Category: Tesla & Automotive

  • Vehicle Roof Philosophy

    Vehicle Roof Philosophy

    I Was Wrong About Moon Roofs

  • My Wheel Philosophy That Became a Tire (Tyre) Philosophy

    My Wheel Philosophy That Became a Tire (Tyre) Philosophy

    I am a firm believer in snow tires and I think the fact that I have to say that out loud in 2025 is genuinely one of the more baffling things about living in the Northeast — like, we all agree the earth is round, right, so can we also agree that all-season tires in…

  • The Telo MT1, Almost — And the Truck I Actually Want

    The Telo MT1, Almost — And the Truck I Actually Want

    The setup, briefly: we have a 2016 Audi Allroad my wife loves, somewhere past 100,000 miles and probably pushing 125k by the time we replace it. Comfortable, capable, hauls everything. The brief for its replacement is simple — she wants an EV wagon. I did quietly float a small EV pickup as an alternative. That…

  • Tesla Finally Fixed the Auto Headlight Issue, Sort of…

    Tesla Finally Fixed the Auto Headlight Issue, Sort of…

    Somewhere around March, the blue high beam indicator on my Tesla stopped switching to green when another car was approaching. I called Tesla. I waited months for an update. Eventually I gave up. This is the same company making the self-driving car. For non-Tesla owners: blue means I’m blasting full brights, green means the car…

  • What’s Old is New: My Dad Was Basically Elon Musk (Just 40 Years Too Early)

    What’s Old is New: My Dad Was Basically Elon Musk (Just 40 Years Too Early)

    My dad died in 2007, which means he never saw the Tesla in my driveway, the heat pump in the basement, or the solar panels on half the houses on my road. Which is a shame, because everything he did in the 1970s that we found weird at the time has, in the intervening fifty…

  • What’s the Future of EVs/ICE? Why Aren’t We Talking About Onboard Generators?

    What’s the Future of EVs/ICE? Why Aren’t We Talking About Onboard Generators?

    I own an EV. I am not opposed to EVs. And the more I drive mine, the more I think going fully electric — meaning battery-only, plug-only — is short-sighted. ICE alone is a worse answer. The complexity, the maintenance, the dependence on a fuel that has to be extracted, refined, and trucked everywhere —…

  • My C and D Pillar Design Rules: Why So Many Cars Have Ugly Backs

    My C and D Pillar Design Rules: Why So Many Cars Have Ugly Backs

    I have a long-running obsession, unusual for an American, with station wagons. Why the wagon got such a bad rap here, I’m honestly not sure. They were never considered cool even before National Lampoon’s Vacation permanently chained them to the suburban-dad image — but Europe figured out decades ago that the wagon (and its cousin,…

  • Tesla Isn’t Smart. It Was Just Sold That Way.

    Tesla Isn’t Smart. It Was Just Sold That Way.

    I’m a little confused by the over-exuberant Tesla love. Seven months and a few thousand miles into my 2023 Model Y Long Range, and the consensus among the fanbase still doesn’t track for me. I’m an Apple person, so I understand the dynamic. But even with Apple, I can name the things they get wrong…

  • Something Chewed Through My Tesla’s Charging Cable

    Something Chewed Through My Tesla’s Charging Cable

    Walked out this morning to find my Tesla mobile connector cable chewed through, wires exposed. No idea what did it — squirrel, rat, rabbit, the chipmunks under the deck. Something out here decided a $300 piece of EV equipment looked edible. Going to need to replace it. If anyone has tricks for keeping cables safe…

  • Tesla Model Y Accessories: The Stuff Tesla Should Have Included

    Tesla Model Y Accessories: The Stuff Tesla Should Have Included

    After bringing home my Model Y 7-seater, I quickly figured out what every Tesla owner figures out: this is the beginning of your spending, not the end. The car is sold on a minimalism story — fewer features, fewer parts, lower price. What that actually means in practice is a thriving aftermarket where owners spend…

  • Tesla Renamed the Bug to Make It a Feature

    Tesla Renamed the Bug to Make It a Feature

    Tesla’s latest software update supposedly fixed the automatic high-beam adjustment. The release notes said as much. Mine still doesn’t work — and I think I’ve figured out what happened. The car is not switching down to low beam when it detects an oncoming car. The blue high-beam indicator on the dash stays lit the entire…

  • Tesla Model Y LR 7-Seat: The Four-Month Reality Check

    Tesla Model Y LR 7-Seat: The Four-Month Reality Check

    After four months and about 6,000 miles with my first EV — a used 2023 7-seat Model Y Long Range with the Acceleration Boost — I’m ready to give an honest report. The short version: I’d probably make the same decision today, but with significant reservations about which parts of the car I actually got…

  • How We Ended Up With a Model Y 7 Seater (And Which Parts I Actually Liked)

    How We Ended Up With a Model Y 7 Seater (And Which Parts I Actually Liked)

    I had a 2019 Honda Ridgeline and I really liked it. But we’d decided we needed a third row — for the occasional extra kid, or for piling everyone into one car when the grandparents came along. With two boys around 11 and 12, we started looking at hybrids as our first toe in the…

  • Defacing My Own Tesla Before Anyone Else Could

    Defacing My Own Tesla Before Anyone Else Could

    Yes, I bought a Tesla in November 2024. I want to address that up front, because it matters for everything that follows. By the time I bought the Model Y, the politics around the company were already fully on fire. Musk had spent the election cycle as the world’s loudest surrogate for a candidate I…

  • Better Late Than Never: 2019 Honda Ridgeline Black Edition Review

    Better Late Than Never: 2019 Honda Ridgeline Black Edition Review

    When I bought my Ridgeline in 2019, Honda sent me a survey. I did a thorough job on it, which apparently flagged me as someone worth asking more, because they sent a second, longer one. I gave them detailed answers — but it was all in their format, so I never kept a copy. I…