using a stalk. I just don't see what is gained in this change. maybe they will prove me wrong, but right now I'm confused with this solution.
 
palmermd said:
And this video only makes things more confusing. There is no way to tell if the car is in PRND. He keeps swiping and it does not appear to change anything.
That's because this video only shows the center touchscreen and not the instrument panel behind the steering wheel, which shows the selected "gear". After all, this is not a Model 3/Y which only has the center touchscreen. I suspect if you are in the car selecting it, it's not confusing at all.
 
jlv said:
I suspect if you are in the car selecting it, it's not confusing at all.
But I should add, removing the stalk seems wrong to me. But I might test drive one later on just to see how it feels. I can think of the instances where I get in my Model S today and wonder would it be able to tell which way I want to go based upon the sensor data they say the car would use to determine it. 99% of the time I think it would get it right.

Just the other day I backed the car out of the garage (via summon, I wasn't in the car) in order to get something out of storage. A while later I got in the car in order to pull it back into the garage. In this case, there's no way the car could determine if I wanted F or R. I'd have to use the manual override (as per this video).

I wonder if that's worth the annoyance of needing to override for the infrequent cases. I don't know.
 
thanks, that makes a bit more sense. In my Model 3 the gear selection would have been directly above the area where he was swiping to change direction. I still want to see it in use before I make a full judgement, but it just seems odd to remove this stalk. How does it go into park. Swipe sideways? Or Neutral?

I get into the car all the time and turn it on but do not go anywhere. If I jump in and then push the brake to turn it on, do i then need to push a button to get it back to park before i remove my foot from the brake? Seems a bit dangerous to have it guessing what you want to do.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the did on this. It may be the best thing ever, like putting your foot on the brake to turn the car on. I just don't know about this change like I did when I heard that the Model S will turn on simply by pressing the brake pedal. That innovation made sense. The addition of also selecting the direction of travel (F, R, P) is perhaps too much.
 
As I have no interest in it I didn't pay any attention to the Plaid intro, but this op-ed has some details that, if accurate, would really turn me off the car (if I were willing to spend that kind of money).

ABG:
The Tesla paradox: It's the rocket, you're 'Spam in a can'

It's apparently incredible to drive, but you don't actually have to drive it? Huh?

https://www.autoblog.com/2021/06/11/tesla-paradox/


I wasn't aware that Model S sales had dropped that much, but given the basic car's age it's not that surprising. Still, if you were to offer to give me any Tesla of my choice, I'd opt for a straight S 100D.
 
Don't worry, folks: Tesla will soon, for a mere $25k more, offer a steering wheel, shifter, and windshield wiper stalk on the Plaid. (For another $25k they will name it something non-fabric-related.) It will be hailed as the absolute Pinnacle of 21st Century engineering.

Coming later this century: a steering wheel, er, yoke heater.
 
My wife has been replaced by a replica. I know this because she said she was interested in the upcoming Model S. Up until now she made funny faces if I even mentioned the car. She wants to test drive now which is fine, but we both will have to test drive again when the new model is available.

Cool
 
Tesla's New Steering Yoke Shows Little Benefit and Potential Safety Pitfalls
Ten CR test drivers chronicle their driving difficulties with the steering wheel replacement in our new Model S
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars-driving/tesla-steering-yoke-little-benefit-potential-safety-pitfalls-a1034204120/
 
It seems natural that CU would spend a paragraph on the safety value of better instrument visibility and lower likelihood of airbag injury from misplaced hands at the top of a steering wheel. But little weight is given to these advantages. I would like to assess the yoke on one of my frequent long drives between SoCal and NorCal where most of the drive is with AP engaged and my hands at 8 & 4.
 
Here was jumping a Model S gone wrong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-zeSEOanvI - skip to 2:00 to see the jump from several angles. I haven't watched the whole video but had seen a short poor quality snippet on FB earlier. The YouTube video does contain a fair amount of profanity though.

At work, someone posted this followup from the victim w/the Subaru that was hit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZY85YgL6g.
 
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