The Tesla Model S is neither new nor surprising more. When the electric sedan entered the market in 2012, it br oke the perception of electric cars and has proven viable electric car.
Since then, Tesla has become the go-to brand for geeks and early adopters. We drove the Tesla Model S before, so there is no need to talk of his most obvious characteristics. But recent events are a great time to talk about the second most important feature :. Autopilot
Self Is Tesla system any good? Can it be dangerous? How is it to be truly independent? And in addition to that, how the model S improved in recent years
Disclosure: The car, insurance, and a full battery of electrons were provided by the Czech company leasing business, which imports Teslas in the Czech Republic. He was a European version of the car, which may or may not be different from those found in the United States and elsewhere.
I must admit that, of all the cars I drive this year I was most excited behind the wheel of the Model S. I was driving one of the mo dels when they start P85 went out, but only briefly and without the possibility to exploit its ease of use in the real world or the beach. This time, I had three days with the car. With many people who want to catch a ride on the S model (the Tesla is still a relatively rare sight in the Czech Republic), it was a perfect opportunity to see how the electric car runs daily, and in conditions enough difficult.
Why the harsh conditions? Three things.
First, I had to take the car in Prague, drive to my hometown, then back to Prague tomorrow to allow a local celebrity traveler, Dan Přibáň, to examine it. After that I had to drive in Brno, the second largest city, in our version of cars and coffee. In all, I planned to cover nearly 0 miles over three days.
This alone would not necessarily difficult if I lived in a house and not an apartment building. But lack of friends with a fairly powerful electrical outlet (or pretty close to a parking space) to charge a T esla, I had no option for charging overnight
This brings me to the last issue :. The first Supercharger in our country was completed some time after this review, so I had to rely on slower CHAdeMO and type 2 Mennekes public chargers designed primarily for smaller batteries, like those found in the Nissan Leaf.
Driving Range and
When I got to take the car, I am disappointed that it was only a 85D and not the high performance P85D I had initially hoped. After being surprised by the acceleration of the normal P85, I really wanted to try the fastest Q-car. But even so, this car is fast - much faster than the 4.2-second sprint to 60 miles per hour would suggest. It was enough to make most passengers giggle after one or two full gas works, and now I think fully Ludicrous the P85D mode can reverse the digestion of a passenger.
Even more important than show with the acceleration is the ability of the model S be strangely fast in traffic. How the Model S accelerates in the interstices of traffic, intersections, and out of the lanes merge road is not only fascinating, but for a much more relaxed driving experience. Yo ure not stressed out having to catch up with other cars. Instead, you simply adjust your speed if necessary. This flexibility is so addictive that after a while, you start to think of gasoline engines as something comparable to the steam engine.
I could not test track last time I simply do not have enough time with the S model to drain the battery. This time, I had many opportunities to become familiar with the public office and range anxiety - and I could finally know how the Tesla could do on a charge, either on race or economics a spirited sprint. It was also one of the first things people asked, "I know its supposed to go 270 miles on a charge, but how does it measure really go" With European testing? fuel economy being totally disconnected from reality (of which I spoke some time ago), this is a big concern for Europeans.
at the beginning, I kept on the safe side of the ability to battery charge. I did some shopping around Prague to demonstrate the capabilities of the Tesla to friends and colleagues. in doing so I drained the battery significantly and did not have enough time to recharge completely, so I went home (a drive 80 mile) slowly and carefully. the same was true for the race back to Prague the next day, and at home after that. I recharged the batteries every time I had the opportunity, but I was still chronically low on battery due to a lack of Superchargers in the country. CHAdeMO chargers take an hour and a half to completely recharge the 85D, but they are quite rare. Instead, I often relied on slow me Mennekes chargers, which require several hours. This means that during the three days of testing, I had twice the full battery.
Despite this, I learned that I could dart across the country with little difficulty, and discovered the indicated range of 270 miles to be surprisingly realistic as long as driving with a hardened foot. But I already knew that, but not first hand.
But what happens when you drive regardless of the economy at all? When I had a run of 80 or 0 miles to do so, with a nearly full battery and quick charger in my destination, I decided to rush to 20-30 miles per hour over the limit. I was faster with the Golf Wagon R few weeks before, but Tesla was still running about as fast as one would want to drive on a public road for an extended period of time. However, the energy consumption of the Tesla was equal to the range of about 0 miles, which makes it very convenient even for drivers "fiery".
can he drive himself?
This record was the only one I completely filled manually. Besides, I was driving about 95 percent of the time with AutoSteer on. Well, maybe "mounted" is the right term instead of "conduit". The Autopilot function was what I was most excited to try, and he did not disappoint. Kind of.
When you enable AutoSteer first and slowly, carefully move your hands on the steering wheel is a fascinating part, a terrifying part. The first step is unbelief careful. You see the wheel of the car itself and monitor what the car "sees" on the dashboard screen, but we do not really trust it. For tens of miles you drive with your hands right next to the steering wheel, ready to intervene if something happens.
When watching the car facing traffic and obstacles, you slowly gain more and more confidence in the computer, and possibly relax with your hands on your knees. No matter how much you read about autonomou s cars, it is tied with astrophysics or Star Trek until you experience one. Ride in a Tesla with Autopilot is the first time you really believe that autonomous driving may one day be possible.
But whatever said Elon Musk, Autopilot is still beta software in the true sense. Now then, the system will remind you to keep your hands on the wheel, forcing you to touch the wheel for a while for it to detect your input. And while the AutoSteer works well on motorways and major roads of the city, it does not seem very confident on the small roads, or to deal with the unexpected.
Of the 500 or 0 miles with the Tesla, Ive done probably 350 of them on Autopilot. Most of my road trips were spent watching the car drive itself, talking to passengers and listening to music. I could not even take my eyes off the road for a while and watch the scenery around me. I saw things I had never noticed in years, I was driving these roads. And, what was most interesting, I still felt like I was in control of the car. Even without touching the steering wheel in front of me and know that I could enter at any time feeling gave me to "drive" the car without actually doing it. In these three days, the S model sold me on the idea of ​​self-driving cars. Leave what you drive is closer to being the captain of a ship and looking your subordinates execute your orders horseshoe shotgun
But -. And there is a very big BUT - Autopilot is far from ready. I felt safe to leave the driving to a four-lane highway, with a long straight in front of me, regular traffic and no road construction. Even at night, I knew he would stay in his lane and face the surrounding traffic. But any time something unexpected happened, I grabbed the wheel and took control - and for good reason. Sometimes I tried to let Tesla do its thing to see how near the accident it will get before intervening. The results are not very convincing.
While driving on a perfect road was no problem, the S model would follow the wrong set of road cones lines or give in construction zones. It also could not be trusted around cyclists (it would run on at least one, if I did not look on it), and some obstacles to movement have been quite difficult for him to understand.
In short, let him drive while you are aware of what is happening around you is perfectly safe, and much less tiring than actually driving. I can imagine driving a non-stop all day (but not who can be with EV) without tiring. But sleep or watch a movie while leaving all driving responsibilities in the car? Never. Not even on a nice road.
While driving the Tesla sold me on the idea of ​​the cars self-driving, he certainly did not persuade me that is entirely autonomous anywhere near. A car that can safely navigate a route is possible in a few years. But autonomous driving in towns and villages? On roads without clear markings? In bad weather? With all my admiration for Mr. Musk, theres a pretty long way to go.
Between the electric power train and the Autopilot, the S model is the future. A time will come when manual cars gasoline will look like steamships. It can be in 10 years. It may be 20. It may be five, if the technology moves much faster than expected. But it is still the future, not the present.
The S model, however, is a great car now. There may be times when its ra nge can be limited, and Autopilot still feels very "beta", but for the most part, it is the best car on sale now that does what it does.
[Images: © 2016 David Marek/The Truth About Cars]
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