David Noland, Contributor
Articles
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When I bought my first Tesla Model S back in 2013, it had already been named that year’s Green Car Reports’ Best Car to Buy, and Consumer Reports had just declared it the best-scoring car...
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Tesla fatal crash rate with Autopilot could still be no better than with human driversSince Tesla’s Autopilot was introduced back in October 2014, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made extravagant claims about its superior safety. Last month, reacting to what Musk considers sensationalized media coverage of Tesla accidents, the company released the first of its promised quarterly...
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The 2018 Honda Clarity real-world review: enough to challenge the Chevrolet Volt?I’ve owned two Chevrolet Volts, an early 2011 model and, currently, a second-generation 2017 version. I have loved them both. They’re sleek, sprightly, and have enough electric range to cover most driving. For longer trips, the gas engine kicks in when the charge runs out. The Volt, to...
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Tesla Model S Electric Car: Software Changes Since 2012 (UPDATED)Even though the Tesla Model S has retained its same basic shape since it went on sale in 2012, what's going on under the hood has been anything but stagnant. The automaker's over-the-air updates for the electric car have put the old guard on notice: People expect their cars to act like the...
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Life with Tesla Model S: coast to coast in a new 100D (and how it differed from my old 85)One of the reasons I traded in my 2013 Tesla Model S 85 last summer for a new Model S 100D was to get extra range. The newer car’s 100-kilowatt-hour battery gives it an EPA-rated range of 335 miles—70 miles more than the old car’s rating of 265 miles. Over four-plus years and...
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Life with Tesla Model S: musings on new Tesla RoadsterLike almost everyone else, I was blown away by Tesla’s surprise introduction of a second-generation Roadster at the recent semi-truck reveal event. Zero to sixty in 1.9 seconds, a 620-mile range, gorgeous sleek lines, and a price of $200,000. Mind-blowing indeed. But a few of the new...
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I well remember the first time I saw a Renault Twizy.
Wandering along the Champs Elysees in Paris in the spring of 2012, I happened upon a Renault showroom hosting an electric car extravaganza.
Amid...
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Life with Tesla Model S: assessing my new 100D vs old 2013 electric carAbout two years ago, under the influence of an eager Tesla representative, I briefly considered trading in my trusty 2013 Tesla Model S 85 for a new Model S 90D. But after a 24-hour test drive, the advantages of the 90D—40 miles more range, all-wheel drive, and Autopilot...
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Life with Tesla Model S: beware Extended Service Agreement fine printA couple of years ago, as my 2013 Tesla Model S approached the end of its 50,000-mile warranty, I debated long and hard whether to opt for Tesla’s extended warranty, which they call an Extended Service Agreement (ESA). At $4,000, it wasn’t cheap. It provided four years and an additional...
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Lucid Air electric luxury sedan: a Tesla Model S owner's takeIt’s a cool spring morning in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. In a two-story concrete-and-glass building on Constitution Avenue, just down the block from Facebook’s vast fortress, a group of automotive engineers and designers is working to create the...
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Life with Tesla Model S: the challenges of selling her at lastIt was time to let her go. She is my 2013 Tesla Model S, serial number 003662, in dark green, now with 76,000 memorable miles. The best car I’ve ever owned, by far. She had taken me to 33 states and roughly 100 Superchargers, through deserts, mountains, and tropics, with total reliability...
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Tesla Supercharging: happy days are here again (charge rate unchanged, still free for me)Last week, I was in a bit of a Tesla funk. That’s not normal; my four-plus years of Tesla Model S ownership have been a mostly giddy ride, with the few bumps minor and temporary. But last week I was facing the prospect of two long-term permanent downgrades to my personal Tesla World, both...
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Over the first three years of driving my 2013 Tesla Model S, there wasn't a single time when I looked at another car and said, “You know, I’d really rather be driving that car than this...
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Life with Tesla Model S: replacing the drive unit (aka 'the funny noise')Back in 2014, Tesla had a spate of problems with the drive units in early-production versions of its Model S electric sedan. (The drive unit is essentially the car’s power train: electric motor, inverter, and gear box.) High-profile multiple failures occurred in long-term test cars driven by...
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Chevy Bolt EV tested by Tesla Model S owner: his assessmentFleeing my home in New York’s Hudson Valley for California during February and March has a number of charms. Currently at the top of the list: reading about Winter Storm Stella while watching the surfers at Rincon Beach. For electric-car nuts like me, however, there’s another California...
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Tesla's Supercharger pricing: one owner reacts to new feesIt’s a new era in Teslaworld: the end of unlimited free Supercharging. Starting on January 15, anybody who orders a new Tesla Model S or Model X will receive an annual allotment of 400 free kilowatt-hours (good for about 1,200 miles). After that, they will have to pay for use of the...
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Waits for Tesla service get longer as more electric cars are soldMy 2013 Tesla Model S is now approaching 75,000 miles on the odometer. That happens to be the mileage benchmark for my next scheduled Tesla service. So I called my local Tesla service center, in Paramus, New Jersey, to set up the appointment. No problem, the service rep said. The first available...
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Tesla to charge for Supercharger parking if charging is over, sometimesLast Friday night, I arranged to meet my wife for dinner in Newburgh, New York, at a restaurant that has a Tesla Supercharger. Even though the battery in my Model S 85 was about 60 percent full, I figured I might as well top it off to 90 percent while we ate. When I arrived, there was a white Model...
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Tesla’s claim that its Autopilot driver-assistance software is safer than a human driver.
After a fatal Autopilot crash last May, the company said the death...
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How safe is Tesla Autopilot? Parsing the statistics (as suggested by Elon Musk)
One of the tools Elon Musk and Tesla Motors have used to defend the safety of its Autopilot software is the dark and perplexing art of statistics. After a fatal Autopilot-related crash in May, a company blog post pointed out that the crash was “the first known fatality in just over 130...
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CA to restrict use of term Autopilot: Tesla-owning pilot weighs in
A recent news item from California aimed directly at Tesla's Autopilot system has me musing on words, meanings, and life and death. Last week, that state's Department of Motor Vehicles published the draft of a proposed new regulation that “…prohibits the advertisement of lower levels...
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2016 Tesla Model S vs original: how do they compare in value?I’ve owned my 2013 Tesla Model S for more than three years, and put 66,000 miles on it now. It still runs great, and it makes me happy every time I drive it. I plan to keep it for at least a few more years. But I can’t help occasionally peeking at the Tesla Motors online Model S...
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All-wheel-drive Tesla electric cars rated more efficient, but how?
One of the myriad advantages of electric propulsion, we’re told, is the efficiency of all-wheel drive. The AWD versions of the Tesla Model S, for example, are rated as more efficient than the rear-wheel-drive versions of the car. This flies in the face of 100 years of automotive history...
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2016 Tesla Model X electric SUV first drive by Model S ownerIts maker is doing a great job these days of quarantining the new 2016 Tesla Model X electric crossover SUV from unwanted prying eyes. The only folks lucky enough to get up close and personal with the slick, powerful electric SUV are those who’ve plunked down deposits of up to $40,000 to...
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