Consumer Reports isn't giving all-electric cars and climate change a lot of attention

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Honda will be the next automaker to market an all-electric car as Toyota continues to sit on the sidelines. -- HACKENSACK, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports seems to have a blind spot for all-electric cars. The magazine's annual Auto Issue, just out, picks the 10 best new cars for 2017, but all of them use gasoline. For a full report, see: Consumer Reports smells (of gasoline)
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I 'summon' my Tesla out of home garage; Model S outsells big German luxury cars

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Using the Tesla app on my iPhone, I was able to "summon" my Tesla Model S. In other words, I stood outside and the car started and backed itself out of my flooded garage, below.

When I park my Model S in the garage, the driver's door is next to the drain.


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The "Summon" feature is the latest addition to Tesla's autonomous-driving features in the Model S, and I didn't really think I had any use for it.

But when torrential rains lashed my house today, water poured out of the garden and onto the sunken floor in front of the entrance door to our detached garage.

I used the garage-door opener, intending to enter from the driveway, but there were 3 inches to 4 inches of water swirling into the interior drain opposite the driver's door of the car.

That's when I opened my phone's Tesla app, hit the "Summon" button, and watched the car start and back out of the garage into the driveway, until I hit the "Stop" button.

Cool. I climbed into the car without getting my shoes soaked.

By the time I returned 30 minutes later, the rain had stopped and the water had drained out of the garage.

Tesla advises owners to use "Summon" only on private property, but is expected eventually to enable owners to "summon" their cars from far greater distances.

Tesla outsells Germans

Here is a post from the Gas2 blog on Tesla outselling German luxury cars:



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