Tesla still has room for improvement in 2023. Its vehicles excel in many areas and take much of the industry by surprise, but small flaws that go unnoticed during the first exhilarating minutes of driving could be easily fixed. Example with the Model 3.
When you test drive a vehicle, even over several days and in situations that come as close as possible to reality, you can’t help but miss the everyday details that define the personal use of a car. Driving with a vehicle for a long time allows you to pinpoint these qualities and faults that go unnoticed. After 9,000 km in Tesla Model 3 since September 2022, we have precisely this hindsight which allows us to list what the American manufacturer can progress in 2023.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, a little reminder is in order: these criticisms, numerous and giving a list effect which overvalues them, do not call into question our general opinions on the Teslas that we have been testing since 2016. By their autonomy, their driving, their standard equipment, their Autopilot and their simplified planning of long journeys, the Teslas still fly over in 2023 the supply of electric cars.
But we can always do better and Tesla, a pioneer in many areas, has room to improve in others. These 7 defects of the Model 3 prove it to us.
The handles of the Tesla Model 3, a puzzle
As on the Model S and X, the handles of the Tesla Model 3 are integrated into the doors. But unlike high-end vehicles, there is no motorized system here: you have to press the rear part of the handle with your thumb to pull it out and then grab it with your fingers to open the door.
For the driver and a regular passenger, the helping hand is taken quickly and easily forgotten. It’s a whole different story when people who’ve never climbed in a Tesla have to climb. In recent months, I had to explain more than fifteen times how to open a car door, to each new person who got in. And, for some people, repeatedly. Most people don’t understand what to do by looking at the handle (and no one can blame them). Those who try let go of the thumb and see the handle close before they have had time to grab it. Others try the two-handed operation while cursing.
A system as rudimentary as a car handle shouldn’t have to be explained — never, whatever the good reasons behind design choices or optimization of the drag coefficient.
The door opener button that lowers the windows
Same comment from inside. The main opening of the Tesla Model 3 is a button whose pictogram is unreadable for most people who do not know it. We begin, each time, by saying that we must press this button to open the door. Then the person presses on it and retracts, because the windows are lowered, believing that he has, logically, opened the window. We reassure her and tell her to push the door… which is blocked again. Everything has to be redone. And we do not count the number of times those who are foreign to the system have tried to roll up the window before pushing the door.
So yes, we fully understand the need to lower the windows of a car by opening the door: all vehicles without window pillars go through this step, it is not reserved for Tesla. But if no one understands the mechanism, it may be that the overall integration is bad: is the pictogram sufficiently telling? Is the window lowering too fast and too hard? Can we encourage people differently to open a door normally without worrying about what happens during the opening of the door? A mystery that Tesla has, in any case, not solved.
The wazeification of GPS borders on the absurd
We’ve all experienced that moment when Waze takes us off a seemingly calm highway to take us on a 5 km detour into a ZAC, with its traffic lights, roundabouts and speed bumps. Useless adventures for two minutes less on the clock. In Tesla’s six years of testing, the vehicle’s GPS has always seemed more idiot than Waze: for me, a supporter of the least effort even if it means wasting a little time, it was a joy.
Since a few updates, however, the GPS seems to be taking more and more initiatives à la Waze. Once, he suggests taking a freeway exit and driving twenty-five kilometers on the main road to avoid an accident that took place three hours before and is completely cleared. Another, he recalculates a route assuming that a Supercharger is too busy: by forcing the destination on said station, we realize that it is empty. Once again, it’s a toll that he wants to avoid at all costs, whatever the time, by making less than two kilometers of detour. The boxes “Do not follow another route for less than 15 minutes” and “Avoid tolls” are checked and unchecked respectively.
On the groups of owners of Tesla, same story: the updates of the end of the year 2022 have messed something up. It remains to be hoped that this is a bug and not a new philosophy.
The wipers of shame
For a long time, Tesla windshield wipers were a taboo subject. A certain Elon wanted to use the machine vision developed for the Autopilot to detect rain. He did not offer an alternative solution: a Tesla costing tens of thousands of euros did not have automatic wiper activation, like any entry-level car.
The solution was found, but brought another problem: the algorithm is very often wrong and triggers the wipers for nothing. When it is a question of foliage which makes believe, in the setting sun, with the frenzied intermittences of a rain, the wipers are activated once or twice without much consequence. But when the software deems traces of sap or dust to be drops, then you’re in for a great time of anything, for your entire ride. On a bright day, I even saw the speed reduction alert on Autopilot due to ” bad weather conditions »
Perhaps the worst part is that Tesla doesn’t let the wipers turn off manually on Autopilot. On the highway, the driver assistance tool is so efficient and relaxing that it is difficult to do without it. If he has the misfortune to fantasize about the rain, it will have to do with the squeaking sound of windshield wipers on a dry surface. Or stopping at a gas station to clean the windshield—which I’ve done before.
Maybe we have to face the facts: not everyone lives in California and the rain does exist. You might as well have a simple and reliable system to detect it.
The 4G LTE connection
At €9.99 per month, in a car that claims to be futuristic, Tesla can do better than a “roaming all operators” plan, administered from the Netherlands. At the borders, the blackout is real before the modem finds the start of the network. And even on the highway, the moments of white where nothing seems accessible to the media player are numerous. We pass these inconveniences on many vehicles with the interface of the last century. On a Tesla Model 3 and its huge and responsive central screen, the driver and passengers deserve better: 4G should not be the weak link in fluidity.
The Toybox, or the delusions of the teenager Elon
More personal and more minor, this defect concerns Tesla’s Toybox, which has entered the brand’s image. We even did in 2018, a tour of easter eggs of the Tesla Model X in video. But in the long run, the joke is cheap and we get tired too quickly of these few gadgets yet so rooted in Tesla culture. Reply ” oh yes, that’s the whoopee cushion… and that’s for putting on a chimney fire, ha ha to the curious who navigate the menus is not very glorious for the brand.
Teenagers who don’t have a license have fun with it. Adults wonder what these toys bring to the vehicle. Nobody will switch to the electric car for that and since Elon Musk has completely twisted, his prepubescent humor does not smile as much anymore. When will there be a No Elon mode, in which these gadgets will not appear on the screen?
Autopilot navigation (not too much in Europe)
This last point is not Tesla’s fault. As surprising as it may seem, autonomous driving was better before in Europe. Since I’ve been testing Teslas, I’ve seen a paradox arise on the Old Continent: the more reliable the technology, the less legal it is.
Year after year, Tesla’s Autopilot has lost functionality due to road framing guidelines. When navigating on Autopilot, overtaking is slow even in the fastest mode and occurs only for a short period of time. On the first Model S I tested, I put on the turn signal and the car chose the opportune moment to overtake with dexterity and precision. Maximum speed in curves and autonomous motorway exits have also been sacrificed by legislation (we had them during our last test): the car knows how to do it, is much more daring in the United States, but has not no right to do so. Shame.
Let it be said: despite its faults (random detection of maximum speeds, strange reactions to borderline cases, temporary withdrawal of functions because of Tesla Vision) and legal constraints, the Autopilot remains more secure and relaxing than a traditional driving. Of these 9,000 km in a Tesla Model 3, nearly 90% were achieved by the software: that is to say how useful and reliable it is. But the frustration is great — he could do so much more and does, year after year, less.
