Hi! Here is a summary of my test drive of Model X in 10/2016:
What was positive:
+ space (6 seats)
+ performance (P90D)
+ overall handling and comfort
Miscellaneous observations:
Tesla has often admitted that the S and X Models are overpriced with respect to their actual value/cost of production: “Without customers willing to buy the expensive Model S and X, we would be unable to fund the smaller, more affordable Model 3 development.” What does Tesla plan to happen to the future resale prices of current S and X Models after Model 3 development has become self sustaining and the extra high price is no longer needed for S and X? Shall the Model S and X price be reduced to better reflect the actual value/production cost of the cars? Or will they get more of a luxury look-and-feel similar to other cars in same price range (Audi, Bentley, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes)? And how will this further affect the future resale prices of current Model S and X?
What was positive:
+ space (6 seats)
+ performance (P90D)
+ overall handling and comfort
Miscellaneous observations:
- drove two days, 400 miles, measured (actual) range using Trip meter to find out actual range for my typical driving scenarios and results was 80% of nominal range
- our family’s most typical weekend trip is 320 miles (actual) which would require a nominal range of approx 450 miles based on Trip meter measurements, and I remain hopeful for near-future range extension schemes
- charging in casual circumstances might be surprisingly expensive; for example we were staying in a hotel downtown and needed parking for the night; we finished so late in the night we decided to leave car overnight in a nearby parking centre’s charging station which cost a whopping $50. Regular ICE could have parked just on the streets for free during the night.
- I would like to be able to order a Tesla to the nearest country in Europe instead of Netherlands for “other europe”. Netherlands is quite far and there are Tesla Stores much closer to us. Other car brands can deliver via nearest countries’ stores why not Tesla?
- for door handles from outside is difficult to find the exact point where you are supposed to press to open, end up spending time looking like a fool pressing the handle all over until eventually getting it open if it is not locked and you won’t know if it is locked or you just pressed the wrong spot, which is frustrating. You will probably eventually learn how to do this for yourself, but for your casual passenger the experience remains frustrating. For usability's sake, it should be easy and simple, please "don't make me think", and please no excuses.
- because the doors operate with soft buttons/pushes, they should provide feedback to user for better user experience when user is interacting with the mechanism: for example, when door is locked, it should give some negative response (red led light? beep?) to indicate user attempt was successful but door is locked. Currently it is frustrating for a casual passenger to use both the outside door handles and the inside falcon wing opening buttons. For example when child lock is activated for falcon doors, uninformed passengers can end up using excessive force and break the opening buttons because they do not get any feedback from the button that it is simply locked, instead they think it is unresponsive and continue manhandling the controls. Ofcourse if the opener was more traditional it would be more clear that it is responsive while inactive when childlock is on, nevertheless an active response would be even better.
- in cold weather (we drove two days in nearly freezing but not yet freezing and the car had the subzero weather package) cold air blows onto your face from the top of the dashboard. The dashboard even feels cold if you put your hand on the dashboard. The air from the direct vents is warm but the air from the top of the dashboard is cold and very unpleasant. The air from the top of the dashboard should also be warm or alternatively there should be a way to adjust its temperature.
- in evening (lower) sunlight the windshiled gives double vision for example of oncoming traffic’s rooftops
- why not automate (full) open and close of the frunk like all other doors? Currently closing the frunk is quite delicate and frustrating when you don’t want to dent it.
- the ground clearance needs a custom default setting which it will use when vehicle speed allows, preferably even separate settings for both urban/highway speed ranges. Currently you can set default height only to “standard”, but I would rather have it “very high” for an SUV in urban area speeds because when I normally (quite often) drive in unknown territory I seem to fail to remember to adjust the height and instead I would simply prefer it is always automatically elevated when possible.
- neither the autopilot nor the cruise control reduced the vehicle speed according to speed limits even though limits were updated on the driver’s screen. To increase safety and to avoid unnecessary speeding tickets would be practical if the driving speed would change automatically when transitioning to a different speed zone. This could ofcourse be an optional setting. It should also take into account the current differential (+/-) to the limit, because typically there is a fixed legal surplus you can have, e.g., +5 mph.
- the passengers of the car were unhappy to hear all the chimes and jingles of the car (parking assist, speed warning, autopilot/cruise control on/off/warning, double pedal warnings, brake assist) it would be friendly to be able to either mute all these alarms or somehow direct these sounds only to driver’s ears. Is not nice to listen to jingle bells all day every day all year around.
- vanity mirror feels cumbersome and minuscule, maybe do some more usability research there?
- Tesla currently has no emergency brake assist for driver-initiated emergency braking Emergency brake assist - Wikipedia which is a standard feature in modern cars and necessary in situations where car itself does not detect the collision, for example a small (but damaging) animal on the road. Tested this manually with the car, emergency breaking and no enhancement/assist occurred. See also Tesla’s new Autopilot would automatically brake for a moose, but not for a small deer
- I found the v6.2 release notes say “Automatic Emergency Braking will stop applying the brakes when you press the brake pedal” which this seems detrimental, shouldn’t it instead further enhance/increase the force applied to the brakes after getting confirmation from the driver?
Tesla has often admitted that the S and X Models are overpriced with respect to their actual value/cost of production: “Without customers willing to buy the expensive Model S and X, we would be unable to fund the smaller, more affordable Model 3 development.” What does Tesla plan to happen to the future resale prices of current S and X Models after Model 3 development has become self sustaining and the extra high price is no longer needed for S and X? Shall the Model S and X price be reduced to better reflect the actual value/production cost of the cars? Or will they get more of a luxury look-and-feel similar to other cars in same price range (Audi, Bentley, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes)? And how will this further affect the future resale prices of current Model S and X?