Welcome back for another lengthy car post. Perhaps a better writer could make it shorter, but I couldn’t =).
PHEVs, especially in the case of the Honda, are kind of toeing the line between a “best of both worlds” scenario and a “worst of both worlds” scenario. The Honda Clarity is worst of both worlds. The Chevy Volt toes the line elegantly. Either way, this is not the way.
Toyota, Kia, and Hyundia have all announced EV line-ups coming next year. VW, Ford, Hyundia, and Chevy already have production model EVs for sale today. Tesla has close to a 75% market share in the USA. It’s dominant for good reason. Although, with companies like Lucid and Polestar gunning for Tesla, and companies like Toyota, Chevy, and Ford producing tons of more affordable EVs, the market will soon change. Add insane year over year increases in production of batteries and we should see prices dropping soon.
I’ll let you in on a not so secret secret. I was much much safer driving around in the Tesla than I was in either my BMW or Erin’s Subaru. How could that be? Subaru has consistently ranked top 3 in safety according to consumer reports for the past decade!
Well, the Tesla artificial intelligence (AI) is there to help improve safety. Most people focus on the acceleration, the “auto” driving modes, and whatnot when talking about Tesla. Well, guess what? It took me 10 minutes to learn how to use the car. We passed through a construction zone, merged through lanes on the highway, and navigated an area heavy with cyclists. The Tesla alerted me with a double beep during the one (and only) event that was potentially dangerous during our test drive. It took me a moment to realize what Tesla was alerting me of. It knew before me.
We had entered a construction zone, coming off a merge, directly after waiting through a long red light. Welcome to California driving… People were accelerating. But, around the corner, there was a construction zone with a flagger holding a stop sign. As I rounded the corner the Tesla identified a potentially dangerous situation and alerted me before I saw the brake lights ahead. To be clear, I would not have otherwise crashed here. I would have seen the brake lights and hit the brakes. I was simply given extra warning and had extra time to prepare.
This all led to me enjoying driving, and relaxing, a lot more. When I got into “easy” driving situations -like on a freeway- I turned on the driver assist. The car takes over centering me in the lane and keeps a safe following distance. It will also switch lanes, change cruising speeds, and alter following distance on command. By the way, it will do all of this at any speed. Not just on the freeway. It will assist you with safely driving through any road. You will need to stay aware, because any liability caused by an accident is still yours and not Tesla’s. Eventually, modes named “autopilot” will need to hold Tesla accountable for accidents caused by the car, rather than the driver. For now, we will have to make do with driving assist modes.
My only other comparison in regard to driver assist and safety features is my Fathers Subaru Outback. This car also has a “lane keep assist’ function. The only problem is that it’s more like “pong” than centering. It is terrible to use, and makes me nauseous. It does not inspire confidence. Most other manufacturers have also recently come out with driver assist modes. Only recently have they become anywhere close to functional.
Remember house phones? Yup, me too. My dad asked me to research the best integrated 4 module house phone, about a decade ago.. So I did. If someone asked me to compare that to my current Google mobile phone, I would laugh and ask “seriously?”. The technology to make cars much better than what we currently have already exists. Also, if we intend on living on planet earth for a while longer, we better get our act together. In order to make that a reality, we need to switch all our machines to clean energy sources. Plus, a top of the line Tesla will beat a Ferrari in a 0-60MPH drag race while costing less than half the price. That’s what I’m talking about.
Thanks for putting up with my car posts. I promise this is the last one. In two weeks, expect a post on our recent ski trip!