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In a new video on YouTube, Eli shows us the speed of supercharging a Tesla with both V2 and V3 Superchargers.

Eli’s test will show you how long it takes to charge his Tesla Model S Raven. For the first part of the test, he charges his Tesla at a V2 Supercharger and it was at 10% charge. He charged it up to 80%. After about five minutes, Eli realizes he’s getting charge of 54 kilowatts despite the fact that the max charge is 150kw. Eli explains that this is split between two stations. The total charging time took 57 minutes and 21 seconds which is roughly an hour.

The next day, Eli goes to the Tesla Factory to test the V3 Superchargers and arrives, without even trying, just 10% battery. At the V3 Supercharger, it starts off a little slow. It was a little disappointing for Eli, who wanted to get to that peak charge rate. However, it wasn’t all a loss and Eli explained why.

At the V2 Supercharger, he had to share his charging power with others. At the V3 Supercharger, even though Eli had folks charging on either side of him, he didn’t have to share his charging power with them. He was still able to get up to 155kw of charging power. Eli points out that this is game-changing for Tesla because it allows Tesla to support twice as many cars with the same number of Superchargers since each car spends less time charging at V3 chargers.

At the V3 Supercharger, it took Eli 48 minutes and 32 seconds to charge his car from 10% to 80%. That is just 9 minutes less and to some, that may not make a difference, but overall it will once Tesla upgrades all of the Superchargers to V3 or at least those in Tesla dense cities.

The National Transportation Board made it’s ruling in the March 23, 2019 fatal crash of Walter Huang. Huang was driving his Tesla Model X when it veered out of its lane. Autopilot was enabled and it ran into a center divider and Huang paid the price. However, even though Autopilot was blamed, the fact that Huang was playing video games and not really paying attention to the road needs to be emphasized here.

Even though he’s not that big of a fan of Autopilot, Alex with E for Electric doesn’t get why Autopilot and pretty much everyone but the driver was blamed. The issue that I really can’t stress enough is that you as a driver should pay attention to your surroundings. Also, Tesla states it very clearly on its website that Autopilot isn’t fully self-driving and that the driver needs to be able to take over at any second. In other words, don’t play video games.

Eli starts with a little bit of background on the crash–it’s a Model X whose owner worked for Apple and who drove it into the median. One thing that the NTSB found was that there was supposed to be a guardrail that should have been there. It was damaged eleven days prior. The damage wasn’t reported by local authorities and that’s why it wasn’t there–it could have prevented Huang’s death.

Tesla, even though the NTSB didn’t like it, released its data and it showed that the driver didn’t have his hands on the wheel for at least 6 minutes. Tesla also showed that the driver had been warned several times to keep his hands on the wheel. The NTSB criticized Tesla for Autopilot “not doing enough” to prevent Huang’s death.

The core theme of the video Eli spoke in is to highlight how absurd it was for the NTSB to blame Tesla especially since Huang was repeatedly warned to put his hands on the wheel and if he had been paying attention, he would have seen that his vehicle was about to steer him into the median.

What I don’t understand is how people can just allow the vehicle to drive them into the objects, whether its a median, a fire truck or another vehicle. Common sense should kick in and you should take over. That’s just my opinion there.

8 months ago, Eli bought his Tesla Model S Raven (Performance) and he had his white seats ceramic coated. He has put it to the ultimate test. The test was that Eli wanted to know if it actually worked and protected the white seats from becoming permanently stained by blue jeans.

For 8 months, Eli didn’t clean his seats. Well, he vacuumed. He opens the door to his Model S to show you just how badly stained the seats are. In fact, the driver’s seat has the most amount of stains. Eli explains that he drives a lot and is often alone when he does.

Next up, Eli mixes up the cleaning solution to clean his seats. He starts adding one ounce of the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine to a gallon of water then adds in another gallon.

Before he cleans the seat, Eli uses blue tape as a divider to show just how effective this solution was on the seats. Then he scrubbed for around 8 minutes. After pulling off the tape to show the differences side-by-side, you can see just how effective ceramic coating is when applied to these white seats. “My seats still look excellent after they have been scrubbed,” Eli says.

From what he could tell, the longer he kept scrubbing, the whiter the seats became. After all, 8 months is a long time.

Ceramic Coating for White Seats

Eli paid a detailer to take care of the ceramic coating for him since he was worried that he could accidentally mess something up. This was a brand new car–his dream car–and if one isn’t sure of how to do something, it is wise to pay a professional to handle it. Eli paid over $500, which sounds expensive, but it’s actually an investment to protect your seats.

Eli shares some products from Amazon for those who want to spend less and do it themselves. These products have been reviewed by Tesla owners. Recommended Ceramic Coating Solution

Eli Burton, the creator of The Adventures of Starman, gives us 2019’s Top 10 Tesla Moments. Tesla has had a pretty swell year in 2019.

From the Chinese Gigafactory rising from the mud pits of nothingness to the unveiling of my future truck, the Cybertruck, it’s been an epic year and a great ending to a decade of what seemed like uncertainty for a bit. Tesla had some struggles, especially in 2018, but those struggles became triumphs. 

10. Software Version 10. On March 6, 2019, Tesla released this update that included Theather Mode which included Youtube, Hulu and Netflix as well as more games–you can only access these while parked which is great for those who are supercharging their cars on road trips. Eli says that this just signals a focus by Tesla on the in-car experience. 

9. V3 Superchargers. V3 Superchargers have a charging rate of up to 200 KW and a peak of 1,000 miles per hour of charge. Typical charging time of V3 will drop to around 15 minutes. This is quicker than my phone charger. Also, there are a few whispers about the Lafayette Superchargers being built are going to be V3, but that hasn’t been confirmed.

8. Plaid Powertrain. The Plaid 3 motor powertrain should be coming to the Model S in mid-2020. A quarter-mile performance is expected to increase as well as track performance.

7. GIGA 3 Shanghai. This is a true story of an underdog. Many in the media said it would never happen, that this was just a Chinese mud field with nothing in it. Yesterday, the first Made-In-China Model 3 was delivered and there was a huge celebration. The Gigifactory in Shanghai is also the fastest factory ever built at its size. 

6. Enhanced Summon. This improved the Summon capability to drive through and across the parking lot autonomously. It’s taken the world by storm and the media decried it as something to be afraid of, but in the end, it’s pretty simple and convenient. Tesla is taking the driving experience to an entire level–as in a completely new plane of existence.

5. Raven Powertrain. The Raven Powertrain increases the range and performance of the Models S and X Long Range. Drivers are allowed to travel farther than before and charge less frequently. In essence, they get more dollars out of every penny spent on charging–if they pay to charge. Many Tesla owners charge at home or work. 

4. Model Y Unveil. Back in March Tesla unveiled the Model Y which looks as if the Model 3 and the Model X had a child that few up fast. It looks like a Model 3 with a hatchback.  The highlight of the event, Eli says, was Elon bringing the history of all of Tesla’s cars. I actually liked that part and Elon’s little dance as well. 

3. $35,000 Model 3. This was announced in Q1 2019 just after Elon said it may not happen. However, Elon wanted to keep that promise so it closed a few of its stores. I think that the reason why Elon was able to keep this promise is due to Tesla making progress in its battery development.  I could be wrong. 

2. Cybertruck Unveiling. Everyone was stunned with this beauty rolled out on to the stage. The moment I laid eyes on it, I fell in love. Unfortunately, I am one of the few people who reacted that way. Many members of the Tesla community were a bit freaked out then later fell in love. I mean, how can you not love this truck? It’s so cool. But I collect pyramids and other cool minerals so I definitely appreciate the creativity in this truck. 

The unveiling was unique as well. There was a hologram of Grimes and the entire stage was really lasered up. Tesla stunned the world with this angular designed truck. Franz breaking the windows is also a moment that will be forever remembered fondly by the internet. Equally just as surprising as the design of the Cybertruck is the starting price at $39,900. Elon followed up the surprise with an all-electric ATV that can plug into the bed of the truck and charge. 

1.  3Q Earnings. I really thought Eli was going to mention the stock price hitting $420 but Q3 Earnings definitely earns this spot because no one, except those of us who believe in Tesla, saw this coming. Many in the media often repeat what short-sellers say about Tesla and fully believe Tesla is a failure. Elon is often mocked in the media and Tesla is touted as a luxury fraud by the uninformed. So when those numbers hit, shockwaves made their way into the bank accounts of those shorting the stock.  Wall Street fully expected Tesla to sustain losses and it didn’t.  \Tesla believes it has grown to a point of being self-funding. 

Eli Burton got to show Alex from E for Electric just how cool Advanced Summon in his Model S P100D is. The video is 15 minutes long and Eli comes in at about 3 minutes into the video after Alex introduces him.

Eli points out just how independent Advanced Summon is.

“We now have very much AI-driven self-driving feature–no person in the car it backs itself out of the parking lot and navigates itself through open spaces without direct lane lines approaching situations that involve turns and it is doing this without a human involved.”

“It is very much a beta feature so when it runs you see it being very cautious moving very slow some of those movements are kind of jerky as it’s assessing those situations. It will come up to a place where it has to make a turn and I’ve watched it wait three or four seconds–there weren’t any cars coming but it was clearly assessing the environment and deciding what to do next”

Advanced Summon is still in Beta which is making parking lots kind of fun. Seeing a car drive itself is kind of like watching someone you love learning something new. It puts that human feeling into the mix and makes Teslas, in my opinion, seems more human than any other type of car.

In the above tweet, Michael Liebow has excellent advice. Once you (and your human-like Tesla) get a feel for Advanced Summon, you’ll feel more confident as this beta version continues to improve. Many people start out driving in parking lots, so it makes sense to train your Tesla in parking lots as well.

Also, the convenience of Tesla’s Advanced Summon will help people when they have a lot of items such as heavy groceries, or if its pouring or any other similar situation.

One of the best perks is safety, as Michael Liebow points out in another tweet below.

Having had to walk through a dark alley a few times in my life (and fend off attackers here and there) I can definitely agree that having a car that drives itself, records everything and lights the way would make me feel safer if I had to cross a dark path to my car.