Last Saturday I was beginning a 215 mile journey in my 1.5 month old Model X. We were on the Interstate about 30 miles from home when the car started shaking. I know the road, so I know that the highway is smooth on this stretch. Having probably a million miles under my belt, tire deflation came to mind immediately. I had no idea where the tire pressure display was, or if it even existed (but I figured that a Tesla had to have that information.)
I pressed the voice command button on my steering wheel and said "Show tire pressure". After a second or two, it shows "Display Tire Pressure Monitoring System" or something like that. Then it disappeared. Hmmm. Tried again. Same result. So I slowed down a bit and headed for the next exit where I knew there would be an air pump. I found the convenience store, pulled in next to the $1.50 per 5 minute pump and parked the car.
I opened up the Owners Manual on my screen and touched the magnifying glass which should indicate Search. I typed Tire into the little search window and pressed Enter. Nothing happened. Nothing. I had tried this before and thought it a fluke but this time, I really needed it. I futzed around with the Table of Contents until I found the section on Tires. From here, I had to link to the Left Steering Wheel buttons. I discovered how to select Car Status and voila! there was the tire pressure (finally). The pressure had just dropped below 15 psi, so a red alert popped up on the dashboard warning me about the safety issue. (Since the Model X recommends 45 psi, I would have liked the alert to go off at around 30 psi, but I don't want to quibble.)
As another thread on this sub-Forum discusses, the voice command in my car (except for Destination) is unusable. Nothing works. Even the "Open Glovebox" command shows up as a non-supported command. I am on 2019.40.50.7, so I should be up to date.
But I digress. I called the Roadside Assistance on my cell rather than use the app. It took only about two minutes on hold to get to a support rep. She was pleasant but didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. I was told that she could summon a flatbed tow truck to take my car to the nearest service center which was about 40 miles back past from where we had just left. Being that it was me, my wife and our dog in the car, plus there would have been a 90 minute wait to get the tow, I opted for Plan B.
She said that if the tire could be fixed, she had heard good things about Costco. Well, there was a Costco about 7 miles from where we were, so I swiped my credit card and started pumping. It took about 7 or 8 minutes of pushing really hard on the valve stem to get 45 psi back in the tire. With it hissing, we were off to Costco.
Rather than belabor you with the details, it took me 30 minutes to find out that there would be a 3 hour wait to get the tire looked at. Not one to tolerate that, I walked across the street to Target and bought a 12v emergency tire pump.
(Interesting thing to note, if the car is not turned on, the 12v socket in the back of the X will turn off after a few minutes, so we had to keep opening doors to wake the car up to allow it to continue pumping.)
While we were waiting, we found a place about a mile up the highway called Discount Tire. We called them and they said they could have us in and out in about 45 minutes and the patch would be free! Whaaaat? Yep, free.
So, 25 psi later (I think I was leaking as much air as I was pumping), we drove off to Discount Tire. They gently put the X on the rack, pulled a 2 inch masonry spike out of the tread and patched it for us. We were on our way in less than 45 minutes.
I learned that getting a flat in a Tesla is no trivial matter and that we are considering ways to be able to carry a spare and a jack to eliminate getting stuck on the highway in the future. I also learned that there are certain aspects of the Tesla's User Interface which still needs a lot of work. Still, I love my Tesla...
I pressed the voice command button on my steering wheel and said "Show tire pressure". After a second or two, it shows "Display Tire Pressure Monitoring System" or something like that. Then it disappeared. Hmmm. Tried again. Same result. So I slowed down a bit and headed for the next exit where I knew there would be an air pump. I found the convenience store, pulled in next to the $1.50 per 5 minute pump and parked the car.
I opened up the Owners Manual on my screen and touched the magnifying glass which should indicate Search. I typed Tire into the little search window and pressed Enter. Nothing happened. Nothing. I had tried this before and thought it a fluke but this time, I really needed it. I futzed around with the Table of Contents until I found the section on Tires. From here, I had to link to the Left Steering Wheel buttons. I discovered how to select Car Status and voila! there was the tire pressure (finally). The pressure had just dropped below 15 psi, so a red alert popped up on the dashboard warning me about the safety issue. (Since the Model X recommends 45 psi, I would have liked the alert to go off at around 30 psi, but I don't want to quibble.)
As another thread on this sub-Forum discusses, the voice command in my car (except for Destination) is unusable. Nothing works. Even the "Open Glovebox" command shows up as a non-supported command. I am on 2019.40.50.7, so I should be up to date.
But I digress. I called the Roadside Assistance on my cell rather than use the app. It took only about two minutes on hold to get to a support rep. She was pleasant but didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. I was told that she could summon a flatbed tow truck to take my car to the nearest service center which was about 40 miles back past from where we had just left. Being that it was me, my wife and our dog in the car, plus there would have been a 90 minute wait to get the tow, I opted for Plan B.
She said that if the tire could be fixed, she had heard good things about Costco. Well, there was a Costco about 7 miles from where we were, so I swiped my credit card and started pumping. It took about 7 or 8 minutes of pushing really hard on the valve stem to get 45 psi back in the tire. With it hissing, we were off to Costco.
Rather than belabor you with the details, it took me 30 minutes to find out that there would be a 3 hour wait to get the tire looked at. Not one to tolerate that, I walked across the street to Target and bought a 12v emergency tire pump.
(Interesting thing to note, if the car is not turned on, the 12v socket in the back of the X will turn off after a few minutes, so we had to keep opening doors to wake the car up to allow it to continue pumping.)
While we were waiting, we found a place about a mile up the highway called Discount Tire. We called them and they said they could have us in and out in about 45 minutes and the patch would be free! Whaaaat? Yep, free.
So, 25 psi later (I think I was leaking as much air as I was pumping), we drove off to Discount Tire. They gently put the X on the rack, pulled a 2 inch masonry spike out of the tread and patched it for us. We were on our way in less than 45 minutes.
I learned that getting a flat in a Tesla is no trivial matter and that we are considering ways to be able to carry a spare and a jack to eliminate getting stuck on the highway in the future. I also learned that there are certain aspects of the Tesla's User Interface which still needs a lot of work. Still, I love my Tesla...
