Cabin fever, two nails in worn-out tire, AutoPilot

After going with no flats for decades, the Continentals on the model X managed to find every nail possible. The better ½ managed to burn through the continental's in record short miles as well. She loved loved loved that instantaneous torque. The 2nd tire set were yokohama's. No flats, & much better wear. The Continentals apparently have a thick layer of foam inside to make them extra quiet. Important with an electric, because the only thing you might possibly hear while driving is wind & tire noise. When they fix a flat on the Continentals, they have to use a little angle grinder to slice a section of the foam out in order to reach the patchable area, then glue the foam back in. She still misses our Tesla, but I don't miss having to keep taking it back to the service center during gridlock drive time. Now that they've been out longer & ironed out many of the kinks, someday we may be back.
PITA
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I've been taking longer drives and I do like the (no FSD) Autopilot. (lane keeping cruise control with follow distance only) On the highway I let it keep me in the center of the lane. On the medium/higher speed roads in town, I've played with it managing the distance between vehicles even when they come to a full stop. It is superior (compared to the Prime) at resuming movement/speed when the vehicle in front of you begins to move. The Prime waited too long to resume and angered the cars behind you so I never used it that way.

It's cold today @ 44° and rain/snow moving in. I took a short 52 mile out and back drive on the highway in Autopilot, max speed 68mph, avg 48mph, Chill mode, 5 mph cross wind, using 11.91 kWh, 230 Wh/Mile, 85.5% efficiency. PS, heat pump was on set to 68°

I like this vehicle more and more every day.

 

Since we are talking about flats...about a month ago I was on my way to a drive-thru Christmas light show, reservations needed, but a long line. Went to a drive-thru to get dinner on the way and after I ordered, with my window still down, I heard a loud blast of air, continued creeping forward and heard another blast. Got out and looked at the tires -- normal.
The car in front of me had a complicated order and it seemed to take a long time.
Eventually the Model 3 display popped up with a warning that I had a flat tire. Tire pressure showed about 30 psi on left rear.
Got my food and returned home (~2 miles) to swap cars with the pressure slowly dropping to about 22 psi by the time I got home.
Stupidly (as you'll see) I backed into my driveway so I'd be able to see better with the garage lighting to check and refill it. As soon as I stopped all the air began to escape down to zero psi.
Swapped cars, went to the event and as I waited in the car line I learned how to use the Tesla app to submit a roadside assistance request. Within 5 minutes they began texting and calling me. They promised a loaner tire within 60-90 minutes since the Tesla mobile service had just closed for the day. I got back home just as they texted me saying they'd arrive in 10-15 minutes.
I inspected the tire, saw nothing, rolled it forward about 18 inches to find an allen wrench in the tire! It was about 1/8" size. The L-shaped wrench was 1" deep into the tire and the 4" arm part was perpendicular to the driving direction, forming a perfect lever to hold open the hole. When I was driving it had been rotated parallel to the driving direction, sealing the hole, mostly.
Backing up had changed the orientation -- new rule when you have a partial flat: don't backup.
Tesla had sent AAA with a tire, swapped quickly and Tesla mobile came 2 days later with a new tire.
The hole was too close to the edge to plug...so I now have a $300 allen wrench in my garage.

Mike

 

one companies interpretation of "puncture too close to the edge" is another person's motive to buy a tire repair/plug kit.

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