Comment by yyyfb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yyyfb | Hacker News Reader

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I rented a Tesla on a recent trip lasting a few days, and I feel there are other reasons for which is a bad rental car than charging.

I've rented a lot of cars, but when I got this one I spent ten minutes completely dumbfounded trying to get it going. They gave me a key card but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Swipe it, I guess, but where? I tried the door, but the pillar? Would've never guessed until looking online. Pretty much all other cars have keyless entry with a push button on the handle. I couldn't figure out how to adjust the side mirrors, which I always need to do in any rental, until I gave up and looked online.

Oh and when I got to where I needed to go, I left the car unlocked because I couldn't figure out how to lock it out or even whether I had locked it. I might have even left it running so that someone could have driven it off, for all I know.

I am very used to Android Auto in rentals, which I love because of easy access to the places that I care about (vs the last place than some other rental customer went to), the music that I care about, and the voice assistant that I'm used to. Instead I found the Tesla screen beautiful but distracting and useless without Android Auto.

It felt like a design very focused on eliminating hardware controls that are commonplace on most cars - very unusual - and with a strong proprietary, "we know better" bent.

So I feel like if you're going to have EVs in your rental fleet, maybe a Hyundai or Kia or Chevy is a better choice than Tesla.

I couldn’t agree more. Tesla has a major problem of not following the standard interaction design of cars. If you have to Google how to do something on your rental car, the designers have failed.

Even opening the back door while inside is unorthodox. There’s not a handle to pull, instead it’s a push button that looks like it’s for the window?

I've been in some Tesla taxis, they usually have to have an arrow sticker pointing at the open button for the door. It's definitely a non-standard car, and while in some cases it can make sense, because the mechanical contraptions behind some of the levers and latches are not a thing anymore, in other cases it's just a way to scream "we're different!" that doesn't help users, or a cost reduction measure.

(Also, the ride quality in the back seats is abysmal)

> Tesla has a major problem of not following the standard interaction design of cars. If you have to Google how to do something on your rental car, the designers have failed.

I'm not trying to fangirl here, but broadly isn't this seen as innovation when you design things in a new and different way compared to your competition?

Sounds like Hertz should be handing out a cheat sheet.

Or they could just buy other EVs that don't have this problem. Teslas are overrated and Hertz just fell for it.

I agree, makes me wonder if anybody is actually thinking in that company.

No.

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa...

That screen is seriously distracting and the worst thing is you have to look at it even to check your speed. There is absolutely 0 information displayed behind the steering wheel. I always wonder how did this get approved.

With all the sensors onboard, can they actually go above speed limit?

[edit: never mind. they can, probably]

Theres videos online of these teslas catching like 5 seconds of air off hills in Silverlake and destroying parked cars after landing. They must not even have an accelerometer.

The speed is within your view in the top right corner of the big screen. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be.

I thought the lack of stalks and a center screen was going to be an issue. Now I feel like it’s overblown and YouTubers/the media need something to complain about.

I am not a youtuber or the media. I was seriously thinking about buying a model y late last year so borrowed a model 3 and a y from friends to test it out. I found it distracting TBH.

Not to mention the suspension issues (google "tesla whompy wheels"). After reading that junked the idea of buying it.

I had the exact same experience as you, with one additional fun complication. Hertz never included the CCS charging adapter with my Telsa rental. Also they charged me $130 for not returning it.

Fun car. Incredibly unintuitive. If you're renting an EV, make a checklist.

> If you're renting an EV, make a checklist.

Just Tesla though. I have driven other EVs (Kia, Chevy, Toyota) and haven't had any of these problems.

Kinda. It would have reduced friction due to my unfamiliarity with the controls, but missing connection equipment can affect all brands. Charging apps would be another that would affect non-Tesla more.

I'd only ever driven an ICE. Connectors and apps weren't a thing I was prepared for.

True. I was only talking about the non charging aspects, bc I drive an EV at home and the charging bits are known to me already. If you're not used to using EVs, best not to rent EV except if you know you won't need to charge.

Sounds like a customer service issue, as a starter. In a long running business where "things just work" - due heavily as you point out to existing standards in product design, I can see the problems you ran into being an area that eventually starts to get overlooked at a large company; or perhaps there were people down the line who were pointing out this problem but no one at senior enough level with decision making power was design-product oriented?

My theory is that at a company that has a reputation of "disrupting the business" and being innovators, it's not easy to raise your concerns and tell everyone that maybe not all conventions are stupid, or even if they are, they are still conventions that the end users rely on for being able to interact with the car (change mirror, open the doors, change AC).

You either raise a stink about not following conventions and risk being fired immediately or sidelined forever, or you play along and the company finds out 5-10 years later that these decisions were really bad and it's not only YouTubers who hate the new designs. From a risk-reward point of view, I can see how employees decided that it's not worth it.

Yeah, I think this is why Elon Musk's companies can thrive - the flat "hierarchy" he's setup: - try to hire very smart, competent, passionate people - give them as much rope as they need, even if that means they hang themself - when oversight-controllers see something as a problem in passing/review then course correcting

Where I live, there is a car sharing app which also offers Teslas. Each time I take a Tesla, I spend 5-10 minutes to set the basic stuff (seat, mirrors, steering wheel). And I know how to use a Tesla and their interfaces.

Its not just tesla. I had a similar experience driving a prius. Is it off? Not sure, theres a low hum and the headlights are still on. I had to wait a minute to see it actually shut off before I trusted that I actually shut the stupid thing off and could walk away. Never getting a keyless car for myself. Zero point, nothing gained, other than to add another vector for carjacking from spoofing these radio frequencies.

You'd think they could give you a pamphlet with the key to cover the basics.

It would be reasonable mitigation , but there are plenty of great EVs on the market now that have similar range and drive quality to Teslas without requiring adaptation to unfamiliar controls.

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