Easy exist will fix that, works for me. Other than that, I never have to pop the trunk to unlock the charge port. Instead what you do is unlock the car if it isnt already, then press the handle button of the charge cable handle, and it should unlock, then you can pull it either out together or separately. Works for me every time.
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Easy exist will fix that, works for me. Other than that, I never have to pop the trunk to unlock the charge port. Instead what you do is unlock the car if it isnt already, then press the handle button of the charge cable handle, and it should unlock, then you can pull it either out together or separately. Works for me every time.
Kilotango74
Active Member
This will work for a non Tesla charger? I have a charge point setup that I will have to use the J-1772 adapter. When the Tesla advisor was showing me how it worked he pulled the charger off the car and it left the adapter behind. Then we had to use the manual release in the trunk to get the adapter off. Maybe he just wasn’t aware how to do it?
LoL Rick
Like Buttah
He didn't know how to do it properly. Press the button on the charging wand, grab the Tesla adapter with the other hand, and pull them both out together.
One trick is to push the button on the handle just enough to unlock the adapter and then pull it out before releasing the handle fully and pull it out of the handle after. But I was also able to pull the adapter out of the socket after disconnecting the ChargePoint lv2 charge handle and before it kicked the adapter into the Port again. First method is easier imho.
Kilotango74
Active Member
Hello! I am a new owner, and a new forum member. This is not so much a first drive review as it is a review of the overall driving experience over the past four days, interspersed with some newbie questions that I have still not found answers to (despite googling, redditing, searching this and other forums, etc.)
I got my car delivered this Tuesday 4/23 evening (dual motor, LR, FSD, 19 inch).
Manual driving: manual driving without any autopilot or cruise is an absolute pleasure. The car is zippy and responsive. Love the HOLD feature. Thank goodness for "creep" mode. I was surprised by how aggressive regenerative breaking was - I had to turn it down when I saw the car behind me almost rear-end me when regenerative breaking engaged.
Comfort and entertainment features: the lack of buttons for basic tasks (radio, switch presets, climate control, phone) is extremely disconcerting. Almost everything I need is hidden 3 deep in a weird menu structure. Finding anything is a major challenge while driving, including finding the hazard light button. Also frustrating is that the car seems unable to find playlists, albums, etc on my iPhone. It will randomly starting playing songs from the iPhone but I cannot find any way to browse the music library on the tesla console. Also - lack of Pandora, Spotify, ... is frustrating. Sure - I can play from my phone - but that means working on 2 screens now while driving which is inefficient, risky, and in some states, can get you a ticket if an officer thinks you are driving distracted.
Another frustrating thing - the menus in my car are missing a lot of options that online articles and videos refer to. I figured that might be due to the fact that I have old firmware. However, it seems like there is no way to update firmware other than wait and pray for Tesla to push the firmware to you. I checked ev-fw.com, and my car seems to be the only one in that database that has a really weird firmware version - 2019.7.105 cc3d741 Not sure if anyone has figured out a way to get software updates quickly, though reddit seems to think not.
Charging: I had to install a NEMA 14-50 socket - other than that, charging has been pretty easy so far: other than the fact that the charging cable is quite heavy and I have to disconnect and pack it up every morning and put it into its bag in the frunk before driving to work, and then take it out every night. Should I get something like: https://www.amazon.com/Charging-Organizer-Connector-Bracket-Charger/dp/B0799GVJWN to hold the cable? How reliable/effective is this product? Is it safe to leave the Tesla brick hanging in the air like they show i the picture? Right now, I keep the brick resting on a tower of amazon boxes.
Autopilot: I was quite impressed with auto-steering and lane keeping. However, adaptive cruise control was unpredictable on moderate traffic freeways compared to my prior vehicle - it kept braking unnecessarily and aggressively. It also incorrectly positioned a car two lanes away as being in the next lane, and tried to actively steer away from this nonexistent threat. On freeways, I kept having to aggressively oversee the autopilot and "correct" it. On city streets, autosteer and cruise control were far more predictable and usable.
Navigate on Autopilot: Loved the ability to automatically drive through freeway interchanges which worked pretty well. However, lane change recommendations were useless. For the most part, the car wanted to drive in the right lane. If I move to the center or left lanes, within minutes the car wants to move back to the right lane. I had to turn off lane change recommendations due to this.
Overall - love the car and the overall driving experience, but am frustrated with the "quirks". Reading through this review I think I am making it sound like I don't like the car. Far from it - I really love driving my car. Just - the experience has been much more frustrating than I expected.
Thanks for reading!
I got my car delivered this Tuesday 4/23 evening (dual motor, LR, FSD, 19 inch).
Manual driving: manual driving without any autopilot or cruise is an absolute pleasure. The car is zippy and responsive. Love the HOLD feature. Thank goodness for "creep" mode. I was surprised by how aggressive regenerative breaking was - I had to turn it down when I saw the car behind me almost rear-end me when regenerative breaking engaged.
Comfort and entertainment features: the lack of buttons for basic tasks (radio, switch presets, climate control, phone) is extremely disconcerting. Almost everything I need is hidden 3 deep in a weird menu structure. Finding anything is a major challenge while driving, including finding the hazard light button. Also frustrating is that the car seems unable to find playlists, albums, etc on my iPhone. It will randomly starting playing songs from the iPhone but I cannot find any way to browse the music library on the tesla console. Also - lack of Pandora, Spotify, ... is frustrating. Sure - I can play from my phone - but that means working on 2 screens now while driving which is inefficient, risky, and in some states, can get you a ticket if an officer thinks you are driving distracted.
Another frustrating thing - the menus in my car are missing a lot of options that online articles and videos refer to. I figured that might be due to the fact that I have old firmware. However, it seems like there is no way to update firmware other than wait and pray for Tesla to push the firmware to you. I checked ev-fw.com, and my car seems to be the only one in that database that has a really weird firmware version - 2019.7.105 cc3d741 Not sure if anyone has figured out a way to get software updates quickly, though reddit seems to think not.
Charging: I had to install a NEMA 14-50 socket - other than that, charging has been pretty easy so far: other than the fact that the charging cable is quite heavy and I have to disconnect and pack it up every morning and put it into its bag in the frunk before driving to work, and then take it out every night. Should I get something like: https://www.amazon.com/Charging-Organizer-Connector-Bracket-Charger/dp/B0799GVJWN to hold the cable? How reliable/effective is this product? Is it safe to leave the Tesla brick hanging in the air like they show i the picture? Right now, I keep the brick resting on a tower of amazon boxes.
Autopilot: I was quite impressed with auto-steering and lane keeping. However, adaptive cruise control was unpredictable on moderate traffic freeways compared to my prior vehicle - it kept braking unnecessarily and aggressively. It also incorrectly positioned a car two lanes away as being in the next lane, and tried to actively steer away from this nonexistent threat. On freeways, I kept having to aggressively oversee the autopilot and "correct" it. On city streets, autosteer and cruise control were far more predictable and usable.
Navigate on Autopilot: Loved the ability to automatically drive through freeway interchanges which worked pretty well. However, lane change recommendations were useless. For the most part, the car wanted to drive in the right lane. If I move to the center or left lanes, within minutes the car wants to move back to the right lane. I had to turn off lane change recommendations due to this.
Overall - love the car and the overall driving experience, but am frustrated with the "quirks". Reading through this review I think I am making it sound like I don't like the car. Far from it - I really love driving my car. Just - the experience has been much more frustrating than I expected.
Thanks for reading!
Your odd firmware version is believed to be the latest firmware available for cars with the brand new HW3 FSD computer. The original 7.102 release for HW3 I'm pretty sure didn't have the latest features for the older computer (such as sentry mode) -- not sure what is in or out of 7.105. Presumably they will bring the firmware releases for the different computers into line as soon as they shake the kinks out.
Since you appear to have the brand-spankin'-new HW3 computer, it's not a surprise to me that there are some "quirks" in autopilot -- I would expect that to smooth out moving forward as well.
I think many people wish they'd put in Auto/CarPlay support, but there's been no indication that they might. In the mean time, I think your best bet for navigating your phone to pick music is Siri, to avoid dealing with the second (phone) screen in detail.
As for the charging, I know some people have bought a second mobile adapter to have one at home and one in the car. But that's a $300 proposition, even supposing they had it in stock. It's not that much more to just get the wall unit, though that involves an installation fee as well.
Finally, if regenerative braking is kicking in strongly, it's supposed to put your brake lights on. If you almost got rear-ended, maybe confirm that's working? You'll get somewhat less battery life if you have to gimp regenerative braking.
Since you appear to have the brand-spankin'-new HW3 computer, it's not a surprise to me that there are some "quirks" in autopilot -- I would expect that to smooth out moving forward as well.
I think many people wish they'd put in Auto/CarPlay support, but there's been no indication that they might. In the mean time, I think your best bet for navigating your phone to pick music is Siri, to avoid dealing with the second (phone) screen in detail.
As for the charging, I know some people have bought a second mobile adapter to have one at home and one in the car. But that's a $300 proposition, even supposing they had it in stock. It's not that much more to just get the wall unit, though that involves an installation fee as well.
Finally, if regenerative braking is kicking in strongly, it's supposed to put your brake lights on. If you almost got rear-ended, maybe confirm that's working? You'll get somewhat less battery life if you have to gimp regenerative braking.
@ammulder Thanks for the info and advice!
Didnt realize I had the HW3 computer - the sales folks said that the HW3 was not yet being rolled out on the Model 3. I guess I got lucky(?).
This morning I tested brake lights with regen braking. They seem to be coming on okay - at least that's what my kid - who was outside the car - said. I guess in an open road, the folks behind me didn't expect the car to stop so soon.
Didnt realize I had the HW3 computer - the sales folks said that the HW3 was not yet being rolled out on the Model 3. I guess I got lucky(?).
This morning I tested brake lights with regen braking. They seem to be coming on okay - at least that's what my kid - who was outside the car - said. I guess in an open road, the folks behind me didn't expect the car to stop so soon.
I was told the same prior to delivery, that HW3 wasn’t shipping yet. But I’m on fw ver. 7.105. No sentry, lane keep or autosteer. Decided to pay $200 more and just install the HPWC instead of NEMA 14-15 and an extra adapter kit.
Interesting: I dont have sentry - but I do have lane keep/autosteer. Tested that out on a 200 mile+ drive earlier today
Re: HPWC - Tesla told me that installation would be $ 1K + $500 more for the kit that's why I went with the 14-50. Do you have a link where the HPWC is available for 200? That'd be awesome.
Couldn't figure out a way to edit the last post, so posting this as a new entry.
I came across Tesla APIs (which is super awesomeness if you are a programmer) and have been fooling around with them for the past hour or so. When I call the vehicle_data API, i get a bunch of option codes as part of the response. What is interesting is that I get an APH3 option code for autopilot, which Google and TeslaFI thinks means HW2.5, not HW3.
And then, I found this thread - Vehicle Option codes / General / TeslaFi
The mystery deepens... but I am not ready to disassemble my car
Also - there is an API for sentry mode - I called that API but got an error response back. So - definitely no sentry mode for me
I came across Tesla APIs (which is super awesomeness if you are a programmer) and have been fooling around with them for the past hour or so. When I call the vehicle_data API, i get a bunch of option codes as part of the response. What is interesting is that I get an APH3 option code for autopilot, which Google and TeslaFI thinks means HW2.5, not HW3.
And then, I found this thread - Vehicle Option codes / General / TeslaFi
The mystery deepens... but I am not ready to disassemble my car
Also - there is an API for sentry mode - I called that API but got an error response back. So - definitely no sentry mode for me
Interesting: I dont have sentry - but I do have lane keep/autosteer. Tested that out on a 200 mile+ drive earlier today
Re: HPWC - Tesla told me that installation would be $ 1K + $500 more for the kit that's why I went with the 14-50. Do you have a link where the HPWC is available for 200? That'd be awesome.
I think that you said that you bought FSD. I didn’t, but I think that AP is supposed to at least keep the car in the lane, brake and steer. Mine doesn’t. It only does cruise. Car was ordered after AP became standard. AP is in the menu, but doesn’t show up when I’m driving.
When I said that I would pay $200 more, I meant that the adapter kit costs $300 and the HPWC costs $500. The bulk of the cost of installing 240v will be labor, since we need more than just the usual copper wire from a preexisting panel. Our panel is full and I want to have capacity to charge a second vehicle, so we are putting in a new 100A panel in the basement and running a service line to a distal portion of the garage. It will be a challenging pull. In the big picture, the extra $200 for the HPWC seems worth it. I can keep the adapter kit in the car full time.
Maybe get a spare UMC gen 2 charging cable? I got one on eBay and just leave the one that came with the car plugged in.
WattMobile
Member
Just here to share my experience.
Did a short test drive with a Performance Model 3.
Conclusion: I just sold my 2018 Model S75D and ordered a Performance Model 3
Did a short test drive with a Performance Model 3.
Conclusion: I just sold my 2018 Model S75D and ordered a Performance Model 3
SmartElectric
Active Member
James and Kate.
Great video.
As I commented on YouTube, my wife will not part with her Model S, and this video is exactly the kind discussions and conclusions that my own family came to.
Just here to share my experience.
Did a short test drive with a Performance Model 3.
Conclusion: I just sold my 2018 Model S75D and ordered a Performance Model 3
Would you please consider sharing your experience? What made you choose the Performance Model 3 over S75D?
Just here to share my experience.
Did a short test drive with a Performance Model 3.
Conclusion: I just sold my 2018 Model S75D and ordered a Performance Model 3
Short sweet and to the point. Love it!
Just got my car. LR AWD. I feel like I want to sleep and eat in it? Is that bad? Yes. But seriously I have always wanted a Tesla. I was one of the original people that put down a reservation several years ago but I canceled it. Ultimately it wasn't the right time for me. But now it is. I have driven many many cars from BMW to Mercedes and Audi. Hands down this is the best handling car I have ever driven. Acceleration? Beyond happy. Technology? I can't believe half the things I can do with this car. Sound System? I'm a bit of an audiophile. It's stunning. Fit and finish? I had heard horror stories - mine arrived perfect. Smile on my face? Oh yes. Delivery? They came to my house. It was done in 10 minutes. Honeslty I feel like a kid at Christmas.
