If you're curious about how a Model 3 drives in a flood, read on. Here in Atlanta today, flash flood inducing storms are flooding the city but I needed to get home. There were a number of the normal 4-6" puddles in low-lying intersections that were no problem. The biggest problem with those kinds of traverses is that most people feel differently than I do about how to get through deep water in a car. Most people seem to think that going as slowly as possible is the best way but I disagree. In an ICE, going slowly has the potentially devastating effect of allowing the water to percolate up into the engine bay, putting LOTS of relatively cold water in contact with really hot things, like an oil pan, which may cause it to crack. Also, the whole exhaust system getting a massive thermal bath undoubtedly warps it badly. And who knows what else. So, what does this mean for an all-electric Tesla? Well, I still feel that the best way is to approach the edge of the mini-lake, line it up, and then power through it quite forcefully. When the tires push into the water most of it goes to the sides, creating a fairly shallow area under the car but it only lasts a second or two. Watch a car ahead of you that goes quickly through one. If nothing else, crawling through deep water that gets up to the door seals is asking for trouble in terms of it leaking in. Door seals are not designed to be submerged. So, punch it and get through. Now, moving to my experience today, there was one section of road about 75 feet long that had, based on watching a pickup truck crawl through it with the water up to his axles, about 18" water in it. There was a line of cars stacked up behind me and a line of cars on the other side sitting immobile. I decided that I could make it so I lined the car up in the middle, waited for a trash can to float out of the way (I'm not kidding) then I went for it. The first part was no problem but I was worried in the middle section when the wave I was pushing came up over the front of the hood. I'm sure I scared the hell out of the people on the other side. But the bow wave subsided after a tense couple of seconds and Nicole (my model 3's name) pushed on through and we came out the other side.
Once I was clear on the other side I checked the battery display on the touchscreen to make sure nothing bizarre was showing there and everything was nominal. Upon getting to higher ground with nothing more than normal rain on the ground I tried the auto steer to check the condition of the sensor package (knowing that the radar and ultrasound transducers are in the front bumper which was plowing through water) and it worked just fine. I got home about 20 miles later with everything seeming normal. Once in the garage I opened the frunk to see if it was flooded and, no, it was perfectly dry.
So, my impression is that Tesla designed and tested the Model 3 to handle such a situation. If you find yourself in a similar situation, try to avoid going through the deep but, if you have to do it, know that some guy in Atlanta did it with no problems. I also still firmly believe that lining it up and punching through the deep water is the best way to do it.