So, I took possession of my new Model 3 at about 12 hours ago. I chose not to get much orientation, because I find it fun to figure things out. I had watched videos and such, and did a test drive, but still, as a new owner, here were 5 things that surprised me:
(1) Acceleration. Sure. You hear about it. You read the numbers. You see the videos. You know it in your head. Years ago, I had an RX-7 that was a real quick little car. But its power wasn't instant, the RX-7 spooled itself up into its full power. But with the Model 3, just tap the accelerator, and it's there. All at once. Nothing like the RX-7. Some things have to be experienced. They can't be adequately described. This was one of them.
(2) That I had to activate the Tesla phone app as a key. I had unquestioningly assumed that once I logged the app into my account, that would be enough for it to act as a key to my car. Not so, of course. I had to resort to Google to figure out why my phone-key wasn't working, and that activating it as a key was a separate step from logging into the account.
(3) How disorienting it was to switch nav software. I've been using Apple Maps to get around for a number of years. As a result, I became highly tuned to Siri's voice giving me instructions, and its timing pattern as to when it would notify that a turn was coming up. The Model 3's nav is by no means worse, just ... different. My first drive I missed turn after turn as my unconscious habits played me false.
(4) The ease of learning to use the center touchscreen. For all the public angst over it, I found it extremely easy to adapt to. It wasn't much different than learning a new phone app: took a little study, but no big deal. And shoot, if you're like me and have been navigating by a phone sliding around the passenger seat, or dropping between the seat and center console, having a large, fixed map display to work with means MORE attention for the road, not less.
(5) That the audio volume keeps dropping to some low level every time I restart the car, and I have to manually re-dial it up to where I like it. I think there is a setting here that should make it resume the volume from when the car was turned off, but I haven't found it yet.
(1) Acceleration. Sure. You hear about it. You read the numbers. You see the videos. You know it in your head. Years ago, I had an RX-7 that was a real quick little car. But its power wasn't instant, the RX-7 spooled itself up into its full power. But with the Model 3, just tap the accelerator, and it's there. All at once. Nothing like the RX-7. Some things have to be experienced. They can't be adequately described. This was one of them.
(2) That I had to activate the Tesla phone app as a key. I had unquestioningly assumed that once I logged the app into my account, that would be enough for it to act as a key to my car. Not so, of course. I had to resort to Google to figure out why my phone-key wasn't working, and that activating it as a key was a separate step from logging into the account.
(3) How disorienting it was to switch nav software. I've been using Apple Maps to get around for a number of years. As a result, I became highly tuned to Siri's voice giving me instructions, and its timing pattern as to when it would notify that a turn was coming up. The Model 3's nav is by no means worse, just ... different. My first drive I missed turn after turn as my unconscious habits played me false.
(4) The ease of learning to use the center touchscreen. For all the public angst over it, I found it extremely easy to adapt to. It wasn't much different than learning a new phone app: took a little study, but no big deal. And shoot, if you're like me and have been navigating by a phone sliding around the passenger seat, or dropping between the seat and center console, having a large, fixed map display to work with means MORE attention for the road, not less.
(5) That the audio volume keeps dropping to some low level every time I restart the car, and I have to manually re-dial it up to where I like it. I think there is a setting here that should make it resume the volume from when the car was turned off, but I haven't found it yet.
