@Baron
Baron, I hope you are willing to share your insight into the car ownership experience. If anyone else owns a car, would love the insights also.
We rented one for a week, it was a long range rear wheel drive model 3. The battery was capped at 80%. Since we drove 832 miles, we should have let the owner change the battery settings. Never the less it was not needed. 280 mile max
We found the car wicked quick, at all times!
We did not think that the prospect of falling asleep at the wheel was realistic. Autopilot felt unnatural, scary ish. Turns were slightly more aggressive or jerky than how we drive.
Several older people that drove, including a retired engineer were not interested in engaging autopilot. This is a headwind to overcome by the company.
Charging was a breeze. 120v served us well overnight, used superchargers for highways distances. We saw charge rates as high as 500 mph and did not find the wait excessive. As the car was set up we think it added some to our travel time. We enjoy taking our time on the road and enjoyed the bathroom breaks. There were many such cars on the roads and at the charging stations. There were no waits on a holiday or the day after. We were unaware that travelling fast would decrease our expected range. Over many miles we saw a loss of 15 miles above and beyond what slower travel would yield.
We had three panic alarms that scared the bejesus out of us. The first was a pickup in the center turn lane. It was still but turned and aimed toward us. No real risk. The 2nd was a oversize mobile home taking up two lanes. I expect the computer could not figure this out. The third we did not fully understand, traffic was congested, we wanted to turn, no object in that path but the alarm went off. I expect it was just too crowded for the computer.
We got much more comfortable with AP on as time went on. The car veered a little at on and off ramps, once this was a known predictable issue for us we got used to it. Some sharper turns in construction zones remained jerky or had speeds changed and we took over driving
I got so comfortable with the car that the fall asleep at the wheel in the future seemed possible, especially for highway use.
The screen went blank on us about 4 times, restarted within a minute or two. AP stayed working.
An amazing ride! I believed Musk recent statements about buying any other car now is like buying a horse years ago, and that the steering wheel and pedals will be eliminated in future variants.