Former firefighter here... that ability to cut off the airbags is crucial. It’s safe to turn off the airbags in a car before performing extrications (done by fire personnel). Traditionally this is done by disconnecting the car battery and waiting a min or two for the airbags to disable. Since the Tesla has a battery always connected, it requires this switch. If the airbag goes off while extricating, it could severely injure the firefighter or trapped person.
The sound mimics the traditional sounds given off by car alarms/keyless entry systems. One beep = Lock Two beeps = Unlock Not sure why it was hard for him to connect the principles.
@@TheGhostTrollekdejvu attempting to open the door normally unlocks it automatically in cars with an electric lock so you'd have to try and open it from the outside handle to find out
The door locks are very intuitive. "Lock," one syllable, = 1 beep. "Unlock," two syllables = 2 beeps. It's done in such a way that you intuitively know which is which...
Lotus elise's are TINY in person. I saw one and couldn't believe how small it was. You really need to be a skinny person to fit in that car. the seats are literally bolted to the floorpan of the car.. no raised brakets of any kind at all. it's tight af.. smaller than a miata if you can believe it. - With THAT said.. they're incredibly light because they're so small.. so it doesn't take much power to make those cars FLY
I never thought these were rare when these came out. I was stationed at a military base and there was two red ones. Owned by contractors by Boeing or something. When I learned they were rare it showed me how well connected guys doing that work are
In the Netherlands you would also occasionally see them. Because our vehicle taxing system used to be extremely friendly towards electric cars many of those early electric cars became relatively common here (Fisker Karma for example).
These were built a few miles from me so I remember seeing them fairly often when they first came out. It being electric but not a little service vehicle golf cart was the novel part, style-wise it was basically a Lotus so not really a head-turner compared to Ferraris, Lambos or other exotics. Would be nice to know how much a battery replacement and other maintenance costs, that'll affect the future resale value a lot since pretty much only Tesla can do it.
The door lock noise is actually pretty intuitive. One beeper for lock, which is a one-syllable word; two for unlock, which is a two-syllable word. When you press the button just think of the car saying "lock" or "unlock".
Every Tesla since has used the same but with a different chime, it's more of a 'ding' now instead of a 'beep'. :) If you have any Tesla, as you pull on the door handle and the car unlocks from your phone/fob you'll hear the "beep beep" from inside the car.
The tachometer comment is confusing. The motor spins, the speed of the motor spinning can be represented in RPM. What you're looking at is simply the rotational speed of the motor represented in RPM. I get that it's not very useful because there aren't multiple gears, but that doesn't mean that the tach is showing you some sort of nonsense numbers.
I like Doug's videos but he often says this dumb stuff and laughs at that meanwhile people with half brain laugh at him. This is probably the dumbest thing he said so far "13 what?" when it is literally written on it. Oh Doug...
Hey Doug, the emergency airbag disable is for first responders. To prevent the airbags from accidentally deploying and injuring/killing a firefighter or patient while removing them from the car in an accident
5:00 Just a reminder, the FTC says that warranty void stickers are illegal and have NEVER been allowed, so if you are a consumer and you break one and a company says sorry your warranty is void, report it to the FTC, they have recently switched from a wait for many people to report and then sue in civil court to proactive policing policy, so now more than ever there is a chance they will act.
I think the airbag cutoff switch is for the fire service to ensure they don't deploy accidentally while trying to extract a victim following an accident.
It is also good for the racetrack. If you have a 5 point and a helmet, the airbag deploying just becomes an expense feature of any little shunts and bumps you may experience.
@@ivanpuskaric6851 so because of a simple mistake you stopped watching an otherwise informative video?? Do you also cry when your peas touch your mashed potatoes??
I remember when this was launched, I was like "meh, an electric ripoff of the Elise, this will never work" and here I am 13 years later looking at Tesla sedans on everyday streets. Times do change.
This was the first production electric car to use Lithium Ion batteries. Can you imagine what it would have been like using Lead Acid? The performance and handling would have been comparable to a milk float.
Only two cars have gone to space: a Tesla Roadster, and the moon rover. You can't buy a moon rover, the closest you can get is a replica, and they are well north of 100k. I'd say that alone should make them quite pricey. I'm pretty sure roadsters are going to be a worth a fortune in the future.
He probably said that since this is based on the Elise, and the Astra generation that shared stalks with was never sold in the US (the Mk V was, but I think that has different ones)
12:33 "It shows RPM's, but there are no RPM's. There's no engine to turn". Oh gosh, I completely forgot that electric motors don't rotate at all. *Surprised Pikachu Face*.
Not since manual transmissions lost favor with drivers has a tachometer been needed. An electric motor may spin, but the driver does not need to know when to shift. The tachometer's only purpose is to show the driver when to shift and most drivers know when to shift without having to watch the tachometer. In other words, a tachometer in an electric car is just a waste of space.
@@protoborg ok? And my automatic civic has a tach on it. Do I need it for anything? Absolutely not. But it's still showing what the engine is doing. Doug couldn't even understand that an electric motor has RPM.
"There is no motor to turn on" "It's strange to see a tachometer because there's no engine to turn" Doug, this might come as a surprise you you, but an electric vehicle has one or several motors with a shaft that effectively turns, yeah, I know 🤯
Just for reference, while the tachometer is pretty useless for shifting when the car in essence has no transmission, electric motors do still spin, just like internal combustion engines. So the tachometer does still show RPM's, just for the electric motor instead; which is why the faster you go, the higher the gauge reads.
That car was pre Elon Musk. The engineers were designing that car at their location in San Carlos CA. They had two buildings on Bing Street. I used to service their air conditioning. I saw the raw mock-up roadster sitting in the back of the warehouse.
@@danielhalnan It is a fact, I was working in the building where the car was being developed, on Bing Street in San Carlos CA. Elon Musk was never evolved.
@@danielhalnan Elon Musk had little to do with the early days of Tesla. He was basically the guy that came in with a lot of money and took over what little plans were already there, and brought them to the next level. The early days of planning and building Tesla had nothing to do with Musk.
@@ScottXC91 You are so wrong. I suggest reading Elon's biography. Without him, the Roadster (and the whole company) wouldn't exist today. He was HEAVILY involved in the design and manufacturing process of the Roadster.
A good friend of mine had a roadster signature edition and its crazy how different the interior was, most notably there was no "shifter", just buttons. sadly he sold it, but hes still repping tesla with a model S and his wife drives a model X. that roadster got me many a speeding ticket every time he would let me take her for a spin! great review
Though it might seem pretty universally understandable, I own a Nissan Leaf and somehow it's actually the other way around. Whenever I press the button on the door handle, it beeps once to mean unlocked, and twice to mean locked.
As a huge Lotus fan, I quickly became a Tesla fan when this arrived. I almost sold my soul to a marketing company to get one. Luckily, I still have my soul
@@hazardeur yup they are now, lotus is lightweight fun with only the essentials for driving where as the teslas are overweight overly complicated cars for non car enthusiasts
Anyone verify or elaborate? This explanation makes 0 sense. Why would emergency responders wanna disable your airbags? If they didn't deploy when you crashed, why would they just suddenly deploy?
@@terenceting26 every car has a SRS disable feature. My Alpha 156 has a key slot in the side of the dash that turns of the passenger air bag. This is to protect children in car seats or boosters in the front seat.
@@terenceting26 When responders use hydraulic cutting equipment to free the driver from entrapment by collision, the tool will cut through wiring in the pillars or sills (where ever they need to cut). The shorting of these wires can cause an unintended deployment during rescue operations.
I've got a an Elise S3 and it contains the exact same blinker and headlight stalks as in this tesla roadster (in fact the whole dashboard and steering wheel is identical, except for the little LCD screen battery monitor device), not sure whether lotus got the stalks from Opel though, you could be right...
any frameless car door does that when the windows are rolled down. Well maybe not in the dealership, but give it 1 year use and then turns like this forever.
I think it is worth mentioning and to remind that one of these is actually in space circling around earth playing Space Oddity by David Bowie. Edit. Song is playing on the stereos I believe. They didnt launch Bowie with it.
@@yungboicontigo9278 Well, then you can say its irrelevant to say "its the first Tesla" and assume that has some impact on its value. In my opinion both are part of that car's history and make it more special. This car is not the first tesla nor the one in space but its the same model. So I think its as relevant as any quirk it got. Even more do. Its crazy that a car is in space! And its a Tesla roadster.
@@yungboicontigo9278 I think it puts the cool factor up a notch? Come on, its not irrelevant that loads of people recognise it as the road car that was launched into space? I'm perplexed as to why Doug didn't mention this!
Pretty sure the tesla roadster sent into space is the new version that was suppose to be released in 2020. No Lotus connection. Plus that car was sent towards Mars and is now somewhere around the Astroid belt.
@Leftist Remover It would be if it weren't for it having a historical origin pre-dating the heavy goods vehicle, meanwhile you're calling it a semi as an abbreviation of semi-rigid, because flexible is too complicated or something.
When I was in college the local power company was bringing this around to recruiting events at the engineering department. That thing was definitely a fun ride!
I used to work at the Tesla delivery center in Scottsdale and they had a few roadsters lying around. I freaked tf out every shift when I got to see them. SO small!
The Tesla Roadster was supposed to get a 2-speed transmission. But when the torque from the electric motor smashed them, what we got was a single speed transmission.
Yeah but electric engines can give the same amount of torque in every rpm ranges so you dont need gears to increase torque as you speed up, you just speed up by increasing rpm, which is a situation basically makes your speedometer have the same purpose as a tachometer
@@arda7527 torque x rpm equals horsepower. Electric motors make more power at higher RPMs which is good, that's where you need it. Doug is very wrong in his assumptions here.
Looks like the battery supports 150 miles and he said that originally the estimate was 250 and 60% capacity seems reasonable for 10 years of early battery technology
@@MrStebaan My 6 year old B&D trimmer has the same capacity as the day I bought it (based off run time). So, no, 60% is not reasonable. Very unreasonable. Also, my trimmer doesn't software lock me when I work on it.
@@MrStebaan Not only that but Tesla started offering a $29k battery upgrade to up the range to 300+ miles; that would over double this range: electrek.co/2016/07/08/tesla-roadster-3-0-battery-upgrade-r80/
First time I went to LA my uncle rented one for us to drive around in. It's so fucking quick. If the next gen ever comes out I can only imagine how insane it will be.
This is a piece of living history. Whoever buys it would be smart to garage it, give it regular maintenance and keep it as close to cherry as possible.
yea but they would be my hero if they destroyed it. this car is the cause of the disappearance of the ICE engine and thats the wost thing to ever happen to automobiles.
I drove one of these when they first came out. I was doing a training in Denver and the owner had just purchased it as it was a demo car. He told me to floor it and it just hooked and took off, was always impressed with the acceleration on it. Very cool car and no one had a clue what Tesla was back then!
A friend of mine was IT Trainee and he and his boss were in US. His Boss saw the Roadster and joked "Do you want this car as a company car?" and he said "yes".. back in germany he got all hyped up as he kept the joking going. After calculating he got the Opel Ampera (Chevy Volt) of that time. But he also managed to contact a guy in our area that had an Tesla Roadster and we were allowed to drive that car. This war really an once in a lifetime moment. In Europe this car is like an unicorn. So thats my first touch with tesla as a brand.
the emergency air bag shut off is for when servicing the airbags or possibly battery . it's a battery operated vehicle so to disconnect the airbags one would have to disconnect the battery to avoid deployment as you would ina gas powered vehicle. i'm guessing this is a precautionary feature. guessing
@David Moore actually the first cybertrucks will be delivered end of this year! The single motor truck will be 2nd half to end of 2022. The dual motor is end of this year or Q1 2022, and same for the tri motor
@David Moore Tesla is fast at building things and I’m sure the factory will be finished by the end of the year. They’re actually putting in the production lines in now, but considering this is a completely new kind of vehicle, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was delayed for months. Then again, it’ll be their 7th vehicle model produced (pretty crazy tbh) so maybe they’ll pull it off. Ahead of it this year they’ll finally begin production of the Semi in Nevada, but we’ll hear concrete details about that next week.
@David Moore Yep for almost 2 years now. In the meantime, this video shows the factory going up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NZx_idaLPQI.html
This car is way ahead of its time with styling and technology, it honestly could pass as a car that was brand new, with a few exceptions, and most people wouldn’t even notice.
I don't get the joke, what does the WW 2 trials, bless you and Doug have In common? Are you saying Doug is a Nazi sympathizer? Doug hates the Jews? I need the joke explained
No, not exactly. Yes, he is taller than the cars because of the reason you outlined, but the Roadster is actually shorter than a lot of those exotic cars.
@@JungleScene Some numbers for you: Tesla Roadster: 3’6” LaFerrari: 3’8” Ferrari Enzo: 3’9” Ferrari 458: 4’ Ferrari F40: 3’8” Lamborghini Huracán: 3’10” Lamborghini Sián FKP 37: 3’9” Lotus Elise: 3’9” So, while yes, Doug still towers over them, the Roadster is considerably shorter than those types of cars
Doug, I know this is two years ago and I watch all your videos. Everything you do is great, except one thing that bothers me and maybe many others, IMO. That one thing is how you close hoods, trunk lids, and doors. It isn't necessary to let things drop hard or slam, to close,. My '75 124 Sport Coupe and '85 944 hoods are lowered by hand to 4-5 inches before dropping. I believe slamming ruins the structure over time. Just an observation. I totally like everything you do, your personality, and the way you present to us great and not so great cars. Peace and thanks.
Sure, but how useful is it for driving when a single gear just mimics the movement of the speedometer? You don't see rpm's in newer Teslas because there's no point, your speed and revs are directly related. Low rpm = low speed, high rpm = high speed, where conventional ICE cars can have high rpm at low speeds and low rpm at high speeds as you shift through the gears.
@@jacobfoster6773 I'm just saying that warranty stickers don't mean anything and you can just freely work on your devices and still be covered under warranty
Drove a 2008 last year. A buddy had it for a while and planned on keeping it for a long time. He wrecked it two weeks after I drove it. Still hassles getting insurance to pay. I suspect they are certainly lowballing him to total it.
I have my Tesla roadster for 3 years now. I have the 2 speed transmission and the 1 speed transmission. The original owner was given his original transmission back. I am the 3rd owner and its a fun zippy convertible car around town. I did modify the car with newer modern suspension for a smoother ride and different lighter wheels.
SRS disable is an awesome afterthought for firefighters, as cutting the battery cables is mandatory on every other car to prevent injury while cutting someone out of their vehicle. Since there's no easy way to completely cut power from this, that's pretty awesome
The Model S really needs a Doug Score. Not sure if you want to wait for the refresh or doing a pre-refresh review first. But, I'd love to see a review and see how it stacks up against other EVs.
Emergency SRS disable is for firefighters. It's activated so they don't accidentally deploy the airbag when cutting through a car. The reason other cars don't have a airbag switch is firefighters would just cut the cables to the battery instead. With electric cars you can't easily cut the cable to a battery, so they have that switch instead.
From some connections I had the use of one of these for a few days in 2019. It changed my life. After 30+ years of driving BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, and VW (many quite expensive performance models) I recently picked up a 2021 TESLA M3LR AWD. Welcome to the future. Get the Performance Boost. I’ve driven 4,500 mi in a month and it’s more fun than any BMW I’ve had including driving 168mph on the Autobahn in a M6. Considering performance, tech, and not paying for gas it’s the biggest car bargain ever.
Quick note, that "warranty void if removed" sticker is actually illegal. The Moss Warranty act prohibits corporations from pulling that BS. Sadly, this was the begining of the truly anti repair design of vehicles.
Sadly Tesla has since doubled down on the sentiment and is currently the single most anti-repair car company in the world. Sure they don't use that sticker anymore, but they refuse to sell parts, and won't let anyone else access the software that's needed for a large portion of repairs. If they find you did repair it without them somehow, they block all fast charging (including through chargers that are not part of their supercharger network)
@@Green__one exactly! THe cybertruck is scary because if you get in any sort of wreck then the entire vehicles internal structure is comprimized. And looking at tesla service for wrecked vehicles, I have no hope
the tac works just like in a normal car, it measures rpm. in a gas engine you need to know this information but in an ev its not necessary, but it still does the same thing as in a gas car, measure motor speed.
I believe the window switches are Opel/Vauxhall. The turn signals are definitely 1990s Opel (from the Astra). Lotus was part of the GM empire during the 90s
It ended up almost tanking the company: they had to do some re-engineering to each chassis and the supply chain was a mess; parts would have to be shipped back-and-forth around the world multiple times. Tesla genuinely made a loss on each car in the first year (something that's often erroneously said about their later models, but it's true of the launch Roadster and you can see it in the financials). The situation resulted in the original founders leaving, and Musk poring his entire liquidity into the company to keep it afloat. They were hours from bankruptcy at one point. They'd have had an easier time with a larger car that could more easily take the battery pack: if the Evora had been a thing in the mid-2000s its platform could have worked better. As it is, it's really the car that taught Tesla to keep things in-house as much as possible. They did a complete 180° on the Model S: the Roadster is visibly a collection of other manufacturers' parts, whereas the only obviously non-bespoke parts of the Model S are some Mercedes switchgear.
@@nickporter4279 Appreciate the input, although I was purely talking from an aesthetic point of view. Always had a soft spot for the Elise in racing games all the way back to Hot Pursuit.
From an aesthetic point of view I agree. Also knowing that EV are going to to be heavy until battery tech advances using the super light bonded aluminium chassis was a good idea
Elon Musk has since said that modifying the lotus to suit their needs ended up being a mistake since it required so much modification. I think it's interesting that Tesla went through those pains rather than compromise the design principles they were using.
SRS Emergency disable: on most vehicles, when you crash first responders disconnect the 12v battery to disable any airbags that haven't yet gone off so as to be able to work safely. In the original roadster, there was no 12v battery, there was only the high voltage battery with a constantly running DC-DC converter. as a result, this emergency disable switch was put in for first responders to be able to disable the airbags without disconnecting a several hundred volt cable. The noise from the battery "No modern electric vehicle does this", my 2014 model S does... gear selector: The original roadsters had the 2 speed transmission, the later ones did not as it was found that it provided no benefit, but was a big point of failure with the extremely high torques electric motors put out. Pro tip, any time you hear a company talking about making a multi-speed transmission in an EV, it's proof that they don't have the faintest clue how EVs work, and should be avoided at all costs.
