{"id":23112,"date":"2018-11-26T17:09:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T21:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=23112"},"modified":"2018-11-26T17:09:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T21:09:54","slug":"payne-life-with-my-tesla-model-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/payne-life-with-my-tesla-model-3","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Life with my Tesla Model 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Detroit<\/p>\n<\/div>

As a young newspaper cartoonist and graphic artist, I wanted an Apple computer. So perhaps it\u2019s logical I would own a Tesla Model 3. On the track, on the road, in the garage, the Model 3 is just different.<\/p>\n

Like Apple, Tesla boasts a unique operating system.<\/p>\n

Innovated by the visionary, controversial, mercurial Steve Jobs (Tesla\u2019s version is the equally outsized figure, Elon Musk), Apple\u2019s graphical interface was a sea change from the MS-DOS standard developed by Microsoft\u00a0(which\u00a0ultimately introduced its own Apple-inspired\u00a0graphic interface).<\/p>\n

Apple changed the computer industry, and then music players and then cellphones by fundamentally re-imagining\u00a0products. Even as its innovations have been adopted by other makers, Apple stands alone.<\/p>\n

Will Tesla have the same effect on autos? I don\u2019t know. But I do know there is nothing like it today.<\/p>\n

Tesla has been wowing Detroiters since it debuted the sleek\u00a0Model S sedan on the auto show floor in 2010<\/a>. Its 17-inch vertical console screen was a revelation. I had to stand in line to get inside the thing, for goodness sake. I drove it, coveted it, and ultimately put $1,000 down on the more affordable Model 3 to be part of Apple\u2019s \u2014 er, Tesla\u2019s \u2014 journey.<\/p>\n

The Model S (and its Model X SUV sibling) was a leap, but the Model 3 takes the operating system to another level. My friends enter the cockpit for the first time and gasp.<\/p>\n

Oh, my lord!
\nThat\u2019s amazing! Everything is in the screen?
\nWow! It\u2019s so simple.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Model 3 is an iPhone on wheels. The 15-inch tablet screen is its core. It dominates an elegant, spare interior consisting of screen, wood trim\u00a0and steering wheel. It\u2019s complemented by just three buttons \u2014 an emergency flasher button on the ceiling and two scroll buttons on the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

Tap the steering wheel box in the screen and adjust steering column position. Repeat for the mirrors. Otherwise, the button is for radio volume. It\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>\n

It also overshadowed a $90,000\u00a0Jaguar I-Pace that recently showed up in my driveway. The quiet Jag is a lovely thing (Ian Callum could design a sexy toaster oven), but without a sexy V-8 or V-6 note, its drive experience is Tesla-like. With familiar cockpit switchgear \u2014 shared with other Jags like the F-Pace SUV \u2014 the Brit seems sooooo bloody conventional next to the $30,000\u00a0cheaper Model 3.<\/div>\n

\u201cI gotta say, I prefer the Tesla,\u201d said an impressed auto engineer pal after back-to-back spins in the cars.<\/p>\n

Unconventional the Tesla may be. But like Apple, it also works.<\/p>\n

I frankly expected to be disappointed. After all, I like to drive fast. Which means I prefer my car controls front and center. I\u2019m an advocate of head-up displays and steering wheel controls. Like the cockpit of my Lola race car, the more gauges in my line of sight the better.<\/p>\n

The Model 3 gives me none of those. No instrument display. No gauges. Just a screen-based, 3-D graphic monitoring everything around me (who needs blind-spot assist in the mirror?) and a speedometer. Because it’s an electric motor, there’s no RPM gauge. Just floor it and hang on.<\/p>\n

Hammering the Model 3 around M1 Concourse\u2019s challenging test track, I quickly grew accustomed to the lack of instrumentation. I didn\u2019t need it. The simple electric-drive means I can concentrate on driving.<\/p>\n

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