Tesla moments

[Brass Guy]

- I was a few minutes late leaving work today. Running late, so naturally got caught right behind a school bus. After about a half mile, the bus stopped to let off a few kids. I waited, thinking it's gonna be a long trip home. The bus started moving. As I crept forward, I glanced down a side street to the right to see a young kid, probably second grade or so, walking backwards down the street staring at my car, with a huge grin and double thumbs up! I didn't mind being behind the bus after that, and got thumbs up from another kid in the back seat.

It's amazing how young the kids are that know what the car is, when so many adults still don't.

 

[Rockster]

I took my one year old Model S to the nearby Nissan dealership for the state inspection. While I expected their familiarity with the Leaf to reduce the confusion surrounding inspecting an all electric car, I nonetheless hovered closely as they pulled the car into the inspection bay. After a few minutes checking turn signals, brakes, wipers, and such, I saw the technician begin feeling under the dash, presumably looking for a hood release. By the time I wandered across the bay, the tech had summoned two colleagues and all three of them were searching. As I approached the vehicle, one of them asked, "Is this your vehicle, Sir?" I responded that it was and he asked if I could open the hood for him. I offered that I could, indeed, open the hood, but there's nothing there. After I explained, the rest of the inspection was smooth sailing, primarily just the tech scraping off the old sticker and applying a new one. While he did so, one of the techs asked, "Is it true that you can't buy these in Texas? You must lease them?" As I explained the entire situation with the TADA and the steps one must take to own a Tesla in Texas, it became obvious that none of them had any idea what shenanigans the TADA had pulled.

When the tech finished, he asked if I would like to drive my car out of the service bay instead of him. I was more than happy to do so. I drove the car out of the service area, around the parking lot, and parked near the new car sales area so that I could go in and pay for the inspection. As I parked, two salesmen converged on my car, one of them exclaiming, "My dream has come true. I was hoping a red Tesla would appear today for me." Neither of them had seen a Tesla up close, so for the next 20 minutes, I gave them the Tesla tour, with which you all are so familiar. The Tesla moment ended with me giving one of the salesmen a ride around the block, driving their normal customer test drive route. By the time we got back, he was saying over and over, "I now have a personal goal of owning one of these one day."

I parked and went inside and paid for my inspection. When I returned to the car a few minutes later, a third salesman had joined the group and the first two guys were repeating everything I had told them about the Model S. After standing there for a few moments, watching from a distance, I walked over to them and said in my best sales voice, "So, what can I do to get you into a Model S today?"

 

[swaltner]

"So, what can I do to get you into a Model S today?"

Classic!

 

[ACDriveMotor]

Nice one!

 

[Notacarguy]

I have owned the car for two days and had my first momemt. I dropped my son off at school where they have a program where the older kids help the little ones out of the car at the dropoff. The girl who was doing the helping came up and looked a bit confused until I put the car in park. When the handles extended her face lit up with surprise and she let me know that I had a very cool car as my son was getting out.

 

[Rockster]

I have owned the car for two days and had my first momemt. I dropped my son off at school where they have a program where the older kids help the little ones out of the car at the dropoff. The girl who was doing the helping came up and looked a bit confused until I put the car in park. When the handles extended her face lit up with surprise and she let me know that I had a very cool car as my son was getting out.

It's great to see the younger generation appreciate a Tesla. Some do so just for the coolness. Some are already recognizing that there are better alternatives to gasoline. At my daughter's school, the high school football players open the doors for the kids' carpool. It's fun to watch the football players squabble over which one of them gets to greet the Tesla.

 

[Morristhecat]

The girl who was doing the helping came up and looked a bit confused until I put the car in park. When the handles extended her face lit up with surprise and she let me know that I had a very cool car as my son was getting out.

I will never tire of that, young and old alike, it is always fun watching the look of confusion and then the smile. So fun!

 

[tomcherv]

I was thinking more along the lines of "Muskopoly", with each property group based on his businesses past and present. The cheap properties (Baltic, Mediterranean) would be re-named after Blastar images, Tesla and SpaceX along the side between Free Parking and Go to Jail. Pacific, etc. could be named after Solar City (because, green). The Tesla properties would, of course, be named Roadster, Model S and Model X.

Chance and Community chest cards would include "Successful launch, receive NASA funding", "Texas passes Auto Dealers bill, go back three spaces", and so on. You get the idea.

Go to Jail should instead be "On a trip and need to rent an ICE car."

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Go to Jail should instead be "On a trip and need to rent an ICE car."

There's no "tossing doubles" to get out of that nightmare

 

[Electroman]

You drive an ICEmobile and you parked in an electric charging station - pay fine $300

 

[mibaro2]

You completed a supercharging network across a country, bonus $500.
(or the equivalent of putting hotels on a property set)

 

[Pilot_51]

I like where this is going, very entertaining ideas. Of course, I'm partially responsible for starting it. Anyway, it's a bit off topic, so I think an admin should move the Tesla Monopoly posts into a new thread.

 

[DITB]

After about 1,500 miles, I finally think I have something to contribute with in this thread. I even made a video of it, iPhone candid camera.

Waiting at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, for my family to arrive from the nearby Hong Kong Police Colleague, the car was parked next to a group of Chinese tourists. We hadn't been to Ocean Park ourselves, just used the car park attending a nearby event.

I was sitting about 50 feet from the car, and put my phone on the ground to record video while I was playing discretely with the fob, just looking out of the corner of my eye.

A guy is just about to take a picture of the rear of the car ...

I didn't see it until when I watched the video now - the timing of my opening the trunk was near perfect, too bad one cannot see the expression on his face.

I kept playing with venting sunroof, flashing lights, honking, unlock and lock to release the door handles and as you could see above, even opened the trunk. While recording the video itself, I couldn't use the Tesla app, only the fob.

As part of the audience went to see the front, I "popped the hood" when I could see they were quite close, and I could see from their reactions that they noticed it for sure. I then walked to the front of the car ...

As recycling isn't so widespread in Hong Kong, I gather the items like glass, metal, paper, plastic, batteries and so on, and take it to one of the tiny hard-to-find recycling points, where I get points for the items I return (they weigh each group of items). Those points can be used for buying items like toilet paper, detergent and other similar items. We used to go on our bikes, but it was simply too dangerous (roads are narrow and people drive quite aggressively, especially 16 seater buses, taxis and trucks). So we haven't been here for two years now.

Anyway, most of that stuff in the frunk is for that recycling station, but of course, no engine for them to look at. Maybe I should plasticise a graphic showing where the engine and battery is mounted - a picture tells a thousand words.

I tried my best in the few words of Mandarin Chinese I know, and found out quickly that no-one in the group spoke any more English than a few words. I know how say electric and car, so I combined the two (knowing there is one more word in the middle which I didn't remember). I think I managed to let them understand it's fully electric, and that the electric motor is between the rear wheels. All the girl with a few English words could say was "How much?". That could have been range, horse power or purchasing price - so I guessed "duo xiao quai" - how many bucks - and yes, that is what they wanted to know.

Ah yes, one guy said "mei guo che", American car, so I replied, yes, California - I think he understood that.

If anyone can make out anything else of the Chinese dialogue, please feel free to write it so I can post it here

 

[FLDarren]

I was sitting at a red light ready to turn left today when a crossing pedestrian screamed at the top of his lungs "Hey Superman, nice ride." I had my windows down. Yep, our weather is still nice. At first I felt embarrassed but then I flew away. :biggrin:

 

[KJennerator]

Not sure if you are really supposed to, or capable of, jumping a car using the 12v terminals. The 12v battery in the model is is rather anemic and probably not able of providing the amperage required to crank a hefty starter motor.

The Model S actually uses a sealed lead acid 12 Volt 35 Amp hour battery. This is the exact battery that large jump packs use. I work at Batteries Plus and deal with these all the time. Enough to jump small trucks. Just not my 1983 Mercedes Diesel

 

[Cosmacelf]

The Model S actually uses a sealed lead acid 12 Volt 35 Amp hour battery. This is the exact battery that large jump packs use. I work at Batteries Plus and deal with these all the time. Enough to jump small trucks. Just not my 1983 Mercedes Diesel

Jump start packs might use a 35 amp hour battery, but I bet they are optimized for high initial amps (crank amps). The Tesla SLA battery is a deep cycle battery, not meant to be used for starting an engine.

 

[InTheShadows]

Jump start packs might use a 35 amp hour battery, but I bet they are optimized for high initial amps (crank amps). The Tesla SLA battery is a deep cycle battery, not meant to be used for starting an engine.

On top of that jump starting another car will very likely blow the 50 amp fuse between the terminals and your battery. Then if you need a jump you will be out of luck.

On top of that I would not risk it because of the 12v battery problems. If Tesla finds out you attempted to jump an ICE (which is very likely) they would likely void your 12v warranty.

 

[freds]

I would definitely resist the urge to attempt to jump start another vehicle. However in dire necessity (she would have to be awful cute) I might do like we did in the army when we needed to start a large tracked vehicle and the only power source was a small jeep. Heck we even did it without jumper cables and used lousy commo wire.

That was to hook it up and charge the other vehicles battery for a half hour or more, disconnect and then attempt to start the larger vehicle.

Easier to tell them a white lie and say my battery is 400volts and just offer them a ride, where you can corrupt them with the Tesla experience!

 

[Xfrank]

my american beauty became yesterday one year!
Partytime!:smile:

 

[jerry33]

I would definitely resist the urge to attempt to jump start another vehicle. However in dire necessity (she would have to be awful cute) I might do like we did in the army when we needed to start a large tracked vehicle and the only power source was a small jeep. Heck we even did it without jumper cables and used lousy commo wire.

That was to hook it up and charge the other vehicles battery for a half hour or more, disconnect and then attempt to start the larger vehicle.

The trick is to take their keys before connecting the cables. All too often they will attempt to start the vehicle while it's still connected.