Hacker News Reader

Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

Bit by bit, it gets harder to figure out how buying a Tesla is ever the right answer. Autosteer (beta) is worse than the competition, traffic aware cruise control is timid to the point of braking for things which don't even exist, you don't get basic things like ultrasonic sensors, radar, rain-sensing wipers, or even carplay. And even when they do include something that sounds halfway cool, it turns out to be underwhelming -- the matrix headlights are all of 100 pixels, which would have been cool about 10 years ago. And they aren't even enabled. Given how poor automatic high beams are, do we really want to see how Tesla matrix headlights would work in real life?

View on HN

> Autosteer (beta) is worse than the competition

Autosteer on our Tesla Model 3 is actually pretty great. I use it all the time because it makes driving a lot less tiring, especially over long distances. I don't know where you get your information.

As far as competition, our other car Kia Forte 2022 now comes with Autosteer like feature as well. With that, unless, the lines are pristinely painted, you are literally taking your life into your own hands.

same here! i love the autosteer in my Sept 2019 Model 3.

> Bit by bit, it gets harder to figure out how buying a Tesla is ever the right answer

Great car or great charging network. Pick one.

If you pick charging network get a Tesla. Otherwise get something else.

This.

I really want to sell my Model S (for like an Audi for example), but no one can compete with its battery:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k1DOw-NwvW8E8tQeXlac...

Or rather, the Hummer EV has the battery of two Model S cars! It just is twice as inefficient..

Their charging network is open to all cars, not just Tesla.

...in some countries in Europe [1]. It's not quite there yet in the US [2].

[1] https://www.tesla.com/support/non-tesla-supercharging

[2] https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/superchargers-o...

"All cars" is absolutely not true. If I drive up to a Tesla Supercharger with my Mach E in the US, I'd have no way to charge my car. The Tesla charger has a proprietary plug that needs a proprietary app with a proprietary payment network to start the charge.

Tesla chargers are not open, in the slightest. Them publishing specs online on the physical plug design doesn't make it open to everyone. There's still lots of Tesla IP that covers those specs and designs. Tesla won't license it to other automakers unless other automakers essentially never enforce any of their IP.

Thanks for pointing that out. I genuinely was under the impression that it was open to all cars, so I learned something new today. It made me realize I fell prey to Tesla's PR.

Apparently not in the United States, at all.

https://www.tesla.com/support/non-tesla-supercharging

Not in the US.

People will pay more for cars that project images they want to project. This explains pretty much all the car preference patterns for people who have enough money sloshing around that they don't need to purely focus on maximizing utility for cost but who don't have "I don't care what you think" money.

Autosteer: I haven't tried the competition; Tesla's is pretty great on the highway, but not when there is roadwork or in cities where the roads will have unexpected swerves (e.g. with cars parked in the road, or blockades).

Cruise-control: In heavy traffic, I don't use it. I like to contribute towards reducing congestion, and the cruise-control accellerates too much at once, causing lumps. But for non-heavy traffic it's pretty great. The "braking for things that don't even exist" is a separate concern, IMO.

Ultrasonic, radar: Yeah, I'm disappointed here.

Rain-sensing wipers: It actually has that, and they do sort of work. What's annoying is, apparently in Model Y, you can't disable automatic wipers if you're on autosteer. So when you're on a very regular stretch of road, and the rain-sensing wipers think it's raining and it's not, you can either choose between autosteer + wiping a dry windshield at the lowest frequency, or driving manually.

Automatic high beams: They work pretty good in my experience.

Carplay: I get that Apple wants to be my car's operating system. It may seem great, but I'd prefer if my devices got along without total platform dominance from one party.

My experience is that Autosteernis significantly better than the competition. And the Tesla absolutely has rain-sensing wipers.

I find it to be a fun, well performing and comfortable car. I am shopping for a second car currently and have yet to see anything close. There are no other electric cars on the market that tick the price, performance and range boxes, before I even start looking for the creature comforts I'm used to.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com