6 Things I HATE About My Tesla

In this post, I'll be sharing six things that I dislike about my Tesla. From issues with the autopilot system to problems with charging times, I'll be giving an honest and detailed review of my experiences with my Tesla. I'll also discuss any potential solutions or ways to mitigate these issues. This post is for anyone considering purchasing a Tesla or for current Tesla owners who want to hear about some of the common complaints about the car.

Now before we start, all of the things I mention are from my personal experience, some of these things people will have no problem with and others will. I also want to mention that no matter the negatives, my tesla model 3 is still hands down the best car I've ever owned. We'll start with the thing I hate the least, and then end with what I hate the most.

No Apple CarPlay

So the first thing that I don’t like is that with all of Teslas' cool features and entertainment, it's missing one thing in my opinion, and that is Apple Car Play and Android Auto.

Now Teslas are equipped with the most advanced entertainment features on any car period, you can control your entire car from the huge 15-inch touch screen, which provides navigation and maps from google maps, entertainment like youtube, TikTok, Netflix, and more, as well as music apps like Spotify, Tidal and recently apple music. You can play full video games with a controller, browse the internet with a full internet browser and even produce music in the Traxx app. You can also sync your calendar and phone contacts which also lets you send text messages right from the touch screen as well.

That all sounds great, and trust me it is, BUT sometimes you want to use other apps like apple maps or Waze, which are far better navigation apps that give you better visuals and important information while driving. Or maybe you want to use other charging network apps like plug share, ChargePoint, and electrify America for more charging options when in a pinch. With Apple CarPlay you can also get notifications from your iPhone which is very convenient while driving and you can get access to a handful of third-party apps, like weather, audible, and even WhatsApp. This leads me to my favorite feature, iMessage.

Now listen, not having apple car play is NOT a dealbreaker as the teslas interface is just fine, but the thing is, CarPlay is available in over 600 cars by over 70 car brands, it literally comes with EVERY car except Tesla, so yeah there's that.

Autopilot Nagging

The next thing I dislike is the nagging of the autopilot prompts.

If you aren't familiar with Autopilot, it's the Teslas auto drive feature, which lets the car drive without you having to be in control, meaning you do not have to steer, use the gas, or brake the car, the Tesla will do everything for you. And if you have Full Self Driving, the car will also navigate to your destination without you having to do anything at all except type in the destination address. If you’ve seen my other videos you’ll know that I love autopilot and I use it almost 80% of the time when taking long road trips.

With Autopilot, there is a safety feature that can be a bit annoying. Since unexpected events can happen on the road while driving, Tesla wants to make sure you are alert and paying attention while the car is in autopilot, and does this by requesting you put slight force on the steering wheel or tapping the scroll wheel to confirm you are alert.

This alert will happen less or more frequently depending on the speed you are traveling, and since I normally use autopilot on the highway, the car is usually traveling at higher speeds, and the higher the speed the more frequently you’ll get the prompt, which sometimes is unbearable to have to keep grabbing the wheel almost every 10 seconds, making the whole point of autopilot useless.

With that said, I still use autopilot because it's more convenient and puts less strain on my arms and legs on road trips but I'm hoping Tesla will figure out a way to use the cabin camera to scan your eyes to show you are looking at the road instead, what do you say Elon?

Phantom Braking

While on the topic of autopilot, there is one other thing I can't stand, and that is phantom braking.

Phantom braking is when you are in autopilot, on an open road with absolutely nothing in front, on the sides, or in back of you and your tesla decides to slam on the brakes for absolutely no reason and is one of the scariest things I've experienced when owning my Tesla, now I will admit I've only experienced this a few amount of times, mostly when first buying my tesla in 2021, since then there's been multiple updates and I've noticed it happening much less frequently, but it did happen to me again recently which is why I decided to mention it here.

There are lots of people who own Teslas and haven't experienced this at all, so it may just be a small number of people. Hopefully, the problem will be eliminated in a future update.

Supercharging Times

One of the main things I dislike about owning a Tesla is how long it can take to charge your car at a supercharger station.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Tesla supercharger stations, it's like a gas station for electric vehicles. Superchargers make it convenient to charge your Tesla by just backing your car into a stall and plugging your car in, there are no buttons to push, cards to swipe, or anything, just plug in, charge up, and leave.

This sounds great until you realize that you’ll be sitting at a supercharger anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on multiple factors like the type of supercharger you’re using, how much range you need to continue your trip and how many teslas are charging at the same station.

Now, hear me out, depending on which tesla you own you’ll have 272 to 405 miles of range with a single charge, and if you commute within your teslas range capacity each day, you won't need to worry about this because you’ll most likely be charging your car overnight at home and you’ll never need to use a supercharger. But, if you are like me and often take long road trips, it begins to hit hard when you have to stop and charge multiple times throughout your trip anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour for each stop, this can easily turn an 8-hour trip into a very annoying 11-hour trip.

Tesla does try to alleviate the pain by doing two things.

• Placing superchargers in locations where there are things to do to pass the time, like restaurants, shopping malls, and more.

I've even stopped at one in a bowling alley.

• Loading your car with entertainment like Netflix, youtube, video games, an internet browser, karaoke, and more.

These things help since you’ll usually need to stop for a bathroom break and food during long trips but in this situation, I would prefer the speed of a normal gas station.

Battery Degradation

While we’re on the topic of batteries, the next thing I hate about my tesla is battery degradation.

If don’t know what battery degradation is, it's when your battery starts to lose the amount of energy it can store over time. Tesla's battery will last you from 300,000 - 500,000 miles. But during its lifetime the capacity will begin to get lower and lower which can result in reduced range, power, and overall efficiency.

Battery degradation is a normal part of ALL EV’s not just Teslas, but the reason I hate this is that I like to take road trips and with an EV you already need to stop at superchargers to charge your car which adds more time to your trip VS a traditional gas car, and now that I'm facing battery degradation, it means I need to make extra stops to charge which will take even more time to reach my destination.

There are measures you can take to slow down battery degradation like capping your charge limit to below 100% but this won't completely stop it. What you can do is keep an eye on your Battery health with Recurrent,

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• Range Scores

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• Recurrent Reports

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Washer Fluid Dribble

Now for the one you’ve all been waiting for, the one thing I hate about my tesla more than anything else on this list is when you use the window washing fluid to clean your windows, the fluid enters the car through the driver-side window and completely soaks the door and gets into the creases of the trim and window buttons.

Some of you might think I'm crazy but Anyone who has a Tesla Model 3 knows exactly what I mean. Some of you might say, to close your windows when you spray, which yes, I do now, but when driving and something gets your window and you need to remove it, a quick spray should not completely soak your interior.

I've owned plenty of cars and none of them have this issue. I've been trying my best to hold off on buying window guards but I don’t know if I can hold off any longer.

Closing Thoughts

And there you have it, 6 things I hate about my Tesla, as I stated before, all of the things I mentioned are from my personal experience, and no matter these negatives, my tesla model 3 is still hands down the best car I've ever owned. If you’re a Tesla owner, let me know your negatives! and if you don’t own a tesla let me know which of these negatives would bother you most. As always, if you enjoyed this content, give this post a like and consider subscribing to the blog for more Tesla content.

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