Driving Electric Vehicles (BEVs)

Transport
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By gadgetry assume you mean autopilot. Autopilot comes with the performance model for free.

In my first Tesla, the model 3 performance, I purchased the full self-driving upgrade for about $6000 (which is delivered over the air or OTA like all the software patches and recalls that are software based). Since 2022 this upgrade has been split into two upgrades, Enhances Autopilot ($5,100) and Full Self Driving ($10,100 which includes the Enhanced Autopilot).

I didn’t purchase either of these in my model y.

Firstly because if you buy them up front you pay extra luxury car tax when you can buy the upgrade later and avoid the tax. You simply select the upgrade in the Telsa app on your smartphone and it’s charged to your credit card and downloaded OTA.

And secondly because my experience with the model 3 was that I hardly used full self-driving as it’s not fully implemented in Australia yet and not tuned for Australian conditions.

FSD is engaged by simply clicking down twice on the right-hand control stick (once for autopilot) and the car takes over the driving, up to driving onto and off freeways and changing lanes on freeways. On highways it just stays in the lane.

There are other features like smart summons which I occasionally used to show off or to avoid getting wet in an open-air carpark. Smart summons simply drive the car unattended to wherever you are located with your smartphone which is good if its raining and it’s an open-air carpark. Here’s my first experience with it. Watch this. I took this video down at the local shopping centre.

I’m retired now and don’t want to spend $10k on something I might used occasionally.

So, the autopilot that comes standard with the Model Y performance does most of what I want on long trips. It will keep the car in the lane at the selected speed, stop or slow down if there is something in front of you and usually spots the speed limit signs and slows the car to comply, even spots the school zones’ 40km limit at the right time of the day but doesn’t know when school holidays are. But I rarely use autopilot on city streets. Having the 40km symbol on the screen is useful if you missed sign though.

But when using any of these features you’ve got to keep your eyes on the road and keep your hands on the wheel or close to the steering wheel.

The car’s internal camera can detect if you are looking away from the road for extended periods, if your eyes are closed, or if you are engaged in other activities and trigger warnings or even intervene in some cases to prevent accidents. So if you fall asleep the car starts an audible warning and if you don’t wake up, stops altogether with a big orange steering wheel on the screen. FSD is unavailable for the rest of the trip if that happens.

  • Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features: The camera is used to gather data about the driver’s head position and gaze to improve the performance of Autopilot and FSD features. For example, it can help the system to determine if the driver is paying attention when Autopilot is engaged, or if they are looking in the direction the car is about to turn.

  • Cabin occupancy detection: The camera can be used to detect the number of occupants in the car and their location. This information can be used to adjust the climate control system, activate airbags if necessary, or personalize the driving experience.

So, I don’t know how the true full self-drive system works on country roads because I don’t live in the USA. Also, you only get to use the FSD Beta software (V12), which is the system that drives from A to B without intervention using neuralnet AI, if you have a highly scored driving history. I think their car insurance system in the US also uses this driving score to determine premiums. Your score is determined from all the data they collect when you drive. You can optout of data sharing.

However, Autopilot and FSD in Australia relies on the lines on the road to determine where the lane is so if you are on a road with bad or no line markings then you turn autopilot off. This is one click up on the right had stick like turning a blinker on.

So you simply use it where its useful.

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No I meant all the driver assistance features you listed. As you say autopilot is not generally available here. Thanks for recounting your experiences anyway.

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Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving (FSD) are all available in Australia. FSD Beta is not available yet.
FSD is more for the US I think. The reason I think that is when I used FSD on the highway the car would alway change lanes to the right when passing an off-road for no reason and then move back into the left lane. It could do that with cars all around it but I think the other drivers probably wondered what I was doing moving into the right lane when I wasn’t passing anybody so I’d just cancel the lane change. This doesn’t happen with Autopilot as it doesn’t auto change lanes.

In bad weather the car passes control back to the driver. Simple as that.

There are situations where you have to turn Autopilot off becuase the road is bad and you want to take control. Simple as turing a blinker on or off.

But this feature makes driving long distances very relaxed as the car does all the heavy lifting.

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Would someone please tell me the differeence between BEV and ICE. Otherwise I have no clue on what it all means>

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BEV Battery Electric Vehicle (or EV)

ICE Internal Combustion Engine (e.g. Petrol engine)

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For those who endure days to months of floods in the regions, maybe value added?

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An unexpected benefit of EVs (in general, not just Teslas) is that they aren’t prone to stalling if the engine gets wet.

… but thinking that the water won’t stall the EV the way it would an ICEV will make people even more likely to drive into water when they shouldn’t. :slightly_frowning_face: Just like they think a big SUV is immune from all risk.

Stalling the vehicle when driving in water isn’t the only risk. The real risk is that you’ll lose control of the vehicle, which you will do if it starts to float - which, it has been demonstrated, it will do if the water is above the vehicle’s floor level, regardless of the size of the vehicle.

That’s why driving into water is dangerous. [ further edit by isopeda after (edit text deleted by moderator) because of implication of safe depth] Never, ever drive into running water. Even a big SUV will start to float, lose traction, and then be carried downstream, all too often into deeper water in which the vehicle sinks and the occupants drown.

Quite apart from the fact that the water’s often too murky to tell whether there’s still a road surface in there, or a deep hole that’ll swallow the car and you …

Here’s yet another plea for people not to drive into floodwaters.

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Different driving practices using an EV makes sense to me. But the need for Education is not limited to EV’s. We drive a 30 yr old Toyota Tarago and a 12 yr old ASX. Recently I hired a car at Sydney airport to go to the Hunter Valley and we were given an MG Hatchback, almost new. I did not know how to drive it! At first I couldn’t start the engine, then I couldn’t get the brake off. Once on the road I was bemused by the concerto of noises the car was making if I was too close, too fast, near the white line, over the speed limit, etc and alarmed by the car moving the steering wheel. I was distracted by the digital display. Luckily we made it to the Hunter Valley with only a few more grey hairs. I’ve been driving for 60 yrs and driven many different vehicles, from crash box trucks, jeeps, and many ‘modern’ sedans from 1934 model Morris to the 2012 ASX. But nothing more modern than that. At least it has reversing sensors!!! I needed training on the MG and I was lucky to cope with it. Others might not be so lucky.

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I agree. It’s probably more accurate to say that most experienced drivers need to be taught how to drive most new vehicles!

Times change, and vehicles change with them. Many people who learned to drive this century would need extra training to be comfortable with a car with manual gears. And when I was a learner driver, on-the-floor gearsticks were a challenge to those taught on the standard steering column gear lever.:wink:

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I’ve been comparing notes after driving several recent model petrol and diesel (ICE) vehicles with another in the family who has a Hyundai EV.

Whether ICE powered or EV the large Touch screen centre consoles and digital dash displays present many similar advanced driving features. The development of autonomous operation being the one exception, notable as a Tesla option. Currently being avoided by most others.

As a routine driver of 20 year old state of the art motor vehicles any new vehicle offers similar challenges. I’ve driven several recently (hired or borrowed).

As to driving an EV, the consensus of the informed one in the family who owns one: The different way the power pedal (accelerator) may function was a very short and easy feature to adjust to. Their feedback as to what set different EV’s apart when looking for the best model. Some have driver’s controls that are laid out and operate in ways that are familiar. EG indicator stalk on the RHS of the steering column. Others require a different mindset and memory pattern.

The last thing we need as not so young any more drivers is to be heading off down the road randomly stabbing at a screen and or buttons trying to turn something on, off or to a different mode. Not a problem unique to EV’s judging on a recent journey in a hired tray back with just 2000km on the clock. It never stopped sending beeps at the driver once in the city for speed, lane, blind spot, too close the moment a car cut in, and … what ever else.

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There are domestic passenger vehicles that don’t?

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It’s an aside but minor point common to most European imports and conversions. Best answered by others:

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I read a new car review a few months ago. The motoring journalist was fed up with the car beeping whenever the speed limit was exceeded. He could inactivate it but had to do so every time he started the car. Some might argue that the speeding beep is justified, but I would be interested to know if it starts beeping at 1km/hr over the speed limit as per the car speedo, or whether it goes by the actual speed. When driving on 100km/hr highways, I often drive at truck speed, which is 105km/hr on my speedo. Australian Design Rules mean that if 100km/hr shows on the speedo, the actual speed would be between 86 and 100km/hr. Apparently, speedos of most vehicles are accurate to within 5km/hr at an indicated speed of 100km/hr. I suspect that truckies would become quite irate if they were held up by drivers sticking to the speed limit of their own car’s speedo.

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Some interesting news for EVs and many other battery applications.

Last I heard, solid state batteries were considered promising technology, but not ready for market for years yet. But it seems the Taiwanese company ProLogium is now producing solid state batteries and expecting to deliver them to electric vehicle manufacturers this year.

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Motoring specialists likely have their favourites.

The RACV possibly less likely to favour one manufacturer over another.

Surprisingly not a surprise. It’s not that difficult. EV’s still come with a steering wheel, go faster pedal (no longer the loud pedal) and a brake pedal. Location of other controls like any modern ICE. Organised according to the taste or whim of the manufacturers design team.

They are quiet. The only indication one of the family has arrived at our home - the tinkle of the farm gate chain as it is opened, or the stampede of Kelpie feet across the verandah timbers.

P.S.
As an occasional passenger on one of the following the drivers cope without difficulty. Relative silence and perfectly smooth. Leaves one to ask for silencers to be deployed on every ICE on urban streets.
Missing link added
‘Electric buses hit Sunshine Coast streets | Translink

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I have only driven our Tesla but everything that RRC is saying is spot on. I am a big fan of this car. We do drive in the country and it is so much safer if you should be tired. Not that we drive tired knowingly. Ours is the Tesla Y SUV and it does indeed cope well with country roads. It sees road edges (those 8 cameras again) etc. It is only the SUV model that has the extra abilities for off road driving.
We have the top of the range options which give us extra capabilities for performance and driving assistance.
We have had the odd case of “phantom braking” on the motor way when it thinks a car that is doing something odd is a threat but it isn’t a big deal and only when you have certain things activated.
An aside that I have yet to experience, just read that the car alarm blasts Bach! Hardly a reason to buy one but kinda cool!

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It all reminds me a bit about the urban myth about a bloke buying a new RV and after setting the cruise control he goes back to make a cup of tea…BAM! My very first experience with an EV was to test drive a Volvo. My wife and I shared that experience and both of us had adapted to the one pedal driving within five minutes of hopping behind the wheel. No doubt many of the issues discussed above have an impact on the increased number of crashes (if that is accurate) but I would bet that the cause is almost entirely user error.

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The phantom braking issue isn’t limited to EVs. Some ICE vehicles have the same issue, my wife’s Toyota CHR does this occasionally with parked cars on a curve. Many of the issues in this forum seem more related to modern vehicles rather than just EVs.

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This type of attack wouldn’t be limited to Tesla:

Although those attacks are aimed at Tesla vulnerabilities, I’m sure many other new/ish cars (ICE as well as EV and hybrid), could be similarly at risk.

Car manufacturers seem to have rushed into remote / keyless access and control, always-on Internet connectivity, location tracking and reporting, etc without giving much thought to security - or standards, for that matter.

Maybe that’s about to change?

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