After considerable delays in production, it appears the Tesla Model 3, the “affordable” electric vehicle (starting price is $35,000), is off to a rather rocky start.

Over at Slate.com, Will Oremus outlines some of the problems critics, including Consumer Reports, have found in the vehicle:

Tesla’s Model 3 fails to get Consumer Reports recommendation, may not be perfect, affordable electric car after all

I know I’m about to step all over the article here, but the gist of the Consumer Reports negative findings for the most part involve the car’s braking distance from a speed of 60 mph.  The car’s braking, to be blunt, is inconsistent and tends to require more distance than most cars of its size.

They found other problems, such as difficulty in using the vehicle’s central screen, which makes the driver too often look away from the road to work on the various do-dadds the screen covers, which is most everything.  Finally, they stated the car was noisy when driving along the highway.

Interesting.

The author further notes that though Consumer Reports could not recommend the vehicle, they did give it generally good reviews for all other elements.

Here’s the thing: I’m not all that surprised.

This is the first Model 3 released.  Like computers, like cell phones, like laptops, one should always be leery of the first generation of any technological release.

As much as my mouth waters at the prospect of getting a Tesla vehicle -or look forward to the day when all vehicles eschew the combustion engine- I kinda/sorta knew there would be bumps in the road.

Don’t get me wrong: the inconsistent braking in the Model 3 is worrisome.  In fact, I’d say it’s very worrisome.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if a car’s braking is inconsistent, there is a certainly a danger one might slam into someone/something due to the fact that one cannot figure out the distance involved in safe braking.

Having said that, this is a correctable problem, one that the author notes may be resolved through software updates.  It would not shock me at all if Tesla does resolve this issue rather quickly.

But, again: As more and more models are made and provided to the public, improvements will be made.

I may not get the first generation affordable electric vehicle, but perhaps in a few years we’ll have a better one.

The Tesla Model 3, their least expensive/most affordable electric vehicle, has hit the streets!  Well, 30 of them, anyway.

For those who haven’t seen them, they look like this:

The fact that 30 vehicles have been released may not sound like much but Elon Musk, the CEO of the company, boldly predicts we’ll be getting much more of the vehicles in the coming months.

He better hope this will be the case because, according to this article by Seth Fiegerman and presented on CNN…

Tesla now averaging more than 1800 Model 3 reservations a day

Its easy to be cynical and knock the limp numbers (so far) of Model 3’s available but, according to the article, Mr. Musk anticipates 1500 more vehicles produced in the third quarter (which we’re in) and, following this, 10,000 vehicles per week through the end of the year and into the next.

Which still means that if you’re pre-ordering the car, it will take a while to get your hands on it.  There are reportedly 450,000 pre-orders and, with the new orders coming in and assuming you decide to pre-order yours, you’ve got to wait through to the 4th quarter and, further assuming the 10,000 vehicles per week thing winds up being right, you’ll have to wait another 44 or so weeks before getting your own Model 3.

What’s most encouraging about all this is that there sure seems to be a big demand for these vehicles.

As I’ve said before, I’m happy with anything that’ll get us off combustion engines.

Before we get to them (self-driving cars, that is), we’re seeing great strides in electric car production, with the Tesla Model 3 looking particularly impressive.

The article linked to below offers a rundown of features for the car, most impressive of which is its range (said to be around 250 miles per charge, which is equivalent to most gas powered vehicles) and a list price of $35,000, very reasonable given the new tech:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/tesla-model-3-performance-specs-news-rumors/

Oh, and it does have some self-driving features, too…