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According to this page, a Model 3 with every option costs $59,500.

You mean that miniature screen far away from the driver? Yeah, totally the same thing.

And I'm sure you're typing this message from your special web browser keyboard and using your special web browser mouse, which is different from the one you use for word processing, which is different from the ones you use for each different video game... because of course it makes total sense to have different controls for each task rather than multifunction.

If you can't hit a button this big on a 15" touchscreen that's right in front of you, there's something wrong with you. No "three levels of menus", it's one level, and accessible by steering wheel controls.

apparently the designers expect everyone to have a long pre-planned playlist ready for every trip or something.

What exactly is your use case? Want to listen to a specific artist or song? Press the voice command button and say to play their name. Try doing that in your specialized-control-for-each-device interface.

You can find more details and a video Q&A here:
http://www.teslarati.com/tesla...

It's 100-megawatt, 129 megawatt hour.

And according to the rumor mill, that's for the smaller of two battery sizes that will be offered. The bigger one, 75 kWh, is rumored to offer about 312 miles (500 km), based on a picture of the screen of a model 3 test car charging at a supercharger.

Completely agree. Apparently Tesla promoted her into engineering roles on her request even though she had absolutely no engineering background, and they hired a neutral third party, EMC2Law, to investigate her claims. They determined the claims were unsubstantiated.

This may be another one of those "Hi, AJ, nice outfit" – "OMG he's hitting on me, I'm going to call my lawyer" kind of situations. And guess what, you may get paid less if you don't have the associated degrees. EMC2Law must have looked into this as it's one of the easiest things to check, and they didn't find anything wrong.

http://www.teslarati.com/depth...

sort of ....

http://www.teslarati.com/elon-...

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-solar-roof-cost-less-than-normal-roof-2016-11

"It's looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account," he said. "So the basic proposition would be, 'Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, lasts twice as long, costs less, and by the way generates electricity?' It's like, why would you get anything else?" Musk added that the price he was speaking to factored in the cost of labor.

And another from a fan page.

http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-solar-roof-cost-less-than-traditional/

Musk said the key to this surprise announcement is that the roofing materials supply chain as it exists today is incredibly inefficient. He said the glass solar roof tiles Tesla will sell are up to 80% lighter in weight than ceramic or concrete roofing materials. They are also much less fragile. The result is that transportation and breakage costs are greatly reduced, which is a big factor in keeping costs down. The other factor, as Musk said during the Solar Roof reveal last month, is that glass is mostly sand and sand is cheap.

...Tesla should definitely offer some super-secure teen-driver proofing so your kid with the freshly minted driver's license doesn't squish himself on a joy-ride whilst you and the missus are reconnecting on holiday.

They do. It's called valet mode: An in-depth look at ‘Valet Mode’ for the Tesla Model S

Here's one.

What about the fatal crash in Southern California last monday morning?

You do realize that by drawing that hasty (and false) equivalency you're arguing that the problem with iPhone 4 not working properly if "held wrong" or without a "bumper" or a piece of tape over the antenna - was a "human beings" and "human nature" problem?
Not the fact that it was a bad design, not present in past or future versions of the phone.

I.e. That people really WERE holding it wrong.

Cause in every case of Tesla crashes so far - that was exactly the case. They WERE using it wrong.
While ignoring repeated warnings.

If you drive on the same road over and over again, it will actually learn how you go into the curve and also how other Tesla drivers do it. Eventually after you drive through it enough times, the auto-pilot will be driving just as smooth as you are. I would suggest to read up a bit on the Fleet Learning feature.

http://mashable.com/2015/10/14...
http://www.teslarati.com/upcom...

Here's a video showing the value of max torque at 0 RPM and beyond.
He blows away a sportbike.
http://www.teslarati.com/sport...

So, where do you recharge your H2 vehicle on long trips? I charge my Tesla at Superchargers which are already installed just about everywhere. Drive 3-4 hours, charge 30 minutes (usually ready for some food and a break by then), drive another 3-4 hours, repeat... Tesla Model X can tow your boat (it has a 5000 lb rated hitch).

First, you're mistaken when you say that Superchargers are installed just about everywhere. There are only 624 Supercharger stations in the entire country. There are a few very large states that do not have a single Supercharger. That just doesn't compare to the estimated 126,000 gas stations in the US.

Secondly, I believe that you're missing the point. Batteries are still not the most ideal energy storage mechanism for long-distance travel because of the time required to charge a battery (30-minutes) when compared to a more portable energy storage mechanism that can flow at up to 10 gallons per minute. Your asking where to fuel a hydrogen vehicle on a long trip is disingenuous, because a network does not exist yet. However, with sufficient demand (and technology that does not exist yet on a commercial basis), there is no reason why existing gas stations couldn't update to include hydrogen - and maybe even replace fossil fuels with hydrogen.

Finally, while a Tesla Model X can tow up to 5000 lbs, doing so reduces the vehicle range by 60%. It's great that you have a Tesla and really like it. I'm glad that it works for you. However, the idea that these cars can be all things to all people is incorrect.

Tesla has over 3000 charging stations.

rather than he said, she said, how about some references. Here's where I got my number: http://www.teslarati.com/inter...

Plugshare has more than 50,000 charging stations.

Not as convenient for the person on the go.

In addition, most EV owners plug in at home for convenient overnight charging. Electricity is everywhere and everyone has access at home ( unlike gas stations which require a large investment and rely on trucks to deliver fuel).

Yes but an investment which is already paid for, which actually makes a big difference.
I'm not knocking EVs, as soon as one reaches my price range and aesthetic standards (Apart from Tesla, why are they all so fucking ugly?) I'll get one, but I'm not going to pretend that they are as flexible as ICE for traveling out of town.

Casey Spencer actually did 550 miles and ended at the starting point (if the comments below the article on teslarati.com are correct, because I couldn't find exact details on the route myself), so the initial downhill segment doesn't matter. But he did deactivate or turn down as much as possible everything that used even the smallest amount of power (climate control, radio, dimmed screens), overinflated the tires, and chose a favorable weather pattern with a strong tailwind in the last leg. And of course he only did 24 mph.

Anyway, I came here to write exactly what you wrote: Elon said that someone already did 800 km, so they should be able to break 1000 km in 2017 or so. To me it certainly sounded like he was talking about a similar hypermiling record, not real world performance. And since the record was done with an 85D while 90D is already available, they ought to already be able to achieve 937 km today. So it looks like they won't improve much in the coming years, 5 to 10% per year like he said.

4600 pounds for a Model S.
However, consider that a competitor, a BMW 7 series runs 4350 pounds.

A couple passengers worth of weight isn't that big of a difference.

My take on this is if they put up wind or solar arrays, it would work better than trying to charge people's cars live off it.

Have you ever calculated how big a solar array it would take to charge a Tesla battery?

Solar constant on the ground at U.S. latitudes is about 750 Watts/m^2.
High-efficiency panels are about 22% efficient. Commercially, 18% is more realistic, but let's go with 22%.
Solar capacity factor for the desert Southwest U.S. is about 0.18. Multiply by 2 to account for night.
The big Tesla S battery has a 85 kWh.

750 Watts/m^2 * 22% efficiency = 165 W/m^2
times 0.36 capacity factor (average for the day) = 59.4 W/m^2 average generation during the 12 hours of daylight

Assume 90% charging efficiency. Real-life measurements put it at about 85%, but solar would charge it a lot slower so let's be generous and say 90%. At 90% charging efficiency, you need 94.4 kWh to fill the 85 kWh battery.

To charge the battery in 12 hours would thus take:
94,400 Wh / (12 hours * 59.4 W/m^2) = 132.5 m^2 of solar panels

A car parking space is about 9' x 18', or about 15 square meters. So you'd need roughly 9 car parking spaces worth of solar panels to charge one big Tesla S battery per day in the desert Southwest U.S.

Costs of implementing a PV Solar generation system are about $3.30/Watt in the U.S. on a utility-level scale. Technically this is commercial scale, but let's go with best case. 1 m^2 of these panels would be rated at 165 Watts peak capacity. At a price of $3.30/Watt, this would be $544.50/m^2 * 132.5 m^2 = $72,146.25 worth of PV to be able to charge 1 Tesla battery per day.

The amount of electricity used by a busy Tesla battery charging station would put it into the industrial category. The average U.S. electricity price for industrial customers was $0.07/kWh for 2014. At $0.07/kWh, the panels would essentially be charging the battery with $6.61 worth of electricity per day. It would take 10,913 days, or 29.9 years for the PV system to pay for themselves.

I won't go through the math in detail, but if you use more realistic figures of 18% efficient panels, 0.145 capacity factor (average for the U.S. overall), 85% charging efficiency, and the $4.50/Watt cost of commercial PV installations, the numbers end up 213 m^2 (14.2 parking spaces) of panels to charge one battery per day, and 61.9 years before the panels pay for themselves.

The costs are coming down, and we will eventually get to the point where it's cost-effective. But please do a reality check on the notion that you'll be able to prop up a few square meters of solar panels and charge your car for free.

Part of that problem is location of the battery. In a roadster it's essentially in the trunk over the rear axle.

Picture of a Roadster's battery location.
Picture of Model S battery placement.

With the ability to start 'from the ground up', the model S relocates the battery from a box in the rear to more of a flat sheet covering most of the undercarriage. They couldn't do this with the Roadster's Elise frame because it wasn't designed for it.

This change evens out the weight distribution and helps with stability, to the point that in rollover tests they had to resort to 'extreme measures' to flip the test car. Well duh, obviously it's not going to want to flip when approximately half the weight is UNDER the axles!
Model S totals 4,647 pounds:
1323 lbs - Battery
350 - Motor/Inverter(per diagram it's under the axle height as well)

Stuff above the axles - computers, hvac, seats, glass, etc...:1360 pounds.

Thus a Model S, while perhaps not as 'nimble' as a lighter vehicle, still performs much better than you'd expect from a car of that weight.