Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Relearning how to drive an ICE car

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
The tangent about regen got me curious so yesterday I drove to work with regen off(!) My commute is 15 miles of mixed freeway and city streets with stop signs, lights, traffic, etc. so it's pretty comprehensive.

Wow! I forgot how awful it is to drive with no engine braking at all! It was worse than the 1975 Eldorado I drove in my teens. My poor 3 was completely transformed into a marginally controllable piece of crap. Even the slightest deceleration requires a full lift of the pedal and switchover to brakes so driving in traffic is like square dancing. The combination of seasickness and inanity nearly made me puke, and on the freeway it's even worse because even at 80mph I still had to ride the brakes to keep from accelerating down every hill. I know zero-regen is a pretty ridiculous extreme and no one would ever actually drive the car that way but it was enlightening to experience that corner case.

Then for kicks on the way home I cranked it up to full regen which is supposed to be 0.3G but it was reading 0.4G (did they increase it?). I have never done a full commute at max regen and have to say it makes a huge difference in the overall feel, even compared to the standard "high regen" which is 0.2G. It really livens up and reminded me of some of the more fun cars I had in my youth like my 240Z or Mini Cooper.

I wish I could leave it at max regen for a while and get used to it but unfortunately track mode disables cruise control, navigation, and most annoyingly it disables hold mode which makes for very awkward stop/go driving as the strong regen fades to nothing just when you need it most. Furthermore it seems to use the same amount of pedal travel despite having twice the normal regen force so there's less precision available and more nonlinearity.

While I may never understand why anyone would actually want the option to "coast" (lift fully off the pedal and freely let the car decelerate willy-nilly at whatever arbitrary rate was set at the factory) rather than just lifting the pedal partially to decelerate exactly as needed, I certainly agree with everyone that the regen strength should be a controllable option. Especially since it already exists in the software and merely needs the restrictions to be loosened.
 
Haha, but seriously no one would ever want to drive with regen off. I only tried it to test the extreme case and it really is extreme. Give it a try if your car has the option but don't blame me if your interior gets stained. It's not like coasting in neutral in an old beater, the Tesla hardly slows down at all when regen is off so it's a real brake pedal dance and super awful to drive at any speed.

As I said, it's enlightening to test the extremes. Zero regen would clearly be completely unacceptable to anyone, and 0.4G regen is pretty "sporty" with pros and cons. So again, I'm a big proponent of Tesla just enabling the track mode regen slider for everyone.
 
i can't tell if you're serious, or if you've drank too much elon kool aide? 🤣 there are plenty of things that you can do wrong. here are a few: auto pilot into a k-wall? phantom braking on the highway? having to learn about charging curves. having to learn about battery degradation. having to plan charging stops. how do you even open the car doors?? from the inside? the outside?

and, that's coming from somebody who loves their tesla.
Yes. Let's get real. Driving an EV into a "supercharger desert" means you need to understand:
  1. Is there charging?
  2. If so, how many kWh?
  3. Is it compatible with my car?
  4. Can I rely on it being available?
  5. How much will it cost?
IMO that is the main barrier to EVs - the "tactical" complexity vs. mass-market adoption. A regular car means anywhere there's gas, you can fill up, and you can leave the car for months on end & return to it exactly as you left it. I had some "bug" a few days ago that absolutely raped my range when the car was just sitting there doing nothing. Not good.

We're not quite there, yet. Don't kid yourselves. I thoroughly enjoy my M3P as well - there is no better daily driver, period. Especially considering the performance vs. maintenance/cost equation. But to think that the average idiot can get into an EV and learn everything a-ok isn't realistic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jclboston and ngng
I drove my daughter's Camry cross country with her and the worst part was the acceleration, or lack thereof. While there is plenty of room on South Dakota's highways to get on, every time I did it I had to hold my breath and hope I had enough room to get up to speed. Regen braking was also missed for about .3 seconds, as even as I was leaving my house to start I had to brake since you immediately realize there is no coasting to a stop. Otherwise it was as expected. When I got back to my M3 I started reaching for the keys when I got out.

When my brother in law and I traded test drives, my M3 and his Boxster with a stick, I had no trouble driving the Porsche even though I hadn't driven a stick in about 30 years. It is almost like riding a bike. While the Boxster is faster, the M3 acceleration is more immediate.
 
My 3 was rear ended recently (just needed replacement bumper and crash bar) and I had a rental Chevy Malibu for about 2 weeks.

Worst thing:
  • No regenerative braking. The feeling of lifting off the accelerator and just hurtling forward like a big dumb boulder is the worst feeling after driving a Tesla for 2+ years.

Bad things:
  • Infotainment system sucks hard compared to Tesla. Not intuitive. Touch screen not responsive. Too many buttons. Android Auto kept randomly disconnecting for no reason (to be fair, not sure whether this was a phone issue, a Chevy issue, or maybe Android Auto just sucks? Never used it before).
  • Not being able to sit in the car and run the air conditioning without idling the engine

Actual good things:
  • Side mirrors large enough to actually see things in that can actually be adjusted far enough out to see your blind spot? That was refreshing.
  • Back up camera that worked 100% of the time!

And yes, multiple times I forgot to turn the car off and kept forgetting to lock it when I left it.
Same thing happened to me… my car was rear ended and the insurance gave me a Dodge Charger as a rental and I hated it… felt like I was driving a 🐳 😂