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Tesla Model 3 Test Drive: Car Has Bite and Simple Interior (wsj.com)
An anonymous reader shares a WSJ article: A first peek inside Tesla's new Model 3 compact car revealed a starker, cozier interior than the more spacious and luxurious Model S. But as the sedan sped off, the experience felt similar. On Friday, the Silicon Valley auto maker showed off details of the all-electric sedan's interior for the first time (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source), allowing brief test rides with a roughly 10-minute spin around the factory. The Model 3 represents a milestone for Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has long wanted to create an electric car for the masses. He's betting the new vehicle can help fuel massive growth for his 14-year-old company, projecting Tesla will produce a half-million cars next year, after delivering about 76,000 Model S sedans and Model X sport-utility vehicles last year. The Model 3's exterior was revealed in March last year, but details about the interior have been scarce. The $35,000 sedan is noticeably bare bones inside -- gone are the displays and instrument panel behind the steering wheel and the numerous switches and buttons found in the cockpit of traditional cars. Instead, the Model 3 makes greater use of a video screen in the center dash that controls most of the car's functions.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the most popular car on Slashdot is also the most difficult to hot rod?
It really is the Apple of automobiles.
Why would you have a grille opening in a car that doesn't need an air intake? Besides, these wannabe-mouths are usually ugly. I miss the 80ies, back then they tried to hide these for aerodynamic reasons.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
This interior is a joke, right? Right??? Am I looking at a fucking iPad glued to an almost empty dashboard? WHAT? NO INSTRUMENT CLUSTER? IS THIS A FEVER DREAM?
Do they not have a human factors engineering dept? Or did they hire all millennial Google rejects to fill their staff?
This thing looks like a fucking engineering disaster in the making. People are going to die from distracted driving staring at this tablet in the center of the dash. Do people not realize that the Fords & GMs of the world spend $$ into human factors research trying to figure out where exactly the little buttons on the steering wheel and instrument panel go, what they feel like, etc? There is a reason for this.
No Grill, nowhere to hang the coal shovel or the buggy whip, completely useless.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the most popular car on Slashdot is also the most difficult to hot rod?
Not at all. Many people even engineers and tinkered sometimes just prefer something well made that does not need to be touched or modified.
Mind you there are plenty of people hacking at Telsas. It's just a different skill set.
The interior designer they poached from Volvo clearly hasn't had time to improve anything yet. Since he was only hired 6 months ago, this design pre-dates him, and you can tell. It's terrible.
All the display is to the side - so you have to look sidways and down to find out anything about the vehicle, even its speed. That means you are not looking at the road for longer.
The display is high gloss - so you have to look through reflections and highlights to read the screen, it is not shaded from outside light at all. That means you are not looking at the road for longer and get more eyestrain.
Trying to adjust any functions of the car without tactile feedback means you have to not only look to find what to press, but look to confirm the action happened correctly - so you spend longer looking at the controls and less at the road.
It looks like an ergonomic failure and an unpleasant car to drive which reduces safety by increasing driver distraction.
I don't even know if the seats are any good; the Model S seats certainly aren't.
Then there is "unlock via app". So, what happens if your phone and the car are not online to the Internet? The Model S app-unlock is via the Internet, not any short range connection like Bluetooth. Let alone if your phone gets r00ted and the app key is stolen. There's a backup physical key - but if I have to remember to carry the physical key all the time what is the point of app-unlock anyway? They might as well implement having a key you have to have near the car for more reliable unlocking and better security - like every other car manufacturer. This is just more Internet of Shit Things (that spy on you).
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
I'm not blind in that eye, but there's a damned good reason why important gauges are put right in front of the driver...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I also think the front is a styling miss (but not the rest of the car). My misgivings go the other way though:
I think the front still looks too much like that of a car with a grille opening. If you don't need a grille, why cling to the traditional form instead of making it even more sleek?
The front area of the General Motors EV 1 does look better IMHO.
If you still need a small air inlet, it could go left and right of the license plate. Imagine something like the GM Impact, with the two central air inlets "pulled apart" and located next to the fender area. The license plate could go in the middle.
C - the footgun of programming languages
I'm not blind in that eye, but there's a damned good reason why important gauges are put right in front of the driver...
It's a car for people who hate driving. You can tell whether a car is for people who like driving by where they put the tachometer. If it's centered in the cluster, it's a driver's car. If it's off center, but still behind the wheel, it's a sporty car. If it's smaller than the speedometer, it's probably a diesel pickup. If it's hard to find, it's irrelevant. And if it's missing, then the car was designed for your grandmother. Of course, EVs don't really need tachos, do they? But they should have one anyway.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You can't say any of the curves are unnecessary, since you haven't taken it through a wind tunnel. (Real or virtual). Tesla have, and lowering the air resistance is a high priority.
Minis have always had their speedo in the centre of the car. It's never harmed their sales.
http://www.seriouswheels.com/p...
Well, that was weird. I was reading the article about taxes, hit the post button, and it landed here. WTF, Slashdot?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
> created by a nerd
Elon Musk is a cult leader like Steve Jobs, not a nerd. Please turn over your geek card.
Stick yours up your ass & light it on fire.
Musk programmed & sold a video game when he was 12 & has a B. Sc. degree in Physics. Jobs needed Wozniak to build him a circuit board that could play Pong so he could get a job at Atari.
Of course, EVs don't really need tachos, do they? But they should have one anyway.
A tachometer doesn't make any sense on an EV. But the equivalent, a kW meter, does. I rather like having one on my Model S. (I also like having a gauge cluster right behind the steering wheel, and the center screen being in an enclosed mount. Worried that the "detached" screen on the Model 3 is going to break too easily.)
Ah yes, I remember when they started shipping the $17k Ford Fusion standard with 7 cameras, radar and 12 ultrasound sensors to implement automatic crash avoidance, with an optional upgrade to self driving. I remember it like yesterday: I had just told the car to preheat using an app on my phone, put my bags into the frunk, and after staring through the panoramic glass roof, I peeled out with a 5,6 second 0-60 with instantaneous torque using energy that I could refill cleanly at miniscule cost using a battery pack warrantied for 8 years, while the info ticked by on its 15" touchscreen....
Ford Fusions sure have changed.
So, apart from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
There is. A credit card like device.
I've seen many videos of people driving Model S and Model X cars. And never once has the screen been unreadable, no matter what the light conditions or direction of the sun. Nor have I heard any owners complain about it.
It's almost as if Tesla knew the panel was going to be installed in a car and specced it appropriately and adjust brightness on the fly as required.
But hey, you go on coming up with the first objecti0on that enters your head, regardless of whether it's an actual problem with Tesla cars or not.
Lol, it's you! I was wondering what sort of idiot must be out there (but which I had never encountered before) who automakers were catering to when putting fake grilles on cars that didn't need them.
So, apart from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
The radiators on Tesla vehicles are located on the front, using air ducted underneath the vehicle. They're most active when the vehicle is stationary: when supercharging. Tesla uses a somewhat complex but very efficient system for balancing the varying heating and cooling needs between different parts of the vehicle. Heat can be shunted into or out of the battery pack, motor/inverter heat is captured, heat can be shunted into or out of the cabin, etc.
So, apart from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?