As of November 2023, we have owned Jarvis for 5 years, and logged 100k(!) miles.   The car is still so much fun to drive, this is only the first hundred thousand miles we have logged.  When fully charged, the range states 278 miles, but we never drive conservatively enough to get to that distance.  I have also not done the process of driving to a really low state of charge, then slowly charging to 100% as slow as possible to help "recalibrate" the estimated range.  

We have averaged 298 watt hours per mile, so we are at 29,800 kW/H total, at an average price of $0.20/kW/H is just under $6k.  Subtract the free supercharging in the last 5 years, about 36% of all charging, that was worth $2160, so we have spent about $4k to drive 100k miles.

For comparison, our old car, a 2013 WRX, got 24 MPG.  With an average gas price of $3.00/gallon over the last 5 years, that would be $12,500! And that is regular gas price per gallon, not super unleaded.  That's about $10k in gas savings!

Jarvis has only gotten better over time - the OTA performance updates, new games, improved audio, cool updates to the phone app, etc.  I love that it was not designed for planned obsolescence like all cars from all other manufacturers.  The free updates are awesome, unlike our old Honda that tried to charge $150/year for a new DVD map for the navigation. 

Tesla Model 3 Performance

This is the #1 question we receive when driving our car.  This is a Tesla Model 3 Performance with the Performance Upgrade Package (PUP), which includes the larger brakes, 20" wheels, carbon fiber spoiler, aluminum pedals, etc.  Usually abbreviated using  the term M3P.  This is the smaller sedan made by Tesla, the larger is the Model S.  The large SUV Tesla makes is the Model X.  In 2020, Tesla began production of the Model Y, a small SUV with a similar size to this car.  They are available to order now.   In November of 2019, Tesla unveiled the "Cybertruck" a pick-up truck staring deliveries in 2021, also in 2021 they will begin production of a semi-truck.

Useless trivia - the Model 3 was going to be called the Model E, but it was a trademark infringement for the Ford "E"  series of vans.  The model line up is now S3X, and will be S3XY next year.  Elon jokes that Ford killed SEX...

Nope.  Not ours. But others do.

The terms for Tesla driving assistance are, to my understanding:

AP - Auto Pilot - Advanced cruise control (we don't have it)

EAP - Enhanced Auto Pilot - More advanced cruise control that can change lanes and overtake slower moving cars. (we don't have this either)

FSD - "Full Self Driving" - An even more advanced cruise control that is in Beta testing.  They are starting a monthly subscription for $200/month or $10k to purchase it. (yeah, nope to this too)

Will I ever buy it or pay monthly?  Nope.  Not likely for this car.  As we have the Hardware 2.5 computer and no AP, it would cost $3000 to purchase AP, an additional $1500 to upgrade the computer.  Nearly $5000 out of pocket to then pay a monthly subscription of $200/month?  Not going to happen.

Why not?

I've thought about this a lot, and here are my reasons:

1. We LOVE to Drive!  Especially this car.  It's addictive.  I have driven it 800 miles in a single day by myself, and I wasn't even tired at the end.

2. I rarely drive in traffic.  My commute is 14 miles of back roads and 3 miles of city streets.  My wife and I have no interest in living in a big city with soul-crushing traffic.  We road trip once or twice a year, and have free supercharging.  We just completed a 1800+ mile road trip, where I drove the whole time & only used basic cruise control for a small part of the trip.

3. It's far smarter to invest that $5000+ and $200/month into purchasing Tesla Stock to gain value to help pay for the upcoming Cybertruck we have reserved.  Yes, I did opt for the FSD option on that vehicle, but only because it locked in the price at $7k and I can opt out of it when we do the final configuration.  I am hopeful that the $7k will be covered by EV tax credits, but they may not last that long.

4. It's software - and I don't trust software.  It crashes or screws up at the wrong time.  I help design medical devices where a software malfunction can literally kill the patient in minutes if something goes wrong.  I do my best to stay healthy and hope to never need any of the medical devices on the market, even ones I have worked on.

5. But you can use it as a Robo-Taxi, and it will pay for itself!  These are our personal cars, bought and paid for by our hard work because we like them and take care of them.  They aren't to be shared with people who treat rentals like crap.  I have no interest in cleaning up or owning a Robo-Taxi that has been trashed.  Same reason we don't rent our cars on Turo.  I've never even taken an Uber or Lyft - ever.  I can only imagine how insane people will act if there isn't a driver present - even through there is an internal camera.  I can only imagine the future "Wham Bam Teslacam" videos of Robo-Taxi rides gone wild...

6. We had the "Free month of AP" when we picked up the car, and another free month in the summer of 2019.  We used it for a total of about 5 miles on the highway, in the last days of that first month and had to intervene several times, and honestly, those were the worst 5 miles I have driven with the car.  I had to be hyper-aware when using it - it was not "relaxing" at all.  Yes, I know it is vastly improved from where it was, and I am confident Tesla will one day have FSD.  Until then, I don't want to be training their computers.

Tesla is Designed, Made and Powered in the USA

Design: 

The Tesla Design Studio is located on the SpaceX factory campus in Hawthorne, CA.    

Made: 

All Tesla's sold in America are currently made in Fremont, California, and have been since 2013.  The factory employs over 10,000 workers.   The CEO is Elon Musk, an American citizen, born in South Africa.  The majority of assembly takes place in Fremont, while the batteries, packs and some drive trains are made in the Sparks, Nevada plant called Gigafactory 1.  Tesla has a Gigafactory 2, which manufactures their solar panels in Buffalo, New York.  Gigafactory 3 was built in just 10 months (!) in Zheng Jia Lu, Fengxian, China, and is building cars for the Asian & European market.  Gigafactory 4 was announced 11/12/19 when Elon accepted a prestigious Golden Steering Wheel award for the Model 3, which beat the Audi and BMW.  The factory is nearly complete, located near Berlin, and will be producing cars for the European market in 2021.  Gigafactory 5 is being built near Austin Texas, and is enormous.  It will produce all the Cybertrucks, along with Model 3's and Model Y's for the east coast of the US.  Both Gigafactory 4 and 5 are scheduled to be producing vehicles by the end of 2021.

Powered: 

Another key aspect that is often overlooked is that all Teslas are powered from US based sources of electricity.  I greatly enjoy knowing that I am not sending money for gas and oil to the middle east.  I also enjoy that even the dirtiest coal plant produced electricity used to charge a Tesla is far cleaner than an ICE powered car.

Excellent video on why this could be considered the "Most American" car you can buy (I don't share all of the creators opinions, but he does make great points): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDWgh7jhTE 

Certified:

2021 Cars.com American Made Index named the Tesla Model 3 the most American made car, with the Model Y taking third place.

• Our family are huge fans of Marvel movies & comics, and Jarvis is the computer assistant of Tony Stark.  More Jarvis history here: https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S. 

• As you can "Talk" to the car with voice commands, it's similar to the way Tony talks to Jarvis.  I am hopeful that with software improvements basic conversations will be possible.

• Also we thought it was fitting that the actor Robert Downey, Jr. who portrays Tony Stark character on Elon Musk, the main person behind Tesla, Space X, PayPal, The Boring Company, Neuralink, Open AI, Hyperloop, and many more.

• Another interesting fact is that Elon Musk himself made a cameo appearance in the second Iron Man movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCyLOWfIrCU 

• NO GAS - Yes, this is entirely electric, and the range is 310 miles.  There is a vast international Supercharger network already installed across North America, but these are typically only used when traveling more than 150 miles from home.  Charging rate on these Superchargers varies, but most of them will charge at a rate of 400-1000 miles per hour.  We have done three 1200+ mile road trips on this car in the first 6 months with no issue.

• WHERE TO PLUG IN - The vast majority of the time you simply plug it in at home.  You can even plug this is a standard 110VAC wall outlet, or have a dedicated "electric dryer" type outlet installed.  The car comes with a charger (shown left top), and it will charge at a max. rate of 32 amps, or about 32 miles per hour on a 50 amp plug.  About 9 hours to fully recharge overnight from 0 miles.  Using a 110VAC plug it only charges at a rate of 3 miles per hour.

• HOME CHARGING - You can also have a dedicated charger installed at home that can charge at a higher rate of 40 Amps, or about 40 miles per hour (shown bottom left).  It can be purchased from Tesla for about $500.  Check with your local power company for offers, rebates or discounts.  We have a 50 amp welder outlet in our garage and simply use the charger that came with the car with a Tesla adapter.

• OPERATING RANGE - The preferred operating range for battery packs is 20% charge to 80% charge, which is easy to set on the screen or your phone.  Keeping it in this range helps prolong the battery life.   You can schedule it to charge overnight if you have lower "off peak" demand electric.  Planned software updates will allow you to set the "departure time" so the car completes charging just before you leave, ensuring it is warm and ready.  When traveling, you can charge up to 100% before leaving for your trip, and recharge along the way at the Superchargers.

• TRAVELING - When traveling, the in car navigation will automatically route you through stops at the Superchargers.  On your screen in the car, you can see how many chargers are available, how long you will need to charge at that Supercharger, and what is nearby to the charger.  Many Superchargers are located within walking distance of restaurants, book stores, malls, etc.

• REGENERATIVE BRAKING - All Tesla vehicles offer regenerative braking, which allows you to do most of your driving with just the accelerator (not gas) pedal, as when you let off, the car will use the motors as generators, returning power back to the battery seamlessly.  I have driven 20+ minutes around back roads of NH without using the brake pedal once.  You usually only use the brake pedal below 5 MPH or for panic stops.  Planned software updates will allow you to decelerate to 0 MPH, and hardly use the brake pedal at all.  It is very common for Tesla's to exceed 200k miles without having the brakes serviced.

• BATTERY LIFE - Batteries are improving all the time, and Tesla owns and operates the "Gigafactory" in Nevada, which is the largest producer of batteries for electric cars in the world.  Their battery production at their one factory is more than all other electric car battery producers combined.  The current battery in this car is rated for 300,000 to 500,000 miles.  Batteries in testing now, due to be released next year will have an estimated life of 1,000,000 miles.  They will be lower cost, lighter, and potentially higher capacity.  I predict that if we ever need to replace this battery, we will be able to install a longer range better performance battery in it's place.

• SOLAR & HOME BATTERIES - Tesla also offers solar panels you can have installed on your home, both traditional type panels and also new solar roof shingles.  They also offer home sized battery packs that offer all kinds of neat options.  They can provide power in a blackout or brownout, they feed excess power back to the grid, the power can be used to charge your car.  It can all be controlled by the simple to use Tesla App on your phone.  If you want to, using their tech you can be completely off the grid and use no oil at all.  They are even "smart" and will charge to max. capacity if a storm that could potentially cause a power outage is predicted.

• SIGNIFICANTLY CLEANER - See map below - Study after study prove that EV's are cleaner than gas powered vehicles, even when recharged from dirty coal power plants.  For example, here is a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.  EV's get CLEANER with age, as the electrical grid continues to get cleaner.  The MPG equivalent to the amount of pollution generated by an EV across the country is 88 MPG - meaning that the pollution generated by the average power plant across the country is nearly three times less than a "good" fuel efficient car.  Even in the areas where very dirty power is generated (Hawaii, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana) you would still need a car with better than 37-40 MPG to be as clean as the "average" EV.  The Tesla Model 3 is one of the most efficient vehicles available.  In my area, a gas powered can would need the equivalent of 114 MPG to equal the pollution level of our car.  I hope to add solar at some point to reduce this even further and be self-powering.

Tesla only makes safe cars.

• NHTSA Testing (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) rates cars by their lowest probability of injury - This Tesla model 3 has the best rating of all cars tested since 2011.  https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2018/TESLA/MODEL%2525203/4%252520DR/RWD 

• Euro NCAP testing was also all 5 stars, setting a new benchmark.  https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/tesla/model-3/37573 

• IIHS Top Marks https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/tesla/model-3-4-door-sedan/2018  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be5MLDXUvHE 

• FIRE RISK - Tesla's are 8-11 times LESS LIKELY to catch fire than ICE cars.

• All Safety related items on a Tesla are included in the base models of all of their cars.

  • This does not mean that we like or use all of the safety features:

    • The "Lane Assist" is distracting for NH roads with bumps, potholes, animals, etc.  When swerving to avoid things, you would have to fight the car trying to go in a straight line.  This feature was tested and immediately disabled.

    • "Accident avoidance" With our Hardware 2.5 computer, this feature is usually a bit slow, and will blast out an alert of an impending crash seconds after the turning vehicle in front of us has already moved out of the way and there is no danger.  This has been set to the latest possible warning to greatly reduce false triggers.

    • Thanks to individual driver profiles, all of these settings, along with seat and mirror adjustments are saved.

Q: Is it weird not having a traditional dashboard? 

A: Not at all!  With fewer "complexities" than an ICE car, the only items that need to be displayed are your speed, what "gear" you are in (P, R, N, D), blinkers, battery charge and High/Low beam indicator ( which is automatic).   It also gives the driver excellent visibility with the low dashboard.

Also, having most of the controls on the screen allows for enormous flexibility in the way all the accessories are used.  The regular software updates help organize the screen more efficiently, allow for new combinations and methods to control the car.  "Dog Mode" for instance is a fantastic series of software updates that allow you to leave the AC in the car on (as there is no engine that has to run) which includes an image on the screen displaying the car interior temperature and a note stating that the owner will be back shortly.  The massive battery can run the AC for more than a day without issues of overheating the interior.  If for any reason the temperature does climb or the battery is low, the owner will be notified on their phone immediately.

• The audio system in the Model 3 is stellar, and has been getting rave reviews.

• Elon himself verified that the audio system was designed by Tesla engineers, many of whom had previously worked for Bang & Olufsen, a world leader in high end audio

• Here's a description of the audio system in all Model 3's: https://teslatap.com/articles/audio-systems-for-the-model-3/ 

• The other crazy part is the audio continues to get BETTER, as they are always tweaking the codecs in the programming to improve the sound.

Yes, the Tesla vehicles have many games that can be used when the car is in park, for use when charging, or simply waiting in the car.  The number and quality of the games keeps improving.  You can use standard game controllers plugged into the USB ports, or you can use the steering wheel and brake pedal to play driving games.  The Beach Buggy Racing 2 game has been customized so your virtual car matches your actual car.

Other more serious games are also being added, such as chess.

YouTube & Netflix

The latest free OTA (home WiFi) update included access to YouTube videos, Hulu & Netflix when parked.  Tesla Superchargers are being outfit with Free WiFi, so you can watch shows while you charge.  We use this option when we take our daughter to Karate, as we park close enough to the building to have free WiFi, so we catch up on a show while we wait.

When using "Sentry" mode, the proximity sensors around the car will activate the screen in the car, showing the red "Hal" icon, which also starts the recording of the four exterior cameras around the car.  The video from a minute before the sensors are triggered and several minutes afterward are recorded.  The videos are saved on a USB thumb drive within the center console of the car.  

Sentry video mode has already saved us once, as someone backed into the front bumper scraping the paint, then simply drove away without leaving a note or even bothering to get out of her car to look at the damage she had done.  I received a notification that the alarm was set off, and when I reviewed the video from the 4 built in cameras, it was easy to know who had hit my car and drove away, as I could read her badge as she had walked past the car.  I spoke with her afterward, and dealt with her insurance company to have the damage repaired at the Tesla approved shop.  It was a PITA dealing with her insurance company, Geico, and I hope to never have to work with them again.

Check out the video (<- on the left) that I pulled from the USB drive right after it happened.

Update October 2021:

It happened again...  I spoke too soon above.  ANOTHER Geico customer hit Jarvis, this time when we were waiting in line at a McDonalds drive thru.  So, I'm dealing with Geico AGAIN, and Jarvis is going to Today's Collision, AGAIN.  First time going to McDonalds in 20+ years and the driver behind us wasn't paying attention and hit us as I was stopped at the first window paying for our order.  See for yourself in the new video (<- on the left).

This feature is AMAZING!  The importance of free Over The Air (WiFi) software updates cannot be underestimated.  With every update it feels like a new car.

We have received several major updates in the first year of ownership - cabin temperature control to prevent passenger overheating (dog mode), multiple driver profiles, Sentry mode, Dashcam, improved maps, driving visualization improvements, a 5% power increase in March 2019, Caraoke, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify radio, Podcasts, video games, improved phone app to control the car, etc.

On 11/12/19 I installed the second 5% power increase with several new features, such as one pedal driving, Scheduled Departure which ends the charging session just before you depart (based on your calendar or setting) and charges during off-peak hours to lower your electric bill.  Tesla and Elon himself are very open to taking suggestions for new features and ideas, usually through submission to Tesla or tweeting directly to @elonmusk himself.

Traditional car companies just aren't capable of handling this rapid of a pace of updates, and certainly not free over the air at home.  Our car is SIGNIFICANTLY better than when we bought it new - the updates have kept the car current with the latest tech and it's just over a year old.  There are software updates that work for even the older models - some as old as 2013 that are getting new features.

The most recent update, November 2021, allows remote viewing of the 4 exterior sentry mode cameras on your phone - Mind blowing!  If you have a newer model with an external speaker, you can even speak through it remotely.