Top Gear

Will Elon Musk’s Tesla Model 3 live up to the hype?

- Nicolas Stecher

IT HAS BEEN A HELLUVA MONTH FOR Tesla Inc. and its CEO Elon Musk, especially for his nascent ‘everyman’ Model 3 electric wonder. When Consumer Reports released its initial review of the new mid-size EV in late May, the sedan rated highly in many categories, but the magazine had to deliver a “not recommended” rating due to inconsistent brakes. Notably, they tested the Model 3 as requiring an average of 152 feet to stop from 100 kmph, which is seven more feet than a Ford F-150 pickup takes.

Now, this is the Tesla way, for better or worse. In its rush to meet overly optimistic Musk-set deadlines, Tesla has skipped traditional industry production benchmarks in lieu of beta testing its vehicles in the wild. Just as tech companies do, release your product unfinished and let consumers (or in this case, Consumer Reports) figure out the bugs.

Except we’re talking about an automobile with dubious brakes unready for real-world usage. Well, Musk blew a fuse at the collective coverage and told everyone to chillax, claiming Tesla would improve the antilock braking system via OTA (over-the-air) updates. Many in the Twittersphere scoffed, saying it was a hardware, not a software issue. Musk fried another fuse, casting aspersions on the media as clickbait-chasing hypocrites, sounding more like a politician than the CEO of the most valuable automotive company in the world.

As promised, Tesla made the OTA updates without buyers having to bring their cars anywhere close to a garage or dealership, and Consumer Reports retested the Model 3 and released its revised review. Turns out, in the case of the OTA updates Musk was right; after all, they changed their rating to “recommended.”