A Love Story: Model 3 is so good, monster truck drivers want to finger it

[Glamisduner]

You must have screwed up somehow, but I'm not seeing it.

Following distance seems fine at least comparatively speaking.

Behavior seems fine unless there was phantom AP braking at some point.

I'm at a loss. It's not like he couldn't see right over you so what was he expecting? He initially signaled you to go faster or move over, but there was lots of traffic directly in front of you.

Although it doesn't justify his reaction, I'll be the dissenting opinion here.

I know it isn't common in Cali but the left lane is for passing, not cruising at a speed slower than lanes to your right. You literally had 6 people pass you in the lane immediately to your right, and 15-20 pass you in all lanes to your right in the minute of your video. If you want to drive leisurely (which is great, btw) then please move out of the passing lane.

That's right when traffic is moving but does not apply in traffic, you have no control over the car in front of you. You should always leave a safe stopping distance in front of you, even in traffic.

I'm guessing you have not driven on the 405

 

[Bad Horse]

Although it doesn't justify his reaction, I'll be the dissenting opinion here.

I know it isn't common in Cali but the left lane is for passing, not cruising at a speed slower than lanes to your right. You literally had 6 people pass you in the lane immediately to your right, and 15-20 pass you in all lanes to your right in the minute of your video. If you want to drive leisurely (which is great, btw) then please move out of the passing lane.

Yeah, I honestly got more of this from watching the video than he was necessarily pissed it was an electric car. Especially given how quickly he came up from behind initially. Doesn't justify the response (I was once flipped off for passing someone apparently too slowly in the left lane when they came up from behind and I had moved over to pass another car). Lots of people get pissed off driving for a lot of reasons. I'd say the fuel type though of the OP's car though, probably did have some factor in his reaction, in a "ugh, this person in their car going to slow in the slow lane, and of course it's one of those stupid fancy electric cars

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I know it isn't common in Cali but the left lane is for passing, not cruising at a speed slower than lanes to your right. You literally had 6 people pass you in the lane immediately to your right, and 15-20 pass you in all lanes to your right in the minute of your video. If you want to drive leisurely (which is great, btw) then please move out of the passing lane.

But he wasn't cruising, he was following the car in front (at a setting of 2 or 1 on AP at that). If the cars in front are going slower than they should be for the left lane, that isn't his fault.

I'm all for the left lane being for passing and/or higher speed driving, and indeed slow drivers shouldn't be in the left lane, but in this situation he had no control over any of that. And because of that, the truck driver's reaction was completely unjustified.

 

[Pkmmte]

Did you guys seriously just turn a love story into yet another passing lane argument? That makes my poor little Elektra sad.

That said, driving on the 405 near the speed limit is a rare sight. You have better chances of finding Elon riding a BFR through traffic than finding someone above the speed limit during my commute hours. This footage actually showed relatively light traffic compared to most days. Follow distance on my Model 3 is basically permanently on 1, with my foot on the accelerator at times when even that is too much.

 

[run-the-joules]

I agree with @run-the-joules ...to a certain extent, but I'm going to defend @Pkmmte in this particular situation. Here's why...

If all lanes of traffic are moving at a speed below the speed limit...it doesn't really matter what lane you are in. By your rationale, all cars should then move over and clog the right-most lanes, leaving the left lane for whom -- people that want to go the speed limit? Isn't that everyone in this case? His video showed that speeds were consistently below the speed limit on that freeway.

It's basically just a stacking of bad behavior. The only reason the left lane is moving slowly in the majority of cases is because someone further up in the left lane did something he or she shouldn't have. If someone is only in the left lane to overtake and then gets back where they belong, then the left lane shouldn't become congested.

It's logical to believe that everyone wants to do the speed limit, but it's easily demonstrated that many people do not. People think of it as a "fast lane" without any standard for what that might be, and then plop their ass in the lane while they scream at Derp Jr in the back seat while he smears what might be chocolate or might be poop all over his face, and they think they're going "fast" when in fact they're 4mph under the limit, and people are now overtaking them on the right and creating a more dangerous, unpredictable situation in response to the Derpmobile being where it shouldn't be.

 

[Sportstick]

The thread is cute, witty, humorous, and the trucker engaged in some reprehensible behavior. But, the OP is the instigator and in the wrong. The first clue is that we see six vehicles pass on the right before the truck appears, digit extended. That is clear evidence that the OP should not be in the left lane, but should have pulled over to the right, at least one lane, even before being first signaled with the truck's forward lamps. This is just simple lane discipline, regardless of the speed limit or what others may be doing, and part of the Vehicle and Traffic Law in many states.

 

[SDKoala]

A big problem I have with EAP is that it is not human-like and can be unpredictable. I'll make the argument that this isn't always safer. If I was following a regular car and it stopped well short like EAP did in the video, I'd be wondering what they were doing and assume they were distracted. When I'm using EAP in my car and it does this, I feel like it puts me in a much more likely position to get rear-ended. It's just not expected driving behavior, especially on the freeway in moderate traffic in So Cal.

The way the truck approached quickly and stopped abruptly to me shows he wasn't paying complete attention either and not driving defensively. Plus, anyone who feels the need to flip someone else off clearly has rage/anger issues that just aren't worth dealing with.

I don't think the type of car (EV vs ICE) has as much to do with the other driver's response as people want to believe. We drive these cars that we love and want to think that we're being noticed by everyone else on the road, but most people really don't care.

 

[thefortunes]

That's right when traffic is moving but does not apply in traffic, you have no control over the car in front of you. You should always leave a safe stopping distance in front of you, even in traffic.

I'm guessing you have not driven on the 405

You would be guessing incorrectly.

 

[SDKoala]

It's basically just a stacking of bad behavior. The only reason the left lane is moving slowly in the majority of cases is because someone further up in the left lane did something he or she shouldn't have. If someone is only in the left lane to overtake and then gets back where they belong, then the left lane shouldn't become congested.

It's logical to believe that everyone wants to do the speed limit, but it's easily demonstrated that many people do not. People think of it as a "fast lane" without any standard for what that might be, and then plop their ass in the lane while they scream at Derp Jr in the back seat while he smears what might be chocolate or might be poop all over his face, and they think they're going "fast" when in fact they're 4mph under the limit, and people are now overtaking them on the right and creating a more dangerous, unpredictable situation in response to the Derpmobile being where it shouldn't be.

While part of it may be from people just driving too slow, I remember reading a study that demonstrated the majority of traffic congestion is due to people changing lanes and weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get ahead, regardless of the prevailing travel speed. I'll see if I can find the reference. It causes a chain reaction that causes the cars behind to have to slow down, which causes other cars behind it to get on their brakes. The solution is actually increasing and maintaining following distance, just like OP's car is trying to do, but because that's not the way people drive, someone will eventually cut in the space left behind.

 

[Electroman]

I don't know what you guys are talking. Did you all see the full video. The first half is from the back camera and the 2nd half is for the same segment but from the front camera. As you can clearly see, his lane - never mind what lane it is - slowed down quite a bit and so his car on AP automatically slowed down.

I really don't see what is the issue here..

 

[Pkmmte]

I don't know what you guys are talking. Did you all see the full video. The first half is from the back camera and the 2nd half is for the same segment but from the front camera. As you can clearly see, his lane - never mind what lane it is - slowed down quite a bit and so his car on AP automatically slowed down.

I really don't see what is the issue here..

Sshh. You're supposed to prematurely come to conclusions in order to make a worthy comment.

I wish I had the rest of the footage that was overwritten so I could show I actually started using the lane to pass a slow car until I got stuck behind another car brave enough to not tailgate others. I didn't think people would focus so much on it when there's clearly plenty of romance going on throughout. Maybe I should've added special filters like all those YouTubers nowadays.

 

[drawfour]

While part of it may be from people just driving too slow, I remember reading a study that demonstrated the majority of traffic congestion is due to people changing lanes and weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get ahead, regardless of the prevailing travel speed. I'll see if I can find the reference. It causes a chain reaction that causes the cars behind to have to slow down, which causes other cars behind it to get on their brakes. The solution is actually increasing and maintaining following distance, just like OP's car is trying to do, but because that's not the way people drive, someone will eventually cut in the space left behind.

Correct. Here's a simulation of taxi drivers in Costa Rica, but I'm sure it's just "asshole drivers on highways".

 

[jamnmon66]

There's a lot of diesel trucks with tuners in my neck of the woods. If you're not familiar tuners give diesels more power & actually increase fuel mileage but at the expense of blowing black smoke out of the exhaust. The drivers seem to either love the power, love blowing dirty diesel exhaust on everyone, or both. So, they're often stoplight racing.

Anyway, I wound up next to one at a stoplight the other day. It was more than a bit satisfying when I "smoked him" off the line

 

[graphix25]

Hate crimes against Tesla's appears to be a common problem. I experienced a couple similar situations with my Porsche as well.

One week after getting the car someone spit on the hood when I was at home depot.

I have also gotten a random birdie from a monster truck driver just driving down the highway. I'm no slowpoke so speed was not the issue nor was I using autopilot. They just didn't seem to like the electric car.

All the hate and misinformation surrounding Tesla is pretty amazing. An american car company hiring 10's of thousands of Americans making cars that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce noise pollution and help our country get off fossil fuels should be celebrated.

Maybe one day...

 

[agastya]

Disclosure: Do you have a vanity plate that says __GAS ?

 

[tpoltron]

You literally had 6 people pass you in the lane immediately to your right

In heavy traffic on the big many-lane freeways, red waves (of brake lights) are rarely synchronized across lanes. Your lane will come to an unexplained stop, while the lane beside flow for a few seconds, then they will switch. The OP’s lane was just temporarily the slow one when he was being undertaken in the video as he was tight to the car in front.

 

[mekberg]

In heavy traffic on the big many-lane freeways, red waves (of brake lights) are rarely synchronized across lanes. Your lane will come to an unexplained stop, while the lane beside flow for a few seconds, then they will switch. The OP’s lane was just temporarily the slow one when he was being undertaken in the video as he was tight to the car in front.

This. I'm sure everyone has seen the opening scene of Office Space.

 

[nvx1977]

EAP is definitely not aggressive enough to approximate approximate driver behavior on the 405. Nor here around Boston. Lane switching is pretty much useless. Rule of thumb here is you use your signal as you make the transition; otherwise people purposely speed up to block you. And even using ya blinkah is pretty optional that electronic road signs have to create PSAs about it all the time.

MassDOT to commuters: “Use Yah Blinkah” - The Boston Globe

Left lane is also often the slowest lane when there's traffic. at that point, there's no point trying to tell people that the left lane is for passing only. although that PSA is often on those same electronic signs.

 

[PoitNarf]

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Came here to post this, beat me by minutes!