Nellie Arrives

Tesla is amazing. I ordered the car on October 3rd. One in stock but not in the area. Tesla shipped it to Norfolk and had it ready for delivery on Monday (a bank holiday). So delivery was Tuesday.

Sandy Munro keeps telling us legacy auto makers are a timezone behind Tesla. After a lap around Virginia Beach, I believe him.

Revisions

2023-10-11 Original rantings of the Wizard

References

First Impressions

It’s not a SUV, its a 21st Century sport estate in the manner of the Audi S4 and S6 of years past and every now and again, well in Europe. Audi doesn’t believe ‘mericans will buy an estate. But some of us do. I would. I drove an A4 for 13 years until it suffered a fatal mishap.

The first thing that strikes you about the car is the look in the double coat red that I picked. The car’s profile is refined in this color. The 2nd row hump of the dark cars becomes a harmonious arch.

The car’s face no longer looks like a bullhead looking for love. The red makes the front splitter look like the DJ’s lips in Warriors — that is to say, red looses the fish-faced look of the dark colors. Oh, and there are almost no reds to be seen in a town where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Model Y.

The second thing that strikes you is the ease of entry and exit and the driving position. That is all reminiscent of Audi, Mercedes, or BMW. The view ahead and to the sides is excellent. The mirrors are great for checking for fast overtaking traffic in the adjacent lanes. They are smaller than the ID.4 mirrors so hard to check the quarters close aboard. But Otto does that for you using machine vision.

Human Machine Interface

Tesla has physical controls where needed and adhered to traditional practice where provided. The window controls are traditional. The doors lock automatically at the off. There is an electrical release for door exit. There is a backup manual release should the 12 volt go out in a mishap. The window lifts are the traditional rocker buttons pioneered by Volkswagen Audi Group. The switch paddle is horizontal, there is one per window. And down is down.

The helm controls are very different than traditional but seem well conceived. The left and right spokes have one axis track balls that change function in response to touch screen selection. Each is clickable and can be rocked left and right, for example, to pan the wing mirrors. The HMI selects the wing mirror being controlled.

The HMI lets you select the default action of each helm controller. The left one normally adjusts the entertainment audio. The right one is pressed to wake the voice command listener. Voice command lets you perform event-oriented tasks like unlocking the globe box, bonnet, or boot. The boot opens and closes. The bonnet is counterbalanced and closed manually. And it is bloody light, likely aluminum.

Machine Vision

Tesla has developed machine vision sufficiently to be the sole sensor for traffic speed aware cruise control, lane keeping, lane intrusion and collision avoidance, backing into parking spots, etc. The cameras in Hardware 4 are sharp and clear, on a par with most mirrors and can be summoned while underway. Machine vision supplements the mirrors for driver tasks and driver assistance processes.

The machine vision keeps track of your uninvited wing man clinging to a quarter or hiding aft of the B-pillar. Low visibility is limited but AutoPilot’s rear facing wing cameras more than make up for the limited vision alongside. You don’t have to pick the traffic out of a complex and moving background. Machine vision removes the clutter, identifies the vehicle types, and shows 1-line sketches of the surrounding traffic. This works really nicely on the motorway. It will even show traffic cones and highway workers in a lane.The car will chime if you signal a lane change into a wing lurker. This same machine vision is assists heading into parking spaces, passing parked cars on tight neighborhood streets. The parked vehicles will clearly be drawing left on the left and right on the right during a fair passage. A steady bearing rate warns of an impending mishap.

There’s no binnacle dispaly

I missed it at first. It was kind of nice to see the range to turn and next turn there, the vehicle speed, and the very minimal traffic assist and lane assist cuing.

Tesla moved all that to the main 15 inch landscape display. Underway, it is divided into two parts, a lane or road display kept by autopilot that supplements the mirrors for traffic awareness and following and a larger section that shows the navigation moving map. Cuing is at the top of the lane display. The speed limit and current speed are over there and traffic signals and other traffic controls will appear as machine learning completes tuning of the autopilot to local conditions.

And Its A Sports Estate!

For 2023, Tesla has retuned the suspension and throttle and brake maps to give a refined ride. With 19″ Gemini wheels and the standard all-season tires, (all-season and all-weather are different critters), the car drives nicely in the milder parts of the year. Expect grip to decrease and stopping distances to increase below about 5C in the winter.

The standard dual motor Model Y has ’60s muscle car power with modern traction control, stability control, anti-lock brakes, and an agile suspension tuned to the sporty side of normal. With the Gemini wheels, the ride is crisp and controlled. No roll or pitch to speak of in normal maneuvers. With standard power, it is a 4 second car to 100 KPH or 60 MPH. Even in Chill mode, it books. And it will carve apexes nicely. And it is poised and confident in traffic.

One Pedal Only

Tesla has tuned the off-accelerator coast-down for about 1/4 G of decelleration. This is more than most drivers will use driving in traffic. More than 1/4 G feels aggressive to most operators. The car simulates a manual transmission in this mode but there are two modes that simulate contemporary automatic transmissions. One has some mild coast down, the other has almost none. I found I prefer the one pedal manual emulation. In 35 miles or so, I quickly learned to modulate the amount of slowing and could bring the car to a full stop.

Backing into the car port, I found that I liked the accelerator speed control much better than the VW creep. The Model Y will come to a full stop and hold. When the light changes, it chimes to remind you that it is time to roll. The accelerator can produce controlled creep or a smooth start with traffic.

The drive can also be tuned to emulate contemporary automatic transmission creep with a couple of levels of creep. I found that I like the car to hold and the smooth proportional control of roll-off in this mode. I could have as much or as little creep as I wanted. It made negotiating the driveway mouth much easier than too much slush-box creep did.

The car seemed smart about the traffic ahead and would stop about a car length behind without much thought on my part. I suspect Otto was helping out.