Preconditioning means you program you car to know that you leave for work at 7AM each morning. At 6:30, it will turn on and heat up the batteries and warm the interior for you while it’s still plugged into the charger in the garage. That way, you don’t waste battery power warming things up when you first start driving.

It’s not bad. I had to replace mine out of warranty and it was about $1300. Tesla met me halfway for good will so it was $600.  The windshield on my BMW i3 was the same price.

What did they do to make it so inefficient?? My X has the same size 90KW battery, weighs ~1000 lbs more, goes 247 miles, seats two more people, and is only a hair slower at 4.7 sec 0-60. I checked one out at the Portland auto show last week. I dig the looks of it but it’s tiny. It’s really not an SUV at all and you…

Smog from a power plant is cleaner than smog from a ICE car.  That plant will run at the same level even if I don’t by an electric car.  It’s not like they crank it up a notch for every EV sold.

Sigh. How about a rule that before you comment on a story about Tesla auto pilot, you have to clearly state if you have ever used it before so we know whether or not to ignore you.

It can tell.  Just putting your hand at the bottom of the wheel doesn’t provide enough input and it will still turn off.  Resting my arm on the window and holding it is the same - it will turn off.  You have to have a hand hanging on one side or the other putting actual torque on the wheel for it to think your are…

Nope, doesn’t work at the bottom of the wheel. You have to have your hand (just one, not both) on the side of the wheel to provide enough torqe for it to know your there. Just resting your hand at the bottom or holding it at 10 & 2 won’t register and you still get nagged. 

How do you know it didn’t? Unless there is more video, this represents about 8 seconds after you get rid of the slow mo. Maybe everything worked exactly as designed and the car either woke up the sleepy driver or brought him to a safe stop.

Your going to double down on this instead of admitting you were wrong eh?  Unbelievable.  People like you are the problem.

People can say Tesla is stupidly overcomplicated etc. but the truth is that far more people see a pop out door handle and think its neat than think its stupid. They found a small area of a car that’s highly visible but has remained unchanged for decades and put a relatively small amount of money into it and gotten a…

Um, you’re making my point.  11 years is FAR above the average for how long someone keeps a car and in all that time, you’ve not had to change the pads.  You are the exception and not the norm.  Get over it.

*Sigh*. It’s hyperbole. Most owners will never have to have the brakes replaced. Compared to gas cars, the brakes will last virtually forever. Will the be exceptions? Of course-there always are but for the vast majority of drivers, it won’t be an issue. Stop making a mountain out of a...well nothing.

As if anything you drive could stay in front of them.

There are two big stories about Tesla going on at the moment. One is all about the Version 9 software release with videos of the features and explanations of what the long promised “self driving” features are etc. The other is the SEC suite. A real automotive journalist site would cover both...but not Jalopnik.

Well said.  I wish I had more stars to give.

No, Lexus wouldn’t do that because they know that no one likes their cars that much.

“Good to know, in case Autopilot’s not up to snuff that day.”

Except it hasn’t. AP has never killed anyone. There has never been a case of the AP trying to steer into a wall with the driver frantically pulling the opposite direction of the wheel with all his might to counter act it. What we have is a small number of stupid people that refuse to pay attention after AP is engaged.…

Wrong.  Turning on the turn signal with AP on is what triggers a lane change.

Thanks Kristen. Seemed reasonably fair. A couple of comments from an EV owner (BMW i3 and Tesla Model X). First, anyone considering an electric car should have considered where they will charge it. If they don’t, any problems they encounter are not short comings of the car. They are the result of a bad choice. If you…