Doggy Style

I found this satisfying story and video on the Car+Driver site today.  It's about a couple of thickos attempting and failing to break in to a Tesla in Las Vegas and then trying and failing to vandalise the charging unit.  Meanwhile, the car is filming it all in high quality and it ends up on YouTube where they are quite rightly ridiculed.

At the end of that story, I was pointed at another Car+Driver Tesla story which I thought was new but turned out to be from last October.  This is about how Teslas now have a mode whereby you can leave your dog safely in a car with the windows shut because it will keep the temperature within a sensible limit - until the battery goes flat at which point it will alert the driver by text.

That would never work with a cat.

 

A cat would steal the car.

 

But my favourite recent Car+Driver Tesla story comes from the festive period.  They have one as a long-term test vehicle.  The driver received a message to say that his car, which was parked outside the house on Christmas Day, had developed a fault which made it undriveable.

 

Rather impressively, a tow truck came and collected the car within half an hour.

Less impressively, there was no information about what the fault was and how long it would take to repair.  And, unlike in their previous experience, there was no offer of a loan car, or a rental car or the Uber credits that have been offered to other customers in similar situations.

 

However,

 

UPDATE 12/31/19, 10:00 a.m.: Although it’s possible the timing is purely coincidental, the service department at Tesla’s Toledo, Ohio, facility contacted C/D within three hours of this story's initial publication, offering a loaner car, a rental, or $100 per day in Uber credit while our Model 3 is in the shop. They also said parts are on the way and the car will be ready for us on Thursday (January 2).

 

Funny that.