We are having a major Northeast storm here in the Boston area today, and I had occasion to drive about 30 miles in the heavy rain and wind. Air temperature was about 40F, winds are in the 25-35 mph range, rain is intermittently quite heavy. I have had my Model S 2-1/2 years, so I have driven in heavy rain before, but today I paid special attention, just to see how the car handled it.
Most of the trip was on US highway 1, a divided highway but not limited access, or on I-95. Plus a few miles on local roads.
I set the wipers on automatic, and they worked just fine, no complaints. My blades were new in January, so I imagine that helped.
Climate control was set to Auto and kept the car warm and kept the windows fairly free of moisture. I say "fairly free" because the driver's side window was a bit fogged up for the first few minutes of driving. I wiped it off with a cloth once, and it stayed clear after that. My son joined me for about 45 minutes, but even having a second person's breathing and wet clothes added to the moisture load did not cause any problems.
I used AP1 most of the highway and freeway portions of the trip. it worked surprisingly well. There were a couple of areas where it would not function, but again i cannot complain, given the conditions.
The high winds did not seem to disturb the car, in the sense that it was stable on the road. I did not feel it being shoved by the wind as other cars might have been. i suppose the combination of the weight and aerodynamic shape helped.
There was, however, a lot of wind noise, as you would expect. Plus there was probably more tire noise because of the rain, although it was the wind that dominated. I could still enjoy the streaming music, though.
Energy use was high, about 400 Wh/mile for the round trip. The cool temperatures (40F or so) accounted for some of that, but rain and wind are also costly for energy efficiency.
My one small compliant is that the rear window visibility was poor. Normally in a light rain, using the rear window defroster will help keep the glass clear enough. But today's rain was too heavy so the defroster had little apparent effect. I hate to say it because i know it is an unpopular notion, but I do wish the rear window had a wiper for conditions like this.
Bottom line, it all worked just fine. The conditions were challenging but well within what any car should be able to cope with, and the Model S did well, with no fuss.
So, no news, just a positive report. Sometimes I feel like too much of what we read here are complaints, and I wanted to report that the car did well in a "nor'easter."
Most of the trip was on US highway 1, a divided highway but not limited access, or on I-95. Plus a few miles on local roads.
I set the wipers on automatic, and they worked just fine, no complaints. My blades were new in January, so I imagine that helped.
Climate control was set to Auto and kept the car warm and kept the windows fairly free of moisture. I say "fairly free" because the driver's side window was a bit fogged up for the first few minutes of driving. I wiped it off with a cloth once, and it stayed clear after that. My son joined me for about 45 minutes, but even having a second person's breathing and wet clothes added to the moisture load did not cause any problems.
I used AP1 most of the highway and freeway portions of the trip. it worked surprisingly well. There were a couple of areas where it would not function, but again i cannot complain, given the conditions.
The high winds did not seem to disturb the car, in the sense that it was stable on the road. I did not feel it being shoved by the wind as other cars might have been. i suppose the combination of the weight and aerodynamic shape helped.
There was, however, a lot of wind noise, as you would expect. Plus there was probably more tire noise because of the rain, although it was the wind that dominated. I could still enjoy the streaming music, though.
Energy use was high, about 400 Wh/mile for the round trip. The cool temperatures (40F or so) accounted for some of that, but rain and wind are also costly for energy efficiency.
My one small compliant is that the rear window visibility was poor. Normally in a light rain, using the rear window defroster will help keep the glass clear enough. But today's rain was too heavy so the defroster had little apparent effect. I hate to say it because i know it is an unpopular notion, but I do wish the rear window had a wiper for conditions like this.
Bottom line, it all worked just fine. The conditions were challenging but well within what any car should be able to cope with, and the Model S did well, with no fuss.
So, no news, just a positive report. Sometimes I feel like too much of what we read here are complaints, and I wanted to report that the car did well in a "nor'easter."
