The Tesla Model 3, the car that is going to bring Tesla technology to the masses, is finally here. It is not here as in “in press fleets across America,” but it is sitting in the driveways of real customers who don’t work for Tesla, and that, my friends, is what counts for progress in the Willy Wonka world of Elon Musk. So, not knowing when a real, regular loaner Model 3 would actually become available, I, uh, “borrowed” one. Where’d I get it? As they say in New Jersey, “Don’ worry ‘bout it.” The point is that for a couple of hours yesterday I drove a fully loaded Model 3 in city and suburban traffic, around freeway onramps as fast as I dared go with the owner riding shotgun, and I fiddled with that 15-inch touch screen that controls everything in the car. And? Yes? Well? Was it what you would call a “good” car? Yes. More than good? In many, if not most ways, yes. There are advances available in the Model 3 that it will take some more timid mainstream automakers several years and a few model cycles to put into regular cars. Those range from the obvious, like autonomous driving in the form of Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot, to simple things like auto-dimming outside rearview mirrors on an “entry-level” car, and a steering wheel that electrically adjusts while in your hands for a better fit, instead of requiring that you reach down and under it and guess… [Read full story]
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