How Long to Get Used to Driving M3?

[CoastieM3]

I was not ready for that better cruise control to slam on the brakes for no reason on a very busy, fast and unfamiliar freeway when I picked up my car and had only be in it for about 5 minutes.

Watch out for "better" cruise controls, LOL. In other words, just don't use AutoPilot on your first drive.

Set the warnings to “late”

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Set the warnings to “late”

That's a wives tale. I have mine set that way and it still phantom brakes.

 

[SaintMickey®]

I was not ready for that better cruise control to slam on the brakes for no reason on a very busy, fast and unfamiliar freeway when I picked up my car and had only be in it for about 5 minutes.

Watch out for "better" cruise controls, LOL. In other words, just don't use AutoPilot on your first drive.

Mine doesn't do that...

 

[jjrandorin]

I would like to (gently) ask that the thread veer back to "new owner long drive tips" and away from autopilot / phantom braking etc. There are plenty (plenty plenty plenty) of threads on that topic here on tmc, and its only slightly relevant here in this thread.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

OK, back on the topic of learning to take the new car on a trip, I had never seen the inside of a Model 3 before getting into my own and I tend to procrastinate when it comes to "chores" so to this day I still haven't watched any of the videos or looked at the manual. My wife dropped me off at the unattended delivery center and I literally just got in and drove home so I'd say it took about zero minutes to get used to it.

That's not to say there isn't a learning curve though, there's plenty to learn about keys, locks, and windshield wipers but the only thing that I've found particularly difficult to master is the complex and cumbersome technique needed to unplug the J1772 adapter. No one warns you about that.

 

[TomT]

It took me about 20 minutes.

 

[CoastieM3]

That's a wives tale. I have mine set that way and it still phantom brakes.

Gotcha. I’ve done about 500 miles of freeway driving and it’s been fine. It was phantom breaking initially but set it to late and no issues. YMMV I guess.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Gotcha. I’ve done about 500 miles of freeway driving and it’s been fine. It was phantom breaking initially but set it to late and no issues. YMMV I guess.

It's very disconcerting how phantom braking varies between cars. I would feel more confident in the technology if they all did it instead of just some and not others.

I remember one person posting that he took his car into a SC and they did some super-duper-double-secret-probation camera calibration that's different than what you can do on the settings screen, and it fixed his phantom braking. That just makes me lose confidence in the tech. I mean if the cameras can get out of calibration and you don't get any warnings, and only some tech with special equipment can tell you it needs calibrating and do the calibration, how are you supposed to trust your life to that tech while you're the back of a RoboTaxi with no one at the wheel?

 

[house9]

I have a 5 hour trip to take the day after I get my M3

I recommend trying to supercharge before you go on your trip, just so you know for sure its going to work. i.e. your credit card is on file and Tesla recognizes the car is yours.

Don’t expect to get EPA rated mileage in real world driving either.
Supercharging gets slower the closer your battery is to full, so usually I select the next supercharger where I want to stop and make sure I have a 10-15% buffer to get there and hopefully can leave a supercharger with around 60-70% full and arrive around 20%.
There are lots of threads on here about how to optimize road tripping.