Tesla is in big trouble

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I suggest naming this scale the Political Online Conversation scale or POLCON for short.  And we never want a thread to get to POLCON 3.

Not sure what's going on here. But my 6 and 8 both love teslas, and point them out at every opportunity. They think battery cars are cool and self driving is cooler. In fact, if 8 is unable to get a cyber truck when he's grown, he's told me his life might be ruined. I may see if I can fine them each a hot wheels to keep the interest alive. The next generation of gearheads will be different, and it will be awesome. 

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

But Tesla doesn't have self driving even though they have been touting they would since 2016 I believe. 

Mercedes is the only manufacturer that offers Level 3 autonomous driving in the US and IIRC they are only approved in Nevada and California, and only on certain highways in said states and under 40 mph. It's also approved in Germany, also under very strict conditions under 95 kph. 

Waymo has a Level 4 with it's commercial license, but there are multiple stories about it's many flaws still. Mercedes has been approved for Level 4 testing in certain restricted locations. 

In reply to z31maniac :

I believe that until virtually all cars are in communication with each other (like the Jetsons or F-35s between each other and their wing man drones) self driving will never work. Throw in a bunch of us moron human drivers and only chaos follows.

I remember trying to escape Southern California on a Friday night and on the highway between LA and Las Vegas, there would be 10 mile wide valleys between mountains and the two lanes wide bumper to bumper traffic would occasionally have one person hit his brakes. This would cause a chain reaction to occur as everyone else behind tapped their brakes and the progression would work it's way down the road until it reached where I was miles away, eventually causing people to come to a complete stop until the wave passed by. This happened time after time the entire 270 miles to Las Vegas. That was back in the 55 mph era, now imagine it with thousands of Teslas at 80+ mph bumper to bumper. 

Indy - Guy said:

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:

 

Also, I miss ECM.

Same.

What happened to ECM?

wae said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I suggest naming this scale the Political Online Conversation scale or POLCON for short.  And we never want a thread to get to POLCON 3.

If it's to mirror DEFCON, POLYCON 3 is in the middle. POLYCON 1 would be complete political vitriol. Stampie's Death Scooter thread is an example of POLYCON 5. Completely without politics of any kind.

This thread definitely qualifies as POLYCON 3, probably POLYCON 2 at times.

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Not sure what's going on here. But my 6 and 8 both love teslas, and point them out at every opportunity. They think battery cars are cool and self driving is cooler. In fact, if 8 is unable to get a cyber truck when he's grown, he's told me his life might be ruined. I may see if I can fine them each a hot wheels to keep the interest alive. The next generation of gearheads will be different, and it will be awesome. 

Some days I wake up and have bouts of some form of reverse nostalgia.  One time it was while I was replacing a light bulb and it felt so anachronistic to have to manually thread in these loosely stamped threaded bulbs.

Today I thought it was weird that we had to go to certain places periodically and buy a dozen or so gallons of chemicals to make our cars go.  Not even in containers, they let us just run a nozzle right to our cars. 

It's kind of like looking at today from a perspective from some distant future.

SV reX said:

Indy - Guy said:

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:

 

Also, I miss ECM.

Same.

What happened to ECM?

She disappeared into the hedges.  Same as Lesley

In reply to spitfirebill :

She was a very fair, even keel, and balanced moderator who did a great job.  Plus she was cool and drove that Awesome Mopar 😎

In reply to spitfirebill :

I know she disappeared.  The posts seemed to indicate something had taken place to prompt her leaving. And I assumed since she was a moderator someone would know what led to her disappearance. 
 

Just asking out of concern. 

Taking the thread in a different direction: At the Dream Machines Car show in Norcal they had several Cybertrucks there for test drives, and I took one out. In brief, I really liked it. Smooth, quiet and very powerful. It handles well and doesn't feel as big as it is. Comfortable front seats, the back ones, not so much. The funky sight lines don't bother me as much as I thought they would, and I found the controls quick to get used to. It's kind of asinine that they don't put the rear camera where the rear view mirror goes. Instead, they have a little, kinda useless mirror and you have to look to the display to get a good look. I'd definitely rock one, although I still prefer the Rivian. 

No hostility that I could see directed at the Tesla cars and crew. But then, Tesla started out up here, and despite moving to Texas, there's still a factory here and a lot of affinity for the marque. 

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

That's great feedback. 
 

Have you driven a comparable new F150 Lightning? I find them super easy to drive as well. I'd be interested in a comparison 

SV reX said:

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

That's great feedback. 
 

Have you driven a comparable new F150 Lightning? I find them super easy to drive as well. I'd be interested in a comparison 

Not yet. I'll let you know. I think that the 4-wheel steering is a big reason that it doesn't feel as massive as it looks. That and the CG anyway. Also, I mentioned to the sales guy how Rivians are notorious for going through tires quickly, and he said to expect around 15k miles on a set of tires for the Cybertruck.

15K?  Yikes!

I bet those tires are expensive, too.

Heavy with lots of power, sounds about right for tire life. When I still rode motorcycles so almost 20 years ago, a $350 set of tires lasted about 3k miles. And that's 2005-2006 dollars. 

And here I am a little ticked off that I'm only going to get about 80,000 miles out of the tires I put on the GL....

wae said:

And here I am a little ticked off that I'm only going to get about 80,000 miles out of the tires I put on the GL....

LOL.  My panamera goes through rears every 15k or so.  Doesn't matter what I put on, 15k miles.  Alignment is dead on, no abnormal wear... It's just a weight+power thing...  I just started throwing ebay cheapies on it and bought a tire machine.

In reply to golfduke :

Or, maybe, it's your driving style?

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

I was looking at them at a stop light the other day thinking- those things have got to be pricey. 

golfduke said:

wae said:

And here I am a little ticked off that I'm only going to get about 80,000 miles out of the tires I put on the GL....

LOL.  My panamera goes through rears every 15k or so.  Doesn't matter what I put on, 15k miles.  Alignment is dead on, no abnormal wear... It's just a weight+power thing...  I just started throwing ebay cheapies on it and bought a tire machine.

I have the same thing with my CRV. My last one went through 2 sets before 35K. I had it aligned (it was fine), tires rotated, not driven aggressively but it eats tires. Got a new one instead of putting new tires on (please don't judge, the math worked) and the new one has 16K and a set of tires that are at the wear bars (rotated 2x already). 

Pretty sure it isn't because the CRV is overpowered...

I've heard that in the Rivian/Cybertruck arena, tires are the new oil change...

grover said:

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

I was looking at them at a stop light the other day thinking- those things have got to be pricey. 

Yeah. The stock tires are very bespoke. And with the size and the weird wheel cover, I doubt that there would be aftermarket options to get them cheaper.

VolvoHeretic said:

In reply to golfduke :

Or, maybe, it's your driving style?

How dare you assume I hoon my twin turbo land yacht!!! Blasphemy! 

NY Nick said:

golfduke said:

wae said:

And here I am a little ticked off that I'm only going to get about 80,000 miles out of the tires I put on the GL....

LOL.  My panamera goes through rears every 15k or so.  Doesn't matter what I put on, 15k miles.  Alignment is dead on, no abnormal wear... It's just a weight+power thing...  I just started throwing ebay cheapies on it and bought a tire machine.

I have the same thing with my CRV. My last one went through 2 sets before 35K. I had it aligned (it was fine), tires rotated, not driven aggressively but it eats tires. Got a new one instead of putting new tires on (please don't judge, the math worked) and the new one has 16K and a set of tires that are at the wear bars (rotated 2x already). 

Pretty sure it isn't because the CRV is overpowered...

That's weird. Our family has had a succession of small car-based SUVs since 2001 and none of them have been especially hard on tires.