Tesla’s Model 3 Is Nearly Flawless—But One Hidden Detail Could Change Everything for Investors and Drivers Alike
Tesla’s Model 3 is the proverbial crystal ball showing us where the automotive world is headed, yet here I am, still scratching my head wondering if that’s really the spot I want to land. I mean, this car screams the future with its slick design and jaw-dropping acceleration—0 to 100kph in just 4.4 seconds! But let’s pump the brakes for a second and talk about the elephant in the room: the autopilot self-driving deal. It’s got more questions swirling than answers—insurance loopholes, legal minefields, and whether you’d trust a robot to brave the wild Connor Pass in a storm. And I haven’t even gotten to the touchscreen takeover; buttons and dials are all but extinct here, replaced by a giant digital command center that feels a bit like flying a spaceship rather than just driving a car. As someone who’s grown up loving the tactile feel of gearsticks and knobs, it’s a bit of a culture shock. Yet, charging is surprisingly delightful, especially with Tesla’s superchargers popping up like roadside oases. It’s efficient, quick, and almost fun. Sure, I’ve got my gripes – like that flimsy, easy-to-lose credit card key – but there’s no denying this is a fine machine. Just maybe for this old dog, a few more buttons and less screen would make the Tesla lifestyle a bit more inviting. Curious to see how this all plays out? LEARN MORE
Tesla is an example of where we’re going when it comes to cars – I just haven’t made up my mind yet if it’s where I want to be. For now, anyway, the jury is out.
Leave aside for a moment the autopilot self-driving business. It hasn’t been sanctioned here, and it raises all sorts of questions that have yet to be answered.
Who is insured in the case of an accident if you’re technically not the driver of the car, for instance? Will the car by itself be allowed to drive you home if you’re over the legal limit? In fact, autonomous driving is all very well on motorways and wide urban roads, but would you feel safe taking a car that drove itself over the Connor Pass in a storm?
Tesla has answers for all those questions, no doubt, and we’ll leave them for another day.
For now, though, this is a fine car, though I say that with quite the caveat.
Too many of the functions have migrated to the huge screen in the middle of the dash for my taste. Maybe I’m too set in my ways, and a generation raised on screens – laptop, tablet, phone, whatever – is hugely comfortable operating that way. Me? I kinda like gearsticks, and buttons and dials, and they are at such a minimum as to be non-existent.
On every electric car I’ve driven to date, there either is a gear stalk, for forward, reverse, neutral or park, on the steering wheel, or a radial dial on the centre console that operates the same functions. On this Tesla Model 3, you operate it from the touchscreen, moving a pictogram of a car forward or backward with your finger depending on the direction of travel.
It doesn’t stop there, though. The door mirrors are controlled from the screen, where you’ll also find the commands for opening the boot, the ‘frunk’ (that’s the front trunk to you and me, a convenient home for the charging cable) and the charge point.
This is cunningly concealed, and a quick Google search revealed it to be behind the indicator light on the driver’s side of the car. After much frustration looking for it, I realised that Google was talking for the United States, where the driver is, of course, on what we know as the passenger side. Et voilà, there it is.
Now charging, it has to be said, is a joy. Tesla has just recently installed a bank of superchargers in the car park of The Wilds, formerly known as The Beehive, a pub, café and shop complex (really good, by the way).
It’s just off the M11, and it’s more usually where I take custody of the dog when her other human heads abroad; if you ever happen to spot us engaging in the handover, it’s not dognapping, I swear, so don’t go calling the ISPCA.
On the charging front, though, it’s quick and it’s seamless, with this Model 3 able to add a quoted 275km of range in just 15 minutes on a supercharger.
Entry to the car is keyless, but I wasn’t wild either about the credit card-style key, which I found flimsy – it fell out of my pocket when I removed my wallet at a checkout, and only for the eagle eyes of a chap there, it would still be in Gorey Tesco – and, because it’s black, easy to mislay at home too on my kitchen counter, which is black too.
You’re better off downloading the app and controlling it all from your phone.
The extra on my test car was the black and white upholstery for €1,200, but you otherwise get a lot as standard.
There’s adaptive cruise control, which actually is controlled by a button-anddial system on the steering wheel, cameras everywhere on the exterior, 18-inch wheels, hands-free boot opening, heated seats and steering wheel (controlled, needless to say, from the screen), panoramic glass roof, wireless phone charging, and all sorts of entertainment to keep you occupied while charging, including Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Spotify and so on.
Above all, though, it’s sleek and it’s lovely to look at and it goes like the wind, hitting 100kph from a standing start in just 4.4 seconds.
That is the sort of performance many of the legacy internal combustion engine cars would come nowhere close to achieving.
In fact, if it had a few more buttons and dials for oul’ fellas like me, this Tesla Model 3 would be just about perfect.
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