bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

newsflash, tesla is not for DRIVING enthusiasts.
the world will go driverless.
many current drivers will dig their heels in not wanting to go that way.
regulations, vehicle costs and rapidly climbing insurance will make that challenging.
most will have no need to own a vehicle at all (hello driverless uber, lol)

i'm imagining a driverless uber car on the Tail of the Dragon road (318 turns in 11 miles ) driving at the speed limit. a human driver behind it in a porsche or on a motorcycle is going apoplectic because he can't go around it and can't have fun. perhaps the driverless car will recognize the driver behind losing it and pull over, letting porsche guy zoom past.

mjeds

I doubt we will see 100% or even 50% driverless in the next 20 years.

There is a lot more to consider than the technology, first off the car companies are not about to lose Billions in revenue from the lack of privately owned vehicles, they will lobby the government and fight it every step of the way regardless of the Elon's of the world, then there is the current fleet of vehicles on the roads, there are currently an estimated 295.8 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States as of 2015, the idea that all of those vehicles will be replaced with autonomous self driving vehicles in the next 50 years is mind boggling much less the next 20 years.

There is also the infrastructure to consider, to provide 100% electric autonomous vehicles, our entire roadway system would need to be replaced with a charge as you drive type system, no passenger is going to hang out and wait while their ride is being charged for 12 hours. If gas or hybrid vehicles are used, who is going to fill them or plug them in if they are ownerless and driverless?

on top of all this, the current autonomous systems, even the google vehicle and the uber test mules have no way of determining the color of a stop light or a stop sign and heaven forbid those are covered by trees or the lights are burnt out.. you would need to have all the vehicles networked together and networked to the signals and install networked stop signs.. Yeah I don't see any local, state, or federal funding for such dramatic infrastructure changes in the next 50 years, maybe 100 years. As it stands more local and state trans authorities can't even keep up with pot holes or keeping the damn signals lit, I have several on my commute to work that have been out for months.

This is all going to take money, and with the current economic standing in the US and all over the world, it just isn't going to happen any time soon, no matter how much Elon wishes for it..

pavelekPL

I'm with you on this one. If this is what the interior is gonna look like, then i won't be getting it either.

bluestar

I also have a deposit on the Model 3 however my interest in the car is partly as a novelty thing. A car that can be funky, techie and maybe even fun to "drive". I am also not opposed to autonomous mode; in fact in my Model S test drive, I was pretty geeked out about the auto driving function. BTW, the interior look in the OP lacks even basic vents for air so I don't believe that is the final design.

mjeds

as stated in the 3 articles I posted. Musk has confirmed it is. The vents are hidden in the black trim below the dash top and white bottom;

JDR76

Some decent exterior and interior photos here:

http://imgur.com/a/zhvq8

mmarshall

If it wasn't for the fact that so many people have ordered Model 3s (and are still awaiting delivery) I'd say that interior might (?) be what finally bursts Testa's big stock-bubble.

mmarshall

Would you actually ride in it?

(BTW, there are a number of roads in western Virginia and across eastern/central West Virginia that are almost (not quite) as twisty as the Dragon. Some notable ones that come to mind are U.S. 33, U.S. 250, and parts of U.S. 50).

RXSF

amazing what a piece of matte wood does to an interior... Willing to forgive a lot

coolsaber

Devils advocate here, we have yet to gather how many of those pre-orders actually turn into actual sales (I dont think its a great issue at all since cheap teslas are good proposition all around). I think Tesla can do no harm on this one, as it hits what everyone wants; a Cheap Future Mobile from Tesla (at the end its all about the $$$$$s). The only thing they`ll suffer in is those Model S resale values, and if any delays or huge defects.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Some nice looking wood trim doesn't change the fact that there is an entire gauge cluster/screen or HUD missing and that there is a big thin tablet in place of where the dash console would be.

I guess if Autopilot 2.0+ is what someone is most interested in over the driving experience then this is the car for them. A friend of mine who has a deposit on one seems to think so. When posed with the alternative of a slightly used Model S that has no AP2 he firmly was not interested. The people holding onto their orders generally want the most advanced semi-self driving feature as much or more than the EV drivetrain which is a given.

For anyone who actually likes the experience of driving and derives joy from doing so in a well designed machine that rewards the driver even a little bit for their manual efforts and concentration but might also want that in an EV car... the Model 3 seems to be designed and intended to do the exact opposite. Maybe there will be a "P" variant later on that will prove me wrong but it would have to do much more than just go very fast in a straight line from a dead stop to impress in that way.

It's fine because there is nothing wrong at all with something like this existing. Some people are just not interested in the act of driving, don't find it fun, don't really care at all about exactly how their car works and don't understand people who do. People should be happy (and that goes both ways) and this model will appeal to many.

Personally I coudn't be less interested. A good or great EV car that is a driver's machine has my interest no matter how many doors it has (excluding crossovers and 99% of SUVs). An EV car that is intended to specifically do all the driving for me, feel insular and numb and provide only basic lip service to someone who enjoys driving is about as appealing as repairing a backed up, clogged and smelly toilet drain pipe at 4AM.

Don't get me wrong: I can see many uses for self-driving commercial vehicles, rental box trucks and other types of truly utilitarian conveyances that maybe, possibly, aren't considered "fun to drive" (although I'm probably the exceptional weirdo who has found the experience of driving even a commercial Isuzu NPR diesel 16 foot box truck fun) but here we're talking about a semi-expensive personal car that is styled in attempt to look nice inside and out and offer features that are decidedly non-commercial in nature.

To each their own. Personally I'd go to the trouble of converting a used car I liked into an EV before I ever considered something like the Tesla Model 3. I prefer a machine that I drive and that was designed around the driving experience.

bagwell

fun driving experience? more and more it's this....so I welcome self driving cars. If I want a fun driving experience I take it to the track.

pman6

This is the interior of future buses

LeX2K

Rumour is Tesla is going to rename the 3 to Johnny Cab.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

If you're referring to flat out 9/10ths and 10/10ths driving then yeah, that should be on a racetrack. That's not what I was getting at.

I live in L.A. and there is an enormity of that on all the major highways during rush hours. At the same time, once you're finally out of it... you're out of it. Outside of those timeframes and on different roads I still manage to stumble upon roads that are still fun to drive on, often at the speed limit. I am sure that Denver is no different in this regard. To each their own but even rush hour traffic doesn't make me regret dailying a car with a manual transmission, tight steering and bucket seats. The experience in the car isn't the problem. It's the traffic itself that is but it's still livable. In less mountainous states in the south (often flat country) I still find roads or highways that offer a nice experience even though the routes are primarily long straight lines.

A car that doesn't offer much in terms of driver engagement and physical communication is probably going to mute and numb a lot of the driving experience. I've never seen the value in that personally.

If cars like the Model 3 are closer to what you are looking for then by all means, the opportunity to buy them has finally (almost) arrived. The point of cars like these should be to allow anyone who wants them and self-driving to finally have access to them. We are now almost at point where you don't HAVE to drive if you don't want to. And that's just fine and for many people, welcome.

For people like me and others who enjoy the act of driving as "fun" in even less than ideal conditions, however, they don't hold much appeal.