Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah that's an entirely fair critique (I mentioned the Audi and Mercedes interiors being way nicer in a followup in this thread).

I'm ok with a more spartan interior as driving is just so much more enjoyable. The regenerative breaking takes some real getting used to, but once you've gotten used to it and you do 1 pedal highway driving (assuming you're not using auto-pilot) it is just so much less work. Most of the real fanciness in the Tesla is around making driving more enjoyable. I got the Model 3 AWD LR (not the performance model) and know I can out accelerate virtually ever other non-Tesla on the road. If someone wants to be a jerk and cut me off it is pretty much impossible unless they're in a super car (or another Tesla). Not being a gear head or car fanatic it just gives me more options when driving. That is worth a simpler interior. I was also fine with the crappy interior of my 2011 Ford Fiesta however, so we have different tastes.

The Porsche Taycan is the first electric car that seems to start to compete with a Tesla. The soon to be released Volkswagen ID.3 also looks like a pretty solid Model 3 competitor. The future holds a lot of options in this space, so you don't have to drive a Tesla to enjoy the all torque all the time driving of an electric drivetrain.

> If someone wants to be a jerk and cut me off it is pretty much impossible

Why such an adversarial mentality? Why not just let people change lanes if there's enough room in front of you?

I lived in Los Angeles for 6.5 years, where people are utter nightmares on the highway. You have to be very aggressive in traffic. Not because I want to be, but because I would put on a blinker and someone would speed up just because I was trying to get over.

Oh, you mean they cut you off when you're trying to change over. That's terrible, we get that here (Vancouver) a lot, but I doubt the ability to rapidly accelerate would help much. There's usually a car in front and racing the jerk for the limited space behind it would create all kinds of dangerous situations.

To drive in LA is to drive in dangerous situations sadly, playing it safe will only put you at a higher risk of being rearended or cut off and someone slamming their brakes on you. It sucks, but I don't see any other way. Once enough selfish people are in the batch, it forces everyone else to be selfish.

Well, you see, we used to be apes.

I also do one-pedal highway driving... and that is my other use case problem with Tesla (that I originally chose not to bring up as it takes me out of the category of potential buyers).

I live in Colorado; my highway driving includes driving 400-500 miles over mountain passes sometimes in the winter down to parts of New Mexico. I have all-wheel and an 8-speed sport transmission; so the Mini eats mountains for breakfast, doesn't drink its fuel supply extra fast when it's 0F in the snow over mountain passes, and doesn't need me to spend time recharging somewhere in the unpleasant cold. Highway speeds (85mph), I can go 400+ miles before refueling.

To each their own. That's the beauty of choice! The range is certainly less in the cold, but it is manageable. We drove from Chicago to Kentucky (~385 miles) when it was subzero or so last winter and stopped at the same place we normally do south of Indianapolis to charge and eat dinner. Do you drive straight through 400-500 miles or do you stop to eat and take a restroom break? I live in Chicago and know of this cold you speak of, but not so much of mountains. I don't think EVs are for everyone, or will be capable of every use case for a few years, but they certainly are incredible for the right use cases. Most of the country is blanketed by superchargers and there are in fact 14 of them along the highways in CO (checked via https://supercharge.info) and 9 in NM.

You can watch Netflix while charging in the warmth of your car if you choose (It is called Theater Mode). If Elon is to be believed, and you should always take what he says with a grain of salt, Tesla will have 400 mile range vehicles by the end of next year. The use cases Tesla are bad for are dwindling quite quickly.

Conversely, batteries don’t lose power at altitude. Test driving a model 3 performance and doing day trip to Vail may change your views a bit.

The same can be said of turbocharged ICE vehicles, which are quite common now especially with direct-injection.

Forced induction only minimizes power loss at altitude. Higher boost pressure can make up for the lower oxygen density, but at the expense of increasing intake air charge temperature, hurting power output.

The all time record holder of the Pikes Peak hill climb is an EV.

Compared to a Fiesta there's no doubt it impresses, but a comparison to an E-Class, 5-Series, or other comparably priced luxury vehicle would be more apt.

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