Service and Warranty

I have blogged about the Tesla service several times over the years.  I have found the service personnel very courteous and have given them in general high reviews as do other owners, who do not have a visible presence in the internet world.

My car went in again for service recently and I drove a 85 loaner with 19” wheels, coil suspension, parking sensors and a parcel shelf.

Ding on Loaner Vehicle

What was interesting about my recent service experience is that for the first time they are checking both vehicles for door dings and paint issues.  The valet said that some customers have complained about the clear coat leaving marks from rain spots.  This year has been so dry, outside of some freak summer rain in the early hours, I haven’t thought about rain.  The loaner with about 500 miles on it actually had a significant ding on the front of the car.

Car Needs Service

Unfortunately during my service, my loaner vehicle had a failure on the last day.  With the new firmware 5.12 on the loaner, I got a generic warning “Car Needs Service”.  The car was still completely drivable but the main screen was not responsive to touch and could not be rebooted.

Used Only 314 kWh/mile While Driving the Loaner

A number of smart buyers are buying these loaner vehicles in order to get faster delivery and a slightly less expensive car.  I think buying a loaner from Tesla is a good option.  Surprisingly when I had this loaner, I drove it at only 314 Wh/mi, which is the lowest value I have ever driven since hypermiling in Utah.  In these 125 miles, I did only 20 miles of freeway driving and most of the miles were on boring and busy city streets.  Since the loaners are almost the identical car that one already owns, there is no reason to go on a joy ride.

Parcel Shelf

I did notice the slight difference of the coil suspension and the 19” wheels but still found the loaner configuration a very nice option for someone who wants to save money in both the purchase and the tire wear.  This loaner was the first car with a parcel shelf, which I liked more than expected.  It was unobtrusive and easily hides things in the trunk — even if all you are hiding is reusable grocery bags.

Today I was very excited that they extended the warranty on the 85kWh model S for the drive unit to 8 years and infinite miles.  A number of owners had experienced issues with the drive units including another blogger, Dan Edmunds.  Many of these issues were relatively minor such as noise during acceleration.  Since the drive unit is sealed, the entire drive unit is replaced.  Today, Elon Musk made this warranty announcement including that it is retroactive for all Model S 85kWh vehicles!

Bitter Cold and Wind

For the last few days I have been traveling through Wyoming and South Dakota in very high winds of gusts up to 55 mph and temperatures almost always in the 30s.  I’m a native Californian, and for me this weather is bitter cold and difficult to even stay out of the car for more than a few minutes to take some photos wearing a down jacket and a hat.  A few times the wind was so strong it was almost hard to walk.

When I left Lusk, Wyoming with a full range charge, I began the first 5 miles using over 500 Wh/mile, which is a huge number.  The battery was cold, the outside air temperature about 32 degrees fahrenheit (0 degree celsius) and very gusty winds even up to 55 mph.  I was quite cautious on the drive into the Black Hills area.  I was driving under the speed limit for most of the trip – beginning at 55 mph and then up to 65 mph.  Even if the route between the superchargers is only 149 miles, I used up almost all of my electricity during the journey.

Wind Cave National Park

I took an “indoor” excursion into Wind Cave National Park.  This cave is quite interesting with many separate passageways that are very maze like.  And lots of unusual shapes on the walls.  I had lunch at the Black Hills Burger & Bun Company in downtown Custer, which has both traditional hamburgers, buffalo and a homemade black bean burgers.

I also stopped in at both the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore.   I think all visitors to this area need to see both.  Both monuments represent people and movements that are important to the development in the United States.  Mount Rushmore honors four important presidents to our development as a nation, and Crazy Horse honors one of the last Native warriors and the cruel legacy of how the Native Americans were treated.

The Crazy Horse Monument scale is gigantic.  I tried to represent the two side by side in the montage photo below as a reasonably accurate representation of the size difference.  Although you can see Crazy Horse from the road, the cost of admission and the short ride to the base gives you a fascinating sense of the scale of this monument.  Only Crazy Horse’s face is complete; when complete the entire sculpture will reach the trees below.  I enjoy watching construction projects and can appreciate the amount of effort already undertaken and continuing for years into the future.

Crazy Horse Monument in Relationship to Mount Rushmore

At the Mount Rushmore monument parking gate, the fee taker recognized my car.  We began to talk about Teslas and I gave him a ride in the car.  Turns out Elon Musk was seen here in his black Tesla along with a second silver Tesla.

During these journeys while supercharging, I took breaks in the nearby lodging facilities when not eating.  I have found that even in remote corners of the west, all the food service is now so fast even in sit down restaurants.  I also have stopped overnight next to the superchargers.  Late in the evening, the last thing I want to do is wait for the car to charge, I’d rather walk over to the closest motel.

I also found I needed to use my first non-supercharger on this journey in the Badlands National Park.  I wanted to see one of the minuteman missile sites.  The park ranger told me that the self guided site was back another forty miles (thirty in reality) round trip from the intersection where I was going to be turning east.  I asked the rangers at Badlands if I could charge using some of their RV spots.  Turns out I was lucky as the head ranger had been wanting to add a charging spot, and I added 60 miles of charge in their volunteer RV hookups at 40 amps.

First Charging in a RV facility in Badlands National Park

In the end, the missile site was not overwhelming but worth seeing.  The decommissioned missile that was on view seemed so small for the huge amount of destruction it could have caused.   My best estimate if I had not topped off in the RV park would have run out of juice 30 miles west of the supercharger unless I had slowed down dangerously on the freeway.

The last leg into the first supercharger into Minnesota, I drove conservatively staying near the speed limit but only could average 400 Wh/mile.  I kept getting the “Service Tire Pressure Warning” light and went off and on a few times in Minnesota.

While on this leg of the journey, a reporter out of Los Angeles ran out of charge in his rented Tesla in the California / Arizona desert.  I chose not to drive direct from Barstow to Kingman because I was worried about the distance given the high speeds on the freeway and the wind conditions.  Driving an electric car does require more planning than a gas vehicle because charging options are not as ubiquitous today.

Near the supercharger in Worthington, Minnesota were a large number of windmills.  I’m hoping I charged with wind power.  I actually spotted another Tesla with California plates at the supercharger in Worthington when I left.

Wind Turbines Near Worthington, Minnesota

 

 

Three Tesla Events

I generally don’t cover Tesla news as the mainstream media and the two forums cover them well.  Recently there have been three events that I thought were worth mentioning on this blog.

First, two teams of people managed to cross the country in Tesla’s using the supercharger network.  The first was a father and daughter team.  The second was an official Tesla team earning a Guinness world record for “lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the country”.  Seems like somewhat an odd world record but they basically made it in a little over three days in true winter weather.

Both of these exercises would not be particularly fun or something a typical driver would want to do.  Most people would want to stop and enjoy the scenery and sights and not simply drive from point A to point B.  But both of these trips showed that enjoyable road trips throughout the world will soon be possible as more and more superchargers are installed.

One notable feature I noticed in the coverage of the official Tesla cross country drive was the newer firmware has an option to show the percentage of battery remaining.  I am excited about this small feature as I think the percentage is much more intuitive than the current reading of rated range miles.

The third event was a Q&A session in Norway with Elon Musk and JB Straubel in Oslo last week.  You can watch the long video.  I found the following points the most interesting.

The upcoming version 6 software will have some new features and improvements on existing features.

1. Real time traffic.  This feature is already there but may include an interaction with navigation or faster updating.
2. Internet music improvements.
3. More suspension options for the driver.  You will be able to adjust the suspension manually at a variety of speeds.
4. A later update of the software in the version 6 family will have lines in the backup camera.

Tesla is working on an active hill hold feature.  Today the Model S on hills reminds me of stick shift cars where if you were not good with the clutch, the car would roll back.  With the Model S, you have to use your brake on hills in order to not roll back.  On steep hills, I often feel like I need to very quickly shift from the brake pad to the accelerator.  I have experimented with trying to use the existing creep feature on steep hills but it did not solve the problem in a significant way.  In extreme situations, I have used both feet to release the brake instantaneously while pressing the accelerator.

Various questions from the audience brought up physical aspects of the car.

1. Center console for storing items is coming soon.
2. Improved seats will also be available as an upgrade.  First, a small upgrade in the spring force of the seat and later on a redesigned upgraded seat.  Seats today need to work with the air bag system so redesigns are not that simple.
3. Improvements in radio reception.  I find the radio reception today so much improved over the original Roadster’s radio, I don’t notice this issue.

A discussion occurred on how green the Model S is.  Tesla has done an internal energy study on the car production and will release a white paper on this soon.  JB said that the energy payback occurs in less than 10,000 miles of driving.  Elon also said the car with a battery replacement should easily last twenty years.

Most of the superchargers this year will be charging at 135kW — another improvement of charging times for most Model S owners.

Tesla does not record car speed or location data.  During an emergency, they can detect this information.  They do monitor the battery regularly.

Various discussion points about the Model X and its gull wing doors.  A Norwegian driver was concerned about transporting long skis.  Elon said there is potentially a place for a ski box in the triangular place between the doors or a location under the seats.  I doubt the Model X will be able to transport a paddleboard or a kayak.  Elon also said if you can physically fit between the Model X and the car, the doors will have enough side clearance to open.

 

Lowrider Safety

I normally don’t blog about the major ‘news’ events about Tesla.  I figure anyone who has interest in electric cars has heard the news already, often I don’t have anything to add, or the news is uninteresting.

A case in point the three Tesla vehicle fires.  I think the national media hyped this story up.  Unfortunately many US media outlets focus on fear mongering and sensationalism instead of meaningful news.  The only outlets I really pay attention to these days is the San Jose Mercury News and the PBS Newshour.  The nightly news on most stations is intolerable and focuses on violence and terrorism.  Most web based news outlets focus too much on celebrity gossip or other trivial matters.

Firmware Release 5.8

Tesla did not do a perfect job in handling this fire situation.  They gave us a firmware update to our cars, version 5.8, without telling us ahead of time or in the release notes that the car had a significant behavior change.  A huge uproar occurred on the forums as owners began to notice that their car no longer lowered on the freeway.

Now with 5.8, a driver cannot use the low suspension setting, which should save energy at highway speeds.  The air suspension option cost $1,500 and requires the tech package.  Tesla effectively turned off this feature through software without any notice.  This video shows the air suspension in action.

The three vehicle fires were the reason for this change. As Elon Musk pointed out in his recent blog, the fire rate for the Tesla is one in 6,333 cars which is much lower than ICE cars which is one fire per 1,350 cars.  I have seen others debate Elon’s exact numbers, but I have not seen any that state the rate of fires of the Model S is anywhere near ICE vehicles.

The Model S is so safe that not one person has been injured or killed in any Model S to date by any kind of accident.  The National Highway Safety and Transportation is investigating these fire incidents and the warranty is being modified to cover non-intentional fire damage.

Tesla is stating by January the driver will be able to manually lower the car back down to the low setting.  I can see this might be a tiny bit safer as the driver needs to think of the road conditions.  I rarely drive on roads with a lot of loose items or tailgate, so I will be lowering my Model S back on down.

I often see other Teslas on the freeways, and I have to admit, they remind me of lowrider cars when they are in the low suspension setting.

Low Rider courtesy of daveparker.com

Tesla Junk Mail

A number of owners and potential owners of Teslas in select locations received some unwanted marketing material with the return address of Tesla in Palo Alto.  The first solicitations were in Southern California, and the second batch was in the San Francisco Bay Area, but likely to specific zip codes.

Junk Mail From Tesla

The envelope uses the words “Courtesy Gift from Tesla”.  Inside the envelope is a envelope with a plastic gift card.  The gift card is simply a 40% discount on some “designer jeans” that typically cost $250 or so.  With some very strange marketing for electric car buyers:

“Experience the denim equivalent of a V12 engine”

At first, the impression on the forums was that somehow a marketing company had broken into the Tesla website and discovered the owners or perhaps they mined the DMV records.  But one unhappy owner received a response back from a Tesla marketing person that it was approved by Tesla!

From the forums, the owners have expressed clear disappointment with Tesla on this program.  Elon has said in the past that he simply does not believe in marketing.  I am surprised this one was approved.  A valid gift might be a free pair of jeans not a discount that put the overpriced jeans into perhaps a reasonable price point for people with comfortable incomes.

The behavior of Tesla in this situation is very disappointing.  The “Gift” is not a gift at all but a nuisance and harmful for the environment.  In the past, they have sent some odd gifts to Roadster owners, but at least the gifts were actual merchandise.

I can’t imagine any scenario why Tesla thinks sending out this advertisement hidden as a gift card to its customers is a good idea.  My only guess is some misguided employee really likes these jeans?  Or that this jean company actually gave Tesla $500,000 or so to dilute their brand and upset their customers?

I neither want the nuisance of snail mail and do not like the environmental impact of printing, shipping, mailing and recycling junk mail.  The “advertising card” is not even recyclable.  At this point, I get so little snail mail, I only check my mail box once a week.  I am on every possible do-not-call or do-not-mail list out there.  I have done this primarily through a manual process.  I opt-out of everything, and I have let organizations know I do not want calls or catalogs.  Some organizations have been very difficult to stop getting junk mail including a few non-profits and some glossy advertisements that are disguised as magazines that are thrown on driveways.

If you have not really started the process, at this point it is a bit easier to work on a larger scale to stop all general solicitations.  These following link is a valid organizations that can bite a large chunk of unwanted solicitations.

Opt out of junk mail:  https://www.catalogchoice.org

Tesla, please put me on your opt-out list for all third party advertisements.