You own a Tesla?
For those that haven't caught on yet
yes i do. Since december 22, 4pm i am the excited, elated, happy owner of a dolphin grey Model S with 85KWh battery pack .
This thing is a close to a starship as one can get. The sheer simplicity is overwhelming. Walk to car , open door , sit down, close door. Click in reverse or forward , steer and control speed with 1 pedal. When done, click in park, open door, get out, close door walk away.
There is no remote to press, or key to turn to unlock doors, the car knows its owner is there from 5 feet away and extends its doorhandles in a welcoming gesture. By the time you grab the handle and open the door your favorite station is playing , your seat is at your temperature the seat position, mirror position and steering wheel position have adjusted to your preset ( if they were altered by another drivers preset). You sit down and the displays power up with a welcoming tesla logo and a short overview of the projected range. You put on the seatbelt, press the brake pedal , for safety, at which point the display makes a 3d animated turn and becomes the speed and power indicator.
You click the control stalk in forward or reverse and gently press the accelerator. Releasing the accelerator applies regeneration sending electrons back to the negative pole of the battery thus recharging.
When done driving you click the control stalk in park , open door, get out amd close the door. When i move further than 6 feet the handles retract, the mirrors fold in and the car goes to sleep.
There is no key, no remote buttons, no handbrake handle, no brake pedal to press (except the last 2 feet of rolling to ahlat and keeping steady position). There is no windshield wiper control, no headlight control. The electrochromic side and interior mirrors adapt to lightlevels at night (like a welding mask). In reverse the side mirrors tilt down so you see the curb and the hd rear view camera kicks in. Parking radar detects objects front, rear, sideway and downward. You can't hit a wall or a curb as the sensors stop the car.
The climate control has 2 dials. Left temperature and right temperature and fan speed. There is no control for window,front only, top only, bottom only. None of the 24 combinations possible in a traditional car. Set your desired temperature and the entire cabin, including the seats maintain that without you even feeling airflow. Just like the AC at home.
You dont need to screw with windshield wiper speed or interval , you dont need to muck around with fog,ight switches and lightswitches.
The displays automatically dim according to ambient light levels and when low enough change to a nighttime colorscheme as not to tire the drivers. The cabin ambient lights fade in and out automatically.
The only control you use while driving is your direction indicator, the steering wheel and the throttle pedal. And forward/reverse. Coming to a full stop you use the brake pedal the last 3 feet.
Exiting the car doesn't require a complicated ritual either. Click 'park', get out and walk away. The car does the reset.
It plays flac,aac,mp3 from usb flash drives , internet radio, satellite radio. It has live google maps and satellite view as well as a 3d nav display for the drive cluster.
I dont need to take my hands off the wheel for anything. Two control rollers (like the middle mouse wheel) and four buttons allow me to do anything i want.
I can hold the top right one , at which point music auto atic fades away and happy chime tells me the car is listening. I simply tell it 'Play ELO, NAvigate to 2525 augustine drive santa clara , call joe'
and the car seeks my music collection for anything by ELO,if it doesnt find anything local it will connect and see if it can find an internet radio station , through slacker service, that plays elo. The navigation will calculate the optimum route to the given address and my phone has been instructed, via bluetooth to dial joe's number and route the audio to the on board hands free system.
It is bloody brilliant ! No more controls that date back 150 years.