The Tesla Thread

Test drove a M3P on Saturday and then ordered one (performance) in white with black interior, the standard autopilot.

  • Fancied the white interior, but would live in fear.
  • Will get the wood effect covered
  • Couldn't decide on exterior colour, so went white as free and hides scratches and some dirt. Torn as everyone has white, but at the same time it ensures I dont stand out.
Wasn't really that sold in its looks or how its crazy acceleration feels less visceral than a fast ICE car. That said, I felt much the same about my Golf R estate, ticks all the boxes, but it is so capable that it's somewhat dull.
 
My mate took delivery of his M3LR yesterday - and it didn't come with any USB ports nor wireless charging! He's furious, wasn't notified in advance. They've said they'll retrofit once the parts come into stock, ETA 1-2 months.

This semi-conductor shortage is mad.

EDIT: Brother in law collected his M3 SR at 9am this morning - just spoken to him and nothing missing for him.
 
Chris344 said:
Thanks for all the replies. I feel a little more reassured. Not being able to use basic cruise control/auto pilot with my family in the car would be a huge problem.
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I've had mine 2 years and only experienced very few phantom brakes. Not particularly hard but like a passenger it feels worse. As just mentioned the car can get confused by badly maintained lane lines but as it's very predictable and you're always paying attention you can simple take over or monitor it. The other annoying trait is if a car ahead exits the carriageway Autopilot can be reluctant to pass the car until it's clearly moved over and so may slow a little but again predictable and you can take over if you feel it will annoy anyone behind.

On the flip side just yesterday I was following well spaced traffic as normal on a dual carriageway and I felt the car start to slow even before the car in front made a quick lane change due to a very slow vehicle ahead. Unlike that car I had plenty of warning to make an unhurried lane change. I thought at the time that was sort of creepy how early and smoothly it had avoided a possible incident.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
My mate took delivery of his M3LR yesterday - and it didn't come with any USB ports nor wireless charging! He's furious, wasn't notified in advance. They've said they'll retrofit once the parts come into stock, ETA 1-2 months.

This semi-conductor shortage is mad.

EDIT: Brother in law collected his M3 SR at 9am this morning - just spoken to him and nothing missing for him.
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Did you see the reports that BMW have been forced to delete touchscreens from the production line due shortages. They've been offering rebates to customers affected.
 
Model 3 (formerly SR+) went up £1k last night. The Model 3 Long Range went up £1500. White is still the only included paint colour.

Thinking about adding the white interior to my Model Y order before it too gets a price increase.
 
Phantom braking on older cars is mostly down to radar cruise, the same thing can and does happen in any car with radar cruise. Radar has pretty poor vertical resolution so can pick up gantries/bridges as 'something' and then the camera see's it's shadow and suddenly agrees there may well be something there so slams on the anchors. Will happen in any radar cruise car.
 
Chris1712 said:
Phantom braking on older cars is mostly down to radar cruise, the same thing can and does happen in any car with radar cruise. Radar has pretty poor vertical resolution so can pick up gantries/bridges as 'something' and then the camera see's it's shadow and suddenly agrees there may well be something there so slams on the anchors. Will happen in any radar cruise car.
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It has happened in my previous GTI/R VW's and handful of times but never at 70mph, mainly around town caused by a plastic bag/crips packet. My X3 has basic cruise control +/- which doesn't cause these random episodes.

Would the car still perform a full on emergency stop if there's a car behind you on the motorway? Say the Tesla recognises that scenario, would it not apply the breaks as violently to avoid being rear-ended?

I'm extremely concerned with continuing my order given that we travel with our 8 month old child in the back - apparently it happens when you're not using autopilot etc?
 
It will never brake if you're not using autopilot! On the flip side, if you're using autopilot and press the accelerator when it detects a car infront (within the distance of the adaptive cruise zone) a warning comes up to say that it won't auto-brake if you're actively pressing the accelerator. If you set the active cruise to 77mph and the traffic infront slowed to a stop it would slow down too.. it works well.

Top tip: remember to turn autopilot off when you exit on to a slip road as the car will want to accelerate back to 77mph once it detects no obstacles :D

To be honest, if you're thinking of cancelling based on something that may never happen then I'd cancel now. I travel 20 miles to work which is all-motorway and use the autopilot feature 24/7 when commuting. I've done 1200 miles including a 500 mile trip and it's never once phantom braked or done anything screwy. I wouldn't try using autopilot on narrow streets or rely on it to be 100% perfect in urban environments as you will be disappointed but the autosteer (keeping you in lane) and the adapative cruise (autopilot) are amazing.

One pedal driving is on by default... it's nice to be able to lift-off and feel the car braking. The regen effect disappears completely above 90% charge (the battery won't accept regen because it'll fill the cells) which is something to bare in mind if you get used to it then do a long trip.
 
As someone mentioned above, pretty much all automatic emergency breaking and radar cruise systems suffer from ‘phantom breaking’ to a lesser or greater extent.

Teslas just got a reputation for it as it was particularly bad at times in the past and anything to do with Tesla seems to propagate and hang around long after it’s no longer an issue.
 
Chris344 said:
I'm extremely concerned with continuing my order given that we travel with our 8 month old child in the back - apparently it happens when you're not using autopilot etc?
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Tesla cars are have the highest safety ratings and Tesla publishes quarterly data showing how much safer you are with the software features enabled.

https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport
 
pioneer2000 said:
I’ve only once had any kind of phantom braking (and it’s wasn’t anything like an emergency stop). Had my model 3 since launch in 2019. It’s totally over-blown.
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100% agree - 1 incident in 2 years (13k mileage) - totally over blown. It was early on when a lorry "slightly" wander from his lane and the car braked suddenly when no real need. Otherwise zero issues.
 
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your feedback and do agree that all calls with this tech can and does act in the same way. It was just a bit concerning to hear how frequently some people seem to experience it.

I have done 1000’s of miles in my VW GTI’s/R’s so fully used to having to step in to prevent the car stopping. I’ve gotten used to not having to worry about this with my X3 which has “dumb” cruise control.
 
Seems that there is a still a bit of a parts shortage in the UK for the M3. Friend of my wife is round for a coffee this morning and was saying they have been waiting 6 weeks for their M3 to be fixed (front bumper, sensors etc) after some idiot hit it in a car park. No ETA on the final bits needed yet apparently. They've got a diesel Merc as a courtesy car which is nice, but not exactly useful when the fuel crisis hit!
 
Russinating said:
It literally makes no difference to that? Do you drive with your left foot over the break pedal?
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Most defensive drivers do. I cant get on with a B road blast either with high regen, you need to be able to flex max deceleration the same way you can acceleration with the throttle. So the transition between the pedals simply ruins car balance and driver intuition.

EDIT re-read this- thought foot over brake pedal - not specifically left foot.
 
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