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

Tesla moments

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I've had several people walk right out in front of me (happened with the hybrid, too.) I haven't hit one yet, but that's more to my credit than theirs. It's not THAT hard to check before walking into a lane of traffic.

It is when your nose is burried in your phone. Only time I've had people walk out in front of any vehicle I've been driving is when they were busy texting or some other asinine thing in their phone.
 
Last edited:
This isn't really unique to electrified vehicles; pure ICE cars can be pretty damn quiet at low speed, too.

There's already a legally mandated safety system to address the problem, though. I believe it's called a "horn".

There's a post somewhere on TMC from a guy who didn't want to startle people in parking lots with the horn so he installed a chime behind the nosecone. Now they just hear a gentle "ding-dong" to let them know of his presence.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: NoSoup4U!
There's still tire noise. If you're going above 25mph, you can hear the Tesla about the same as a regular ICE.

In a parking lot where you're going slow, if the person doesn't hear me, I come up close to them and move my steering wheel left and right a few times, that usually catches their attention (I'm sure there'll be people who tell me that moving my steering wheel left and right going 2mph is dangerous to my suspension, yadda yadda, I don't care).
 
I'm having a new roof put on my house today. This morning as I was pulling out, the roofer had to move his truck to let me by. As I pulled up, he looks astonished and struggles to tell me that my car isn't making noise in extraordinarily limited English. I broke out my high school Spanish and explained that it was un auto electrico. He adopted an overly optimistic attitude towards my language competance and fired off a three sentence question. I wasn't really sure what he asked, but I figured the questions were the same in every language, so I assumed it was a range question and I told him "doscientos cuarenta y dos milles" and he looked impressed and satisfied, so I guessed the right question. The optimism included in Tesla's range calculations was beyond my ability to explain, so I pointed to the 911 and advised him that the Tesla was much faster. He looked about 50% impressed and 50% sceptical.
 
My 3 kids watching tv yesterday and car commercial for Audi Q7 comes on with a little kid in awe of the SUV like it was a spaceship and says, "Trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here."
Without missing a beat, one of my 8-year-olds says, "Guess he's never met a Tesla."
Cue Mommy Tesla grin.

Edit: Found the video! (mod- sorry if posting competing commercial is in violation. Feel free to remove. Although in my mind, there is no competition.)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Stopped at a traffic light, my front bumper was about even with the driver's seat of the truck to my right. A auto parts jobber truck, with a young guy driving. He did the classic double take after he happened to glance to his left and caught a glimpse, then began craning his head around to see anything that would identify the car. He didn't look at me once, just kept searching his field of vision for a clue as to what this car might be. The look on his face was one of complete confusion and annoyance that he, a Car Guy, had no idea what he was looking at.

Probably good that he didn't look directly at me because I was having a good laugh at his expense.
 
Driving down the 280 to the South Bay, in the left lane, I spotted a red Roadster coming from behind. The driver was clearly having a great time, as he was drumming away to a song on the steering wheel.
I moved over to let him by, and we both admired each other's ride while he passed me.

He gave me giant smile and nod of approval, and I pointed to him to send that back his way. Am a big fan of the Roadster.
 
Our Tesla moment is one of "missing our car". We are in Auatralia while our Tesla is parked in our Canadian garage. Every opportunity we get, we visit the Chadstone Shopping Centre where a Tesla is on display. We always stop by; talk to the staff and many times potential customers. It gives us our Tesla fix while we are away.
 
Before I actually bought my tesla I really enjoyed the idea of being the first tesla on the block and street where we live. One day as I was driving home I saw an S parked 2 houses down. Horror. Someone beat me to the punch. When I got home my wife told me that someone must have died and that there was a shiva going on in that house. At that moment I had a George Costanza/Larry David moment. What if I went over and said "sorry for your loss, btw that tesla outside belongs to one of your guests right? And not you guys?

this is all in jest so don't hate or judge. Admittedly the thought did enter my mind ever so briefly but I would have never actually done it.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: NoSoup4U!
Before I actually bought my tesla I really enjoyed the idea of being the first tesla on the block and street where we live. One day as I was driving home I saw an S parked 2 houses down. Horror. Someone beat me to the punch. When I got home my wife told me that someone must have died and that there was a shiva going on in that house. At that moment I had a George Costanza/Larry David moment. What if I went over and said "sorry for your loss, btw that tesla outside belongs to one of your guests right? And not you guys?

this is all in jest so don't hate or judge. Admittedly the thought did enter my mind ever so briefly but I would have never actually done it.

Back in 2014, there was an event at the high school I graduated from and as I pull up I'm stunned to see that I'm parking in back of another Model S. As I look at it closer, I'm even more shocked to discover it's a Sig! I was pretty hopeful that I was the first graduate to get an MS so I spent the entire evening trying to find the owner of the Sig. They left before I had a chance to meet them, but I've convinced myself that it was a parent's car. At least that's how I got to sleep that night :)
You are not alone.
 
One full month of owning the Model S 85D. Every single day something happens due to the fact that there aren't a lot of Teslas around these parts. Today, passing by, kids shout "LOOK! IT'S A TESLA!"
At IKEA, while charging, lots of people staring. Tried to engage and explain. The majority ran away. One Chinese person says no to engaging in conversation but gets closer and closer to listen to the explanation I am giving to my friend on how the D has two motors, where they are located and how good and fabulous the car is. The Chinese person gets so close that it really is a bit embarassing. Hope he got all the info.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: NoSoup4U!
One full month of owning the Model S 85D. Every single day something happens due to the fact that there aren't a lot of Teslas around these parts. Today, passing by, kids shout "LOOK! IT'S A TESLA!"
At IKEA, while charging, lots of people staring. Tried to engage and explain. The majority ran away. One Chinese person says no to engaging in conversation but gets closer and closer to listen to the explanation I am giving to my friend on how the D has two motors, where they are located and how good and fabulous the car is. The Chinese person gets so close that it really is a bit embarassing. Hope he got all the info.

Haha sounds like you tried to talk to a bunch of birds.
 
Here's a different sort of Tesla moment: my bf and I met another Tesla owner, LoL Rick, in downtown St Pete for dinner last night. Rick loves to refer to the color of my "old blue" Tesla as "blackish", because it annoys me. We both had to park a few blocks away from the restaurant, so after walking a bit, Rick casually gestures to the left and says " look, a black Tesla ". Note, I see a black Tesla nearly every time I go downtown, so I glance at it and reply, " yeah, i see it every time I come down here", at which point Rick starts laughing hysterically and yells "THAT'S YOUR CAR!!!"

DAMMIT.
 
Was at a high-performance toys store yesterday, buying a Polaris EV ATV for the farm. I gave the salesguy a ride and the store owner walks by, so he gets roped into the ride as well. We're both 65 year old geezer types. Drive out on the service road and I go "wait! there's this new Launch Mode thing which I haven't tried yet, forgive me while I learn how." Fumble my way to/through the owners manual, get to Launch mode, do all the stuff. The high-performance guys are interested in watching all this unfold (whole "yeah the car gets new stuff through software all the time, yadda yadda" from me). Launch. Usual "holy !@#@!" response. From two guys that sell really high end motorcycles and are enthusiasts. Marcie's been sitting in the back seat during all this. Perfectly calm. Yep, this is normal. No, most of the time we drive for extreme economy but it's fun to show of the possibilities of the car. I think that commentary blew them away as much as the out and back launches. A good day.
 
Stopped at a traffic light, my front bumper was about even with the driver's seat of the truck to my right. A auto parts jobber truck, with a young guy driving. He did the classic double take after he happened to glance to his left and caught a glimpse, then began craning his head around to see anything that would identify the car. He didn't look at me once, just kept searching his field of vision for a clue as to what this car might be. The look on his face was one of complete confusion and annoyance that he, a Car Guy, had no idea what he was looking at.

Probably good that he didn't look directly at me because I was having a good laugh at his expense.

Similar thing happened to me yesterday when a delivery van driver had his entire head out of his window while driving and staring at my car while occasionally looking at the road in front of him. Funny how obvious some people can be :)