Reserved Tesla M3 , continental driving?

[Pikkoz]

Usually I have 1 or 2 driving trips each year through europe , usually driving to italy with my better half and a small dog , around 900 miles each way that takes me around 18-19 hours with breaks every 2-3 hours and a couple of driver swap.
While it is tiring ,my 430d GC do wonders on long distances (soundproofing?cruise control? comfly seats?) the car it's just right for our needs but now that mine and my wife and workplace it's within 15min of walking distance (takes me 5 minutes with an EV kick scooter), the only action my car sees it's short trips to the supermarket or city centre , with rare trips 130-150miles both ways, plus while the torque it's very addictive and it has one of the best gearbox around, i grew tired of the jerkiness around town plus the growing hostility about ICEs.


I love driving, and while currently a 30KW-ish EV may cover 70% the miles i cover per year, it can't deliver my leisure trips (without increasing the spent and sacrifices) or not satisfactory performance or where too small (mainly small boot) or too big (model S/X) for the rest of my 70% driving.

I started in thinking about getting a plug-in with decent performance/ EV range in city driving and the hybrid for long trips but no grants, no certainty about unrestricted driving, and the only one similar to my car (i don't like suv's) with a decent boot is the Passat GTE, that i don't like how it drives nor the aesthetics.

Then I've recalled the model 3 and after playing a bit with the tesla planner and evtripplanner.com and with my suprise , with a tesla 3 LR i would be able to tackle the same trips with minimal distruption and added time plus planning it's something that i'm already doing on long trips with the ICE calculating it's range based on the tank size,mpg,speed ,altitude and thus ,where and when to stop for breaks and fuel (plus plan B and C ).

So in the end i put down the deposit for a model 3

My question are :

-Is the AP in RHD cars working during the continental driving? If so that would ease a lot the trip fatigue

-I know there are no RHD model 3 but based on the LED headlight of the model S , has it got a smart function to switch to LHD headlight (as being an array it can dim some zones and brighten others to reproduce a different pattern) or its fixed?

Thanks

 

[LoveEV]

Hi! Congrats on your reservations for model 3, I have sent you a PM which might help you.

In regards to your questions.

1) Autopilot works on the continent and is an incredible stress reliever as it will do 90% of the driving for you! I do a number of trips to France and it has been effortless.

2) The beam pattern on the Model 3 will be fixed like the S I believe the only adjustment will be up or down. There is still no need to add the beam adjustment stickers

 

[EV Guy]

Well done on the reservation. When did you order and when do you hope for delivery?

 

[Candleflame]

Usually I have 1 or 2 driving trips each year through europe , usually driving to italy with my better half and a small dog , around 900 miles each way that takes me around 18-19 hours with breaks every 2-3 hours and a couple of driver swap.
While it is tiring ,my 430d GC do wonders on long distances (soundproofing?cruise control? comfly seats?) the car it's just right for our needs but now that mine and my wife and workplace it's within 15min of walking distance (takes me 5 minutes with an EV kick scooter), the only action my car sees it's short trips to the supermarket or city centre , with rare trips 130-150miles both ways, plus while the torque it's very addictive and it has one of the best gearbox around, i grew tired of the jerkiness around town plus the growing hostility about ICEs.


I love driving, and while currently a 30KW-ish EV may cover 70% the miles i cover per year, it can't deliver my leisure trips (without increasing the spent and sacrifices) or not satisfactory performance or where too small (mainly small boot) or too big (model S/X) for the rest of my 70% driving.

I started in thinking about getting a plug-in with decent performance/ EV range in city driving and the hybrid for long trips but no grants, no certainty about unrestricted driving, and the only one similar to my car (i don't like suv's) with a decent boot is the Passat GTE, that i don't like how it drives nor the aesthetics.

Then I've recalled the model 3 and after playing a bit with the tesla planner and evtripplanner.com and with my suprise , with a tesla 3 LR i would be able to tackle the same trips with minimal distruption and added time plus planning it's something that i'm already doing on long trips with the ICE calculating it's range based on the tank size,mpg,speed ,altitude and thus ,where and when to stop for breaks and fuel (plus plan B and C ).

So in the end i put down the deposit for a model 3

My question are :

-Is the AP in RHD cars working during the continental driving? If so that would ease a lot the trip fatigue

-I know there are no RHD model 3 but based on the LED headlight of the model S , has it got a smart function to switch to LHD headlight (as being an array it can dim some zones and brighten others to reproduce a different pattern) or its fixed?

Thanks

I never understood why people had to adjust their headlights going from RHD - LHD and vice versa when you have all these SUVs driving around with high headlights blinding everyone in their way + all those people with headlights which clearly need adjustment.

 

[WannabeOwner]

fter playing a bit with the tesla planner and evtripplanner.com

evtripplanner is showing its age and has had little love over the last couple of years (except adding consumption rates for newer models), you might like to try A Better Route Planner

that would ease a lot the trip fatigue

The difference to driver-fatigue between Manual Driving and AP is huge. Just don't ever be tempted to "just do something else" - AP is so good, very-nearly-all-the-time, that that temptation creeps in over time ... and not concentrating at that vital moment when AP fails is how people have been killed, sadly.

has it got a smart function to switch to LHD headlight

All recent cars / People Carriers I have had for the last decade have had headlight up/down adjust and I've turned them all the way down in France and never had anyone flash me.

 

[Pikkoz]

Well done on the reservation. When did you order and when do you hope for delivery?

Couple of days ago, unless things changes i don't mind 2020

I never understood why people had to adjust their headlights going from RHD - LHD and vice versa when you have all these SUVs driving around with high headlights blinding everyone in their way + all those people with headlights which clearly need adjustment.

While i feel and agree with you point I believe that my safety cannot compromise other driver's , so even when driving overseas i try my best to respect other drivers and the rules plus having a led matrix system that can convert from RHD to LHD pattern and viceversa would improve my visibility,sadly only an handful of audis are able to do it.

evtripplanner is showing its age and has had little love over the last couple of years (except adding consumption rates for newer models), you might like to try A Better Route Planner

Thanks

The difference to driver-fatigue between Manual Driving and AP is huge. Just don't ever be tempted to "just do something else" - AP is so good, very-nearly-all-the-time, that that temptation creeps in over time ... and not concentrating at that vital moment when AP fails is how people have been killed, sadly.

Yes i've seen the fine print and watched videos , i always considered and still consider the AP just an advanced ADAS , still quite useful to lower the fatigue in long highway trips like the adaptive cruise control .

All recent cars / People Carriers I have had for the last decade have had headlight up/down adjust and I've turned them all the way down in France and never had anyone flash me

When i buy a car i always put the headlights as an high selling point , for me it is safety, and during nightime driving my current swiveling and adaptive full led headlight are a godsend, the problem is that, while in the last years the pattern has "flattened" to require less and less "stickers" and the xenon headlights usually have a specific tuning for the continental driving but none are able to reverse the pattern to focus on external side of the road because of the different geometry of the hadlights, only audi with his top spec led matrix is able to to it piloting via software the array of leds, similar to the cornering function of the tesla S/X headlights but i suppose would be too expesive for the model 3.