The future is here: My Model 3
Tesla was founded 14 years ago, on July 1, 2003. The single goal that inspired both employees and the public was: Bringing a mass-market car to life. Through that, accelerating a sustainable energy future.
Last Friday, July 28th 2017, a special event was held in the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. The first 30 cars were delivered to their owners. A monumental nigh for people, sustainable energy, and the power of technology.
Many argue that The Model 3 should receive the Car of the Century Award. I personally think that the vehicle is so advanced in technology that it transcends the car category.
I got my Model 3 on Friday. Below are a few cool features I like about it:
- Don’t need a key: My cell phone has become the car key. No application is needed, instead the devise and the vehicle communicate using bluetooth signal. There is a backup: A hotel room resembling NFC-card containing a chip that can be used for valet service or as a safety net in your wallet. Starting 2006, Volvo too experimented with this concept but Tesla is the first company to make it a standard feature.
- Touchscreen: The car has a 15-inch touch screen, which is generous considering the 17-inch one in the Model S. All other instruments are gone. Instead, the touchscreen offers entertainment, mapping, charge information, and everything else one may need in an EV.
- Autopilot: I discovered several cameras on the vehicle. Specifically, the Model 3 is equipped with 1 front radar, 7 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and a Nvidia Drive PX2 processor. The autopilot includes self-parking, lane guidance, lane switching, traffic matching, and “summon.” The summon will self-drive the car out of the garage and park it next to you.
- Range: The base model goes 220 miles on a single charge. It performs 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. One can “supercharge” it half full (to ~120-130 miles) in 30 minutes. Changing at home using a 240V or 32A charger, one can get 30 miles per hour. The upgraded version has a 310 miles range. It does 0 to 60mph in 5.1 seconds. The charging and supercharging scale proportionally: 170 miles for 30 minutes of supercharging and ~40 miles for an hour of home charging.
- Handling: I was blown away by the handling. Some people used the term: scalpel-precision. I found that an accurate assessment.
- Safety: Here one can see a side-pole impact test of a Model 3 vs Volvo S60. The Volvo is a safe car but its is clear which would be safer in an accident.
Watch a Tesla Model 3 vs. Volvo S60 side-pole impact test pic.twitter.com/dXBQkstrdo
— Tesla (@TeslaMotors) July 29, 2017
Driving the Model 3 felt like driving something more than a vehicle: It is a seamless integration between computer and car. It embodies most concepts we have learned about in our MS&E 238 class.
All the hard work over the years was worth it. It is incredibly rewarding to think that some young adults will drive an EV as their first car and may never have to go to a gas station.
Many are eager to get their car and cannot wait until theirs is ready. After experiencing it myself, I am happy to share: That car is worth the wait. 🙂
References:
https://www.tesla.com/model3
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/auto/2018-tesla-model-3-review/
http://fortune.com/2017/07/29/tesla-model-3-key-smartphone-app/
http://mashable.com/2017/07/29/tesla-model-3-keyless-smartphone-app/#1dq5Kqs79aqp
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/31/tesla-model-3-electric-car-doesnt-have-key-things-we-learned-speedometer-battery-sleep
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-01/the-wedding-industrial-complex-has-a-new-moneymaker-marijuana
10 comments on “The future is here: My Model 3”
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Boryana joined Tesla in 2011, at only ~600 employees, and helped the company through more than half a decade of hyper-growth. By early 2017 the company had grown over 5,000% and Boryana had built and led a number of teams such as People Analytics, HR Information Systems, HR Operation, Compensation, New Markets Readiness, Mergers and Acquisition Integration, and Business Operations.
Boryana was also the VP of Talent and Culture at Wikimedia, the foundation behind Wikipedia. At Wikimedia, Boryana oversaw all internal operations, people functions, workplace, and the team practices.
Following her passion of enabling and investing in human potential, Boryana also spends time as the Executive Director at the Straubel Foundation. The foundation's focus areas are sustainability, education and science.
A life-long learner and global nomad, Boryana has lived in Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the USA (since 2005.)
In 2006 Elon Musk explicitly wrote
“Build a sports car
Use that money to build an affordable car
Use that money to build an even more affordable car
While doing the above, also provide zero emission electric power generations options”
I think for its $35000 price tag its truly compelling how we are truly leaning towards an affordable, yet premium electric cars. Theres been affordable electric cars previously but they haven’t been great and theres been great electric cars but they haven’t been affordable. But with the model 3- its an affordable and a great electric car!
With the increase development of battery technology combined with Tesla’s “futuristic” feel it looks promising for the company in creating a mass market appeal for electric cars.
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Thank you for your comment, Tyron. I have to agree with you… too many compromises. I have kept an open mind and tried other EVs and hybrids before (Nissan Leaf, Volt, Prius, and some on the other end like the BMW i8.) There always seemed to be major compromises. The Leaf was the most affordable but, although it was kind of fun, it didn’t feel safe nor cool :). Range and charging were tough too. I also tried the BMW B class and Toyota RAV4 and the performance and range seemed better. Those two had a Tesla battery but the rest of the vehicle was as per manufacturer. I have not yet discovered anything that bothers me with the Model 3. Building it from ground up translated into a solid product.
Thanks for the great update, Boryana. We have a few friends who have the S and X models, and they were definitely not what I would consider affordable. Great drivers, excellent handling, well made, just not something most could buy. The Model 3, on the other hand, is priced below many of what I’d perceived to be its competitors, namely the conventionally internal combustion engine-powered Audi A4, BMW 3/4, Lexus GS, etc. While BMW’s i3 is an EV, its styling is very much lacking when compared to its siblings, and it is more expensive than your new vehicle. The Tesla Model 3 is much more appealing and I anxiously await seeing how it will be received. Vive la revolution!
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Thank you for your comment, David. I was joking that one can buy 3 or 4 Model 3s for the price of an S or X. 🙂 They are incredibly cool but yes, pricey. I think that people will love this thing. I keep thinking about the Ford Model T…and now the Model 3. The technology in the 3 is so far ahead that it seems like an invention and start of a new era. I hope people couple it with solar energy generation and Powerwall storage so that the solution is truly clean.
Very interesting and unique post here, Boryana! I agree that the model 3 certainly embodies many principles we are learning in MS&E 238, especially with regard to this week’s focus in AI and machine learning. You mentioned the car comes integrated with radar, cameras, and sensors for autopilot capabilities, along with an Nvidia processor. The application of AI for self driving cars is huge, and Tesla has definitely made incredible progress. It is interesting to think about how all the hardware is integrated to form the autopilot system, and even more interesting to think about how much data Tesla will be able to collect once they ramp up production and delivery of the Model 3. Utilizing this new driving data will be great for the autopilot system and moving towards full autonomy.
The bluetooth car “key” access with backup NFC card is amazing as well, and I did not hear about that until reading your post! I would love to hear more about your experience with the car over the next months.
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Hi Ajit, Thank you for your comment. I can show you the backup key card in class if you are onsite this Friday.
Hey Boryana,
Thanks for the post and congrats on being one of the first to receive a model 3.
A few thoughts on each of the features you highlight:
– I really do like the ability to use your cell phone as a key and the back-up NFC-card containing chip as a back-up in case your phone dies. One question that pops to mind is obviously cyber security, from my understanding NFC is not the most secure technology out there, was this a concern for you and did Tesla talk about any protections they might have for this? Can the car be locked and shut down remotely if it’s found to be stolen?
– The touchscreen is a nice touch and I’ve driven the model S and around the overall user interface was well thought out. I still struggle to see why other auto makers haven’t adopted this type of simplistic designs given its cost effective and elegant.
– I thought the fact that Tesla equips all the cars it rolls out with the necessary hardware for full auto-pilot so as to be able to roll it out in the future is great.
– In terms of range, I don’t think anyone including the majority of the analyst community thought that Tesla would deliver such a robust range for the model 3, definitely a nice surprise.
– Safety for Tesla has always been one of their feature selling points and advantages. I think it’s due to the fact that they’ve been able to re-imagine the whole way a car is engineered and designed without any legacy flaws or thinking.
I think it’s safe to say they’ve delivered one of the best products on the market, not just in the EV space. Going forwards, if they are able to deliver the cars on budget and on time it will be interesting to see how they are able to scale and service these cars with parts and repairs as they get large and people eventually need service.
Cheers,
Johnny
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Thank you Johnny for your great comments. Excellent points!
Re security: Yes, every Tesla vehicle has a phone app that lets you operate the vehicle remotely. It can perform many functions such as: lock and unlock car, turn car off, turn the lights on and off, set the heat or cooling, honk the horn (many good practical jokes have been played using this feature.) Stealing a Tesla is a losing game. 🙂 A few have tried but because the Tesla is an IoT device vs a regular car… infosec can locate the vehicle within seconds. Even if the car is not online, the moment it goes online for even a second.. or even years later…the infosec team can set up an alert to catch it. Another way to find a car is through charging patterns. This can be avoided using home charging but its only a matter of time until a stolen car needs to supercharge somewhere.
It so safe that I often leave my car unlocked. That is probably not a best practice but I feel so comfortable with the safety features that it happens often. 🙂
This is without a doubt an exciting period in the automotive industry! As you pointed out, the Model 3 is one of the best value-for-money for an EV car one can buy right now and has already received fantastic reviews from leading tech experts (including this one on YouTube which I thought was really well-done: https://youtu.be/MgzwBW_LPdE). However, what I am most interested in moving forward is keeping track of how well Tesla is able to deal with the demand and ramp up production to match that. I believe Tesla wants to eventually get to 10,000 cars produced in a week by the end of next year. Given that Gigafactory 1 is already producing batteries and SolarCity Gigafactory 2 is also underway in New York, I am confident Tesla is well on its way to match production numbers from traditional manufacturers!
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Hi Abishek, That video is such a great find! Thank you for sharing! I wrote the blog post before most magazines released their articles. The video you found is a solid, succinct summary and very well done.
Scaling is absolutely daunting and a challenge for any new automaker. I want Tesla to succeed because if Elon can’t, no one will probably be able to do it in the near future. It is so important that we get EVs to mass scale so we can reach a more sustainable energy future.