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+---
+layout: post
+title: Week 687AZ - A new car (Tesla)!
+date: 2023-07-10
+week: 687
+fj: True
+tags:
+  - family-journal
+---
+
+My eulogy used to describe me as a "Mostly car-free spirit", so how in the world did I get a new car? Zach analyzed it and concluded it's not that I dislike cars, it's that I dislike driving. To that end, I got a Tesla. Turns out there are several things I should have been doing, but didn't due to trying to do it without driving. Since I've gotten the Tesla, I've done many wonderful things, and also some annoying ones.
+
+High order bit - The Tesla drives me. Yes, it's more nuanced than that. The Tesla does great on the highway, not nearly as good in the city. The mental model I use is it's like sharing the wheel with a teenager when you can, and should take over the driving for more complex situations. This teen has mastered clearly marked highways, but it doesn't like carpool lanes and gets confused in old cities like Seattle where roads are a mess and construction is everywhere. A common question I get on the autopilot is "Do you really trust the Tesla to drive?" I'm always amazed by that, humans are incredibly unsafe drivers. The Tesla is way better than that.
+
+As I anticipated, with my own personal uber driver, I'm doing way more stuff. On the first night, Amelia and I went to the nice, cheap, but we never go since traffic is terrible/it's far away pool. She loved it, so did I. Then on the weekend, I decided to go to the beach to meditate. And after that, Zach wanted to go to a faraway restaurant called Manic Meatballs. It's an hour away so I've always put off going - no more!
+
+{% include bi_table.html is="manic_map.jpg;eat-meatballs.jpg;meatballs.jpg" %}
+
+It's pretty roomy, so I can load it up with my various things: soda, gym clothes, roller skates. So on our way home from Manic Meatballs, we stopped at a park, Amelia played around, and I went roller skating:
+
+{% include bi_table.html is="rollerskating.jpg;" %}
+
+A cool thing is Karaoke. Basically, you can sing along to the words since they're on screen. Zach loves it, I like it too.
+
+_Hymn, this should really go into a post on the Tesla_
+
+Fuel cost is nice too. It's dirt cheap to drive. We put 10,000 miles on the RAV-4, at 20 miles/gallon and $5/gallon fuel that's $2,500 in fuel. Same 10,000 miles on the Tesla, \$200, tops. I'm told maintenance is way lower since you don't have an engine, so no oil changes.
+
+Now the downside. Range and charging. Range is 330 miles, but you probably want AC or Heating and the 330 rating is pretty wishful thinking, so let's take off 20%, now you've got 270 miles. Now you normally only charge to 90%, and never feel safe going under 20%, so your effective range is like 180. That's 3 hours of driving. Totally fine for a day as long as you can charge overnight/at work. You charge 20 real miles an hour, so "filling up" takes 13 hours!!! Hopefully, you're planning a long day at work.
+
+This would make road trips impossible, except there's supercharging. These are like "fast gas stations for Teslas". Fast is relative to 13 hours, not to gasoline cars though, you still need 30 minutes to go from 20%->80%. This is reasonable, I often stop and stretch out for a bit every 3-4 hours anyways. Get lunch or dinner, of course! Except, your restaurant now needs to be walking distance to the supercharging station. There's always something there, but it's nice having a choice.
+
+Superchargers have 2 larger failures though 1/ there isn't a supercharger where you need one, so you need to plan routes that can take them, and those routes don't always exist. 2/ If the supercharger is full, you need to wait. And you need to wait in your car since you can't charge until a slot opens up.