# Tesla Model 3: An In-Depth Owner's Review Willdom Lee · 2022-01-28 [HTML](https://willdomlee.com/en/articles/tesla-model-3) · en > The car at a glance > > Model: Model 3 Long Range (2020) > > Time owned: 1 year and 2 months > > Distance driven: 19,000 km A year has passed since I recorded my [Model 3 experience video](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4MDc1MjUxOA==&mid=2247483694&idx=1&sn=0f416bed218948ffe3b02ad5ba523093&scene=21#wechat_redirect). Looking back, forcing myself to record it in English was not the most accessible choice, but the intention was good: making myself learn. This year, I decided to write down what I have seen, heard, and thought, and share it with friends. There is so much commentary, debate, and doubt around Tesla. I will offer my subjective experience as an owner, in the spirit of the childhood story about a pony crossing a river: how deep is it? Try crossing and find out. ## 01Quick questions and answers First, a few questions I imagine people are curious about. ### 1. Have the brakes ever failed? No. I have driven nearly 20,000 kilometers myself, and several friends own Teslas too. None of us has reported brake failure so far. ### 2. How much has the battery degraded after 20,000 kilometers? Some, but less than I expected. Here is one comparison: the displayed range at full charge on December 4, 2020 was 535 km; a year later it was 531 km. The decline was almost negligible. This is not a rigorous measurement, but it gives a rough indication. November 2020 versus September 2021 ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/01.webp) ### 3. Is Autopilot really safe? In the right setting, I have found it safe. I often use it on controlled-access roads, where it is convenient and drives like an experienced driver. I cannot make the same claim outside those roads. Street-level FSD is currently being tested abroad and has not been enabled in China. ### 4. Charging is still less convenient than refueling. Does that hurt the ownership experience? It depends on how you use an electric car. For me, it is actually more convenient. There is a Supercharger near home and plenty of charging points in the office basement. Charging is now as routine as charging my phone, and I have the Long Range model, so the larger battery helps. If charging is inconvenient for you or you often drive long distances, a petrol car or hybrid is still a better choice. ### 5. What about insurance, charging, and maintenance costs? Overall, they are much lower than for a petrol car at this stage. Charging for the same distance costs roughly a quarter as much as fuel—not a rigorous calculation. Insurance is a little more expensive than for a similarly priced petrol car. Maintenance costs are negligible. Customer service said missing a service would not be a major issue; it mainly involves replacing the cabin filter and checking the car. First service after more than 10,000 km: 363 yuan in total ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/02.webp) ### 6. Is one-pedal driving easy? Is it risky? One-pedal driving is described relative to petrol cars, which coast when you lift off the accelerator. The Model 3 slows down because regenerative braking is applied. In everyday terms, it feels just like riding an electric scooter. My interpretation is that Tesla makes this mandatory to support its mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy. To answer the question: I find it easy once accustomed to it, which took about a week, and have not found it risky. ### 7. Do you regret buying the Model 3? No, but I wish I had waited a few more months. The Performance model's price dropped soon afterward. With 0–100 km/h in 3.3 seconds at the same price I paid, that would have suited me even better. ## 02My experience after 20,000 kilometers Overall, it is a very good car to drive, particularly for urban commuting. Handling is precise and responsive, with reassuring cornering and overtaking, and what I regard as the industry's strongest driver-assistance system, Autopilot. It makes the convenience of technology tangible. The interior is minimal, the exterior still looks fresh, and the power suits younger drivers. Running costs are low, and with good charging access it is easy to live with. While resting in the car or waiting to charge, you can play a card game or watch a show on the infotainment system. I would give it eight out of ten. Playing Dou Dizhu while taking a break in the car ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/03.webp) That is the praise. Here are the unusual problems I encountered over those 20,000 kilometers. Phantom braking: with Autopilot engaged, the car suddenly slows even though there is no apparent danger ahead. It happened twice early on, both times on the highway. I accelerated immediately because of the risk of being hit from behind, especially if a following car was close. I considered it a system defect. It has not happened again since an update. The infotainment system unexpectedly restarted three or four times, sometimes while parked and sometimes while driving. The screen went black and rebooted. I continued driving manually; it did not affect control of the car. This also stopped after an update. Brake noise: after the car has sat unused for a while, the brakes sometimes squeak when cold. It disappears after a few applications. It does not affect use, but feels unrefined. Many petrol cars have the same issue. Charging interruptions: some third-party chargers were unstable and stopped charging unexpectedly. A later app update let me adjust the charging power manually; lowering it resolved the problem. Here is a summary of the strengths and weaknesses. The strengths first: excellent exterior design, a decent sound system, good handling, and negligible maintenance costs. The interactions are well thought out, from the UI to charging—the port opens automatically when you lift the connector—and the side camera appearing when you signal. Two features deserve special mention: remotely starting the climate control and sounding the horn from the app. Preconditioning makes getting into the car comfortable in summer and winter, while the horn helps locate it in an underground garage. Autopilot has been very consistent, and continuing over-the-air updates give me something to look forward to. An excellent app experience ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/04.webp) Autopark putting on a show [Watch this video in the original WeChat article ↗](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_en3AZjiLSscEnMDyf-RsQ) There are plenty of weaknesses too. Navigation is far behind leading Chinese apps such as Amap and Baidu. It is barely usable. On unfamiliar roads, I still prefer my phone's navigation, which is ironic with such a large screen in the car. Tesla keeps improving it, but slowly. Then there is the closed infotainment system. Like Apple's iOS, it does not allow arbitrary apps, but it lacks the iOS developer community. After several years, there are fewer than five third-party apps, including Douyin, Bilibili, and Youku. The low-spec processor also makes the interface sluggish. The infotainment processor is separate from Autopilot's hardware. There are no ventilated seats. The leather is not breathable, so I can still get sweaty in summer with the air conditioning on. Charging is not fast enough, even at a Supercharger. If this is your only car, some situations can be limiting, particularly in cold northern weather, which reduces range. Finally, this is still something new, with risks and uncertainty to accept. While writing this article, I received an official recall notice from Tesla. Unfortunately, my car was included, though the issue was not a major one, as shown below: Tesla's latest recall notice—my car's first recall ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/05.webp) ## 03A few thoughts That covers most of my experience with the car. If you prefer a video, see my earlier post. To finish, here are some thoughts it has prompted. The news throughout 2021 made it clear that new-energy transport is an exceptionally active field, still developing and iterating rapidly. What people want from a car is quietly changing: from brand prestige and business or social status toward intelligence, comfort, and contemporary design. Encouragingly, several highly competitive Chinese newcomers are emerging, with the potential to reach the world. Their strengths include good products, China's enormous market, and a rapidly developing supply chain. A look at the histories and strategies of Nio, Li Auto, XPeng, and CATL illustrates the point. The established German brands are also moving into smart cars with promising results. The Japanese brands seem to be falling behind here. An authoritative forecast predicts that new-energy vehicles will account for 50% of total car sales by 2035. I think that may be conservative; I will explain why below. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/06.webp) Image source shown at the top right Here is another thought: smart cars around the world are now a huge testing ground for artificial intelligence. Whether or not you use driver assistance, the car collects data and compares AI-generated driving decisions with human inputs to train neural networks, largely automatically. I struggle to think of another setting training AI at such scale with such a feedback loop. Tesla has two chips: one performs driving computations, while the other works in shadow mode to help train AI. Looking further ahead, perhaps traffic lights will no longer be needed. A true city-scale traffic intelligence could allocate road access from a system-wide view and optimize routes. Such enormous amounts of data will demand ever more computing resources, driving continued growth in cloud computing. Tesla's full self-driving chip ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/07.webp) Autonomous driving will bring safety, privacy, legal, and ethical issues into sharp focus. Safety includes both people and information. I once saw the car follow incorrectly painted road markings. Could malicious markings or signs similarly fool AI into causing a crash? Hacking a phone or computer can threaten property and privacy; hacking a car can directly threaten life. And who is responsible for an accident involving driver assistance? These questions need serious thought. A joke about a physical SQL injection attack on a license-plate recognition system ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/08.webp) As smart cars multiply, scale effects will become clearer. Connected-car applications such as citywide traffic optimization and innovative data-driven insurance—already appearing—will become practical. Insurance rewards more accurate calculations. Large amounts of connected-vehicle data and driving-behavior analysis could let insurers assess risk more precisely, resulting in different premiums for each driver. New carmakers entering the insurance market ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/09.webp) Another term worth mentioning is technological explosion. I first encountered it in The Three-Body Problem: during their centuries-long journey to Earth, the Trisolarans remotely block humanity's basic physics research to prevent a burst of technological progress that could surpass them. That is fiction, of course. Human civilization spans thousands of years, but truly rapid scientific and technological progress is largely confined to the last century or two. Perhaps we are already at the beginning of a fourth industrial revolution. If batteries reach 10,000 kilometers per charge, or charging becomes faster than refueling, the entire landscape will change. That could bring commercial Level 5 autonomy much closer, which is why I called the earlier forecast conservative. As electric vehicles blur the line between cars and consumer electronics, Moore's law and its economic reverse begin to matter. In-car computing will improve faster, the nature of the car will keep changing, and it may become a third space beyond home and work. Sooner or later, a steering wheel will be an optional extra. Some cars have already cut theirs in half. Like manual transmissions, steering wheels may gradually fade away. By then, working intelligently with machines will be recognized as a skill across industries. Tesla's new yoke steering wheel: only half a wheel ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/tesla-model-3/10.webp) One last reason I chose the Model 3: when driving at night, I can occasionally look up at the stars. It frees some of my attention, and the all-glass roof makes that view possible. I find it peaceful. Thank you for reading this far. Happy New Year, friends. Earlier posts: [Model 3 experience video, recorded in early 2021 in English](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4MDc1MjUxOA==&mid=2247483694&idx=1&sn=0f416bed218948ffe3b02ad5ba523093&scene=21#wechat_redirect) [My DJI Mavic Pro and Me](https://willdomlee.com/en/articles/dji-mavic-pro.html) --- Originally published in Chinese on WeChat, 南山独唱团. [Read the original](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_en3AZjiLSscEnMDyf-RsQ).