Insurance coverage Gasoline Automobile Rental: Like a Time-Warp after Proudly owning a Tesla Mannequin 3 with FSD

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Notice: I consider Donald Trump has completed unthinkable harm to our nation and to our relationships with different international locations. I used to be sadly disenchanted when Elon Musk supported his run for reelection regardless of Trump getting in mattress with fossil gas firms. Musk’s habits as chief of the DOGE company with the aim of chopping authorities spending was horrifying. Trump is now doing the whole lot he can to negate any clear vitality initiatives the nation is taking.

Nevertheless, Musk was extra instrumental beginning the world’s swap to electrical automobiles with Tesla than every other single individual. He has additionally constructed 4 big factories in California, China, Germany, and Texas that construct nothing however electrical vehicles that assist the revolution proceed. He has additionally been instrumental introducing two different applied sciences that additionally assist mankind. SpaceX has significantly decreased the price of house launches by determining find out how to get big first-stage rocket boosters to land on their tails in order that they are often reused as a substitute of dumping them within the ocean. SpaceX has additionally crushed Boeing by a number of years in servicing the Worldwide Area Station. Moreover, Starlink has used the diminished price of SpaceX house launches to launch 1000’s of satellites for a system that permits a world web service that works wherever on the planet. In brief, Musk has launched applied sciences which were an incredible profit to our nation and the world. I bought my Tesla Mannequin 3 lengthy earlier than Musk’s latest habits and I’m nonetheless amazed at its expertise. I nonetheless help these hundreds of thousands of us who’ve bought Teslas.

The story: Just a few weeks in the past, my spouse was driving our Tesla Mannequin 3 on 6-lane State Road right here in Northern Utah. A automotive coming the wrong way hit a deer, which it threw beneath our automotive earlier than my spouse may react. If she was driving a Cybertruck or a giant honking Chevy Silverado, there would have been no harm. Nevertheless, with the low driving aerodynamic Mannequin 3, there was in depth harm to the entrance bumper (facia), left rocker panel, driver’s door, and the plastic panel beneath the automotive, amongst different issues.

My Mannequin 3 is now at Repair Auto, a superb collision store in Provo, Utah, that handles Tesla repairs, and my insurance coverage firm is masking the price of a rental. My insurance coverage firm makes use of Enterprise Automobile Rental Inc. to deal with transportation for his or her clients whereas repairs are completed. I’ve rented vehicles on journey not too long ago and I had not made an effort to lease an electrical automotive. Except it was a Tesla rental, charging could possibly be iffy and the way may I be sure that the automotive had the identical state of cost after I returned it. Nevertheless, this time I may have charged the automotive in my storage and I’m completely aware of driving electrical in my very own neighborhood. Sadly, after a dialog with Enterprise, they knowledgeable me that that they had some EVs out there on the airport however none out there for insurance coverage leases.

There was a beautiful 2025 Genesis GV70 with a ¾ full tank already at Repair Auto after I dropped off my Tesla, so Enterprise Automobile Rental transferred the automotive to me. I used to be conscious of the Genesis model however didn’t know that it’s from the luxurious arm of Hyundai Motors. The automotive is bigger than my Mannequin 3 and has a big automated liftgate. It additionally has a show greater than most however not as large because the one on my Tesla. I has good cruise (pace management), steering help, and Apple CarPlay functionality. The GV70 additionally warns you when there’s a automotive beside you or behind you. The rearview digicam provides a superb view on the reasonably giant show display screen.

Nevertheless, that’s the place the pleasure of driving the GV70 ends. It has the next downsides in comparison with my Tesla Mannequin 3 with Full Self Driving and even in contrast with my 2018 Nissan Leaf that I owned 8 years in the past:

• I couldn’t refill in my storage, however needed to go to a fuel station and pay most likely 3 occasions as a lot for a similar miles as I pay with my Mannequin 3 in my storage.
• The good pace management is fairly dumb. It solely works when a automotive is fewer than 50 ft in entrance of you. Approaching a automotive ready at a cease gentle at 45 mph, it might plow proper into it. If you’re following a automotive 30 ft in entrance of you, it would cease useless behind it at a lightweight. Nevertheless, when the automotive forward of you accelerates, it requires you to flip a swap or push on the fuel pedal to comply with. If there isn’t any automotive in entrance of you, it received’t cease on the gentle. Tesla’s FSD was higher than this 4 years in the past.
• The steering help is admittedly lame. Even on a straight highway, your automotive wanders within the lane so you might be consistently nervous that it’s going to sideswipe one thing. Should you come to a reasonably sharp curve within the highway or a rotary, neglect it, the steering help turns off. My 2018 Nissan Leaf was higher and Tesla’s FSD is rock regular within the heart of the lane and can completely negotiate sharp turns and rotaries.
• Apple CarPlay is excellent and it exhibits nicely on the reasonably giant display screen. Nevertheless, it solely works when your telephone is plugged into the proper USB-A port. Because of this you might be consistently plugging in and unplugging your telephone in case you are doing numerous quick errands. The Apple CarPlay controls on my iPhone and the Genesis are inscrutable. It takes fairly a little bit of fiddling to get it to work.
• The automotive senses the presence of the important thing fob and unlocks the motive force’s door. Nevertheless, you want to open the motive force’s door or push a button on the important thing fob to open the opposite doorways.
• Urgent the brake means that you can begin the engine, in contrast to the Tesla which doesn’t require the motor to be began.
• You must manually lock the automotive whenever you depart, in contrast to the Tesla which locks robotically if you end up ~15 ft away from the automotive.
• You must hold a hand on the steering wheel to maintain steering help engaged. Not true for Cadillac and Tesla which have a digicam your face to make sure that you’re wanting on the highway. For a pair years now, you haven’t needed to hold a hand on the wheel in a Tesla with FSD.
• Going up a hill within the GV70 with good cruise activated, the automotive robotically downshifts and the engine roars whereas it valiantly tries to keep up the pace you have got set. In my Tesla there are two motors with a complete of ~450 hp which allow you to preserve pace with solely a whisper.
• No towbar receiver. I regularly want to move my e-bikes and I can’t use my bike rack with the Genesis GV70 rental.

Abstract

Enterprise Rental and Hyundai Motors supply the GV70 as a luxurious substitute for the insurance coverage buyer’s car. On the floor the GV70 seems to be a luxurious automotive with the most recent expertise. Nevertheless, solely a fuel automotive proprietor who has by no means pushed a Tesla with Full Self Driving goes to be glad. Above, I checklist 11 the reason why I’m not glad with the rental and need that Enterprise had supplied me the choice of renting a Tesla. Probably the most annoying is merchandise #3 above, concerning the steering help that’s grossly inferior to Tesla’s FSD and isn’t even pretty much as good because the steering help on my 2018 Nissan Leaf from 8 years in the past.

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