Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

dmitryzavyalov.livejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 213 posts

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#191

Post by mulmen »

overcast wrote: post #183
ars wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only thing you really need for that is a brake spreader tool, which is free to rent from Autozone type places. A large C-clamp and the old pad work just fine.

Depends on the car, the woman's civic was this cross pattern, that had to be cranked out.

Not sure what you mean by cross pattern but most cars have their braking system split up into two systems that are diagonally opposite. This way a failure in one only results in a loss of 50% of braking instead of up to 80% if the front fails. The cross bleeding is done to maintain the balance in the system and prevent the sensors from improperly detecting a failure in the brake system.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#192

Post by stcredzero »

eridius wrote: post #96
ryao wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should have logs showing that a problem was detected. That said, hearing that they provide fossil fuel powerred vehicles as loaners has lowered my opinion of them.

It's not like Tesla has a bunch of spare Teslas to give out as loaners. They're selling them as fast as they can make them.

It's not like Tesla has a bunch of spare Teslas to give out as loaners.

The Russian military during WWI also underestimated wastage of its rifles. (~800000 a month) They were building rifles as fast as they could. In fact, they were stressing their resources so hard, they took up all their gunsmith/worker manpower and were unable to repair broken weapons sent back to the factories, which only exacerbated their problem.

It could be that they feel they've already made their reputation, and that more profit is now their priority. In other words, it seems that they no longer think they have to give amazing service. I think that would be a bad policy move for them. They still have to be better than all the internal combustion engine cars out there.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#193

Post by eridius »

deathanatos wrote: post #65
eridius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The car being returned to Tesla was, at that time, in good working order. Tesla had repaired it after the last issue. Now of course given the car's history it's possible that there were still other things wrong with it, but to the best of Tesla's knowledge, at the time the letter was signed, the car was defect-free.

The car displayed to the user that it was not able to start! Presumably, especially given the remarks about the techs pulling the logs from the car, the car logged the fact that it could not start. That, by its very existence, means the car is not "in good working order". Not being able to trust that your vehicle will start is one of the worst feelings a driver can have.

It was repaired after that. Directly from the article:

> After a few days, we’ve been told that the car is working with no problems again.

At that point the owner rightfully decided they didn't trust it anymore and wanted a refund. That's perfectly fine. All I'm saying is that the thing he was being asked to sign wasn't a lie, because Tesla had repaired all known defects. Yes, the owner is perfectly justified in not believing that, but that's not the same thing as saying it's false.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#195

Post by mschuster91 »

ars wrote: post #177
mschuster91 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it. Leave brake fluid stuff to the experts. If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes. Back when I had a car, I did everything by myself except brakes, engine w…

> If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes. That isn't true at all. You just bleed the air out, it's really easy, I've done it multiple times using just a small $5 brake bleeding bottle. The only way you'd get enough water in your brake system for it to cause a problem is if you poured it in there, or left it open for several days. > Back when I had a car, I did eve…

> The brakes are the easiest [major] thing of all to to fix on a car. Your caution was completely unnecessary.

Yeah but when the brakes fail (or the steering, or the engine seizes) you usually end up injured or dead.

If you have had a licensed mechanic dealing with the life-critical stuff and it turns out that it was the fault of the mechanic then you can at least sue his insurance for damages after the fact (or, if you die, your dependants can sue, e.g. for widowers' benefit). It also protects you from being sued by others in case your screw-up causes an accident.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#196

Post by CamperBob2 »

falsedan wrote: post #163
CamperBob2 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The defect is on the engineering side. Someone at Tesla thought it was a good idea to display a failure message but not to log the nature and origin of the failure. That person needs to be identified and put on a performance improvement plan.

That's clearly a product decision!

I'm sorry, can you elaborate?

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#197

Post by mcguire »

chc wrote: post #40
mcguire wrote: post #39

" In couple weeks I got notified that my refund was approved, and I got contacted by another guy, who suddenly suggested me to get vehicle rebuilt. Of course I agreed to that generous offer saying I’d love to have the same vehicle. " What?

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

1. The customer has had a long term problem with the vehicle...

2. ...which Tesla had been unable to remedy, to the extent that the customer has requested a new vehicle or a refund...

3. ...but the customer is eager for the chance to get the same vehicle back.

I'm afraid I don't understand the thinking.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#198

Post by mcguire »

toast0 wrote: post #79
chc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

I think the problem is with the word "rebuilt". I would take that to mean take the car apart, and put it back together with maybe a couple new parts. Given that Tesla thinks there's nothing wrong with that car, despite there clearly being something wrong with it, taking it apart and putting it back together again and hoping it works is kind of insane. (although it might work if the problem is say a loose or poorly al…

Given the poor English of the article, I took "rebuilt" to mean something like "certified" or "inspected". I can't see any company taking a product apart and reassembling it. Note also that Tesla has already refused to give the customer a new car.

Given that Tesla thinks there is nothing wrong with the car, the only way I see that conversation working is if the car is returned unaltered.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#199

Post by mikestew »

jraines wrote: post #12
jasonmp85 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: why root for Tesla? Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers, so why cheer for one company in particular?

Because they kicked off the movement (at least the full EV one), are leading on automation as well, and because they're made in America. I'm sure there are good reasons against, but those are a few pros.

Because they kicked off the movement (at least the full EV one)

Tesla might have kicked off the hype, but Nissan kicked off the "movement", having released their mass-market vehicle a full year before Tesla did.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#200

Post by trome »

illumin8 wrote: post #110
edude03 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the BMW i3? The 2017 gets 120 miles to a charge and for a bit more money you can get an onboard generator to bring that up to 300 miles IIRC. The driver assist capabilities aren't as great but otherwise can't think of much to complain about.

I personally love my i3... I get about 120 miles on pure battery, but once the range extender kicks in I get about 40 mpg on a small 3 gallon gasoline tank. It actually works out pretty well, because 99% of my driving is well within the 120 mile all electric range, it's super quiet, and accelerates at any speed! For the 1% of the time I need to go on a longer trip (longest so far is about 250 miles), I simply treat i…

Huh, I'd just get two 5gal gas cans and call that good, as I'd rather not stop off every hour to get gas at varying prices and levels of quality.

Plus, in good chunks of Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas its easy to go nearly that far without seeing another building, let alone a gas station. There are wind turbines on the ridgelines tho, which are pretty.

Post reply on HN