In this video Autoblog Green editor John Snyder reviews the Tesla Model 3. John had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of one of the first 1,500 Model 3's built. The car is peppy, and the lane-change aspect of the autopilot is pretty rude to other drivers, but all in all this is a pretty sweet ride. For more information on the Tesla Model 3 check out https://www.autoblog.com/
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOHN SNYDER: This is such a beautiful area. I feel a little less guilty driving through it in an electric car.
I'm John Snyder with Autoblog. We're here in the hills overlooking Silicon Valley where Tesla began. This is a car we've been waiting for for a long time, along with several hundred thousand other people who have actually put down money for a reservation. There's a lot of excitement surrounding this car, and for good reason.
It's an electric vehicle from perhaps the most disruptive automaker of our time, and it promises to bring high-tech, long-range, fun-to-drive cars to the masses. We're going to hit the highway, test out Autopilot, then head to the hills to tackle some of those twisty mountain roads you see behind us.
Wow. Yeah, that feels pretty peppy. It doesn't take much to get it to go. This does 0 to 60 in about 5.1 seconds, according to Tesla, but it feels quicker than that just because it's so responsive. There's no shifts to slow you down or to break up the acceleration process. It's just smooth and linear.
We're about to get on the highway, and I'm going to use Autopilot. I'm on the highway going about the speed I want, double tap down on that. It's taking over steering. I can tell by this little blue steering wheel icon. But now I'm just cruising in this lane. There's a car coming up on my left side, and it's going to show up here on my radar.
And now if I fall down the turn signal, the car changes lanes for me-- pretty simple. Another nice thing about this is the car knows the speed limit where you are, so here it shows the speed limit 65. And then you can set your max speed accordingly. So I've got a car in my right blind spot. I'm going to try and make a lane change and see what happens.
Now it is just cutting them right off. Wow, that is a-- good thing I know those guys. Yeah, this car will make some kind of insane maneuvers. It's not the politest robot on the road. This is a fun little drive we're about to do.
Wow, yeah, this feels way faster than what the numbers say. It's not afraid of the corners, that's for sure. I feel like the biggest benefit here is the low center of gravity. It just stays pretty flat, which really helps the handling in the corners. Now, this has maybe 240 horsepower. It's not a ton, especially for a sort-of-a-heavier car with a big battery, but, man, it really is fun.
It's interesting, you don't feel a lot of what's going on between the tires and the road through the steering or you hear it. It's such a quiet car that you can hear the tires interacting with the roads. You can hear them giving up grip and gaining it. There's a cow on the road. See ya later, cow. No animals were harmed in the filming of this shot.
Speaking of cows, they do offer vegan interior materials for Tesla. You can get vegan seats. We're actually not losing as much battery going uphill as I thought we would. After driving it for a couple of dozen miles, it feels a lot more natural. The pedal modulation is a lot easier. I'm still not using the brakes hardly at all, even downhill. The regen is pretty strong, but it feels good. And I like being able to do mostly one pedal driving.
All the sensors that you use for Autopilot also help you not hit your neighbor's car. Tesla's hell bent on convincing people that electric cars can be exciting, and I think it's proven the point. Now it's proving that affordable electric cars can be fun, too.
So the Tesla Model 3 is unlike any car I've ever driven, electric or otherwise. A lot of it comes down to the interior design, which takes all the touch points, buttons, gauges, and consolidates them all into one, single, central touchscreen. That takes a little bit of getting used to, but there's a lot of solid technology on offer, including the Autopilot.
I think this car is going to make a lot of people really happy, once they can get their hands on it. For Autoblog, I'm John Snyder. Thanks for watching.
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