The Tesla App — Informing Driving & Having Fun

Energy
Friday, July 29th, 2022 10:52 am EDT

By David Waterworth, from conversations with Majella Waterworth

I live in an unusual household. I don’t have a mobile phone (shock! gasp!). My wonderful wife has a mobile, and as we are rarely apart, we think that will suffice. However, the law of unintended consequences ensues.

When we converted from dinosaurs to a Tesla 3 SR+ 3 years ago, Majella discovered her hidden superpower — the Tesla App.

Majella is a gemstone hobbyist. She facets beautiful gems at the nearby lapidary club. Sometimes I am at home writing and have the car. Recently, I failed to answer the home phone (yes, we still have a landline), so she got my attention by sounding the horn on the Tesla 3 times. Very convenient.

She also likes to have fun with the app, like the time she frightened the life out of an apprentice mechanic. I was back at my old service centre getting new tyres fitted. After I paid the bill, I was chatting to the young mechanic about Tess when the horn went off, the windows opened and shut, and the lights flashed. A haunted car perhaps? I had some explaining to do. She also plays with the heated seats and the air conditioning when I am out with friends and she is bored at home.

The app has some serious uses. We can check the charge status, organize servicing, turn on the air conditioning while we are shopping, and Majella can check out where I am if I am out and about (I am on a short leash). If we were still running our consultancy business, we could schedule our departures.

This morning, after reading a disconcerting article in Choice magazine, Majella showed me the Charge Stats. This tells me that we usually charge at home (unless we are on a road trip). It gives us the fuel savings, showing that we saved over $227 last month. We would have saved even more if we were out driving rather than stuck at home with Covid-19!

This demonstrates that we are saving far more on fuel than Choice seems to think. It would be good if they could gather real-world data from drivers to inform their advice. We don’t spend $700 a year on electricity to fuel our Tesla.

 

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