| Replying by point, as I've been driving my 2019 M3 for 4y now: - agree, rent it for a few days after the test drive, EVs have a different style of driving that might not suit you - pings in modern cars are everywhere, it's not just Teslas - the way I drive, I very rarely (<2 times/month) get a ping from Forward Collision Warnings, but just because I keep it to "Early", which is the longest triggering distance; otherwise the car is silent (you may be constantly driving too close to other cars?), my father's ID.4 is just as annoying, if not worse - people call Tesla interior "cheap", when in reality it's just simple and plain but durable, most of the costs of the car are in the battery and powertrain - Am 1.85m tall at 110kg, steering wheel feels appropriate in size - On my M3 2019, there's two buttons that have 2 axes (up/down/left/right) and a push - Overspeed indication can be configured: none/speed limit icon animation/super-annoying bell that scares you every time (I keep it to icon animation) And, replying to final point, the speed limiter IS the adaptive cruise control, which is perfectly working in cities, esp. in traffic jams. The way it works is to pick the speed limit as ceiling, and adapt the cruise to the traffic and the follow the vehicle in front at the distance that you've set (right wheel button left/right). The distance is adaptive (dist. 7 @ 50 km/h << dist. 7 @ 130 km/h). I usually keep 7 because it reduces the amount of slowdowns when people cut in front, resulting in a smoother ride. I've often seen the complaint that follow distance 7 in US cities is impossible, because everyone would jump in front of you - I'd still not recommend setting 2, it makes for a super-annoying stop-and-go drive. I have the "bad luck" of living in Switzerland, where speed limits change every 50m: my routine is to use TACC as much as possible, and disengaging it with ample margin (using only regen to break) when coming up to traffic lights/roundabouts/crossings. I don't have to think about speed limits anymore, because TACC does it for me. Only exception is highway drives, where I need to change the speed limit beforehand with the right steering wheel button (or tap on the limit icon). Hint: you can disengage TACC and/or AP without breaking, just do a quick soft tap-up on the right stalk (like soft-blinker tap). There are a couple important points about the driving style of an EV, that I feel are not stressed enough: - you try to regen as much as possible and avoid using breaks to get some energy back (extend the driving range), and you wear down break pads way less than ICE cars - you don't floor it after every stop, because torque is instant and the engine needs no revving up - if you do this, I guarantee you'll always be running up to the bumper of the vehicle in front of you and having the car scream at you (regardless of the brand) From my point of view, after 4y, looking also at all the other EVs that followed after Teslas (father has ID.4, mother Peugeot e-208), Tesla has managed to automate mostly-well many aspects of driving while reducing UI complexity (and removing "I have used it once in the lifetime of the car" buttons). - AC does a good job of keeping the temperature in relation to the outside temp, also selecting the appropriate air flow outlets - Automated lights off/on/high-beams well enough, that honestly I can't remember the last time I touched the setting, possibly never - Voice control works decently enough that I can select songs or playlists just by pressing the wheel button (in addition to controlling pretty much all the car features) - Auto-wipers works well enough for me in >90% conditions, except perhaps hurricane-level thunderstorms in a pitch-black area - TACC/AP do an excellent job at keeping distance and lane on highways, and they're years better in terms of quality compared to competitors (I wanted for a long time Enhanced AP with lane changes, but after having tested it, I'd rather not; never used FSD, also: Europe) Considerations about the UI: people keep claiming that they want 200 physical buttons, and that it's dangerous to take your eyes off the road, but: - the Tesla UI is done well enough that I can adjust my AC faster than my ICE-powered friend can (not that I need it that much, it does a good job) - my friend still also needs to either look at the AC temp/flow selectors or press a -/+/... button until a display shows what he wants, so it's not like the ICE version is safer than the Tesla in this regard - I feel the "muscle memory" everybody talks about works for 1/2 HUGE tactible features at most if you only have 1 car available to drive, the rest of stuff you'll still need to look what you're doing regardless (unless you regularly spend >15s counting X buttons from the left of the second row of buttons from the bottom) - TACC and AP (and safety features worst case) fill in the attention void created by these actions, while the ICEs have none of these available unless they are in the same price range - VW ID.4 and Peugeot e-208 have archaic OSes that have huge input latency and were designed with automotive in mind BUT NOT REALLY TESTED FOR IT (in general UI interactions are NOT well thought out), while Tesla has a simple settings panel with everything in it, automates most regulations, and it's super-responsive - VW ID.4 has so many buttons to activate the TACC/AP equivalents, in different modes, that my father after >2y of daily driving still hasn't mastered them, and the steering wheel looks like an Formula 1 steering wheel; compare that to: "single-tap" -> TACC engaged + "double-tap" -> AP engaged In general, driving for me has become fun again: I don't need to worry about a ton of stuff, and operating the car is WAY easier than manual or even auto transmission. |
Giving credit where it is due, I do agree that the Tesla cruise control is great. I was driving it in Germany and Austria and it maintaining correct speed going down mountains and hills was just chefs-kiss perfect.
But - I think it is not correct to say that you don't need a speed limiter because of TACC or that it can replace a speed limiter. And I believe I got into a good rhythm with the Tesla (with TACC on, hold stick down when approaching a speed change sign, release when I pass it, no beeps of disable/re-enable- although this still causes overspeed alert even if car is slowing to match new speed).
I had the overspeed alert set very strict - which is why it was beeping at me - but without a speed limiter this is the only way to force myself to not go overspeed everytime I accelerate while looking at traffic rather than the speedometer.
Driving in 20kmh areas, TACC didn't switch on for me, and I hated having to re-engage TACC every time I slowed to enter a roundabout. I literally just want to concentrate on driving in these complex suburban situations, but I don't want to have my photo taken by radar, I just want the car to limit my speed, or have the speed available if I really need it suddenly (at the extreme end of the throttle range)
Have you used speed limiters in other vehicles? I know I have driven a Peugeot 2008 which could read speed signs then you could double press a button to set your limiter to that speed.
I want that, but without needing to press a button. I actually want to remap throttle response over the range of the throttle, and have a particular range of the throttle which is "sticky" at the speed limit... like a "gravity well" of throttle range that will maintain the speed limit. Does that make sense?