I've been a long-time contributor of openpilot, I've driven with the OSS stack across a Prius Prime and Rav 4 before switching to a Model 3 as I was curious what autonomy looked like on the other side of the pond.
Once the initial novelty wore off of all of the features and easter eggs, the actual day-to-day life didn't jive well with me. Autopilot is miles behind the quality of openpilot. Phantom braking, reliance on lane lines, weird driver monitoring (op uses a camera for attention tracking, wheel touch isn't required). The best way I can summarize Autopilot is very confident, especially when incorrect. I think there's a deeper uncanny valley when using the system compared to openpilot and even Toyota LTA. Less room for error and more just going with what the car is doing. It's hard to describe.
Never used FSD, even though I met the requirements last enrollment period. I think it's dumb to focus on the 5% use case when Autopilot/highway is the 95% use case and where you get most benefit, IMO. Autopilot feels abandoned and it could be so much better. But when you have a CEO who constantly lies to stock scam FSD and Robotaxi every year... kinda paints yourself into the corner.
My speakers and mic stop working when driving through a car wash sometimes, or during heavy rain. My left seat belt pillar just came off when getting in the car one day and it's made of this thin, paperboard like material that refuses to snap back in correctly. A/C often just blows at my feet when turning the car on, climate keeper is often not working due to a "system fault". The car has 10k miles.
I think the car is cool in some aspects. The acceleration is nice, it looks nice from an aesthetic level. Some people may like all the attention they get in public driving it "OOOH is that a TESLA?!", but as someone who dislikes Elon Musk, it kinda makes me feel like a tool.
The Chevy Bolt, at least the 2017 I had was more enjoyable in some ways. The seats sucked, until I modded them and added more foam. But the price was much lower, the acceleration was adequate, and the range was comparable. openpilot works on the bolt, although I never installed it. Never used supercruise. The interior is plastic everywhere and cheap feeling, but the car had some character to me. As an electric car, I miss it.
Tesla service is meh.. the advisors really seem to have an attitude, but so would I having to deal with rabid customers spamming forum links, self-diagnosing. I think the most irritating part is hearing of other customers getting free things like fixed repeater cameras that work for blind spot usage at night, then being quoted a cash price as "they don't offer that". Having them come to your house is cool, though.
I think, overall, Tesla should really, actually make a $30k model with decent range like the Bolt. The "luxury" segment isn't quite there due to quality issues and I can have better than Autopilot "self driving" for the cost of a used 2017 Prius, or Rav, or many other supported cars and openpilot, which is open source. I think FSD is dumb and feels like a stock scam at best, and I think that after several years of hardcore vehicle autonomy usage in general, it's made me a worse driver with slower reflexes (the same thing happens to pilots due to overreliance on aircraft autopilot).
Overall, there's a part of me that will be sad to see the Model 3 go tomorrow, but also a relief that one of the most unreliable cars I've driven will no longer be a $1,000 payment on credit. I just picked up a Jeep Gladiator and I'm loving it, even though I don't think there could be a car that could be more of a polar opposite.. even if the Jeep is only 600lbs heavier.
Once the initial novelty wore off of all of the features and easter eggs, the actual day-to-day life didn't jive well with me. Autopilot is miles behind the quality of openpilot. Phantom braking, reliance on lane lines, weird driver monitoring (op uses a camera for attention tracking, wheel touch isn't required). The best way I can summarize Autopilot is very confident, especially when incorrect. I think there's a deeper uncanny valley when using the system compared to openpilot and even Toyota LTA. Less room for error and more just going with what the car is doing. It's hard to describe.
Never used FSD, even though I met the requirements last enrollment period. I think it's dumb to focus on the 5% use case when Autopilot/highway is the 95% use case and where you get most benefit, IMO. Autopilot feels abandoned and it could be so much better. But when you have a CEO who constantly lies to stock scam FSD and Robotaxi every year... kinda paints yourself into the corner.
My speakers and mic stop working when driving through a car wash sometimes, or during heavy rain. My left seat belt pillar just came off when getting in the car one day and it's made of this thin, paperboard like material that refuses to snap back in correctly. A/C often just blows at my feet when turning the car on, climate keeper is often not working due to a "system fault". The car has 10k miles.
I think the car is cool in some aspects. The acceleration is nice, it looks nice from an aesthetic level. Some people may like all the attention they get in public driving it "OOOH is that a TESLA?!", but as someone who dislikes Elon Musk, it kinda makes me feel like a tool.
The Chevy Bolt, at least the 2017 I had was more enjoyable in some ways. The seats sucked, until I modded them and added more foam. But the price was much lower, the acceleration was adequate, and the range was comparable. openpilot works on the bolt, although I never installed it. Never used supercruise. The interior is plastic everywhere and cheap feeling, but the car had some character to me. As an electric car, I miss it.
Tesla service is meh.. the advisors really seem to have an attitude, but so would I having to deal with rabid customers spamming forum links, self-diagnosing. I think the most irritating part is hearing of other customers getting free things like fixed repeater cameras that work for blind spot usage at night, then being quoted a cash price as "they don't offer that". Having them come to your house is cool, though.
I think, overall, Tesla should really, actually make a $30k model with decent range like the Bolt. The "luxury" segment isn't quite there due to quality issues and I can have better than Autopilot "self driving" for the cost of a used 2017 Prius, or Rav, or many other supported cars and openpilot, which is open source. I think FSD is dumb and feels like a stock scam at best, and I think that after several years of hardcore vehicle autonomy usage in general, it's made me a worse driver with slower reflexes (the same thing happens to pilots due to overreliance on aircraft autopilot).
Overall, there's a part of me that will be sad to see the Model 3 go tomorrow, but also a relief that one of the most unreliable cars I've driven will no longer be a $1,000 payment on credit. I just picked up a Jeep Gladiator and I'm loving it, even though I don't think there could be a car that could be more of a polar opposite.. even if the Jeep is only 600lbs heavier.
