[TIME 00:00]
>>TESLA Now you go. Find the brakes. Down into D. All the way down, now you’re in neutral, there you go
>>ROB gotcha
>>TESLA and we’re off. Alright.
>>ROB I want to make sure you leave the DC area with all 10 toes though.
>>TESLA2 Enjoy your drive.
>>ROB Thank you. You know what, I need to adjust the mirrors very quickly.
>>TESLA Make yourself comfortable, make yourself safe.
>>ROB Oh, there’s the lawyer in you talking.
>>TESLA  Ah, just fix them. Which means I don’t want you to crash it. (unintelligible) speaking. We’ll loop around here, to the right
>>ROB Now if this stalk had one more flick down to get into regen like my RAV4 has on the transmission lever, I would love this thing. But I understand that you can change it on the screen.
>>TESLA Yes.
>>ROB The regen.
>>TESLA Controls, regenerative braking, standard and low.
>>ROB I wish you had brisk, if you know what I mean. If you’re coming up to a signal you just kick it into brisk with a flick of the turn signal stalk and you’re all set. And turn right here? I can’t tell you enough this thing is amazingly smooth feeling. Compared to the RAV it’s very smooth.
>>TESLA You have the RAV4 EV? Awesome.
>>ERIC Wow!
>>ROB Oh, that’s a quarter of an inch, Eric. Turn left?
>>ANDREW You have the air conditioning on, too, don’t you?
>>ROB It is on. Can you turn it up a little bit?
>>ERIC I will roll up my window.
>>ROB Clear left. The pillar is a little wide. I’ll hold. I figure you guys still have these made of unobtanium, I don’t want to do anything nasty.
>>TESLA Please, enjoy it, that’s what they’re here for.
>>ANDREW That screen shows something when it’s like off. You can see all those fingerprints on there.
>>ROB And to the right?
>>TESLA We’re going to go straight, around and straight.
>>ANDREW Seems like it drives like a normal car, right?
>>ROB Pretty much. It’s quieter even than the RAV.
>>TESLA That’s what we’re shooting for.
>>ANDREW It’s very quiet. Actually it feels really smooth.
>>ERIC There is hardly any road noise.
>>ROB I love the battery gauge, the green and the yellow is great.
>>ANDREW How’s the view out of the rearview mirror?
>>ROB A little limited.
>>TESLA If that’s the case, pull up the camera.
>>ROB I like that, that’s much better.
>>ERIC  Oh, nice.
>>ROB That’s a much better view. And besides that, it keeps you from surfing the Internet when you’re driving. I’m gonna sit here and wait. [turn signal clicking] What I like about it is the controller is excruciatingly smooth in terms of squeezing it on and off. It’s very, very responsive, where you know other controllers are sometimes a little bit jerky. And I like the regen level. The regen level is perfect, it’s really good regen. Now, the other thing I miss, though, is when you put the brake on, you don’t see it going into regen. In other words, when you put the brake on, are you increasing the regen?
[TIME: 3:00]
>>TESLA When you actually touch the brake pedal?
>>ROB Right.
>>TESLA You are decreasing the regen ’cause you are slowing the car down with the hydraulic brakes. So, if you just release off the accelerator pedal that’s when you’re in full regen.
>>ROB Right. OK, that’ll require me to re-educate myself from the RAV. ‘Cause you take your foot off the RAV and you’re in regen a little bit, touch the brake and it goes into more regen. The more you touch the brake, the more regen you get. Until it hits its upper limit.
>>TESLA We do it a little bit differently.
[uninteligible]
>>TESLA Get in the right lane here. It think the Jaguar is following us. He just did his drive.
>>ROB You watch me lose him on the freeway.
>>TESLA Oh, we will.
>>ROB I heard that Mr. Musk decided to change the acceleration levels in let’s say mid to highway speeds for passing on the highway.
>>TESLA Yes, this car is incredibly capable of highway passing.
>>ROB Some of the things you may not be hearing from regular guys is, I like a really thick steering wheel. I like the size of the steering wheel.
>>TESLA I’ve heard that a lot, actually.
>>ERIC Is that a map on the left-hand side of your…?
>>ROB It sure is. And it shows the interstate and everything. The nav mode come with the car?
>>TESLA The map mode does, turn-by-turn navigation comes with the technology package. So you have the maps software either way, so you can put in an address and it will tell the time you’ll get there, but it won’t say turn left now, turn right now.
>>ROB Oh, really? I’m going to have to re-think the technology package then.
I think, my personal opinion, the huge benefit of the technology package is the Xenon headlights. That’s probably the reason I will get it.
>>ROB I don’t care.
>>ERIC Can you click on that energy button to show us what that does? Oh, nice.
>>ROB What I like about slowing down for something like crossing the railroad tracks is that I don’t have to touch the brakes. The regen is just right.
>>TESLA Exactly, that was the point of doing it as opposed to where you have to hit the brake pedal.
>>ROB Now, in standard regen, when I take my foot off the accelerator pedal, do the brake lights come on?
>>TESLA Yes.
>>ROB Really? How about in low regen, do the brake lights come on?
>>TESLA Yes.
>>ROB OK, I don’t know if I would have agreed with that but I respect his decision.
>>TESLA It’s a matter of whenever you’re slowing down, let the person behind you know.
>>ROB In the RAV you drive a lot with the stick shift, […] but from what I understand this is like the Roadster in that you drive almost completely with the right pedal only.
>>TESLA Yes, exactly. The Roadster is a little bit more aggressive of a regen, but very similar. […] I haven’t actually even driven the Model S yet, just ridden in them a whole lot. The Roadster, when I drive around the city, I almost never touch the brake pedal, which I really enjoy.
>>ROB Exactly, that’s what I do with the RAV. But I adjust the RAV’s braking by just switching between regular and what’s called brake mode. How do you adjust the temperature of the air conditioning? Is it automatic air conditioning or just fan up, fan down? Can you do temperature selection?
>>TESLA You can do temperature selection for automatic or just adjust the fan.
>>ROB OK, I was just asking.
>>ANDREW Where is your overhead light?
>>TESLA There are two up here.
[TIME 6:00]
>>ROB Those are kind of cool.
>>ANDREW But there is nothing in the back?
>>ROB Is this still here with the panoramic roof?
>>TESLA I haven’t looked. We’ll take a look in one when we get back.
>>ROB What I want to do is sit in one of the panoramic, so I can make my final decision. It will take me 10 seconds.
>>TESLA In the front you won’t notice much of a difference, but in the back is where you really see a difference. With the panoramic you gain about an inch and a half.
>>ROB To the right here? An important question for me was can you run with headlights on and when you turn the car off and walk away, will the headlights turn off automatically?
>>TESLA Yes.
>>ROB Excellent, I think that’s a big, important safety feature. I’m gassing it here, guys. [faint motor whine, accelerating]
>>ERIC Ohhhhh, nice!
>>TESLA Get in the left lane up here. I was trying to change the lighting, but you took off and I couldn’t reach.
>>ROB As long as your retinas don’t separate, you know you’re less than 3G acceleration, just thought I’d let you know that.
>>TESLA Good to know.
>>ROB Yeah, it’s important that you know these things.
>>TESLA I doubt I’ll ever hit 3G.
>>ROB I hope not. [laughter] I have. 7Gs are no fun. 3Gs are fun, 7Gs are no fun.
>>TESLA Pilot? Very cool.
>>ANDREW Are there airbags, two in the front, side impact?
>>TESLA Yes. There are 8 airbags.
>>ROB If you don’t get the rear seats, do you get airbags in the rear area? Do you get different air bags, based on the number of seats?
>>TESLA I do not know.
>>LANNY This is your chance to gun it here, Rob.
>>ROB Here’s the place to gun it? I’m gonna wait to get a little bit more room ahead of me here. [TIME 7:25] Here we go, guys. And the Jaguar is behind us, too. Good Lord!
>>TESLA This is a non-performance car going up hill with a full load of passengers.
>>ROB OK, guess what, this will be the car. Honestly, and I wasn’t interested in the acceleration. I have no interest in the performance package, but you just sold me on the car based on that. The smoothness and the silkiness of the ride, I’m going to go with the air suspension.
>>TESLA The air suspension is awesome, I’m sold on that myself. And you can fully adjust it from here.
>>ROB I’m going to jump ahead again, for that mid-energy passing thing we were talking about. OK, here’s my opening. Everybody is clear nearby. I’m going to jump over one lane. Exit here? Which one the 1st one or the 2nd one?
>>TESLA All the way over.
>>ROB Roger that, I’ll come right. There is 85. And there is 90 and I’m going to back it down. There’s no way to increase region right now?
>>TESLA No.
>>ROB Okay, I’m sorry, I just gotta get used to the car.
>>TESLA Absolutely, you’re going the opposite, where most people have to get used to regen in general.
>>ROB When a red light’s ahead I’m usually using regen to save… To the right, gotcha. The other thing I don’t like is the, I’ll be honest with you, the upper stalk on the left side is a little too close to the lower stalk and it’s a matter of getting used to it. You heard that before, haven’t you?
>>TESLA Yes actually that was my reaction when I first went to move it.
>>ROB Is this mostly, and be honest, is this mostly Mercedes switchgear in this car?
>>TESLA Yes, it’s obvious for anyone who’s ever driven a Mercedes.
[TIME 9:00]
>>ROB Which I do not.
>>TESLA Work on the go over to Washingtonian Boulevard.
>>ROB Gotcha, coming back to the right. Well the smoothness is just stark. It’s a whole couple generations better than the RAV. And turn left?
>>TESLA Left
>>ROB I keep getting this stupid lever and when I push it down what am I doing to it? What does this lover do.
>>TESLA The high beams.
>>ROB Okay. So when I’m pushing down I’m flashing my high beams at somebody? Oops!
>>TESLA That’s okay. [turn signal clicking] It’s a four-way stop here, you’re good. Take a left back on the highway here. Now we’re going to come up to that nice 270° turn.
>>ROB What’s that? What am I supposed to be experiencing in that? Anything special?
>>TESLA Whatever the hell you want.
>>ROB Oh God! Don’t dangle that fish in front of me.
>>TESLA Experience the rigidity, the handling of it, how it handles the curve.
>>ROB That’s like, that’s like having a piece of chicken in your hand and offering it to your Labrador.
>>LANNY Make sure you have plenty of runway in front of you.
>>ROB I want to make sure that… Now I do
[accelerating]
>>ROB Good Lord!
>>ERIC Whoa!
>>LANNY Whew!
>>ROB I want to stay in this Lane? Going left.
>>TESLA You want to go towards Frederick. You want to slow down a little bit
>>ROB Can do.
>>TESLA That way you can uh…
>>LANNY There’s nobody behind you, you want lots of runway here Rob.
>>ROB For what, acceleration and cornering?
>>LANNY Yeah, slow down.
>>ERIC Take it at at 50.
>>LANNY Oh, more than 50.
>>ROB The whole idea is to experience cornering
>>TESLA yes
[on-ramp at high-speed]
>>ERIC OH, Wow!
>>TESLA This is what a low center of gravity does for you
>>ROB well, not completely when it goes over a… Oh good, were coming up on motorcycle, you gotta love that. Did you notice though that when you go over a bump the rear end dances out just a hair? Did you catch that?
>>TESLA I wasn’t paying that much attention to that.
>>ROB Yeah, when it unloaded the rear, the rear end came out a hair.
>>ERIC Wow.
>>ROB Do not do this at home. [Laughter]
>>TESLA How was the response to it once it came back in?
>>ROB It’s darn near perfect, there’s no oversteer or understeer, there is none that I could feel
>>ANDREW Does that always show up there in the screen? It shows the overhead signs.
>>TESLA Yes
>>ROB The overhead signs, that’s pretty spectacular.
>>TESLA That comes with the the turn by turn. That will not come when you have just the maps you have to get the tech package
>>ROB I’m going to have to count my shekels to decide if I can buy that now.
>>TESLA I would be going with the technology package personally. You get the automatic opening and closing rear tailgate, HD rear backup camera the xenon headlights the turn by turn navigation
[TIME 12:00]
>>ROB But no difference in the steering wheel? That’s a different package?
>>TESLA Yes. And all these cars have the premium sound if you want to try that.
>>ROB Another thing, there is a little bit of road noise right now, it’s all tire noise, it’s just like on the RAV, there’s no noise but tire noise but I do hear tire noise.
>>TESLA With nothing to cover it up, then… Have you had a chance to drive around in a Roadster at all? Because that one is heavy heavy road noise. It’s not nearly as insulated as this car.
>>ROB What non-EV drivers first get is the sensation, God it is quiet and smooth. But then they go, it’s really quiet but I do hear road noise. But that’s because all the other noise has been taken away.
>>TESLA Exactly.
>>ROB The braking feels very linear, the acceleration feels very linear the cornering is very linear so in other words they really dialed the car in well over the years of developing it. And my God, stiff is not the word, the car’s totally stiff, I don’t feel any flex all.
>>TESLA This car has the lowest center of gravity of any vehicle you can buy right now.
>>ROB And supposedly the lowest coefficient of drag too.
>>TESLA Yes it is.
>>ROB What do you think, just you, what do you think the next car is going to be that Tesla makes, is it going to be that $30,000 sedan that they’re supposed to make?
>>TESLA The X is next and yes, next I think it will be that $30,000 car. I don’t know any more information than you would, but that is what I think we will do.
>>ROB I wonder if they will do it on this platform
>>TESLA What I’ve been told, the goal is to do it similar in a skateboard platform style just in a shorter, smaller package
>>ROB Make it shorter but probably as wide?
>>TESLA I don’t know, maybe. This is a pretty wide car, maybe not quite as wide. The next roadster will probably on that similar platform, at least that’s the rumor mill. I read it on Tesla Motors Club actually.
>>ROB It just harkens me back to my pushing the button, and committing the deposit to this car, 2 or 3 years ago, it was like 2:00 in the morning and I announced to my partner back there, I’m doing it and the he was like, you did what? You put $5000 down on a car that you won’t see for several years? Yep. I’m going to put blind spot mirrors over to be honest with you though, it needs blind spot mirrors which I’m used to.
>>TESLA The good news is, these mirrors are plenty big enough to accommodate them.
>>ROB That’s true, they are absolutely. Not only that, they’re triangular enough shape where they won’t be in the way at all when I get them.
>>ANDREW Why don’t cars include those. Why don’t they make cars include those?
>>ROB Trucks sometimes do.
>>TESLA Some cars to, not very often do you see them.
>>ROB You notice the level of regen when you take your foot completely off? It’s actually really nice. Lanny, how does it compare to your Think? For the regen when you take your foot off?
>>TESLA Oh, you’re one of the Think owners? Awesome.
>>ROB He has a Think, but he also has a deposit on a Model S.
>>TESLA Awesome.
>>ROB Is it about the same Lanny?
>>LANNY It has more regen than the Think and it is definitely a lot smoother.
>>ROB The smoothness is really shocking.
>>TESLA Right here
[TIME 15:00]
>>ROB And that whole time when I turned in the driveway, I didn’t touch the brakes I wasn’t breaking I was just regening.
>>ANDREW The turning radius is pretty good?
>>ROB Yeah, that’s a good question. Can you make a U-turn in this area for example.
>>TESLA Why don’t you go up a little bit further and try it out.
>>ROB If you don’t mind, I’m going to pull up to where we have access if we need to need to.
>>ANDREW My Honda Civic has a great turning radius. I only realized that when I drove my mom’s Lexus
>>ROB You know what, that’s pretty tight that’s not bad.
>>ANDREW And in her Lexus the turning radius really is bad.
>>TESLA Yeah, I got 2 BMW 7 series and second one I got had wheel steering and it is incredible how much it improved the turning radius.
>>ROB The Honda Prelude, for a while, had four-wheel steering too, briefly.
>>ANDREW That was great.
>>ERIC Alright  Rob, how do I stop the recording?
>>ROB Hit the same button button again.
>>ERIC Stop!
>>ROB Not until he says to stop. I’m a pilot, I stopped when the guys tells me, not until then. And then I go up? No I just push it.
>>TESLA And there we are.
>>ROB And how do I tell… Okay, I see the P, got it. Thank you very much, I appreciate your time I really do, thank you.
***