Here’s What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Do While Driving a Tesla
I’ve always wanted to drive a Tesla. Silent electric motors, instant torque and autonomous driving capabilities? Sign me up. Fortunately, during the Christmas holidays at my partner’s parents’ house, I was able to drive their Tesla Model S for a week. In short, the experience was magical – primarily because of the differences between a Tesla and a traditional car. Sure, you can just get behind the wheel, adjust the seat and hit the road, but you’re missing out on the little things that make gasless driving truly enjoyable. By making a few changes to your driving style and sticking to some best practices, you can significantly improve your first journey in what is supposedly the most popular (and powerful) electric vehicle in the world.
MAKE
Create driver profile
If you intend to drive more than a few trips, it is worth creating your own driver profile. So instead of having to customize your primary driver profile every time you drive, fiddling with preset mirror and seat positions, you can simply choose your name and watch the mirrors, steering wheel, seat, and other car settings change. according to your saved preferences.
To create a driver profile, tap the user icon at the top of the touchscreen and select Create Driver Profile. Then enter your name, adjust the position of the seat, steering wheel and mirror and select “Save”. Each time you adjust these specific settings, you will be prompted to either save the new settings or revert to the original position settings of your profile, while other settings changes are saved automatically.
Customize your driving style
You will definitely notice the difference when driving an electric vehicle like the Tesla if you are used to traditional combustion-powered vehicles. First, electric vehicles lack the traditional automatic transmission, the same slow speed transmission that you are used to when driving in a car with an engine at idle speed. In Tesla, you’ll be at this stop sign until you decide to step on the accelerator. To bring back creep, select the Control option in the lower left corner of the screen, click Drive, and turn on creep. The problem has been resolved.
Double check these gauges
When you do your routine inspection, be sure to check out one more thing that you won’t find in your car: a series of sensors and cameras. While you don’t have to shine a light on every camera to enjoy the enhanced safety features and autopilot capabilities, checking for any debris covering your camera and sensors will save you a headache if you are unable to use autopilot due to one or two errors. …
Bring it back with extra juice
If you are borrowing someone’s car that runs on electricity and is changing the way people think about driving and transportation in general, the least you can do is return it with a full charge. Luckily, you can search for Tesla-compatible charging stations using the touchscreen map and charge even faster at one of Tesla’s supercharging stations.
Remember everything runs on batteries
Electric cars are great, but they cannot operate in extreme heat or cold conditions. Hot air is readily available in a traditional car, thanks to the heated coolant from the engine passing through the heater core, which heats the air in the passenger compartment. In an electric vehicle that does not generate much excess heat, you will need to use the same battery power as the car to heat the cab. Add to that the detrimental effects of cold on battery life and range, and you’ve got the recipe for a short trip.
Instead of heating the entire cab, take a more efficient route and activate heated seats or steering wheel, which uses much less energy compared to heating and moving air throughout the cab. If you’ve downloaded the Tesla smartphone app and registered it in the car, you can enable its battery preheating function, which keeps the batteries warm when the car is plugged in to increase the range.
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Don’t be fooled by your autopilot
If you are annoyed with having to pay attention to the road while your car drives you, then you are out of luck. Since Tesla requires drivers using its autopilot to remain alert while cruising, forcing drivers to periodically put their hands on the steering wheel, some true geniuses have figured out how to trick the car’s sensors into allowing them to operate in autopilot mode while they continue to do something. If you don’t have a death wish , don’t do it.
Don’t drive drunk
Just because the future is almost here doesn’t mean you might be intoxicated while driving a car, autonomous or otherwise. If you don’t want to explain to law enforcement why you thought your Tesla’s autopilot function would be an adequate substitute for driving with an intact mind, I suggest you avoid the temptation.
Do not eat when using the touch screen
Do yourself (and everyone else in the car) a favor: Don’t eat or use that giant touchscreen. Not only does it get dirty from being on your fingers, this giant screen is just like your phone and is potentially covered in bacteria whenever you get into your car after work, the gym, or a restaurant. Who knows where your hands were?