Two months with a Tesla Model Y
Two months ago, I bought a Tesla Model Y. The purchasing process was simple, all done online. Reminiscent of the old Saturn dealership model, where prices were clear, no haggling, no drama. Quite nice compared to the antiquated dealership process.
I could go on at length about how backwards other car manufacturers are in this regard, but that would be a very long post on its own.
The Model Y is our 4th EV car, so we are quite used to the charging life and have a Level 2 charger at home. All our other EV cars had the charging port in the front, but the Tesla has it in the rear. Makes it a little more painful to back into the driveway and into charging spots at work. Not sure as to why it’s on the rear. I’m sure there was some reason behind it, but I don’t see the benefit.
Our charger has a J1772 connector, which means I use the adapter to plug into the Tesla. Charging works great, but having to put on the adapter leads to a lot of in & out of the car to grab it. Michele’s Kia Soul EV uses J1772 connection, so we aren’t switching the charger to a Tesla connector. I have considered buying or building a J1772 to Tesla extension cable that would allow me to charge the car without backing into the driveway.
Driving the Model Y is a bit different than other cars I’ve driven. Both in terms of handling and the interface to the driver.
The power and handling of the Model Y is great. Quite a step up from the Bolt. Super responsive and quick. After picking up the car and getting on the freeway ramp, accelerating into the 90s with such ease was surprising. We’ve had BMWs before and the handling was on par if not better when compared to a make known for a great driving experience.
The Model Y is a big car. It’s wide and the hatchback gives it a ton of space. It’s comparable to the Toyota Venza wagon we once owned. I was able to haul all my beekeeping gear to a colony removal with plenty of room to spare.
My last car was the Chevy Bolt, which is a good EV, but still used a traditional dashboard model. Having all the information on the touchscreen takes a little getting used to before feeling comfortable. There’s a tremendous amount there and I spent quite a while watching videos and googling up questions. I’m comfortable using it now, but almost 40 years of traditional automobile UX/UI creates a lot of ‘muscle memory’ about driving.
The first night drive in the car was a bit shocking with a dark emptiness where normally there is the glow of the speedometer. Nothing was wrong but it felt strange in the moment. We are creatures of habit.
The only drawback is missing Apple CarPlay. Having Waze and direct control of my podcast app was neat. I understand that it would be difficult to integrate Apple CarPlay into the Tesla system, especially with Apple’s requirement to have a physical, hardwired connection, but it’s the one thing I miss from the Bolt.
The software of the car has been updated 3 times since I picked it up. That’s astounding. The Bolt had 1 update in 3 years. Looking forward to as the UI and features update over the years. The rest of the automobile industry seems 5+ years behind on this kind of updating.
One of the things that I was looking forward to the most was self-driving on the highway. In short, it works.
I’m one of the people that still needs to go into the office during the pandemic, and my commute is about 17 miles, with about 10 of it on the freeway. I use the ‘Autosteer’ on the highway, and it works remarkable well. The interface is straightforward and the only issue was getting used to the actual computer driving. It’s not like a human, it just feels different. More precise or maybe more decisive.
Some might want to have the Autosteer negotiate all the merging, intersections, and other more complicated traffic maneuvers, but I’m happy with the car to handle the highway traffic, especially the stop and go bits, which it manages extremely well.
Autosteer wants your hands on the wheel and reminds you frequently. Being an engineer, I wanted to see how easily the car could be fooled. I found that putting ~400g of weight on the steering wheel laterally would create enough force to let you drive hands-off indefinitely. I don’t recommend doing that, but it was interesting to test the sensitivity of the steering wheel.
You can use Autosteer on city streets as well. Yes, the car will go through traffic stop signs and signals very carefully, but it’s so conservative, it feels like crawling through the neighborhood. The car recognizes stop signs, street lights, and even cones in the road. Again, fun to the see the capabilities, but I’ll probably only use the Autosteer on the highway, not in city traffic.
I’d love to go on a road trip with the Tesla, but in the Coronatimes, it’s best not to travel far from home.
However, I did want to see the Supercharger experience and went to a 24 charger location nearby. The process was simple and quicker than a Chargepoint CCS locations or other CCS charging networks I’ve used. No dealing with apps or other issues. I just plugged it in and it worked. The car displayed the details of the charging and if I had been traveling for real, would have had to rush a meal since the recharge was happening so fast.
Hopefully I’ll get a chance at a road trip in the Aftertimes, but for now, it seems like the Tesla charging infrastructure is markedly ahead of the fast CCS infrastructure, both in terms of availability and ease of use.
Having a charger at home, I kind of take for granted being able to recharge anytime I want. But after visiting the Supercharge location, it made me realize that there are some people that rely on them for their primary charging. Of the 24 spaces, over half were in use on a Saturday morning. But I guess it makes sense if your apartment doesn’t have charging or you don’t want to spend the money to install at your home. I hadn’t really considered that before, but it makes sense.
Lots of discussion among Tesla owners and fans about “fit & finish” out there these days. First, I’m not super picky about this stuff. It’s a car, not a piece of jewelry. It’s going to get dings. Birds are going to poop on it. It’s going to get water spots. The car is there to take me places, not represent my personal identity. So some of the issues that people have with finish are lost on me. If it matters to them, then it’s important to them. It just isn’t in me to go measure body panel gaps with calipers.
My experience has been good with no real issue with performance or finish. I don’t notice any serious issues. I have no doubt that if someone with an eye for this stuff came to take a look, they’d find something. The only thing I’m caught up on is why you have to back into spots to charge the car. :)
Besides finish issues, I haven’t had any serious performance issues. I see people have issues with the frunk and seats, but I’ve been lucky. Maybe I got a car made a little later than the first batch that the earliest owners received.
I don’t peruse a lot of the Tesla online community stuff. I read a few things and watch some videos, but I’m not obsessed with Tesla news. Some parts of the Tesla community are downright fanatical, and parse out every word and nuance from statements. I’ve seen it in a few other car communities like Jeep owners who are a breed apart, and it’s similar to Apple enthusiasts that treat any info from Cupertino like tablets from Mt. Sinai.
IMHO, it’s a great car, but it’s just a car. It’s not worth the energy to argue with anonymous netizens over anything, but there are a bunch of people that make it a priority to stomp out Tesla wrongthink.
I’ve got plenty of other hobbies that I enjoy, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time focused on every bit of Tesla news. I’m just going to have fun and drive the car.
To wrap up, after two months, I’ve happy with the Model Y and glad I chose it as my new car. The many upsides far outweigh the few minor issues I have with the car. If you have been hesitating to make the leap to EV, the Model Y is a great choice to get you into a car designed for the future, not one saddled with the past.
