News and Views

I got my Tesla Model 3 yesterday, and Gisele and I took a drive up to the Mogollon Rim today to spend the afternoon with Richard, Dianna, Dale and Donna. It was very pleasant up there, though windy. Dianna made a delicious lunch for us of BBQ chicken, fruit salad and other fixings. I’m so full I think I’m going to skip dinner!

The car is lots of fun to drive, unbelievable acceleration and the autopilot works quite well.

I would have had enough battery to get there and back, but I gave some joy rides and then charged in a 240V outlet for a couple of hours. We made it back with 84 miles of range remaining of our nominal 310 miles.

I noticed a couple of interesting quirks and/or features with the autopilot.
– It tends to crowd the outside of the lane on curves, never actually crossing the lane marker, but getting close. Makes me nervous when there is a car next to me, since many people tend to hug the inner edge of the lane on curves.
– It is supposed to auto lane-change by holding the turn signal. It didn’t work at all on Highway 87, even though that is a 4-lane highway. But it did work on Loop 101 in Tempe. With a little research I found that the car knows when you are on a real freeway and only actuates auto lane change there.
– This one was a real surprise: Coming down from the rim north of Strawberry the speed limit is something like 45, but there are several hairpin curves with 20 mph warning signs. I let the car approach one of these turns and noticed that it was slowing down by itself, even though cruise control was still set for 50. It actually seems to know where the tight curves are and slows down for them.

Autopilot is very cool, and continuously improving. I wouldn’t take a nap with it yet, but it makes the trip a lot more relaxing.