Okay, let me start this by saying it’s no coincidence Elons’ other company SpaceX so prominently features the letter “X” as does now the new Model X car (if you can really call it a car).
Having pre-ordered my Model X in January of 2013, I picked it up Tuesday of this week. Yes, that’s a little later than originally expected. Well, maybe a lot later than originally expected, but that’s all water under the bridge now. I have it now!! I picked it up in the Portland Oregon delivery location and proceeded to drive it straight to Lafayette. What follows are my first impressions.
Impression 1
As I said above the Model X is really not a car by any modern definition. It’s much more of a cross between a space capsule and a super computer. I’ve never actually sat in a space capsule before but sitting in the driver seat of the Model X must be pretty close. The first thing you immediately notice is the massive panoramic windshield that essentially surrounds you. Along with the over sized side windows you have a full 180 degree view of what’s in front of you and a 90 degree view upwards to what’s above you. It’s really hard to describe the feeling this creates. The sense you’re really travelling through space not driving along a road is then fully realized when you step on the accelerator. OMG! 60 MPH to 100 MPH in a second. I’m not kidding. And as smooth as you’ve ever felt. Simply feels like a rocket booster just fired. Then add to this the auto pilot mode where you’re just sitting there being completely controlled by NASA and you get the full picture. The driver seat is the most comfortable seat of any kind I’ve ever sat in. Tesla should consider going into the furniture business next. The 10 hour drive from Portland to Lafayette went by in a snap and I arrived feeling no car weariness I’ve grown so used to in the past. With all the controls managed from the massively over sized iPad mounted in the center of the console this completes the feeling of being in a space capsule being remotely controlled by a super computer. It’s certainly not a feeling everyone will immediately appreciate and it takes some getting used to for sure, but wow! it’s nothing like anything I’ve experienced before.
The picture below gives you a little sense for the panoramic view.
Impression 2 (Auto Pilot)
The Tesla auto pilot is truly a game changer and you can feel it’s the way all cars will operate in the near future. The trip from Portland to Lafayette covered roughly 600 miles. I would estimate I covered at least 550 of those miles in auto pilot mode. You just double tap the cruise stick and you’re in AP mode. Look Ma, no hands, no feet!! You just sit there and let the car take over. To change lanes you just hold down the turn signal stick until the car decides it’s safe to change lanes and executes the lane change. You set the speed you ideally would like to go with no obstacles in your way and the car will always return to that speed when there’s open road ahead. As it comes up on a car in front it comfortably slows the car to a nice safe distance back. Honestly it does a much better job of this than if I were handling the controls. When changing lanes it detects cars in front, behind or directly on your side in the way and speeds up or slows down to slot you comfortably into the desired lane and then executes the lane change. First tips back to Tesla. It dos not do a great job factoring in the speed differential of a car approaching in the lane you want to merge into. In other words if a car is approaching rapidly in the other lane from behind the car does not deal with that nuance well. Second tip is it would be nice to not have to manually hold down the turn signal stick to get this done. If you hit the turn signal all the way you don’t have to manually hold it but it also does not turn off once the lane change has been executed. You still have to manually shut it off.
Be aware!! It’s not perfect. You do need to be paying attention. In particular when driving over bridges or overpasses where the surface of the road changes and the lane lines either disappear or change in style. Numerous times when this happened the Telemetry got confused and either shut off completely or simply hesitated too long for my comfort, to regain it’s lock. When this happens it does send out an audible warning but then again there are a lot of audible warnings going off regularly. One in particular is if you have your hands off the wheel for more than a few minutes it beeps at you to be sure you’re paying attention. If you don’t put your hands on the wheel at least for a few seconds it beeps again and then with the third warning it starts slowing the car down. Bottom line it really does want you paying attention and not taking a nap or migrating to the back seat. Even taking into account the need to “pay attention” I still found it 100 times more relaxing than having to be actively driving the car.
Impression 3 (Handling and performance)
Simply off the charts!! The car feels locked to the road. Handles better than any car (not to mention SUV) I’ve ever driven. I really have no need to get off the line from a standing stop to 60 MPH in 3 seconds so I didn’t even try it to test it. I do have a need to get from 55 to 90 quickly when driving on two lane country highways in Central Oregon. Getting past 2 back to back 18 wheel tractor trailers climbing a long 4% grade going 45 MPH no longer places my heart in my throat while I wonder weather I can beat the on coming truck back into my lane before we collide head on. In fact this can even be accomplished in Auto Pilot mode (not factoring in the on coming truck in the opposite direction). Between the handling, the acceleration when needed and knowing all the engineering that’s gone into the car in terms of safety features you really do feel 100% safer than in any other car. I now believe Elon when he says the NHTSA is now considering a 6 star rating just for the Tesla Model X. Simply “off the charts”.
Impression 4 (Range and Super charging)
The published range per charge is 250 miles for the P90D. If you drive around 60 MPH and are on flat ground this can be done. Add speed and hills and it drops off pretty quickly. Thankfully the NAV and the frequency of Super charging stations goes a long way to relieving the range anxiety feeling. The NAV is fabulous! I did have one reminder moment that at the heart of this car is a computer. I was down to about 7 miles left and pulling off to go find the super charging station when the screen on the control system went completely blank. Think of the blue screen of death from Microsoft days in yesteryear. In this case it’s the Tesla grey screen of death. Yikes! 7 miles left and no way to find the charging station. Thankfully it just rebooted and came back in a couple minutes and all was restored and good. Phew!! The charging stations are all situated within .25 of a mile from the freeway and mostly on the property of a motel surrounded by restaurants. I stopped at 4 along the way. 2 of the 4 had 4 stalls for charging and one was an 8 stall station. Never more than one other car charging. Charging time ranges from 40 minutes to get from 7 to 220 or less to just get enough to comfortably make it to the next station. All calculations are done by the NAV as to where to stop next and at what speed you need to drive to make it to which stop. Between the super charging stations there are also trickle charging options if you completely blow it. I would say having to pull off and charge added 45 minutes total to the trip, was free and forced me to stop and stretch anyway. The 45 minutes does not count the time spent talking with the various people that would immediately surround the car wanting to ask questions or just stare at it. When using the car to just get around locally they strongly recommend you only charge to 90% of he 250 capacity to preserve battery life. In fact the car will not allow you to charge past 220 unless you override the standard setting and claim “trip” status. then it will allow the full charge to 250. In 72 hours from when you change the status to Trip it will default back to 90% limit.
Impression 5 (Comfort features)
Love the climate control system. Really does filter the air to pure form. Very comfortable at all times. Works instantly when you turn it on. Does impact range slightly so may not want it running if you’re cutting it tight to the next charge station. Sound system is fabulous. Center console in the front is a huge upgrade to the Model S. Lots of cup holders and storage. Great ergonomic positioning of the arm rests to go with all time most comfortable seat. Enormous leg room. I didn’t even have to push the seat all the way back to get the needed leg room. Great feeling steering wheel when you’re actually needing to use it. Getting in and out of the car was fabulous. Just drop in and swing out. you may recall this what forced me to this car in the first place. 100% satisfaction. The gull winged rear doors create super easy access to both the second and third rows of seats. I got the two captains seats in the middle row so you can access the 3rd row either by climbing in front of the seat in the middle row and then walking back between the two middle seats or leaning the second row seat forward and walking directly back to the third row seat. Easy both ways. Comfortably seats 6 large adults. Tremendous storage area. the front storage area easily stores two sets of golf clubs or equivalent. Even with the 3rd row of seats upright the rear storage area will store at least 4 sets of golf clubs. In addition, the 3rd row of seats easily folds down flat creating unlimited storage (for my needs that is). Also comes with a trailer hitch standard to tow or just attach bike or more storage racks. No roof rack option due to gull winged doors.
Impression 6 (Not perfect!)
Tesla still clearly has some manufacturing or design issues to sort out. I had to ruthlessly badger my delivery specialist to release the car to me. They had been holding the car in the “inspection” phase of production for almost 2 months. I kept saying how long can it possibly take to inspect one car. He kept saying they wanted it to be “perfect” when I took delivery. As you would expect the first thing I did when I got home was to wash it and see how it did or see how well the inspection process went. Well there were no less than 6 issues I noticed with the car upon my inspection. These issues ranged from metal and plastic molding coming apart to a visibly poor welding job to poor choice of plastic material exposed to weather elements that got spotted and stained badly. All fixable and will get fixed as they debug the manufacturing process.
Overall I could not be happier. Love it!!
Kent Godfrey 