Tesla Community Blogs

Tesla Owner and Teslaliving are two of the more in-depth independent Tesla owners and bloggers on the web.  We’ve decided to join forces on this post to talk about or beginnings and focus areas and to encourage other owners to share their stories.

Although we live on opposite coasts in the United States, we are both engineers by trade and successful entrepreneurs.

Beginnings – Tesla Owner

I began a relationship with Tesla in 2006 at an EV event at Palo Alto High School.  At the event, I talked to several different car “manufacturers”.  The only one that impressed me was Tesla.  They had a mockup / prototype of the Roadster that was pretty rough.  After that initial conversation, I shortly put my $75,000 down for my Roadster.   The blog was born upon the delivery of one of the first 200 Roadsters in 2008.

The Roadster was driven about 29,000 miles before being sold in early 2013 in order to purchase a Model S.  The Model S now has 32,000 miles including being driven back and forth cross-country in the spring of 2014.

Beginnings – Tesla Living

My introduction to Tesla was oddly a from a sales guy at my office (not in the auto industry) dropping in and telling me I should buy a Tesla. I quickly googled it, saw the price, laughed him out of my office and forgot all about it. Or so I thought. 6 months later I was struggling with a car nearing 200,000 miles and a daughter about to start driving. I needed another car. My high mileage driving (at 100 miles a day on average) had my fuel costs at about $600/month. I started researching hybrids and almost talked myself into a Ford Fusion Hybrid but just couldn’t mentally get past the irrationality of having two powertrains in a vehicle. I slid towards EVs and found they had no range. Or almost all of them had no range. I looked at the Tesla and it still looked crazy. But then I saw Tesla’s attempt at justifying the cost and I wondered if they could be on to something. As an engineer, I ran the numbers.  My math told me buying a modern replacement for what I was driving was the same financial decision as buying a Tesla Model S. I was 99% sold on the Model S before my test drive that concluded with an order. What I didn’t expect when mathematically picking a car was get so excited about it pre and post delivery and for that not to wear off. With more than 90 posts and new experiences in the Model S every week that passion has not worn off!

Focus Areas – Tesla Owner

The Tesla Owner site began when electric car drivers were very few and far between.  I wanted to share a real world experience driving a high end electric car.  Every service visit and every problem is documented in the blog.  Since I began when so very few Tesla were on the road, the blog is written in an anonymous style in order to limit any possible identification by Tesla personnel.  The idea was that all service visits and customer treatment would be the same as every other owner.  But after some of the controversial data required a response before publishing, Tesla is aware of the true identity of Tesla Owner.

I sold the Roadster and changed to the Model S for two main reasons.  First the Roadster is a very small car.  The cabin space is very small.  I’ve always enjoyed larger interiors and sufficient trunk space.  My ICE car before the Roadster was a Mercedes E420.  The second reason I switched to the Model S was the supercharging capabilities.  I was so excited to be able to take long road trips without using gasoline.

When the first superchargers were built, I excitedly drove down to Gilroy and quickly took a trip down to Los Angeles.  But I was not able to achieve the times Tesla was claiming for charging my car.  My first controversial blog post was a test of the claim that a driver could charge 200 miles in 30 minutes.  After repeated tests, Tesla was contacted to respond to the post including pulling data from the superchargers themselves.  They subsequently lowered their claim down to 170 miles in 30 minutes.

In my career, I had worked in various engineering, marketing and quality roles.  Somehow this past experience clearly influenced my blog.  I then conducted some more supercharger time tests and a field test of the earlier A (90kW) batteries vs the newer batteries (120kW) with two other owners.  The test in the end calmed down the somewhat angry early Tesla buyers by achieving a difference of only 5 minutes for charging between the oldest batteries and the newer ones.

The most harrowing experience that has been blogged about was an almost tire blow out due to shredding of the interior sidewall.  Fortunately the Model S watches tire pressure and the car was stopped before the tire shredded completely.

Along side my Tesla specific posts, I blog from time to time technology related to keeping our environment clean.  I have owned solar panels for many years now and am looking forward to reporting soon that all my electricity to drive my Tesla will be free forever.

Focus Areas – Tesla Living

As a hardware and software engineer I was drawn to the technology of the Model S. I love the interfaces and the potential they offer. I spend a lot of time poking at the software features and functions, noting the strengths and weaknesses, making lists of things I would love to see them add, collecting metrics on all sorts of things, and watching for new features as they’re delivered to owners with software updates. Not being very mechanical, another aspect of my blogging is sort of “Driving the Model S for Dummies” with one mistake or learning experience after another in owning an EV, and planning road trips, etc. Like Tesla Owner, I prefer to remain mostly anonymous as I intentionally write about the good and the bad of the Model S and Tesla and want to stay independent.

Top Posts – Tesla Owner

I have written over 250 posts in 5 1/2 years.  More than half of these posts were about the Model S.  The Roadster was a very fun car to drive but was a much simpler car that did not lead to as many interesting blogging subjects.

My most popular posts are feature comparisons.  These posts continue to generate hits month after month as new Tesla buyers perform searches on the web.  The top posts are comparisons between the different Model S models and choosing between the different wheel sizes along with two posts about aesthetics.

• 19″ vs. 21″ Wheels
• P85+ Loaner Report
• Performance and Plus
• Living With 110V
• Aesthetic Config
• New Darker Grey

Three other very popular posts are my aforementioned tests of the supercharger claims and my harrowing experience with tire issues. But my most popular all time post has nothing to do with the Model S and is in fact a more generic subject.  I just don’t care for convertibles all that much.

Convertible – Not For Me

Top Posts – Tesla Living

Some of my most popular posts are:

• Cost Justification – a tie?
• Playing music from USB in the Model S
• Charger Confusion
• Model S vs Model X
• 5 Mistakes for new Model S owners to avoid

I’ve written over 90 posts in 6 months and one of the most popular pages on my site is the list of all posts in order chronologically. Some people actually read all the posts from the beginning but that’s not for the faint of heart.

Future Plans – Tesla Owner

I always have a running list of topics to write about.  Typically, half of them are relatively easy blogs to write and the other half require some in-depth analysis.  I always like to throw in a few light hearted posts on related topics.  For a long time, I wanted to update the aesthetics of my website including changing the picture of the Roadster to the Model S to avoid confusion.

I have already requested from my current Service Manager an P85D loaner!  Hopefully sometime in 2015 I will be able to drive one for the day.  I will definitely take it out for a good spin probably over to the coast like I did with the P85+ last year.  I am very much looking forward to enjoying the 0-60 in 3.2 seconds but also would like to understand the characteristics of the acceleration.

Future Plans – Tesla Living

Like Tesla Owner I have a running list of things that come to me as I catch up on the Tesla and TMC forums, watch videos from Nick Howe and others, etc. Then life happens and more things end up on the list. Winter is coming fast here in New England and my adventure with solar is just beginning and already a mini-saga so I expect those two will drive quite a bit of the near term posts.

Conclusion

The Tesla Owner and Teslaliving blogs are complementary and similar but different perspectives into owning the Tesla Model S – a car and company that are changing the auto industry forever.

Version 6.0

One wonderful thing about the Model S is that we regularly get software updates.  A couple of weeks ago, my car was loaded with version 6.0.  The three more interesting features for me are the calendar app (in a Beta form), keyless starting and traffic based navigation.  The release also includes commute advice, which is of no interest to me as I do not work, the ability to name your car, some power management options, and location based air suspension.

Many of these software features can bring up concerns about privacy.  In the case of the calendar and navigation features, a third party has access to where and when you are in certain locations.  I don’t have a particular personal concern about this and I trust Tesla a lot more than other businesses, but I am concerned with the level of government spying on individuals in the U.S.

Calendar Application

One of the new features include linking to your calendar app on your phone.  I took a few times to get the link to work as you have to configure your phone in several different places. I was having trouble with my iphone 5s at the time.  The phone could not update an app, played a random piece of music on its own and even called one of my contacts by itself!   Thankfully, the iphone was still under warranty and the flaky intermittent problem reappeared at the Apple Store!  And my difficulty with the calendar linking has not reappeared with my “new” iPhone, which I hope to keep for many years as I do not want a larger phone.

The calendar app, which is a Beta feature, is a bit underwhelming as it simply shows you items on your calendar for today and tomorrow.  I’m not a sales person so I don’t have a lot of different items on my schedule.

In general, I have wanted a way to be able to tell the car to “drive to this particular location” by name:  a restaurant or someone’s house.  Currently you have to say “navigate” to a particular address.  This new calendar feature allows you to navigate to an address that you put in your calendar.  I would love a much more general feature where it navigates to an address in your contact list, or a location on the web.  I make very cryptic calendar entries just to be expeditious and almost never add a location to any appointments, but I am starting to include the addresses for this linking feature.  I have had other people in the car comment that their vehicle has more sophisticated links to their contact list.

Keyless Driving

Driving via Your Phone Gives You Two Minutes

The remote starting / keyless driving feature is an interesting feature.  Using your smartphone and the Tesla app you can start the car.  Once you hit the “start” button on the app, you must enter your password, and then you are given two minutes to have your foot on the brake pedal.

Because this feature requires both a smartphone and either internet connectivity or a cell phone signal, I don’t think this feature is truly keyless.  A true keyless feature would allow me to use my fingerprint on the car to unlock the car and then drive away.  To read text on my smartphone, I need a pair of reading glasses, so typing in any reasonably secure password requires yet another physical object.  And I use a secure password manager for all of my passwords, so finding the password for the Tesla app is another step.  I hope that Tesla can use the fingerprint check on the iPhone instead of a password mechanism.

The Detour Not Worth Taking

I live and frequent somewhat rural locations.  My home for example has weak cellular service and I still maintain a landline.  I would not feel comfortable depending upon a connection between my car and the phone for the only way to drive my car.  I suspect the intention of this feature is more of a backup to your key fob if it is lost or misplaced.

Traffic Based Navigation

I have driven a couple of times where I experimented with the traffic based navigation.  A drive that can often be difficult is crossing through the west side of San Francisco.  On this particular day I chose to use the most common route of 19th Avenue.  Although 19th Avenue had a lot less traffic than normal, the navigation wanted to route me over a street.  I chose just to continue on my way.

Another day I had the reverse situation where there were two ways I could arrive at a particular restaurant that has a very tricky route from the freeway.  I decided to follow the navigation instead of my normal route and hit a zone of red traffic for about a mile.

In both these cases, the traffic navigation was not perfect.  I think common sense and local knowledge will always be better than most automatic solutions.

Location Based Air Suspension

The location based air suspension will remember where you previously raised the car to go over an obstacle and perform it the next time you are in the same location.  I only know of one particular location that I visit a few times a year where I do raise the suspension but this could be quite useful for someone with a home or work location that requires a higher suspension.  My inner jokester also thinks this could be a feature for a great practical joke on someone.  Imagine someone finding their car raising every time they hit a certain street or returning to their car from a particular location.  In the highest setting, the Model S looks visibly different.  The driver may think their car was haunted.  I wonder if you can teach the car to “unlearn” high suspension at a particular location.

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!

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.

 

Failed Power Adapter

Adapter Splayed Out on Garage Floor

In this blog, I have documented every small issue I have had with my Teslas.  I recently experienced another unusual issue, that I think could only effect a very small amount of Model S owners.  I have an uncommon setup where my high powered connector is the first Roadster version, and then I have an adapter from that plug to the Model S.  I chose to use an adapter instead of purchasing a new high powered wall connector. This setup had many benefits for me. The adapter was lower cost than a new high powered wall connector and is in effect an extension cord. I could still occasionally charge a Roadster at my home, and I did not have to hire an electrician.  There may be a very unusual case where I find a Roadster charge station while on the road, and I can charge my Model S from there using this adapter.  Everything had worked fine for about ten months.

Then one day late last year, I tried to plug my car in one day at home and struggled for a while. After a while of pulling it back and forth, I heard the audible click and the light changed at the port.

The next day when I got home, I struggled again with the same sequence.  I got to a strange point where the plug was physically connected to the car, but the Dashboard indicated that there was a problem with the connection.  I tried to jiggle the connection around a few times, and on the second day I simply could not even remove the cord from the car no matter how hard I pulled.  I played with it a few more times, and reboot the two screens.

Right Steering Column

To reboot the 17” display, you hold down both of the scroll bars on the steering wheel.  To reboot the speedometer display, you hold down both of the top buttons on each side of the steering wheel.

I was wondering if this was a problem with the new 5.8.4 software that I had just installed a few days earlier.  This software had an enhancement to watch for unexpected fluctuations in the input charge level due to bad house wiring.  A Tesla owner had a fire in the garage where their car was parked (the Tesla and connector were fine).  As a response to this incident, Tesla is sending all the owners of the Model S High Powered Wall Connectors new units with a thermal fuse.  The thermal fuse will prevent current from flowing if the wall socket region heats up for any reason.  I have no idea if my High Powered Wall Connector has a thermal fuse or not.  But after almost five years of use and a house that is less than ten years old, I am not concerned.

Vehicle Power Off

Neither of these two reboots worked.  I called the Tesla service number and the friendly person told me to reboot the main power also.  Rebooting the main power allowed me to remove the adaptor, but not charge the car.  Tesla could see that my car had an internal error about power.  Since I placed this call at night on a Sunday in the middle of the holiday season, the person on the phone could not find out any more information from the engineering department.

In the morning, I received a call back after the engineers looked at the car’s error logs.  A problem was detected in the physical adaptor cable.  That same day, I went to the service center and received a new cable free of charge as it was still under the one year warranty period.  I was told that my problem was a bit unusual, and the only suggestion they had was to not keep the cable wound tightly.  But I just keep the cable splayed out permanently in my garage as there is plenty of space.