A test drive of the Tesla Model 3 is very positive

General Discussion
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101

I used to wake up in the morning, almost every month after retirement, and the next night I would be 1500 miles from home. Now that I am bored with driving, I don’t need so much car anyway. At 75 I won’t be driving too many more cars, most likely.

By the way, I don’t believe in global warming, not because I am a dope nor ignorant or lacking in knowledge of science. I don’t believe in global warming because I am not a dope nor ignorant or lacking in knowledge of science. There is no global warming of any serious amount. I started following this global temperature garbage back in the 50’s.

In 1989, a group went through the 20th Century data base and found there was no long-term increase in the 20th Century. Just the temporary hot spell in the 30’s.

Now, if you process the “same” data based, you find serious warming. But, that makes sense because e-mails were intercepted between hoaxers discussing how they were going to change the data base. And, someone mirrored the data base some time ago, and now can show the changes. It is a hoax. And, Donald Trump knows it is a hoax.

A few years ago, a team looked at the official temperature sites. Some were carefully located in large asphalt parking lots or in the exhaust of large air conditioning units. And, they stopped including Siberia.

Today, we have reliable accurate satellite temperature measuring equipement, which also shows no global warming.

I am not going to say nothing good has come from the hoax. We have the Prius, the first reliable high mileage city vehicle. Does anyone else remember all the Pooh! Pooh! on this board? They will never be practical nor reliable and it will take too many miles to pay for it. Yet, today they seem to have caused a lot of companies to try to compete with them. If I were in the market for a new car here in Mexico, I would look for one. It is around 52 miles to the nearest big city where we go shopping from time to time, and there are 53 speed bumps unless the number has increased, which would really work well with a Prius.

A lot of other things, not just automobiles, have also been made much more energy efficient.

Solar cells, though apparently not viable yet without government subsidies, are many times more efficient than just a few years ago.

We are doing more things with not much more energy and that is good. But, we do not need to destroy the economy of our nation to satisfy misanthropes whose real problem is they don’t like people.

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102

How well would a Prius fare on the Mexican roads . . . which you yourself said leave something to be desired?

I’m not being sarcastic, it’s an honest question

I’m thinking a Prius might be okay in densely populated areas, such as a large city, but maybe not if you regularly travel on dirt roads

103

I think that’s a great question.
High mileage vehicles generally are designed to be of minimum weight, firm suspension to keep tracking as optimum as possible while keeping costs low, and in the Prius we know it uses low rolling resistance tires with a harder than normal rubber compound… and while I’ve never checked, probably designed to use slightly elevated pressures to reduce contact area with the pavement. I doubt too if even an ounce of unnecessary padding is used in the seats. These “attributes” enhance mileage… but at the expense of ride and comfort. I imagine they’d be very harsh on bad roads.

I think I’ll test drive one just out of curiosity. If I do, I’ll post my impressions.

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104

You’re thinking of Fisker. The only time I recall a Tesla catching fire was after it was in a bad wreck.

105

There were a few highly publicized incidents where Tesla batteries caught fire

But considering everybody’s filming everything 24/7, lots of things are highly publicized

I don’t remember any Fisker fires, only Tesla fires, for what it’s worth

106

Does it have a radiator? I know the Bolt does. As we all should know by now, high energy density batteries get quite hot during use and can start fires.

107

Tesla’s battery array is designed with an integrated cooling system, designed to not only dissipate normal heat but also to prevent one cell burning up from taking its neighbors down with it.

108

Time to revive the old muscle car bumper sticker-

The only thing this car can’t pass is a charging station…

:smile:

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109

So was Edison, Tesla (the inventor not the car), Bell - and the list goes on). I don’t know of any visionary who didn’t make outlandish claims.

I ignore their claims and focus on their accomplishments. Musk’s accomplishments are outstanding. Very few in the past 50+ years have come anywhere near what he’s accomplished.

Working in the software engineering field for 40+ years I’ve had many projects where we are bleeding edge. It’s painful, but the risk/reward is worth it. Some have failed…some were spectacular successes. The projects and companies I worked for with the highest risk also had the greatest reward.

In this ONE instance I’ll agree.

https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2014/02/07/why-general-motors-company-progress-on-its-pension/20825549/?myPortfolios_show=true&myPortfolios_open=true&savingsChallenge_show=false&savingsChallenge_open=true&myArticles_show=false&myArticles_open=true

I guess you forgot those.

110

True. But if it was always a success, everybody would be doing the same thing. Fact is, swinging for the fence has huge risk and not always results in a reward. Single product start ups are the most risky as they have nothing to fall back on. In my experience, we rarely hit home runs. When we do, it pays off handsomely. There are probably 10 deep fly outs for every home run. We keep the business afloat by singles and doubles.

And the first one in the race doesn’t always emerge victorious either. Companies following on your heels have benefited from your investment in time and money. The can easily leap frog you and steal the prize.

I give EM props for his vision, drive and risk tolerance. But he’s got a lot of home run swingers going on all at once…meanwhile, the dogs are nipping at his heels on several of them. Will he emerge the ultimate winner? Only time will tell.

111

Yup. But I’m rootin’ for him.
Even if his dreams crash tomorrow, he’s already accomplished far more than any other car maker (a group that he couldn’t even be considered in when he started) and more than the overwhelming majority of dreamers. He has truly made a huge difference, both technologically and in perception.

112

Me too. More power to him. I would consider it too risky to put any of my money behind these ventures but that doesn’t mean I don’t want them to be successful. I couldn’t agree more with your closing line.

113

Unquestionably, if you take his stated goal at face value. Way back in the Roadster days he said he started Tesla to show that it could be done, and wants other manufacturers to start doing it too. Those dogs nipping at his heels… That’s the goal.

I mean, it’s not like the guy needed the money. He was already one of the world’s richest people long before Tesla or SpaceX became companies.

114

Yeah, I should have said his companies versus him. He won a long time ago and hid the trophy(ies). Hopefully, his investors enjoy a rising tide as well…

115

And if Tesla’s success generates more electric vehicle manufacturers, Musk will be pleased to sell them all the battery packs they can handle from his new Nevada plant.

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116

I’m sure he will, unless they want to make their own battery packs… And they could, using Tesla technology, if they wanted to because Musk announced that Tesla will not enforce any of its patents and other companies can use them freely.

117

Musk’s battery factory will still be the 800 pound gorilla in that market. Open architecture will drive the market to adopt his technology, further cementing his leadership in automotive batteries. He learned a thing or two in the high tech biz.

118

Yup. Apple, specifically. They almost went bankrupt way back in the day by locking down their hardware. Meanwhile PC-compatible computers were coming out that were vastly cheaper, and unsurprisingly people flocked to them.

And they never really recovered - they still only have a fraction of the home computer marketplace. If they hadn’t come out with the iPod, they’d probably not be here today.

119

Here’s my problem - he’s putting in this Supercharger network, unusable by all the other EVs. To have separate charging systems is just NUTS to me. Like having ‘Ford’ gas stations, ‘GM’ gas stations…

120

I do not know they are unuseable by other cars, but as a ploy for tesla drivers it is a major investment.