Tesla is flying (Apr17)

 

The ‘flying’ Tesla Model X

I showed my mother a photo of ‘Tess’ – our new fully electric Tesla Model X. Seeing the falcon wing doors at the back she asked if the car could fly!  Not yet.  But, it’s exciting to discover the numerous new gizmos they have thought of…

Teething problems revealed in my last post.  We then spent the whole morning trying to work out all the different features – and to identify which were real problems and which came down to us and our ignorance!

So, for example the doors wouldn’t fully open, but suddenly they did.  And, we got completely stuck by not being able to close the bonnet – which has more storage space – but discovered that it needed to be pushed firmly with two hands…  The message for re-booting reappeared but it only took about 10 minutes rather than nearly two hours, which it was warning us about…

One of the features I rather like – and we had it in the previous car too – is having a different profile for each driver, so it automatically adjusts your seat and mirror position.  It also knows which radio stations you like to listen to.  However, I asked the Tesla advisor if it could keep separate records of our driving efficiency, so we could compete on getting the most out of the car!  That’s not possible yet, and apparently no-one else has asked for it.  But if they discover it’s something people want, they can install it in a future re-boot…

Onto the road.  I had to visit my Mum and pick up one of my sons from the airport.  My biggest concern was not getting too distracted by the huge screen in the middle – longing to fiddle a bit to find out more.

The maps are fantastic, but the sat nav sent me on a detour round all the lanes, which was definitely not the best route.  At first, I thought it had found a great short cut. Then, I wondered if Jamie had set it to avoid main roads, as an April Fool’s joke.  More fiddling needed…

There’s a button on the steering wheel that allows you to tell it what song you’d like it to play – it connects to Spotify.  Quite interesting to see what it comes up with – it’s not always what you want.

Lots of things to like about the car, but wondered why Tesla haven’t improved seat belt technology – it’s still rather awkward with the traditional ‘clunk click’.  And there’s nowhere to put anything except a cup of coffee in the back seat space – not even netting on the back of the seats..  Perhaps the designers working on that bit weren’t as imaginative as the ones sorting out the ‘techy’ bits…

So, Tess isn’t flying yet – but she’s opening new doors for car technology….  Will be recording further adventures – particularly if we manage to run out of power and have to be rescued.

 

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