Utah Report Snowfall — Extra Adventures in Winter Driving with My Twin Motor Tesla Mannequin 3 (+ FSD Beta Replace)

The typical winter snowfall at Alta, Brighton, Snowbird, and Solitude ski resorts in Utah is 500”. As of this writing, Brighton and Alta Ski Resorts are at 672” and 660” snowfall respectively for the season, and the others usually are not far behind. With 5 weeks of the ski season left to go, we’re nicely on our option to the 825.5” all-time file set at Alta in 1985. I educate alpine snowboarding at Brighton, which entails a 16 mile commute up Massive Cottonwood Canyon twice every week.

Determine 2: Me and my Tesla Mannequin 3. Monumental snow. Sundance, Utah. March 7, 2023. Picture by Mary Hasler.

Determine 3: My grandson. Monumental snow. Sundance, Utah. March 7, 2023. Picture by Fritz Hasler.

Excessive Winter Driving in Tesla Mannequin 3

I’ll flip 83 this 12 months, so I’ve been snowboarding and touring to ski resorts in Wisconsin, the Higher Peninsula of Michigan, Colorado, New England, Canada, and the European Alps now for over 70 years. Most of my driving on winter roads in Wisconsin and to ski resorts has been on all-season tires in vehicles and vans with two-wheel drive. We thought of ourselves completely outfitted for winter driving once we had a VW Bug with the heavy motor over the rear-drive wheels. After I bought my Tesla Mannequin 3, my primary requirement was for max vary as a result of I knew that we would wish to make the cross-country commute from Utah to Wisconsin yearly.

To me, it was a bonus that the Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary got here with twin motors. With a motor on each the front- and rear-drive axles, it’s primarily a four-wheel-drive car. On any winter day with new snowfall, Massive Cottonwood Canyon in Utah resulting in the Solitude and Brighton ski resorts is restricted to autos with traction help. This primarily means four-wheel drive, chains, or studded snow tires. With my earlier two-wheel-drive Nissan Leaf electrical automobile, this might imply parking on the backside and hitchhiking up the canyon on snow days.

With my Tesla Mannequin 3 twin motor, I’ve been in a position to drive up Massive Cottonwood Canyon even on snow days. This winter, my tires have been approaching the damage bars the place I would wish to switch them. Nevertheless, I used to be nonetheless making it up the canyon for the reason that Salt Lake County site visitors authority plows the highway very often when it’s snowing. Nevertheless, on January 21, it was snowing closely as I adopted a protracted line of vehicles slowly working its manner up the canyon. Simply 4 miles wanting Brighton I began skidding off the highway to the precise in 4” of recent powder snow. I used to be caught, I couldn’t transfer frontward or backward. I acquired out of the automobile and hitchhiked as much as Brighton. I borrowed a shovel and hitchhiked again all the way down to the automobile. Thankfully, a policeman in a giant pickup truck with snow tires was ready for me on the automobile. He hooked up a tow strap to my receiver (put in for attaching a tow ball and my bike rack) and pulled me again on the highway in order that I used to be dealing with downhill.

I drove straight down the Canyon and proceeded instantly to a Les Schwab tire retailer and purchased new all-season tires that had the most effective tread design (Continental 235/45R-18XL 98Y Excessive Contact mDWS06+) for winter driving in snow (see Determine 4). It was solely few days later that I used to be driving up the canyon when it was snowing closely and I used to be in a position to make it up with solely a small quantity of trepidation. As a bonus, there was nearly no skidding on my manner up.

Determine 4: Continental 235/45R-18XL 98Y Excessive Contact mDWS06+ tire. March 7, 2023. Picture by Fritz Hasler.

The subsequent concern has been the car parking zone. The Mannequin 3 has solely 5.5” clearance top beneath the automobile. When we now have 8” of recent snow after arrival, as you see in Determine 1, it’s very troublesome to get the automobile transferring even with 4-wheel-drive as a result of the automobile is excessive centered. It was essential to dig out every tire with my ski gloves and shovel in entrance of the automobile to get sufficient room to get transferring. Additionally, the car parking zone attendants equipped a few plastic traction enhancers to place beneath the tires. As soon as I used to be transferring, I needed to hold going no less than 10 mph or I might be caught once more. Thankfully, there have been no skiers strolling within the highway to make me cease.

A number of blocks from house, I might hear one thing scraping beneath the automobile. It turned out that I had broken the fiberboard aero-shield beneath the automobile. The aim of the defend is to boost the aerodynamics of the automobile. 8” of compacted snow within the car parking zone had scraped the fiberboard proper off the underside of the automobile. After I introduced my automobile to the Tesla service middle for repairs, they changed the fiberboard aero-shield with a brand new defend fabricated from plastic. I hope the plastic defend is extra sturdy than the fiber model.

I’ve realized my lesson: On days with 5” or extra snow forecast in the course of the day, I shall be parking my automobile on the backside of the hill and hitchhiking up the canyon.

Full Self Driving (FSD) Beta Replace

I’ve been utilizing FSD Beta on and off for a number of months. “Off” would come once I acquired 5 pressured disengagements and Tesla briefly canceled my entry to the software program. This occurred to me twice and it took a few months every time earlier than Tesla restored entry to me. I feel I’ve discovered the answer to sustaining entry to FSD Beta. I’ve been utilizing FSD Beta once more for a few months now and I’ve had no pressured disengagements. I’ve stopped utilizing FSD Beta on a regular basis. On longer journeys, it has little utility: autosteer and sensible cruise management do the job on the freeway and you’ve got little benefit utilizing FSD Beta to drive your automobile simply to the Superchargers. I now use FSD Beta just for shorter metropolis journeys the place the software program is extra helpful and I can give attention to letting the software program do its job and intervening when it makes a mistake. Previously, I might lose give attention to longer journeys, once I was searching for a charger, altering the navigation, adjusting the heating/cooling, and so on.

The largest enchancment I see with newest model of FSD Beta is that it now handles rotaries (roundabouts) correctly. Beforehand, FSD Beta would come to a full cease when coming into the rotary even when there have been no different vehicles. Now it treats the rotary entrance like a yield signal, which is what it’s speculated to do.

FSD Beta’s greatest fault continues to be the occasional failure to get within the appropriate lane (middle or flip) to observe the navigation route. The motive force needs to be continuously on the alert to intervene on this case. The second greatest fault of FSD Beta is that it’s too gradual, too timid at cease indicators and doing unprotected (no site visitors gentle) turns onto busy roads. The easy resolution is to intervene by supplying a small quantity of strain to the accelerator to make the automobile transfer ahead on the correct time. The automobile will nonetheless execute the flip correctly.

We’re all nonetheless ready anxiously for V.11 of FSD Beta, which is meant to carry large enhancements. Sadly, we learn that it might be some months earlier than we see the discharge.

Please add your winter driving ideas and FSD Beta expertise within the feedback part beneath.

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