EV Discussion thread

Solarchaser

shinytop said:

Solarchaser said:

I'm about 5 months away from replacing the tm3, and looking at options.

I've not found the tm3 super comfortable on l9ng drives, but do love the supercharging.
Drove an EV6, and it drove OK, but controls for regen etc were a bit fiddly.
Thinking of an EV3.
But also considering a TMY.

The Tesla is about 80% great, 10% irksome and 10% infuriating. 
Also the car would do 300 miles when new, now really struggles to get 270.
Tested it before at 100% to 0% and was basically 70kwh, now it's 63kwh.

Now an argument could definitely be made for me driving it several times, several miles after it's at 0%, damaging the battery, but i still find it disappointing that elons amazing battery technology has suffered 10% degradation in under 4 years and under 70k miles. Plus that's what the extra battery capacity is supposed to be there for right?

I do see more and more Tesla evangelism on forums, but it weirdly seems to come alot from people who have read about Tesla, not actually used one.
I see the powerwall gets massively hyped.. by folk who don't have one. 

Ive mentioned a few times, its tried to kill me at least 3 times by either countering my steering away from hgvs that are wandering into my lane, or trying to follow lines in the road regardless of the roadworks diverting to different lanes (and ignoring the traffic right beside me).
I do love it's message after the attempted assassination "steering correction applied for your safety" or something very similar. No no, your correction almost caused a crash.
And yes I do shout at the screen when it says it.

It beeps incessantly at nothing which tends to make me ignore it when it's beeping for a valid reason, so that's not great, and I've finally given up on premium as they took Spotify off it.

But then I press the accelerator,  and I'd does make me smile, and the heating before you get in is really nice in our current weather.
I've also liked not having to carry keys, or lock the car for the last 3.5 years

Hmm.

Sounds awful.  Have you considered a nice 3-series or C-class?  No problems with range and I doubt they'll make you crash. I don't think it matters if you run out of petrol either (and you won't need a tow). 

The tm3 replaced a C class actually. 
The C class seats were better, but it certainly had its own drawbacks.
Tm3 is far better in the twisties.

With the gov rates of 7p/mile and it costing me about 2p/ mile, if I do a thousand miles a month, I make £50... and i usually do more than that a month.

I don't think i could go back to ff cars tbh, just need a less fussy EV

Grumpy_chap

Solarchaser said:

I don't think i could go back to ff cars tbh, just need a less fussy EV

FWIW - the elements that you seem to be describing as "fussy" (if that is the same as the element forcing you to crash on a daily basis) seem not to be linked specifically to the fact the car is an EV, or a Tesla.  I have a friend with an ICE with all the "driver assist" features and they seem to experience the same surprises that I experience with my TM3.

As for cars being able to crash so easily now, it makes me think of the alleged banter between Bill Gates and GM CEO when Mr Gates commented about the rate of progress for computers and how great it would be if cars progressed the same way, only for the GM CEO to respond something about cars would then crash into the side of the road for no reason and you'd need to turn off, wait and then restart and everything would be fine again.  
I may not have recalled that with the finesse of when it was doing the rounds back in the 80's, but we do seem to have achieved the outcome the GM CEO was referencing.  (I think it was GM - it could have been some other car manufacturer...)

michaels

Grumpy_chap said:

Solarchaser said:

I don't think i could go back to ff cars tbh, just need a less fussy EV

FWIW - the elements that you seem to be describing as "fussy" (if that is the same as the element forcing you to crash on a daily basis) seem not to be linked specifically to the fact the car is an EV, or a Tesla.  I have a friend with an ICE with all the "driver assist" features and they seem to experience the same surprises that I experience with my TM3.

As for cars being able to crash so easily now, it makes me think of the alleged banter between Bill Gates and GM CEO when Mr Gates commented about the rate of progress for computers and how great it would be if cars progressed the same way, only for the GM CEO to respond something about cars would then crash into the side of the road for no reason and you'd need to turn off, wait and then restart and everything would be fine again.  
I may not have recalled that with the finesse of when it was doing the rounds back in the 80's, but we do seem to have achieved the outcome the GM CEO was referencing.  (I think it was GM - it could have been some other car manufacturer...)

You missed the bit about closing all the windows and then having to wait while they reopened...

Solarchaser

Grumpy_chap said:

Solarchaser said:

I don't think i could go back to ff cars tbh, just need a less fussy EV

FWIW - the elements that you seem to be describing as "fussy" (if that is the same as the element forcing you to crash on a daily basis) seem not to be linked specifically to the fact the car is an EV, or a Tesla.  I have a friend with an ICE with all the "driver assist" features and they seem to experience the same surprises that I experience with my TM3.

As for cars being able to crash so easily now, it makes me think of the alleged banter between Bill Gates and GM CEO when Mr Gates commented about the rate of progress for computers and how great it would be if cars progressed the same way, only for the GM CEO to respond something about cars would then crash into the side of the road for no reason and you'd need to turn off, wait and then restart and everything would be fine again.  
I may not have recalled that with the finesse of when it was doing the rounds back in the 80's, but we do seem to have achieved the outcome the GM CEO was referencing.  (I think it was GM - it could have been some other car manufacturer...)

I do a fair bit of driving other cars as part of my job, so i know what you mean about most of the modern ice cars.
I even hired a wee toymota aygo last week and that had "lane assist" which is what most modern stuff has these days where it puts up some resistance to changing lanes etc, but I do feel the Tesla is much more forceful and sudden, and more inconsistent!!!

For instance in a hypothetical situation that definitely didn't happen last week, I could be annoyed by people hogging the middle lane when there's nothing in the inside lane, and so I may have the idea to undertake a certain amount of cars, and the Tesla is happy, then I cross two lanes (indicating going out) and overtake some cars, then pull into middle lane (no indication) and then inside lane (no indication) and when halfway across to the inside lane, it decides it wants to stay in the middle lane.
At other times it will slow down to stop undertaking,  and is happy to traverse 3 lanes of motorway without a peep.
And for unknown reasons, about 1ce a month it decides to pile on the brakes on a clear road, which is quite disconcerting and a little embarrassing to be honest.

Even the wee aygo gave a consistent wheel resistance to pulling into slower lanes, each time,  not randomly.

I had a polestar for a few months after Tesla was given a smack while parked, and although I didn't particularly like the drive of the polestar, It was consistent with its "lane assist" application.

So I guess I'd say, I agree in general, I just find the Tesla far worse.

The gm thing gave me a smile, ahh back in the day when we thought the "back to the future" hovering cars was a real possibility in the 2010's

Grumpy_chap

Solarchaser said:

At other times it will slow down to stop undertaking,

That's not random.
If you are travelling "fast" (above 50 mph - or it may be 45 mph) the car will slow to stop undertaking.
If you are travelling "slow" the car will allow undertaking.
This appears to comply with Rule 268 of the Highway Code.

Solarchaser

Let's assume i was hypothetically travelling at at least 65mph at all points of the hypothetical situation 

Grumpy_chap

Solarchaser said:

Let's assume i was hypothetically travelling at at least 65mph at all points of the hypothetical situation 

So, you were travelling "fast" on the inside lane with assist functions active.
The vehicle in the second lane was travelling at, say, 60 mph.
The car will slow you down to avoid overtaking on the inside.
You can, of course, indicate to change to the second lane and then to the third lane and then overtake and then return via the two lanes back to the inside lane and your speed will recover.
That would be in accordance with the Highway Code.
You can also over-ride the slowing down to prevent overtaking on the inside lane if you stab the accelerator, the speed assist will recover back to the target speed and pass the vehicle in the second lane, even though you are on the inside lane.

Reed_Richards

Solarchaser said:

... then I cross two lanes (indicating going out) and overtake some cars, then pull into middle lane (no indication) and then inside lane (no indication) and when halfway across to the inside lane, it decides it wants to stay in the middle lane.

Why do you indicate when changing up lanes but fail to indicate when changing down?  I always indicate when changing lanes in either direction.  

MikeJXE

It seems like a load of unnecessary and dangerous hassle to me 

My simple 2016 Jaguar XE vibrates the steering wheel if I drift from the lane or change lanes without indicating 

Why would one want more than that and be incomplete control of the car and surroundings ?

Reed_Richards

My EV, a Mokka e, has "Lane Assist" which I have to disable every time I start the car.  It has a bad habit of imagining lane markings on poorly surfaced roads, of which there are plenty in my vicinity.  It will then "grab" the steering wheel in a manner that is highly disconcerting and, IMHO, liable to cause an accident.  I guess the ICE version probably has exactly the same unsafety feature.