Elon Musk

manuals used to get better gas milage than automatics but thats no longer true, new automatic transmissions of all types (planetary, dual clutch, cvt) work really good in general now, also a lot of the new related tech like adaptive cruise control is good too, manuals can be fun to drive and def feel more connected to the true mechanical nature of cars, but crawling around in traffic with them kinda sucks

double-declutchingly* heel-and-toe away goes roger mexico**

*for the real stick-hedz
**not ilx's roger mexico

i always request an automatic when renting in the UK, and would never buy a manual.

computers are better at changing gear than me (and most other people).

I've only ever had manual cars but I guess I'll get an EV in the next 10 years or so so my manual days will be over. I quite like driving manual - I've had driving lessons in both the US and UK and it's more our crazy roads that make it harder here rather than the gears.

This thread used to be a lot more entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqL-2ZCPpjA

I've had driving lessons in both the US and UK and it's more our crazy roads that make it harder here rather than the gears.

I learned to drive in the UK ahead of a move to the US and yeah the combination of larger roads and getting an automatic car made being a new driver a lot easier.

This thread used to be a lot more entertaining.

Just whiling away the time as we wait for Mr Musk's next surpassingly stupid episode. He seems to be laying low rn.

i made it my pandemic hobby to learn how to drive a stick. it’s fun as hell and all i want to do is to road trip in my manual car

gets it

aimless that’s a cool ride you have. if i had room i’d take you up on the offer. my favorite era of subies aesthetically

As a lifelong Alfa tragic it kills me to see their range 80% SUVs and, I think, no manual transmissions. Clinging to my 159 Ti.

also you can pump the breaks down a mountain to avoid overheating

or I can give them a hard tap when the car in front of me slows down a lot more quickly than I anticipated

I think the last time I drove down from mountains lag∞n was in my car and that happened

so you guys hear anything stupid about Elon Musk today? nobody’s leaked the timeline on whether he knew his ex was releasing a toy called Grok and he named the stupid dad joke chatbot the same thing, or if it was vice versa

Man all this talk of mountains makes me miss driving those curvy-ass parts of the 5 between Redding and the Oregon border. Fuck.

Or the 299! What an amazing road.

This is way off topic, but I was driving from SF up to a memorial service in Tacoma in late September 2018 and the Delta Fire broke out in Shasta County CA north of Redding. They closed Highway 5. I asked people at a restaurant in Redding which way I should go, and they said take 299 to 89 and go around to the East.

Well, that didn't work out at all. About a quarter of a mile from Redding on 299 the traffic was at a complete standstill. I went back to Redding and asked again, and they said take highway 44 to the south and east to 89. It was clear, and wended its way through a serious pine forest, with Mount Lassen visible in the distance, and was one of the most amazing roads I have ever driven on.

I think the last time I drove down from mountains lag∞n was in my car and that happened

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, December 17, 2023 6:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

nice, good times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kAIMlISHhU

wild how theres one tattoo in that video, different times (before tattoos were common)

engine braking is cool, i don’t think it’s widely taught. i understand some roads like pikes peak will have brake check stations on the downhill where they make you pull in to measure the temperature of your brakes, to make sure thryre not so hot as to cause brake fade. if you are an engine braker you can impress them with low temps.

they should have a special engine breaker sticker to give to the good people

they should have a like a speed gun but for like brake temp and like salute you when you drive by engine braking all cold brakes like

they should play a bugle as you cruise by on ice cold breaks

but if your breaks are overheated they should shoot you with guns

they should stop you for not having like....snow chains on your brakes so cold

elon better be reading this i bet he is tho

This is way off topic, but I was driving from SF up to a memorial service in Tacoma in late September 2018 and the Delta Fire broke out in Shasta County CA north of Redding. They closed Highway 5. I asked people at a restaurant in Redding which way I should go, and they said take 299 to 89 and go around to the East.

Well, that didn't work out at all. About a quarter of a mile from Redding on 299 the traffic was at a complete standstill. I went back to Redding and asked again, and they said take highway 44 to the south and east to 89. It was clear, and wended its way through a serious pine forest, with Mount Lassen visible in the distance, and was one of the most amazing roads I have ever driven on.

i was driving on 101 in humbolt once and got rerouted cause of landslides, driving on quasi sketchy mountain roads in torrential rain with all the detoured traffic trucks and whatnot, hours to go before i sleep

he gives his harness bells a shake
to ask if there is some mistake
the only other sound's the sweep
of an almost unused pedal brake

robert frosty brakepads, stopping by clutch on a snowy evening beautiful

Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective

Wheels falling off cars at speed. Suspensions collapsing on brand-new vehicles. Axles breaking under acceleration. Tens of thousands of customers told Tesla about a host of part failures on low-mileage cars. The automaker sought to blame drivers for vehicle ‘abuse,’ but Tesla documents show it had tracked the chronic ‘flaws’ and ‘failures’ for years.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/

unbelievable

Andrew Lundeen, of Santa Rosa, California, was driving his wife’s 2018 Model 3 in August when he rode over a speed bump and lost power steering.

Lundeen said in an interview that a Tesla service manager told him that a power-steering connector had corroded. The manager said the likely cause was a car wash, which he described as a known problem.

Lundeen paid $4,400 to replace the steering rack and a wiring harness.

“This is the only car that I’ve ever heard of where a car wash can damage the wiring,” Lundeen recalled telling the manager.

Lundeen said he was so shocked by the manager’s frank explanation of Tesla’s part failures that he wrote it down: “All I can tell you,” the Tesla manager said, “is we’re not a 100-year-old company like GM and Ford. We haven’t worked all the bugs out yet.”

i like the idea that ford has been working the bugs out for 100 years lol

iirc, it was around year 53 when Ford figured out how to not make water ruin their cars

MUSK cybercitybus will be a bad municipal investment

I’m picturing Teslas having a little clothing tag hanging from the inside of the hood that says “HAND WASH ONLY” in small print

lol

"Do not remove this tag under penalty of Elon Must doxxing you on X"

shifting the blame to the customer by saying they washed it when cars encounter water in many non car wash situations, low ridiculous behavior

more Tesla nightmares https://fighttorepair.substack.com/p/teslas-a-vocal-opponent-of-the-right

i actually rode in a tesla last night for the first time.

one of those revel taxis that are cheap because VCs are setting money on fire again.

just a model 3, but it was a very uncomfortable ride (suspension) and the interior looks like shit.

its wild in an era of crazy good interiors theyre getting away with that shit

I got angrily beeped at and a "WHAT THE FUCK DUDE" from a Tesla driver yesterday because I had the audacity to pull over to the side of the road with my blinkers on to pick up my son after school. There was a whole open lane right next to me for the guy to drive around, but I know what happened: He started gunning the accelerator straight out of a stop sign and was probably not even actually watching the car in front of him until he almost rear-ended me. What the fuck yrself dude.

you had the audacity not to conform to his expectation of what you ought to be doing

The Tesla has definitely replaced the Bimmer as the asshole driver's car of choice.

yea I've probably mentioned this before but it's pretty wild how terrible Tesla interiors are and how little thought is given to the experience of anyone outside of the person driving the car. it's given the same degree of care as the fake staging furniture you see at WG&R.

I got angrily beeped at and a "WHAT THE FUCK DUDE" from a Tesla driver yesterday

Maybe that car beeped at you on its own, and the shocked/embarrassed driver was yelling at the car?

The Tesla has definitely replaced the Bimmer as the asshole driver's car of choice.

it ought to have done by now, but roadie (cyclists) chatter here is still nope, not yet.

gonna be hard to pass bmw cause of the whole drivers car aspect they have

So far I only know one Tesla owner that has gotten rid of their Tesla. Actually, two! One before Musk showed his true colors, the other after. Musk aside, neither had any love for the car, and simply upgraded to a more luxury vehicle from another more commonly lux maker.

it really is too bad about Beamers, I drove a rental one for a week and I absolutely understood why someone would want that car

id still drive one idc