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WSJ Journalist Trials and Tribulations During Model 3 Drive

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It has been widely reported that the journalist was unable to shift from Park into Drive, and only succeeded after the car was 'rebooted' twice. Tesla looked at the car logs afterwards and found that the journalist was pressing the Park button while attempting to shift, thus the problem.

You might think that the Journal would post an update to the car review, but the current WSJ is not the newspaper of yore.

Fastest Broder ever. :p
 
It's 2017, nobody should have to read an owner's manual before driving a car.... if anything, a high tech car is supposed to make these things easier.

Do you have to read a manual to use an iPhone?

I disagree. The iPhone is about the only thing that comes out of the box so easy to use, even many toddlers and tech-adverse grannies can use decently.

Android has gotten a lot better, but I still need a manual or Google to figure out how to do lots of stuff. Even Mac OSX to a small degree, although, being Apple, it's mostly intuitive. Windows 10, forget about it. Very intuitive UI seems easy to implement, but it's not. Especially when you've got a lot of engineers involved (only half joking).

The iPhone has spoiled people.
 
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It happens on many cars. I have to tell people to hit the brake pedal to start my car with push button.

Happened to me when I rented a car a few years back and was caught off guard when it was a push start. I had never driven one and didn't know anyone who owned one. Had to get out of the car and ask one of the employees in the lot for help.

lol smh
 
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I disagree. The iPhone is about the only thing that comes out of the box so easy to use, even many toddlers and tech-adverse grannies can use decently.
I mostly happily paid the Apple premium from 1990 for the following 26 years, but for the last 6 months my wife and I turned our purchases Goolge-ward. We each have Pixel phones and Chromebook computers. The iMac still runs happily and gets a fair amount of use but my MacBook Air is forlorn.

At least for our uses, I find the the Google/Android products to be superior to Apple software wise and more than acceptable hardware wise ( not quite as good but half the price.)
 
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I think the worse part of this whole thing is that the button is clearly labeled.
The Model S/X have a park button in the same place and so do Mercedes vehicles.
ilrBT2.jpg
 
It's 2017, nobody should have to read an owner's manual before driving a car.... if anything, a high tech car is supposed to make these things easier.

Do you have to read a manual to use an iPhone?

If pressing the park button while trying to shift into drive caused a problem for this guy it will cause problems for others. Software could detect what is going on and alert the person on-screen "you're doing it wrong".

And.... I also hate the WSJ.
Baloney. A three year old could shift a Tesla. Heaven forbid if the car had a manual transmission. He probably would have wrecked it.
 
I disagree. The iPhone is about the only thing that comes out of the box so easy to use, even many toddlers and tech-adverse grannies can use decently.

Android has gotten a lot better, but I still need a manual or Google to figure out how to do lots of stuff. Even Mac OSX to a small degree, although, being Apple, it's mostly intuitive. Windows 10, forget about it. Very intuitive UI seems easy to implement, but it's not. Especially when you've got a lot of engineers involved (only half joking).

The iPhone has spoiled people.

Not really. iOS has become quite complicated these past few iterations for that crowd of people. And never underestimate user stupidity. Between my family and friends, we got everything from refusing to update the OS or apps, not using multitasking, unlocking versus swiping left to access the camera, being unable to set up fingerprint unlock, and complaining why their 256GB iPhone is full despite telling them repeatedly to delete some of the 20GB of messages and 150GB of pictures.

Baloney. A three year old could shift a Tesla. Heaven forbid if the car had a manual transmission. He probably would have wrecked it.

Maybe someone could engineer a car that drives itself, but if you wanna drive, out come three pedals and a (virtual) 6-speed. Only option. Alternatively paddle shifters that require them to be used (like a Formula 1 car). Will separate who can't be bothered to learn how to use a MT to drive, keep the manual or die crowd happy, and make it significantly harder to check your texts while driving.
 
I have to call BS.
I can't think of a car that wont exit Park, when shifted to Drive or Reverse.

Sounds like a software bug that Tesla should fix.
As voip-ninja mentioned, a warning could have displayed, on that giant 15" screen, if the car doesn't like having the Park Button pressed, while selecting Drive or Reverse.

I don't own any cars w/ trans controls on Stalk, but never had issue driving GLA or E350.
 
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I have to call BS.
I can't think of a car that wont exit Park, when shifted to Drive or Reverse.

What BS? It did go out of Park and then switched itself into neutral, as he's literally hold the button down. It's working perfectly as you'd expect it to.
If the car is in drive or reverse you need to be able to hit that button to put it in park. I'm imagining he's holding the button down, moving the shifter toward Drive, letting go of both, drive gets cancelled and as the shifter is going up it triggers neutral.

Would need someone with a Tesla to see if that's plausible.
 
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Happened to me when I rented a car a few years back and was caught off guard when it was a push start. I had never driven one and didn't know anyone who owned one. Had to get out of the car and ask one of the employees in the lot for help.

Lol, reminds me of when I bought my Gen1 Insight ;) This was back in the states. I had never driven a manual before; I only understood it conceptually. My then-spouse was supposed to be the "expert", but their manual-driving experience was minimal and outdated. Got in the car... and couldn't figure out how to start the thing ;) Neither of us realized that you have to have the clutch down to start it. I ended up having to walk into the restaurant at the gas station where we made the purchase and interrupt random strangers's lunch to ask them if they knew how to drive a manual, until I found someone who did and who explained the "problem" to me ;)

We all have our idiot-moments :) The only blame I see here is in the Tesla person for not recognizing the problem, and the WSJ for not fixing their story. Also, this error is republished all over the place now, so it might be helpful if people would google quotes from the article to find the copies (for example, I know the LA Times has one) and post in the comments section a correction. Because right now it's being used to imply that the M3 as it stands is "glitchy".
 
I mostly happily paid the Apple premium from 1990 for the following 26 years, but for the last 6 months my wife and I turned our purchases Goolge-ward. We each have Pixel phones and Chromebook computers. The iMac still runs happily and gets a fair amount of use but my MacBook Air is forlorn.

At least for our uses, I find the the Google/Android products to be superior to Apple software wise and more than acceptable hardware wise ( not quite as good but half the price.)
A friend of mine has a carrying case full of cables for his Apple products. I would guess he has 8 or 10 in there. I wonder what each one of those costs.
 
A friend of mine has a carrying case full of cables for his Apple products. I would guess he has 8 or 10 in there. I wonder what each one of those costs.
Funny you mention cables. Part of my impetus to move away from Apple was to avoid high charges for cables and chargers and to standardize on USB-C. I'm a happy camper these days, although it still takes some Googling and a Googler named Leung to find quality USB-C cables and power electronics that are up to standards and will work well across different devices for both data and power. Google has been invaluable in this regard.

My home has gone from a rat's nest of cables and power supplies to four in the entire home, one cable in each car, and a nice portable cable+power supply in my pouch for the unexpected for all of our phones, tablets and notebook computers.
 
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Happened to me when I rented a car a few years back and was caught off guard when it was a push start. I had never driven one and didn't know anyone who owned one. Had to get out of the car and ask one of the employees in the lot for help.

lol smh
The first time I test drove a Z4 I couldn't figure out how to turn off the parking brakes. Any new car you get into, you'll have to get used to the controls.
 
For years, right handed automatic shifters had you pull the lever forward to shift. Your thumb normally rests on the end.
That is the first time I've heard of that. What vehicle brands were like that? I admit I have not driven all the brands that have ICE automatics but I recall nothing like that. My experience is mostly non-GM but included automatics like DAF, 1950's era Chrysler and Packard and on to MB, Jaguar, Audi and so on. I've never seen a stalk-mounted push on the end to shift. What am I missing?