Gawdl3y
I’m a huge fucking nerd.
Another Tesla owner here (2020 Model 3) who thinks Musk is an absolute tool bag, but the misinformation out there about the cars is just plain silly.
Being trapped in a fire?
Every Tesla has always had prominent manual door release mechanisms on the front doors. So prominent, in fact, that most people who try to get out of the car for the first time instinctually go for it (on the Model 3 and Y, at least). The rear doors depend on model/year, but are mostly much less prominent/accessible since it would defeat the purpose of the child lock.
Self igniting batteries?
There are far, far fewer EV battery fires per year than there are ICE fires, even adjusting per capita. Furthermore, Teslas have historically had the lowest rate of battery fires of any EV.
Stuck due to software updates?
Software updates never install automatically and you literally never have to sit and wait in the car for them. When a software update is available, you get a notification to schedule it both on the car’s screen itself and on your phone via the Tesla app. You don’t even have to touch the car to schedule or install the update from your phone. Additionally, if the concern is regarding getting in/out while an update is installing, the standard door handles work just fine throughout 95% of the update process, and the manual releases always work.
Doorhandles don’t work when out of battery?
What, to get in the car? That’s a valid criticism I suppose, but not at all unique to Teslas, and getting in won’t do you a lot of good with an “empty tank” anyway, especially if it’s dead to the point that even the 12V battery (which is responsible for the doors and most of the electronics other than the motors and HVAC) is fully drained. Either your 12V battery has to straight-up fail entirely or you have to leave the car sitting on 0% for weeks to months for this to happen. There are terminals to “jump” the car and access the frunk (and thus the 12V battery) without access to the inside of the car.
Body pieces not secure?
Build quality issues are not at all unique to Tesla, and occur with every manufacturer all the time. Except for the Cybertruck, nearly all of Tesla’s build quality issues were largely worked out years ago and are on the same level as other manufacturers.
Self driving is a lie?
My car literally drives me to and from work every day (40min one way) with very infrequent interventions or disengagements from me. Pretty convincing lie, if you ask me. While we’re not at level 3 autonomy yet, and Elon has hugely over promised and under delivered over the years, the tech is extremely impressive (especially given it’s 100% camera-based) and already pretty damn good (not always perfect) in most scenarios. It’s constantly being improved, too. I’ve gotten to personally experience the progress over the past 5ish years, and it feels like we’re getting pretty close. Whether it’s actually level 3+ soon, who knows. The future is hard to predict, especially with very new, experimental tech like this.
Anti safety, anti union practices in assembly? The social cost of everyone thinking you’re a Musk fanboy?
100% valid, no argument from me.
If your computer isn’t within your punching range, SteamVR has a built-in feature for this, called “Knock Knock”. Right click the headset in the SteamVR desktop UI to get to it. It puts a button on your desktop that lets someone click it to alert you in the headset.
Everything you mentioned about the Tesla vehicle issues is largely inaccurate. It’s not your fault, because there’s been a ton of sensationalized stories and misinformation thrown out there about them. Full disclaimer: I do own a 2020 Tesla Model 3 and love it. It’s not a perfect vehicle by any means, but it’s a whole lot of car for what I paid, and it’s required almost no maintenance or attention from me over the past 4yrs beyond rotating and changing tires. I don’t like Elon Musk and think he’s a giant tool/lunatic in so many ways, but Tesla makes pretty damn solid cars despite him. I wish they’d get rid of him, though I bet he has a controlling/majority share unfortunately. I bought my Tesla before he became a huge raging asshole on public platforms, and that definitely contributes to hesitation at buying another in the future (though that’s several years out anyway).
- The emergency door release in the front doors on a Tesla is a simple latch mechanism easily accessible right underneath the digital button door handle. It’s actually so easy to access that it’s extremely common for people new to the vehicles to pull that manual release instead of using the button to open the door. This is true for all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, and newer Model X and Model S vehicles. On older Model S and X vehicles that have the pull handles, the manual release is the same as the digital release. It’s only the rear passenger doors that have more obscure manual releases, presumably so children can’t bypass the child lock easily. That process varies by model, but none of them require any door panel disassembly. You can see most of the methods in this video. It’d be nice if this process were more standardized across models, though, and it could be made more clear for any passengers not familiar with the car they’re in for sure.
- The glass isn’t anything different from what every other auto manufacturer is using on vehicles. Glass used in car doors is tempered and will completely shatter into thousands of tiny, mostly harmless pieces upon precise impact on a point, but will resist shattering from blunt hits. More “luxury” vehicles use laminated glass on the doors that does not immediately fully shatter even from precise pointed hits, but once a small shatter has been created, the glass can then be pushed out/in relatively easily. See the link above again, as they also go over this.
- All of the newer models do still have a manual shifter, but it’s definitely not traditional (none of their shifters have been fully traditional in the first place, though). They’re now all P/N/D/R buttons, either up near the rear view mirror or down on the center console. The preferred method of shifting on these newer models, however, is using the touch screen - but it’s probably not how you’re thinking. The side of the touch screen closest to the driver has a dedicated area when pressing the brake pedal while in park and always active when driving that you just swipe up or down on to switch between drive and reverse manually. I’ve never experienced this personally, as my Model 3 is an older one with a steering wheel stalk to shift. Owners of these do generally say they very quickly get used to it, the gesture rapidly becoming natural to them. I can definitely understand hesitation about it though, which is why there are still the physical controls in addition to this. The predictive shifting is a setting that can be disabled, and any user input always takes priority even when it is enabled. I’ve heard it also works rather well from other owners, but again, I have no personal experience.
- In terms of general overall safety, Tesla’s vehicles have consistently been scored as some of the safest vehicles to drive in the world by the NHTSA and other safety organizations. See their latest NHTSA-rated model for an example. You are more likely to survive a collision and other incidents (and more likely to remain unharmed) in any of the Teslas than most other vehicles on the road. They’ve been highly rated for pedestrian safety as well. (Note: dunno where the Cybertruck sits in all this, as it’s brand new and is an entirely different class of vehicle from their previous, being a full-size pickup truck. I don’t think they’ve been fully rated by any organization yet.) Tesla actually publishes their incident rates quarterly, and they can be seen here.
The 30% cut was industry standard for digital distribution for years. Google, Apple, and numerous other players all took 30% as standard.
That being said, Steam hasn’t taken a flat 30% for years now - their standard agreement starts at 30%, decreases to 25% after the first $10m in sales, then decreases further to 20% after $50m.
Furthermore, Valve has done more in terms of providing services, APIs/libraries, and end-user features (all with no additional fee to the developers or consumers) than any other game storefront has. I’d say they more than justify their cut.
I’ve always disliked the concept of critical fails in general, and this is a great example of why. If we’re to believe that our characters are truly these great warriors with far more skill and experience than an average person like the texts usually say, how does it make sense for these professionals to just completely blunder 1 in 20 of their attempts at everything? From an RP standpoint, it doesn’t add up, and from a gameplay standpoint, it’s just annoying as hell IMO.