094 - Tesla's Autonomous Driving put to the Test by Drive.com.au

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I also want to catch up with James Ward from drive.com.au because I followed quite closely

all the reporting he did around the Tesla self-driving autopilot supervisor, whatever

they call it.

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Now, Steven, a month or so ago, I came across a great piece of content from James Ward

at drive.com.au.

When Tesla announced that the autonomous driving feature was finally coming to Australia, the

autopilot, it was a big deal because this was something they've been talking about

for ever.

Long time coming.

They were talking about it since I had a Tesla.

Frankly, false advertising for over a decade, something that you could buy but not use.

But anyway, let's move on from that.

And James decided to put it to the test by taking it on a decent drive.

So the director of content for drive.com.au is James Ward.

And he's on the line.

Good day, James.

How are you doing?

Good day, guys.

I'm well.

Talk us through the plan.

What was the plan once you saw that Tesla was going to hit the go button on autonomous

driving in Australia?

What did you want to do with it?

Yes.

So look, when they had that initial media launch and the couple of guys, they drove it around

in town and they sort of went through and said, yeah, wow, gee whiz, it's pretty impressive.

And I was talking to the guys from Tesla and said, oh, how does it handle a long trip?

What is it?

Yeah, we're very curious to know what are the limitations of this system.

And they basically went, ah, look, we don't really know because we haven't really done

it.

We've done testing and there's obviously been a lot of testing in the US.

But no one had ever sort of gone, let's try and see what it can do in all these cases.

And I thought, you know what, let's just find out.

So with they had a vehicle available, I had a day available and I flew up to Sydney, picked

up a car from the Tesla office there in Alexandria.

And literally with the, now let's be really clear, I'm not a Tesla aficionado by any stretch.

This is actually, I spent longer in that car on this one drive than I have had time in

any Tesla at any point at any time combined up until that point.

I just, I kind of haven't really got on the big T train.

And so a lot of the use of the vehicle was pretty new to me.

There was a lot of, yeah, a lot of the features and things.

The guys gave me a quick run through and literally said, okay, you're ready to go.

And you've got to, when you first sort of assign the full self driving supervised software

to the car, you have to go through and agree to a number of things, which is part of this

supervision process that basically says, I as the driver am still in full control and

in full responsibility of this vehicle, regardless of what it says on the box, I'm still the

bag of meat who's driving this car.

And from that point, literally put in the Sydney office destination and had it drive

me supervised from Alexandria to North Sydney as a bit of a throw in the deep end.

And then the next morning, we strapped a bunch of cameras to it.

And I said, okay, in the driveway there in North Sydney said, take me to our office in

Melbourne, in South Melbourne.

It came up and said, all right, that's going to be, you know, 866 kilometres.

I reckon you're going to need to stop in Goldman and Holbrooke and let's go.

And yeah, there she goes.

So let me get it.

So this is the full self driving.

But the rule is you still have to have hand on the wheel or what's the, what are the rules?

No, well, this is, this is it, right?

Like, and so this is level two.

So in Australia, level three, which is that the driver needs to be there, but doesn't need

to be involved, the car is making decisions.

That is not legal in Australia.

You can't have a level three car or beyond.

And so the most of the systems that we have at the moment that have distance, which is

like an adaptive cruise control you'll see in any car and a lane keeping function that

you will see that, you know, will go around corners and bits and pieces that you'll see

in most any modern cars.

That is level two, because you as the driver are still driving the car.

These are driver assistance systems.

And the Tesla system is arguably significantly more advanced than any other level two system

on the market controls for sure.

Yeah, but because of the supervision layer in there, you need to be, you need to be

concentrating because there's a camera looking at you looking at the road.

It falls under our level two rules.

So it's kind of like it's a level two by law, but it's a level three by function, right?

And it's sort of a bit of a gray area there.

You can't say it's a level three car because it's legally it's not.

And because of the supervision layer, like in the US, they don't have that.

So you can read a book while you're using FSD.

And that's why in Australia, it is FSD dash S.

It is full self-driving supermarkets.

But, you know, Elon has been marketing it as autonomous autopilot for a decade.

So, hey, what is the rules matter?

James, what is the rules matter?

And this is it.

Like this has been one of the things that I've had.

And look, I am an outward not Tesla fan, particularly around some of that marketing

because look, we're in the bubble, right?

We we read the things.

We're we're professionals.

We know what we're doing.

So when previous to to FSD, if you had a car that said it was on autopilot,

we know that's just fancy marketing term for cruise control because that's what it that's what it did.

But, you know, Joe Public out there sees the word autopilot

and thinks this thing's going to just drive itself.

That's been my theory from the very, very get go.

I feel like it's just some deep marketing.

True. In Germany, they actually sought to have the the name revoked

because it was deemed to be misleading in that way.

And if you recall, in Melbourne, a couple of years ago, there was a nasty accident

where a woman was running to get onto the tram

and she came out from behind a tree to jump onto the tram.

And another lady driving a Tesla struck her and her defence at the time

was that the car was on autopilot and it made front page news.

Now, if she had said, oh, my car was on cruise control,

she would have been laughed into the back of the Divivan straight away.

It's like, you're a moron.

You don't do that.

Whereas as soon as she said, oh, but it was on autopilot,

people go, ah, is this setting up a false expectation?

As it happened in that case, it wasn't.

She's just a double moron in that she wasn't paying attention and lied.

So but it's this whole thing.

So when you're buying a car that has full self driving,

what about you?

But that sounds like it's going to fully drive itself.

And in many ways, it really does.

Like I will be very clear here that that trip down, it was remarkable.

And was it remarkable from the get go?

Like you say, North Sydney.

So for people that don't live in Sydney, leaving North Sydney

to go to Goldman as a first stop, yeah, there's some serious motorways.

But you've got to get to the motorway first.

And that's going to involve probably the Harbour Bridge,

which, by the way, is under some serious construction right now.

This is how to handle those first 10 Ks.

It impressed me within the first 200 meters about what it would do.

And then you sort of the light bulb goes on.

You're like, this is not like any other vehicle.

And so coming up, I don't know if you know North Sydney well,

but we're near the corner of near Blues Point Road there.

And it pulled out of the street.

And you think, Waco, and it comes to a stop and it stops at the intersection.

You think, all right, yeah, we're working.

But coming up, the car in front of me put on its right turn indicator.

And so that model three moved around it.

It went left to go because we were going straight ahead.

So we moved to the left to avoid the car that had stopped to turn right

at the at the lights.

And it's that that you go, OK, this is this is actually making active decisions.

And it's doing things.

And I look, I'm going to preface all of this because we'll have a bit of a laugh.

But it did absolutely nothing at any point that made me feel nervous,

unsafe, at risk, anything. Wow.

It did a whole journey of things, the whole time, the whole journey.

So it is incredibly risk averse.

It did plenty of things that frustrated me because it was like,

she's, I would have changed lanes before now, I would have.

I would be over there right now.

And it certainly got lost a couple of times from a navigation perspective

because it sits in the left lane and there's a couple of points in Sydney

tunnels where you've got to be in the right lane to take the the tunnel merge.

So it got lost and made a couple of weird kind of navigation decisions.

But it never did.

It didn't go the wrong way down on one way street.

It didn't pull out into it.

It did absolutely nothing that required a safety intervention.

So on that side of things, massive tick.

Yeah, right.

And look, I was laughing because I don't know if you've ever written

anything about Tesla in your life, it's like it's like there's a

there's a global kind of media awareness, awareness network.

Thousands of monkeys on their typewriter in cable somewhere,

all just will leap upon you.

And yeah, the Tesla fandom, which is a group of people

I haven't had a lot of nice things to say about in the past.

I think I I wrote an op-ed saying I want to drive a Tesla,

but I don't want to be a Tesla driver helps.

And you don't think they don't do the whole trip.

So I went for zero intervention.

I went, OK, if you I know we're going straight ahead here.

But if you decide to turn left, that's your choice.

Let's see where we go.

So I let the car make its decisions and put itself in the lane that it wanted

to and kind of went, OK, well, it's been in the wrong lane.

It's made a navigation decision.

It's how is it going to recover from this?

That's right. So I wanted to see what it would do.

And of course, all the Tesla morons are there going,

oh, you're supposed to.

You could put your indicator on it will change lanes or you can do this

and speed up. And I'm like, yeah, but you was.

That's the point.

Drive the damn car.

If you're going to press all your buttons, just drive the bloody car.

Just on that, James, you're a car guy, right?

So you enjoy driving.

Right. Was this a little boring?

Just sitting there and letting the car go this.

Well, this is this is my this is my big thing.

And as as tech guys, you'll get this when the iPad came out and we all went,

wow, that's so cool.

I want one, but I don't actually know why or what I'm going to use it for

because it's not portable like a phone and it's not flexible like a laptop.

And so this is the same as an experienced driver.

This is slower.

It makes decisions that probably are more risk averse than you would

or less aggressive than you would.

It may get lost.

It may do things a bit weird and you've got to concentrate the whole time.

So why not just drive?

If you are a nervous driver, it's probably not the best thing

for you to be doing at this point because you you do need to be ready

to to intervene each could you should you feel unsafe?

And so it's not an experience.

Not a cheap option.

So at what point?

Who is this for?

And I suppose it's an amazing toy like it's like when the iPad came out.

If you have this and you go check this out, it's it is remarkable.

And and I am genuinely, genuinely impressed with how clever this is.

And really, look, I think as as adults talking, we could say,

this is the doorway to the future.

This is a showcase of what can be done.

And even though our rules are capped at level two and you've got to have

the supervision, this is opening up the door to what is the next generation

of autonomy on Australian roads.

So we can see the future pathway for this.

But right now it's a cool toy.

And it is. It's unless you unless you're going to talk about it

on Twitter or YouTube about it.

What's what's the point of it?

Because if I as a Tesla driver, you will talk about it on Twitter.

That's pretty much where I was going with that.

Yeah. And you know, I think I'm with you.

I I think I would be frustrated.

I'm I respect the fact that you did zero intervention because I'd be first.

I'm frustrated when Waze tells me to go a different way.

And I'm like, dude, that's silly.

So I would get I can't imagine you would be frustrated.

I'd be if the car just went a different way.

I'm like, what are we doing here?

So I'd probably be into the point where I just may as well drive.

You might as well drive.

And that's it. Like the idea that it's going to do

it like it did everything that you would.

And so probably the most clever thing that I was impressed by at one point

on the Hume, it went into a contraflow for road work.

So it's slow to 40 cross over the center median.

And you're going from your two up to down dual carriageway becomes

a one up one down at a managed speed limit.

And it went through that without fault.

And, you know, it did that arguably better,

better than many drivers manage that kind of thing.

But then there were points where, you know, I was sitting 10 percent under

the speed limit. So where it's 110 on the Hume,

I would have my cruise control on one 15, probably one 20.

I was going to say, yeah, do you think that was battery conservation, though?

Because, you know, those speeds can kill a battery.

Well, yes and no.

And I sort of I was quite careful not to conflate

autonomy with electrification because, yes, the Tesla is the autonomous platform,

but not all electric cars are autonomous and not all autonomous cars are electric,

like in your big Venn diagram.

You looked at this as being a test of autonomy, not a test of the electrification of the car.

But on that side, when it said, hey, we're going to Goldman

and it then drove me off the freeway to the driveway of the big supercharger site,

which apparently was a new site.

I was going to say, did you go to the new one?

Yeah, it's like 20, 20 stalls.

Yeah, the new one.

And so I had to take over and drive it in and back into a bay.

And it's very fast and all that sort of stuff.

But when I was testing it with the Tesla guys on the Monday when I picked it up,

we said, OK, to get to a charger,

put in the Alexandria one there in Sydney.

It went in the driveway and reversed itself into a bay.

So depending on the charger, it can basically be door to door, right?

Like it is incredibly clever what it will do.

And so that window to the future that you talked about, like with the iPad,

it's a great analogy because I'm hearing from you

that you really did open a door to the future where you went, OK,

so there's something in this autonomy thing.

And you can you can only imagine, right, if they can back a car into a store,

you can imagine a robotic arm putting the thing into the charge.

Like it's kind of it's only a that's right.

It's only a little step away.

So did this give you clarity on Elon's view of, say, Robo taxis, for example?

Look, absolutely.

If you look at what this can do today and again,

what what would it do?

Because the argument is always you've got your trolley problem

you know, from from the ethical mindset.

But then the argument is if you're in a utopian city that's brand new

and every single car is using, you know, autonomy,

capabilities and car to ex communication, then you've got to you've got

a utopian mobility solution there.

But you know, as I stand in the office now and look out at a beaten up VE

Commodore parked across the street, not everyone is driving

a brand new fully flash autonomous vehicle.

And so, yeah, no.

And so the idea and again, this was one of the questions that was asked after it.

And it was the, you know, I said, I think on the video, it's the it's the

does a tree fall in the forest, make a sound kind of thing.

Because they're saying, oh, what will it do if a kangaroo jumps out?

It's like, well, a kangaroo didn't jump out.

So I don't know.

And I can't say that we find because it didn't happen and even with potholes.

What I noticed is, and this is, you know, coming through New South Wales

was pretty good. As soon as you get into Victoria, holy crap.

You are the quality deteriorates immediately.

But it just sat in the road.

It sat in the center of the lane and was doing a, you know,

like it was it was lane managing very well.

Did it move around to avoid any imperfections in the road?

No, it didn't.

Were they big enough to upset the car?

No, they weren't.

And so the question really then does if you,

if the pothole was big, would it have avoided it?

And I don't know.

So there's a lot more that kind of needs to be done here.

But I suppose the test of this is not to be

well, the use of this is not to be tested in extreme cases.

So you go and find a windy unpaved

poorly surfaced country road with no line markings.

What does it do there?

Because realistically, when you're on a tier one road like the Hume,

it did a very good job.

When going around and to your point about the roadworks

and shenanigans around Sydney, it managed all of that exceptionally well.

It just got lost in those new tunnels, which I'm going to say

happens to humans every single day.

You find them working there, you lose your map.

Absolutely. Now, James.

That's it, right?

Like, yeah.

And it says turn left to Dremoyne and you go, I don't know what Dremoyne is.

Send me to Newcastle, man.

Now, James, you'd have to.

I think you've admitted that Tesla's like way out in front

with the self driving for among the car manufacturers.

Who is anyone else anywhere near Tesla in this area?

Or are the other car manufacturers just thinking, well,

we really don't need to worry about this right now?

No, look, I would say that, yes, they are.

Look, brands like Mercedes Benz, right?

If you want to look at them as a good case,

they have level three systems that operate in some markets

and they but they are a more they're a very risk averse company

when you think about it.

And look, they've actually come out and said if you are in one of our

autonomous drive modes and our car causes an accident,

we will take the blame.

It can be involved in an accident,

like if it's something out of nowhere, it's OK.

But if it causes, they will take the blame.

But this is the thing.

You've got a traditional brand like Mercedes Benz

that will operate in a more conservative layer,

going a little bit slowly, slowly,

catchy monkey before this comes out to consumers.

Because, you know, you could go back decades

and see when when Benz would show those videos of cars

following like a centipede along an auto barn

because they could all map the car in front and blah, blah, blah.

And I've been in in current Mercedes models that do the car to X

warning where, you know, another car hits a pothole

or has to break for an animal.

It will warn other cars in that area that there is an obstacle ahead.

That's that's live now.

But no other company, regardless of how advanced they are,

is putting it in the hands of consumers, except for Tesla.

And so part of that is like, you know,

and look, I'm on 60 Minutes this weekend talking about this.

And I kind of use the it's a terrible, nerdy thing.

But I use the Spider-Man quote.

It's with great power comes great responsibility.

The full self driving capability of that car is remarkable.

It is great power.

But that responsibility lies in the hands

of the people behind the wheel still.

And the three of us can do it.

We're we're cognizant of what this technology is, what is happening.

And we are ready to take over.

But what if Joe Public sees a shiny new Model Y ticks the box

and goes, this is amazing for self driving.

I'm going to tune out or I'm not going to pay attention.

Even though that camera is looking at me,

I'm just going to stare off blankly into the distance.

What happens if something goes wrong?

And it's like all these things.

It's brilliant until it isn't like it hasn't been tested in Australia

with with a with a terrible outcome.

The very fact that Tesla said to you that they don't know

because they haven't tested a long drive.

Troubled me so greatly at the very start of this call.

I mean, my question at this point,

based on everything you've seen and done and said here is,

should this be allowed right now?

Like genuinely, should Tesla have been allowed

to release this in Australia, do you think they look?

It lets and again, I'm I'm not a I'm not a massive advocate

of the brand's approach to things, but they do have.

You look at what they're doing.

They were a non-legacy brand for this.

They started Clean Sheet of Paper and this was their goal.

They're they're a long game player.

This idea of of autonomy is not something that they've got.

Oh, let's slap that into the car that's, you know,

maybe three years into its lifespan.

This is something they've been developing.

And you look at what they've done in the US

and how much it's evolved.

Like there was obviously, you know, plenty of things

that have happened that haven't gone well for it,

but they're constantly updating and evolving and improving this.

But then giving it to consumers to live test,

which arguably gives them the best data

because you're dealing with real world randomness.

And it's like we've seen with with ADAS systems

on some of the new Chinese cars because you'll get in one

and it'll be like, oh, my God, what is going on?

And they'll show you this facility

that got built in the last 18 months

and it's got perfect line markings

and billiard table smooth asphalt.

And they go, look, it performs brilliantly there.

But in the real world, where there are potholes

and kangaroos and missing line markings, the systems fall down.

And so Tesla, while, yeah, OK, we could sort of go,

oh, I don't know, do we really trust humanity

with this technology?

You know, you mentioned line markings, right?

I was watching the video and there was a point where I think it's

when you've left the gold and supercharger

onto the big roundabout over there.

Oh, yeah, crosses the roadside.

You're in the wrong lane.

The lane you're in is the left turn lane.

Yeah. And it goes, no, no, I'm going to go straight here.

Now, I'm assuming, and I think I'd give it full credit

if there was another car next to it,

it wouldn't have just gone over there because it would detect that.

Correct. You should have got a fine for that.

If there was a policeman there, you would have absolutely got a fine.

You can't blame Tesla.

That kind of stuff, I don't know, I just feel like that kind of stuff

is the thin edge of the wedge.

And that's it.

You, so if I had done that and Johnny Hopper had been there

and gone, mate, what are you doing?

You're in the wrong line.

That's just, you know, whatever the fine is.

I can't go, bloody Elon.

No, I am responsible and I am.

And that's it. You behind the wheel, you are responsible.

And yeah, I was letting the car make decisions.

And yeah, I saw that going, I don't know, bro.

We all say we're going straight ahead here

and you're in the left turn lane.

You do you, though.

And it's and even actually the funniest one is when it parks

at McDonald's when I stop for a coffee

and it's come off the freeway and it's slowed down.

It's gone around the servo and it's pulled into the car park.

You think this is magnificent?

And then it has parked in the middle of two spots

like like a Tesla driver.

And I'm like, yeah, you know, it's it's kind of kind of leaning

into the brand a little bit too much there.

But you think it's done all of this so brilliantly

and then yet screws up at that last second.

And, you know, it's again, we can laugh about that.

Never was I in danger.

I certainly I never felt unsafe in it.

And it was remarkable.

And even the the camera that's looking at you,

like you actually have to concentrate.

And so in a way, it's more exhausting

than just bloody driving the car yourself.

But it is. Yeah, look, OK.

So big picture here.

I think I don't necessarily agree with this approach

with what Tesla is doing to get live market data.

But it's obviously working for them.

My question then is, who's they've opened the door?

They've gone and it's like Apple, when they dropped that first iPad

within a few months, every other year, hey, we can do these things as well.

So who's going to be next to come out with a level three system

that's level two, you know, or a level two system that's level three?

But who's to say it's going to be as good as what Tesla have in market?

Because I having done, like I said,

with a new brand, Adas, not all, not all Adas is the same.

You get into them, Sadie's Benz, it handles it very well.

You get into some new brands and they're not that good, right?

And so who's to say we're not going to see the second

full self driving dash S system

come into Australia under another marketing moniker from another brand

that hasn't put the R and D level in as much as Tesla has.

Where does that lead us then?

And this is the thing.

So that's the that's the sixty four thousand dollar question

because it is the what comes next.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Look, as much as I want to go, oh, no, it's actually no, I don't.

I didn't want it to fail.

I really wanted to see what it was.

But it is it is remarkable and it is incredibly clever.

And it did everything arguably, you know, with a far

safer level of attention than other drivers like you would have seen on the video.

I caught two cars running red lights.

I saw, you know, cars expecting things to

have it's it's concentrating all of the time.

So it's safe to say humans joining out.

It's safe to say that it exceeded your expectations then, didn't it?

It did. It did.

And and I look again to to just say take me to city or take me to Melbourne

from from a car like it's kind of not really the like it's an outside use case.

But again, what is the what is the inside use case?

Because if I say, oh, just drive me to the shops, I know where the shops are.

I'm just going to drive myself there.

So what what is it other than, like I said, it's the keyhole.

It's the doorway to the future.

Keeping that crystal ball on for a minute.

Have you ridden in a way, Mark?

No, and it is it's one of those things that a number of people

who I've spoken to about this have said it's just wild, because it is the coolest

thing you will ever do in the world of tech.

Like it's it's unbelievable to that a car comes up with your initials

highlighted on the roof that you press a button to open it, to start it,

to get it running and then you just get out and it drives away.

Mate, to me, I've done it three or four times with my kids earlier in the year.

It is the wildest thing.

And I think you should do that next time you're in either LA or San Francisco

because compare that with what you've done in an autonomous style vehicle.

And you start to really see.

I mean, again, hate Elon.

I just don't like the bloke at all.

But I believe he's a genius of our generation that will be long remembered

for things like SpaceX and potentially electrification of cars.

And when you when you realise that just that one vision,

he's got two visions get to Mars and robot taxis like you really do get it.

And I think the Waymo experience is just a future ready version

of what he's got in his mind.

A well worth looking at, James, a hundred percent.

And even the idea, I think he put a he put a tweet up the other day.

I'm still going to call him tweets.

Sorry, I'm just not getting the whole ex branding thing like, come on.

The he put a thing up, which, interestingly,

was the same thing Volvo said about ten years ago that they had the technology.

But obviously, it hasn't had the legality.

But soon your car can drop you go to the shopping mall,

you get out and your car goes and finds a park and parks itself.

And then when you finish your shop, you just go, OK, car, I'm ready.

And it comes and picks you up.

That is that is that is a viable, sensible, consumer friendly

use case for this technology, because everyone hates park.

God, I was at Melbourne Airport the other day, ready to just leave my car

in the middle of a lane, you know, and just go have at it.

I'm sick of trolling for car spots.

Imagine how much nicer Chadston would be at Christmas when you can simply roll up

or hop out of your car and it goes and parks itself.

They're certainly at a time.

I had I've had it had a Tesla years ago and that summon feature

was was a beta when I had my Tesla back in 2018.

I got my taking that into multi level car parks and all that kind of stuff

becomes super exciting.

James, mate, what an awesome thing to do for research, for journalistic purpose.

And it's a one hour plus video that you've done at drive.com.

That are you can look it up on YouTube.

Kenneth Tesla Drive itself from Sydney,

into Melbourne, and you can see all the things that James talked about

in our conversation here and much more.

Mate, great, great job.

Loved it. Great chat.

And yeah, really, really fascinated by the whole experience.

But I really, really appreciate you joining us.

No, thanks, guys.

Always happy to talk cars and put my life on the line for the

you know, the greater good and you know, the amount of jelly snakes

that that went down the hatch.

Because I tell you what, though, I've got to I've got to get some

better podcasts queued up because, you know, this is just a few for you.

I reckon you could. I reckon you could.

We only make six a week.

So we'll see what else we can find you, buddy.

We'll get you to Melbourne now on it just on our own, buddy.

Cheers, James. Good to talk to you, mate.

Thank you. Excellent. Thanks, guys.

Awesome stuff.

James Ward from drive.com.au.

Two like story electric cars.

Always great to have your company and always love to hear from you as well.

Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

Tim is on the line today, Tim.

Hello, how are you, Tim?

I'm very well now.

Normally, I'd say to people, what's your electric journey?

Where are you at? But we already know.

So we want to uncork the bottle that is, ladies and gentlemen,

Tim just picked up his new car and you leave the owner.

One hour ago.

One hour ago, man.

Fanny, come on. Jumping up and down with excitement.

What'd you get, mate? What'd you get?

What is it? Yeah, we we have we have a Zika 7X.

You must be one of the very first.

Yeah, it's a release day.

So we've just come from a bit of an event with the

and Brisbane and another another.

Yeah, there's another 15 first buyers with us.

So yeah, mate, I got to tell you,

we've been doing the show for a year or so now.

Yeah, I don't think so.

You know, we've been doing the show for a little while now.

And we talked to a lot of people about electric cars.

I don't think in a short space of time, we've had such interest in a car

brand, yeah, than the Zika 7X.

Has what drew you to this car?

When and how were you drawn to this car?

OK, well, I've got to start with it.

But just just on that line is the the dealer himself,

but the salesman we're talking to is saying,

I've never seen this much interest in my old experience either.

Well, they they're one of the two dealers in Brisbane

and they've had 300 pre-orders.

So we said, yeah, I've just never seen this before.

So they're they're really excited.

So what drew you to?

OK, well, my interests in EVs,

because we knew nothing a year ago, like virtually nothing about EVs.

I didn't know much about the cars at all.

But I went off to Rockington and I had a car from the airport

and it was an EV. It was a BYD.

And I didn't know much about BYDs and BYD Atto 3.

3, I think.

And, you know, that's a great car.

Like, it just brings a teenager out and, you know, you open the door and say,

hey, wow, this is this is pretty much look at those guitar strings.

I'll start plucking. Yeah, she does it all.

Yeah. And you're getting in the car

and like your wife's trying to read the squats on the screen.

I'm going to pay. It goes vertical or goes horizontal.

You know, I really brought the team is so much of a fun car.

And after that, you're thinking, gee, maybe an EV is for us.

So that's when we start looking.

Yeah, the other thing about the

with during this journey, I was going to tell you is that

the things I learned there is that we got like

in when you're in Rockington with this car and start going up Mount Archer

and I had no experience of what that is like.

And I'm just watching the percentages.

Yeah. And Mount Archer is like the lookout over Rockington.

Yep. Yep.

And so it's about five K's up.

I don't know, something like that.

And you're just watching the percentages go down and it's a higher car.

I'm pushing it, pushing it as far as it's legal to.

And you just tick, tick, tick.

And I think, oh, my God, you know, how will we get anywhere?

This is going to be using so much battery, but you get to the top.

And with an EV, you start coming down, you start seeing it ticking back up again.

Yeah, half of what you've lost is suddenly back in the battery by just coming down again.

So it was really good.

Yeah. So you were sold on EV on EV after that experience.

Yes. So you would have done a few tests, but not.

Not necessarily the wife.

Really? OK.

So you know, into a marriage plan,

intrap marriage marketing required because this is her car.

So yeah. OK.

And so I said to her, maybe you get an EV.

And like the first thing she said to me was, well, we're not getting a Tesla.

Oh, OK. Good woman.

Yeah. And exactly the same as the guy you had on last week.

He was talking about why it was the same, same story.

They're like, I'm full of admiration for the guy and what he's achieved.

But yeah, it was not getting a Tesla, apparently.

And then the second line was, oh, I'm not getting one of those Chinese cars either.

Again, we just didn't know anything about them and just a few of the worst.

And I don't think uncommon thought either.

A lot of people say that.

So that kind of draws you that draws you then to your big manufacturers

like Kia or Hyundai and Toyota, whatever it might be.

So where did where did the journey take you there?

Well, well, we are rusted on Subaru people until an hour ago.

Well, love our airbag.

And so immediately you say, well, what's Subaru doing?

And they had it in the E30.

But yeah, all reds of reviews and the reviews were, you know, it's the cars OK.

But, you know, for it would be great if it came out two years ago.

But, you know, compared to what China is putting out, yeah, it's not really

in terms of how far it can go and what it's got.

It just doesn't have the tech that the Chinese did.

So I thought, well, maybe we'll try one of these Chinese cars

and had a drive in the Geely and then loved the BYD7.

Had a go on a Polestar, went in the BMW IX.

But the wife wasn't sold on any of them.

And so I said, oh, there's this thing I'm reading about X-Pane that sounds good.

And so we went and drove on that.

And she wasn't particularly keen on that one either.

So it didn't really like the I'm like, I'm sure it's a lovely car.

But it's the minimalist inside of it.

Yeah, true.

And then and then just as we're leaving with the deal,

I said, oh, you want to try this Zika X?

And she jumped out of that and said, I love this car.

Yeah. And she went off to see the dealer.

And the dealer said, you know, maybe it's a little small.

And the dealer said, well, have I got a story for you?

And to my amazement, you know, you can half an hour.

We'll have to put a deposit down on a seven X. Wow.

Wow. So you drove the X.

The one that we drove, she liked it.

We've driven the X and that's the one she got out of it and liked it.

So because it's a premium car, it's a really nice looking car,

luxury luxury, you know, a bit of luxury inside.

And she liked that.

He told her about the bigger car, which wasn't available to even test drive.

Just looked at photos, maybe, and she put a deposit down.

Yeah, well, it's not like my head was spinning like we've never driven it.

The car's not in Australia.

They don't have a price for it.

And when I started looking it up, there's no right hand drive version of it.

Anywhere in the world.

And yet when I can see, tell people, oh, we just put a deposit down

on this seven X and I go, what?

But yeah, clearly, by what?

You know, I just do it because as you start to find out about it

and as we went to the test drive, she's a smart woman.

So you've had it for 60 minutes.

You've had it for 60 minutes.

Did you both go and pick up the car?

Was it a joyous drive home?

Yeah, well, I drove down so I haven't yet even had a chance to drive.

As I own the drive, it's a driver.

Yeah, she's been doing the driving.

Well, it's her car, mate.

Yeah, it's her car.

Yeah, I was I got to step back sometimes.

So what about you?

What do you do?

Do you have a second car?

Do you have a car? What's what's your next car then?

Well, my family, I like bikes.

So I have a bike and then she has the car.

And when I need a car, I borrow her.

So I'll certainly be driving it.

Yeah, like the other issue was like the car that the Zika X that got us.

Yeah, that's being the all wheel drive and just love to power it.

Yeah. Yeah.

But I was thinking, you know, shall we do the all wheel drive?

Yeah.

And she was she was saying, well,

could we come from a Subaru background on their sales,

which is all wheel drive and most of gravity or something.

And so she wanted that for safety.

And I said, yeah, maybe one day we'll try a car there.

And I remember we'll discuss it.

And I said, well, I'm not arguing with the gift or something.

I'm getting it all wheel drive.

It's so hard.

So Tim, what's what's your situation with the charging?

Have you did you work that out yet?

Are you getting a wall charge?

You already got one.

What's the deal?

They're giving us they're giving us a single phase at home.

They're giving us a single phase with a charger.

So again, I was listening to you guys last week

and we're talking and saying, do I install this?

Should I just go for a few for a few weeks with the 10 amp charger

and see what it's OK?

Yeah, maybe you're going to get a battery fairly soon down the line.

Maybe I should be looking at something to grab.

And then you guys are talking about, you know, why don't you get something smart

for your box?

Yeah, I'm not long.

So yeah, that's that is all up in the air at the moment.

Well, you've got any any any bit of advice there?

It's it's all about the journey.

So you're just excited to have spoken to you.

Sixty minutes.

That's the closest we've had someone on on on car day delivery day.

Well, we spoke to someone who was on their way to pick up.

Yes. So this is this is the first brand closest to being a new EV owner.

So congratulations to you and your family on the Zika 7X.

It's a beautiful car.

You'll love it.

And, mate, keep us up to date.

We'd love to hear from you in a couple of months, maybe.

And let us know the ups and downs because it's a test drive.

So we'd love to see and hear from you the the the, you know, what's it all?

Well, what it was the good and the bad of it after a couple of months.

So let's talk again then, eh?

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Jeff. Well, that's excellent.

Well, there you go, Tim.

You can just hear the excite minutes of excitement.

Good on you, Tim. Thanks, mate.

That's amazing.

I'm so pumped by that.

Yeah, it's he hasn't driven it yet.

Yeah, the wife's driven it.

Well, it's the wife's car after all.

And she put the deposit down.

Yep.

At the moments after being told about it.

And look, that's not the first time we've heard Zika seems to be sort of cutting

through with with customers there and amid a lot of other competition,

which the Zika's seen to me.

And yeah, we agreed on this when we drove it.

Yes. They just seem to have something to the car that the others didn't.

There's a bit of character to the car.

There's luxury. Definitely.

The lighting effect in the car.

It's got to those quirky little features that set it apart.

I think that that's really the Chinese car thing.

You'll hear a lot from people and there are even more brands coming in now.

We've had announcements from even more brands coming in that I've I'd seen in

China, AXION or something.

But there's there's new ones coming from another importer.

So it's going to be even more brands in Australia.

And I think as we discussed a few weeks ago, they're not all going to survive.

No. But if I was to put money on a couple, BYD, definitely.

Definitely Zika.

For sure. Yeah.

So, you know, I think that's two good, safe bets at this point in time.

So good on you and and great to hear your story.

Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

We'd love to hear from you.

You can do that.

Thanks to Vodafone. Send us a little text message.

Send us send us a WhatsApp, whatever you might want.

And we'd love to hear from you, Steven.

That's a wrap.

Lovely to hear from James Ward and and talk Tesla as well.

But we'll do it all again next week, mate, on two bikes.

Look forward to it.

I love watching you dance.

094 - Tesla's Autonomous Driving put to the Test by Drive.com.au

About this episode

EV

Tesla Autopilot

autonomous driving

full self-driving

driver responsibility

adaptive cruise control

lane keeping function

level two

level three

Tesla Model 3

electrification

autonomy

supercharger

reverse

Mercedes-Benz

car-to-X communication

Tesla Model Y

autonomous vehicle

summon feature

Chinese cars

Subaru

BMW E30

Geely

Polestar

Bmw Ix

X-Peng

Zika X

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