[s1mon]

At one point I really thought that our next car would be a Tesla. So when Hertz had a Model 3 available after our Hyundai from Enterprise was stolen (yep Kiaboyz hack time), we tried it out.

We had similar UX issues. It's crazy. I'm all for a very clean interface, but the affordances for very basic functionality are limited. It started with just getting into the damn car. I felt like an idiot just trying to unlock the door. After we struggled for a few minutes we finally had to ask a Hertz attendant. Similarly, there were a lot of cabin controls which are buried in the touchscreen UI. Because I like to play with new toys, I was willing to take the time while parked to watch some videos and figure things out, but a Model 3 is not an easy car to just get in and drive without some prior knowledge. What's also kinda crazy is all the ways that things can be customized (e.g. one pedal driving). I wonder if Hertz resets any of this to the lowest common denominator after a rental?

Charging was a bit of a pain without access to charging at our hotel. There was a supercharger site not too far away, but sitting for 20-30 minutes in a mall parking lot is not my idea of fun. We definitely want our next car to be an EV, but only because we would install a charger in our garage. I'm still not sure I would make the EV choice without that.

I rented a Model 3 again another time, but through Turo, and had hardly any issues, but that's because of this prior experience.

These days, Elon Musk has turned into (or exposed himself to be?) such a nut job that I can't see buying a Tesla. It's very frustrating, because overall I still like the Model 3 better than most other EVs.

[vel0city]

I'm a bit confused about your difficulty with unlocking and driving off. The car should have unlocked itself upon approach, and all you would have needed to do to drive would be to swipe the always on part of the screen to drive. Was it not this way with the rental?

I don't own a Tesla and I'm not a fan of their extremely minimalist interior, but those two things should have at least been the easiest to do.

[kccqzy]

How does the car know it should unlock when approached by the right person but not a stranger? It has a Bluetooth connection to the phone. For a rental, the person renting probably doesn't have the Tesla app, and it's not obvious how to use the key card.

None of this is easy for a rental. They are only easy for a person who bought the car and owns it.

[vel0city]

On my car the fobs auto unlock the car when approached, you don't need the phone app. There is nothing similar for Teslas? Just the backup card with it's oddities and your phone? Didn't they have that little toy car remote?

[kccqzy]

They do have that remote but since it doesn't come with the car, you can bet rental companies didn't pay extra to provide customers with that fob.

[s1mon]

They give you a key card. Without some prior knowledge, try to figure out where to use the key card.

Putting it near the B-pillar is not the first or second things I tried. In retrospect given the RF nature of how NFC works, it makes sense that behind something non-metallic makes sense. I think I may have tried things near the edge of the windshield (didn't Zipcar work like that?).

[_ea1k]

I think they only give you the card, so walkup unlock won't happen, at least before setting up a phone key.