It's Tesla, and then there are automotive dinosaurs
19. May 2019 by Guest Contributor
The first part of this two-part series involved a thorough examination of exactly what business Tesla is and how it fits into wider market segments it serves. This second part covers the author's personal experience with Tesla vehicles and how these vehicles compare to others on the market today and tomorrow.
by L.W. Ruff
Pers onal Experience with Teslas
My personal exposure to Tesla came in 2014 when one of my nephews gave me a book about Elon Musk. It was a fascinating read, and from that point on I began to follow SpaceX. I learned everything I could about the company. For a while, I myself have strategized in the mind of how I can leave nuclear power and work for SpaceX.
During 2017, a few months after I rented a Lexus LC500 in June, I began to follow Tesla. In October 2018, I went to Tesla's website and ordered a model 3 performance. I had never driven in an electric car. I made my decision only on what I had read and seen on YouTube. Initially, I assumed that since SpaceX and Tesla were Captain of Musk, it would probably be related to innovation. When I drove model 3 away from the Tesla store, it was my first electric car experience – correlations ensured.
Day 1 with the new model 3 in November 2018.
In my younger days I was a car mechanic. I have rebuilt a few engines, re-engineered brakes on many of my passenger cars, switched many transfers, four times on my Mustang in 1990, and at home I have had car lifts for almost 20 years.
In my career in nuclear, I have been working on over 20 plants for more than a dozen states. For 22 years of travel, I have rented a large selection of sports cars and SUVs, always judging them on performance, ease of use and handling.
According to model 3 I look back, 99% of everything I've ever had the drive is just garbage. Sorry, Mustang. Sorry, Lexus.
Model 3 vs Model T
Model 3 is a battle ax. It's a million-mile car. The car's structure is so solid, it is almost inconceivable that someone will build it. It's no wonder it's the safest car available. In a post-apocalypse, it would be surviving because of how well it is built and how few moving parts it has compared to a combustion engine car. Think crazy Max. The suspension links are so ridiculously oversized and strong that it presents conventional cars as safety hazards … and now they are. This is no exaggeration. It is difficult to recognize when the needle had moved so far. Today it is incomprehensible. Tomorrow it will be "like Duh."
I've had Model 3 in just over 5 months, and have driven it over 17,500 miles. Zero problems, zero maintenance. I rotated the tires myself at 10,000 miles. Judging from the car's feelings, I perceive that I could drive that 100,000 miles just replacing tires and wiper blades.
The car is an absolute pleasure to drive. When you want performance, it is instant, perfectly compatible to demand, and surprisingly predictable. It's a warranty that's hard to describe, but it's palpable. It is in a separate category. Ironically, my winter with the car, including two trips from Illinois to Denver, was riddled with some of the worst conditions I've ever driven in. A family storm resulted in a 1/4 "ice coating on the car. Alternating ice roads with salt mist coated front end with a 1/2 "gray ice. The car has seen high snow, crazy head restraints over Nebraska, temperatures down to 10 ° below zero, and hours traveling in heavy rains. The car, with just all season tires, was a charm. The only lesson was charging the car before you parked it in the hotel on a very cold night. It took an hour longer to charge it in the morning.
Model 3 performance is an animal. A comparable combustion engine (ICE) car is maxed in all respects – there is no reserve capacity. In the category "My second car" I have a Lexus LC 500 that I rented 16 months before I bought model 3. Even today people will slow down and gawk on the LC 500 when it is moving. It is a beautiful car and well built. In my simple sense, it represents the highlight of the ICE car. It is like an over-engineered ICE car that will probably be. In the Mad Max scenario, it will be Teslas and the LC500s for Tesla hit the LC500's nose, so it is against the LC500.
It has become quite clear that Tesla pillows its products with spare capacity, a lot of spare capacity. A few weeks ago, like many, I got an over-the-air update that increased 5% more power and increased the top speed by 7 MPH. I have driven many cars over 100 MPH, but no car comes close to feeling so safe and solid during acceleration or at high speeds. The story right now is that it is Tesla, and then there are automotive dinosaurs. Tesla is not a car company; It is a technical innovation company that happens by car. The result is cars that are better than anything else available. For me, it took the driving car for a few weeks and came across anxiety to really sink in.
Competition
For many years there has been history after the story of the next "Tesla Killer". Other cars companies are conventional in their business, stodgy in corporate structure, and construct their products as cheaply as possible. They build cars that, if handled carefully, can make it 250,000 miles before major maintenance, the type of maintenance where the cost of repairs usually exceeds the residual value of the car. It is almost impossible to reverse a stagnant corporate culture. Tesla, an innovation company for innovation, can morph to sell cars, but car companies cannot appease innovation. Therefore, most of them will fail. At one point, the audience will wake up to Tesla and what transportation has become – great driving with high performance and automated driving.
Automated Cars
The audience can become fully aware of automated cars sometime around 2021 when Tesla moves into the ridesharing market dominated by Uber and Lyft. Only, unlike Uber and Lyft, Tesla vehicles will not have a driver; They will be automated. For the first time in history, the car will really be a car. By 2025, Tesla's rideshare profit is likely to be greater than the car product's profit.
Conventional car manufacturers have approached the self-driving concept conventionally which is completely anticipated and predictable. Their approach is hard data based on past images of roads and distance measurement technology to avoid collisions. Tesla approaches it from an innovation point of view. It uses learned concepts and a living neural network. It, like a human being, will perform actions based on learned concepts on how to act after each situation, as opposed to rooted actions based on programmed scenarios. Only Tesla collects data from billions of kilometers driven and integrates this learning into a neural network. Only Tesla vehicles have data processing technology, combined with learning software, which will make them far safer and more useful in all situations. Tesla's management is difficult to understand, and currently exponential about what is supposed to be the competition.
Today's Range vs. Future Range
At the time of my purchase, the estimated full-load area for the Model 3 Performance was 310 miles. Like all other cars, you won't wait until you run out of energy (fuel) before refilling. For a battery car, ideally is to charge 90% and deplete to 20%, which in this case provides 247 miles of range. Toss in higher speed driving, 70-75 MPH, and the convenient area is around 185 miles. If you are fully charged, the convenient range is about 200 miles with higher speed driving. In the worst case – high speed, extreme cold (to the point where you have the heater bursting) and high heads – and the range can be as low as 130 miles. Even in the worst case, Model 3 cannot be beaten as a commuter car.
Day 3, the first commuter to work after a 9-inch snowfall.
For long distance travel, the type that usually uses the Tesla Supercharger network has chargers at a distance of a typical maximum of about 110 miles. So, while it takes longer to complete a long distance trip, it can be done without significant concern, especially since Tesla's software automatically charts your route on the big screen – easily.
What would make 30,000 kilometers a year does this car 5 years from now? Will the range be significantly reduced as the battery is worn? If the history of model S is any indication,> 90% of the battery capacity will remain.
But wait !!! Because battery technology is still growing significantly, and because it's Tesla we're talking about, you can realize that a battery upgrade of 5 to 7 years will double your car's range. From the work perspective, replacing a battery module is much easier than replacing a motor. After more than 100 years of further development of engine and car technology, an ICE car has not been manufactured that improves with it and no one can double its range by inserting a more efficient engine with equal performance and / or replacement to a tank that has the same physical size. Still, with a Tesla, this will become reality.
Rental of Tesla Mine
The Tesla network of tent sharing cars will consist of Tesla-owned cars and owners who choose to lend their cars to the network for public use. If I choose to borrow the car for the network some part of the day or week, I will make a profit and Tesla will make money. As I actually drive an electric car, I can also be late for this party.
Dog Mode
While I took the LC500 home to put it away for the winter of October 2018, my girlfriend followed in our Kia Niro Hybrid (POS). We stopped at a gas station near the end of our trip to fill up Lexus. She broke my ears off when I looked at a kitten scrounging for food in front of the combo gas station / Burger King. Worried, she was trying to move her kitten out of injury. We ended up holding critter after she broke into tears when I talked about getting him to a house the next day. As it turned out, he was a polite and relaxing travel companion on the first trip to Denver. He is a proud kitten – I have not yet explained dog mode. His name is Scrounge.
Scrounge in his favorite Tesla
How good is model 3?
Model 3 is so good that the value proposition is a no-brainer. Given the rugged building, the inherent reliability of its electric motors, and continuous software upgrades that enhance performance and capabilities, a 300,000-kilometer model 3 will still be an incredible car. It can never be something like a future-proof car, but if we survive another 100 years, those who remain will see the century-old Model 3 running.
After 6 months of driving and examining model 3 in detail, I became so convinced of the value suggestion that I bought another model 3 performance to replace Kia. I know I'm never going to buy another ICE car, but what about you?
Don't get caught short in the music chair ICE Game
Model 3 is the standard that all other Manufacturers who understand our new reality will hunt but not capture. The transition to electric will have a difficult consequence. In time, the majority will not have ICE cars. When this happens, the value of ICE cars will be plummeted. Given the cadence of climate change, and their winding into our political processes, it is not a stretch to find that ICE cars will be socially unacceptable within a decade.
P.T. Barnum
I'm not the only one who observes Elon Musk as P.T. Barnum of our time. The legendary "Greatest Show on Earth" 3-ring circus officially closed recently. But history repeats itself. This time Elon Musk's play of 3 rings is a participatory sport that is evident thanks to thousands of dedicated staff and actors (Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company employees) who build history, our story, in real time. Understanding that each card sells sludge on Musk is a slam against 50,000+ of the brightest and most dedicated missionaries gathered. Two new words were just created – an appropriate greeting.
Another Biting Dust
Soon, and appearing all over YouTube, may be faux (or perhaps even real) compilation videos by Performance Model 3 that surpasses ICE car RELICS Really, all that, Ice Cars Suck) .
The Roar
Whether the only one high performance ICE car has over Model 3 is a soundtrack. What would it take for brilliant people to write audio tracks that move with acceleration, side forces, and deceleration? Maybe start with rocket sounds! These soundtracks, somewhat subdued so as not to be offensive and scare children or the elderly, can also be projected outside the car as an audible safety feature.
To the short sellers – Your bet is futile
In the movie ] The fifth element a spherical evil moves toward the earth at incredible speed. The galactic military convinces itself that bombing it with bigger and bigger torpedoes will kill it, but bombs only make it stronger. Flip the story, and the sphere is Tesla, rushing towards the earth to save it from its polluting generating ways. But unfortunately, the short sellers use every conventional weapon they can muster to destroy Tesla, but the accelerating pace of Tesla's innovation is second to none. The work of short-sellers to damage Tesla's workforce is as useless as throwing snowballs in the sun.
Breathe easily
Working with nuclear power gives me fun to say that I have a nuclear powered Tesla. Thanks to Exelon Nuclear for free charging and to encourage your workforce to turn green. ? This summary below provides the best summaries of the future in my mind. We have sun, wind and LaSalle County Station in the background.
If you are nudged to buy or rent a Tesla as a result of this article, use my referral code when securing the future of your driving experience: https://ts.la/lawrence85896
Best to everything and our future,
LW Ruff
About the author
] Guest Contributor are many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts on a wide range of fields. This is our contribution account for the special people. : D
