Adam Carolla Car Cast Model S

Adam Carolla discusses the Model S with the very articulate and knowledgeable Shanna Hendricks.

follow up test drive.

Carolla's initial impressions and follow up conclusions about the Model S are very similar to my own. You read about the car's impressive features and figures, and you feel like you have a good sense of what your experience is going to be like. Then you become a little better acquainted with it in person, marvel at its presence and features, and quickly realize its like nothing you've ever seen before. Before ever driving in it,  every visible feature of the car from the front and rear cargo space to the in dash touch screen with free internet connectivity is just miles ahead of any other car on the market (super-sedan or otherwise). Then when you get in and put on a few miles, you're blown away not just by the speed, but how it delivers the power.

It can be difficult to describe how the power feels (Dan Neil does a good job here). Again, its like nothing else youve ever been in except maybe a TGV or similar bullet train.When I try to describe it to my friends I try to compare it to the experience of putting the pedal to the floor in an automatic or manual transmission car. In an automatic, you mash the gas pedal, nothing happens for a second, then the car clumsily drops a gear and eventually gives you a surge of power and noise accompanied by some sloppy body roll/ rear squat. You then max out your rev limit and clumsily enter another gear at which point you are probably finished with what you were trying to accomplish. You no longer need all the power and the car takes a moment to calm itself down and understand what gear you should be in. In a manual, its less clumsy but there is still the necessity to be in the "sweet spot" in the rev range before you can make your move. In a two-lane road passing situation this means you are riding high in a gear for a few moments before you are able to tap into the full power and execute your pass. In the Model S, the massive torque means that you are perpetually in the sweet spot with all of that power is available "on demand". This coupled with the car's mass and dynamic air suspension produces an entirely different kind of sensation of acceleration.

Even if you have a mega torque/horsepower AMG Mercedes, M Series BMW or RS Audi and you have all that power at low RPM, the compromise is G-wagon/ Hummer gas mileage. Even if you don't care about the price of gas or the carbon footprint, the inherent inefficiency is antithetical to the whole idea of a performance car or even any high end consumer product. I have always loved those cars (particularly the RS6 Avant) and what they represent, but when compared to the Model S I cant help but feel slightly unimpressed (more and more so with every new generation using the same basic forced induction power plant). Its the same feeling I had about the Veyron when it came out. Ok Volkswagen, you built the fastest car in the world but how you got there was kind of a joke: 16 cylinders and 4 turbochargers, and then production delays resulting in ten radiators (band-aids) to deal with the heat.

After you drive this car and get a feel for what it would be like to own, you quickly conclude that there would be no reason to buy anything else from an S-Class to a Quattroporte, nothing comes close. You feel like its a car from ten years in the future but also wonder why no one was doing this ten years ago. You realize all of this and then you realize this is Tesla's first car built in house, and you just wonder how it is possible and why no one else is doing this.

As Carolla states, it is better than anything else, and somehow, there are also no downsides. In the first video, he addresses a concern many people have about the range/recharging by referring to his friend's desire to drive to the Grand Canyon. He makes the point that almost nobody ever does that anyway (maybe once every four years), and Shanna makes the point that even if you want to do that you can(for free) using the supercharger infrastructure.

I was surprised by Carolla's very positive review because I have heard his many jokes about priuses, EV's etc. His reaction and opinion of the car is refreshing and convinces me that even the most anti-ev people can be seduced by this car if they are exposed to it in person and can spend some time with it. His conclusion about its importance as a symbol of American ingenuity and greatness is also apt, and I think a big part of what makes the car so attractive.

Tesla Road Trip - debunking the New York Times

Late Friday night I came across a blog post saying that some Tesla Model S owners were going to attempt to recreate the now infamous DC to CT road trip in a Model S. By this point CNN had already completed the same journey and done a lot of the debunking, but you could still hear the chorus of naysayers: "not the same temperatures" "only one car" etc.

I then went on to the Tesla Owners Club forums and read through the twenty some pages of discussion pertaining to the road trip. 5 or 6 owners had enthusiastically signed up for the drive and had planned to meet at the Rockville, MD Tesla Motors service station (20 minutes from my house) the next morning.
I woke up the next morning, grabbed some cameras and drove to the service center. I arrived at 9 and saw the owners gathering and planning for the journey. It seemed that 2 more owners had committed overnight including some guys that drove their Model S 3 hours from Ocean City, MD at midnight and a guy that drove his Model S from Boston.




With all the cars charged or charging at the service center, the owners drank coffee, traded notes and stories about their cars, and of course expressed their disdain for John Broder and the New York Times. The term "Brodering" was coined: running out of power due to human error, or generally dropping the ball when dealing with electric cars. These owners were determined to not broder it up that day.


This is Peter Soukup and his home made charging device. Peter has driven his Tesla across the country several times. 

The device enables him to double the speed of in home charging. An engineer by trade, Peter was happy to show off his creation to the owners and the curious Tesla Service staff.

After arranging the cars in some classic internet meet-up poses, we headed out on the highway and began the journey. Seven cars left Rockville with two planning on only making the trip to the Delaware Supercharger station because of prior commitments that night. Four or five more Tesla Model S would meet the convoy in Delaware and continue on the journey. I managed to get a ride in one of the Delaware bound cars and enjoyed my first ride in an all-electric car.

Due to my filming the convoy leaving the parking lot and having to hustle to get in a car, we were briefly separated from the convoy. This was my first experience with the acceleration capabilities of the Model S. Needless to say we caught up to the group in no time and continued on in our impressive convoy. A single Model S is attention grabbing by itself; a convoy of seven is a spectacle.

Baltimore Tunnel
We made the trip north past Baltimore, and into Delaware. When we arrived at the supercharger station at the Delaware Welcome center, there were a few Model S filling up at the superchargers. Some guys from the owner's club and some Volkswagen engineers testing a Model S and the supercharger system. The VW employees unplugged and left us to plug in to the four supercharger stations.




Four cars plugged in while the rest parked nearby to wait their turn. (there was talk on the forum about staggering the start to avoid this situation but it was decided that the convoy would be more fun and more impressive. This Delaware welcome center is a frequent stop for Bolt bus and the many other DC-NY bus services. As the buses unloaded big crowds would gather to take pictures of the cars and to ask questions. One of the favorite party tricks among the owners is to show off the large storage space under the hood known as the "frunk". People are impressed because it is impressive. It is unlike any car they have seen before. Seeing 10 or 11 of them in one place is note worthy- they will tell their friends when they get home.

We headed inside to get lunch while the cars charged. The owners were able to monitor their charging on their Tesla iphone app and see the progress in "miles per hour" - how many miles of range the car is adding  per hour.

After around 45 minutes, one of the owners got a notification on his app that his car had stopped charging, but it had not completed the full "range" charge. Three of us went out to investigate. Indeed the car had stopped charging. It had arrived at the supercharger station with 130 miles left of range and had filled up 50 miles bringing it to a total of 180 miles of range or charge. All of the owners were filling up to the near max of around 275 miles. This car would not take any more even after trying to unplug and replug, resetting the computer, trying different superchargers. A call was placed to Tesla and after running through some basic suggestions that we had already tried they told him they were going to work on a solution and call him back. It is worth noting that George Blankenship, Vice President of Sales & Ownership Experience was monitoring the road trip and was in phone contact with one of the leaders of the trip earlier in the day.

During this time, three or four other Tesla Model S (it was hard to keep track of all of the cars. I realized that it would have been a good idea to number them with some kind of washable marker like a track day to keep track of everything) showed up at the supercharger just trying to "fill up". They were, of course, aware of the New York Times article but unaware of the attempt being made that day by the owners club. At one point I think there were 11-13 Model S in the parking lot near the supercharger.

After all of the cars had rotated through the supercharger spots, it was time for the convoy to depart. The owner of the car that had the charging problem was determined to continue on if he could get the problem fixed. He had more than enough range to get back home to DC but not to continue on with the trip to CT. The convoy departed and a short while later Tesla called back and told the owner that they had detected the problem and that they were working on a custom coded version of 4.3 (an unreleased firmware update) to allow him to continue on. Some 20 minutes later they pushed the update to the car and told him to try again. Somehow the update had locked the door to the plug connection and another call was placed. They saw the bug and pushed another version of the code to the car. This time it worked and the car was once again charging at the high rate of speed promised by the supercharger. There was nothing but appreciation for the customer service from the owner and excitement at being able to continue on the journey. The problem put him at about an hour delay - plenty of time to catch up to the convoy at the next supercharger station. It is worth noting that at no point was the car disabled or 'bricked'. It had 180 miles of charge and had no need for a flatbed. 

At this point we parted ways- myself and 3 others in one Model S heading back south to DC and the now fixed car getting ready to head north to CT.

On the way back we had a more sporting ride than the casual pace of the convoy. Without delving into specifics, let me simply say that this car is fast as f*** but in such a casual way. You want to be 10 car lengths up and 3 lanes over? done. No drama, no anxiety, just done. The only drama is on the super-futuristic digital instrument panel as the various power indicators flash and spin while two digits become three.

When I got home last night, the convoy was nearing Connecticut, and the car that had the problem was not far behind. He made it to the hotel with the others and this morning they departed - some to NY some to Boston and some back to MD. All of the updates and progress can be seen @TeslaRoadTrip

The participants in this journey freely admitted that there are small problems with the car and that they are early adopters. They are the kind of people that send error reports on their computer - happy to take a minute to send feedback to engineers and participate in the improvement of a product over time. The owner that had the problem in Delaware commented "you must be this tall to enter this ride"- implying you have to have a certain level of intelligence and common sense to own this car. If you are competent you can use this car without ending up on a flatbed. They are thankful to Tesla and Elon Musk for having the courage and vision to create this company and believe that Tesla is the only chance EV's have in America. They believe that Tesla is the only manufacturer committed to revolutionizing personal mobility, not just producing EV's and hybrids as a publicity stunt and to meet efficiency standards. They hold these beliefs strongly and they have seen this story before. They know that there are people who want to see this fail and they are willing to make a show of force to prove their point.


-Xander Walker
strassenversion.net

this post is now on jalopnik with some edits and additions
http://strassenversion.kinja.com/tesla-road-trip-debunking-the-new-york-times-247951069 

The New York Times vs Tesla: 21st century problems

The public dispute between Elon Musk and the New York Times is an important moment in the history of the electric car which warrants comment and discussion.

For reference, here are the three relevant articles for this discussion:

the review by John Broder: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?ref=johnmbroder&_r=1&

the response from Elon Musk http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

and the rebuttal from John Broder http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/that-tesla-data-what-it-says-and-what-it-doesnt/

We live in an age of incredible, rapidly changing technology, comfort, and luxury. This safety net of comfort and technology frees us from the burdens of survival and allows us to dedicate our efforts towards productive goals and the further advancement of our civilization. In the United States, everything we want and need is on demand – sustenance, waste disposal, energy, information. This situation inevitably produces a class of severely incompetent humans- people who can’t pump their own gas, people who run out of gas, people who can’t change a tire, people who can’t jump-start a car, people who can’t navigate a city without GPS, people who can’t use public transportation, people who can’t cook an egg, people who can’t set up a wireless router, people who can’t wipe their own ass.
And now we come to John Broder’s review of the Tesla Model S in the New York Times. At best, John Broder is a fairly incompetent 21st century man: incapable of forming a plan and adapting to changing circumstances. At worst he is a disingenuous opponent of electric cars and the paradigm shift they represent. I would argue that the failure of John Broder to reach his destination was the result of human error/incompetence: his own and that of the Tesla customer support personnel (if we are to believe that they told him to travel the highways on an insufficient charge).

The thesis of the original article was that the Model S and the supercharger network were foiled by “plunging temperatures.” After reviewing the three articles relevant to the story, it is abundantly clear that the car would have been capable of completing the I-95 jaunt in the hands of a competent person even in cold weather if the car had been properly charged at the appropriate intervals.

If you can’t drive a Model S from DC to Boston, you might also be deficient in performing other relatively simple tasks. Completing this journey in an electric car is not as easy as it would be using internal combustion and the corresponding infrastructure (DUH!), but it is totally possible to complete this journey in a Model S without shitting the bed like John Broder.

It would have been fine for John Broder to conclude that the Tesla Model S and the supercharger network are not idiot proof, and that the American consumer demands an idiot proof product(the files are inside the computer). It is not fine or honest to claim that a competent person, as John Broder claims to be, can expect to be stranded on the side of the road if they attempt to test the theory of the Model S and the supercharger network in cold weather.

relevant gifs: