DIY
Installing a hands-free magnetic cell phone mount on a Tesla
Data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows that there were 12 deadly crashes last year from distracted driving as a result of handheld cellphones. DMV figures also revealed 500 injuries in 2015 and 700 property damage collisions from the same cause.
California Gov. Jerry Brown back in September signed into law Assembly Bill 1785 (also known as AB-1785), which went into effect Jan. 1, 2017. The new law is designed to improve public safety and reduce distracted driving by prohibiting a person from driving a motor vehicle while holding and operating a handheld wireless telephone or a wireless electronic communication device. Bottom line, one cannot hold a cell phone in one’s hand while driving in the State of California.
WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS
As the law states, a windshield mount is one of the available options, but because of its distance from your hand it is not probably the best solution. But if you think this option is for you, a search for “phone windshield mount” on Amazon will return about 400 pages of such devices.
ABSTRACT OCEAN Magnetic Phone Holder
Abstract Ocean, a well known provider of Tesla accessories, has a very inexpensive product that I found – the Magnetic Phone Holder (slimline) – that is a much better alternative to the windshield mount.
The slimline magnetic Car Mount Kit allows secure attachment for any mobile device, with or without a rigid case, to your Model S/X dash. Each kit includes two low-profile disks, one Ball Mount, a magnetic socket, an alcohol prep pad, spare 3M VHB (Very High Bond) sticky pads and installation instructions.
I ordered the kit directly from Abstract Ocean for $22.99. I’d also like to point out that I was not sponsored by Abstract Ocean for this post nor do they even know about it at the time of this writing.
MAGNETIC PHONE HOLDER (SLIMLINE) Open box
INSTALLATION
Installation is pretty straightforward. I installed the disk directly on my Tech 21 iPhone 7 bumper as shown in the picture.
Disk mounted on Tech21 bumper
The ball mount can go anywhere on your Model S or X dash, but the recommended location (the left of the center 17in screen) was obstructed for me, so I positioned it to the right of the center screen, as shown. The whole process did not take more that 10 minutes.
Mount and socket on dashboard
The ball mount allows for a huge degree of adjustment, and one can easily rotate the phone to any angle. Abstract Ocean provides two low-profile disks, so you can swap an iPhone and an iPad mini, for example.
I personally would not recommend to put the disk between the phone and the phone case, as that will result in an assured eventual scratch of the phone surface (like the one on my new Jet Black iPhone 7), an expensive proposition if you eventually wanted to resell your phone.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I’ve been using the Magnetic phone holder for a week now, and I am fairly impressed.
Unlike other similar but cheaper magnetic phone holders available at Amazon, the Abstract Ocean ball mount will not easily detach from the dashboard.
To remove the ball mount, you will actually need sliding some dental floss behind it, that will eventually break the adhesive bond without doing any harm to your dash.
In my experience so far, the 3M VHB (Very High Bond) sticky pads just won’t move at all.
The new law requirements to activate or deactivate a feature or function of the cell phone with the motion of a “single swipe” or “single tap” of the driver’s finger, though limiting, worked for me for a few activities that I may want to do while driving, like checking TSLA stock quotes.
To do that “legally” I can just tap once on the Stocks App, wait, then swipe left or right to check the chart, the daily statistics, and the news headlines. As long as I leave enough wait time between each swipe, I am still following the law.
[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/AB-1785.pdf”]
Back in 2019, YouTuber Simone Giertz, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Sh*tty Robots,” created a one-off Tesla Model 3 build that took the automotive world by storm. Fondly dubbed as “Truckla,” Giertz noted that the vehicle was actually her dream car — as crazy as that may sound.
Now almost four years later, the YouTuber posted an update on Truckla. And just like every other big project that one probably started, Giertz stated that she actually stopped working on Truckla when the vehicle was about 80% complete. The car is driving though, but a lot of stuff was not really working very well.
Thus, for her Truckla update, Giertz shared how most of her Model 3 pickup truck conversion was essentially completed. Truckla got a lot of detailing done, she got a slight lift, and she now has a functional tailgate. One has to admit, Truckla’s tailgate is pretty darn cool.
The “Queen of Sh*tty Robots” also opted to give Truckla a friend in the form of an automatic robot charger. Unlike Tesla’s rather interesting snake charger from years past, Truckla’s charger would come in the form of a rover, thanks to her friends at robotics platform Viam. Giertz aptly named Truckla’s robot charger friend “Chargela,” which is an appropriate name for such an invention.
Also true to form for Giertz, Chargela’s first encounter with Truckla was just a tiny bit awkward. One could say that Chargela may have just been a little bit nervous on his first try without human hands helping him. Most importantly, the system did work, so Giertz would likely keep using Chargela for her Model 3 pickup.
Teslas are very tech-heavy vehicles, so projects like Giertz’s Truckla are always remarkable. The fact that the Model 3 works perfectly fine despite having a good chunk of it cut off and turned into a pickup truck bed is mighty impressive any way one looks at it. Overall, Truckla will always be one of the coolest Tesla DIY projects to date, so any updates about the vehicle are always appreciated.
Truckla’s nearly four-year update can be viewed below.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
A Tesla owner is taking his hobby and love for electric vehicles to new levels by creating what could only be described as one of the coolest EV-related DIY projects to date. The idea for the project is simple: what happens when you cross a supercar with the Cybertruck? You end up with a two-seater CyberRoadster.
Tesla owner David Andreyev, who goes by the username @Cyber_Hooligan_ on Twitter, has spent the last few months creating a Cybertruck-inspired version of the next-generation Roadster made from a salvaged Model 3 Performance. Starting with a Model 3 Performance is an inspired choice, considering that it is Tesla’s first vehicle that has a dedicated Track Mode.
A look at Andreyev’s YouTube channel, which can be accessed here, shows the meticulous build that the Tesla owner has implemented on the project car. What’s particularly cool about the CyberRoadster is the fact that it’s being built with parts that are also from other Tesla vehicles, like its front bumper that came from a new Model S. Recent videos suggest that the project car’s rear bumper will be from a new Model S as well.
The journey is long for Andreyev, so the completion of the CyberRoadster will likely take some more time. Despite this, seeing the Tesla owner’s DIY journey on such an epic build is more than satisfying. And considering that the CyberRoadster is evidently a labor of love from the Tesla owner, the final results would likely be extremely worth it.
There’s a lot of crazy Tesla modifications that have been done as of late. But some, as it is with a lot of things on the internet these days, have become more silly gimmicks than serious automotive projects. Fortunately, car enthusiasts like Andreyev, who just happen to also love electric vehicles, are taking it upon themselves to create one-of-a-kind EVs that would surely capture the attention of anyone on the road.
Check out the latest video in the CyberRoadster’s creation below.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
A Tesla owner has demonstrated a rather novel way to charge his Model 3. In a recent video, Sean Callaghan of the ItsYeBoi YouTube channel opted to use a series of off-the-shelf solar panel sheets onto a towable trailer to create a mobile charging unit for his all-electric sedan.
Callaghan planned to use only the sun and the solar sheets purchased from e-commerce platform Wish to charge his Model 3. The solar panel sheets would collect energy from the sun and transfer it to a control panel. The control panels were connected to batteries that would hold the energy—the batteries connected to an inverter, which would then charge the Tesla Model 3.
The entire assembly would provide the Model 3 with about 800 watts of energy on a completely sunny day. However, Callaghan shot the video when weather was overcast, so the entire solar panel trailer build only managed to provide around 300 watts throughout the YouTube host’s test.
To put this into perspective, a 100 volt home wall outlet provides 1.4 kilowatts of power, or 1,400 watts. Therefore, the 300-watt solar panel assembly built by Callaghan was producing less than 25% of the energy of a typical wall outlet. This is pretty marginal compared to Tesla’s 250-kilowatt V3 Superchargers, which provides 250,000 watts, or about 833 times as much power as the makeshift solar panel build.
However, Callaghan’s goal was not to charge the vehicle quickly. He explained the idea came from a previous video where he used a $5,000 Wish-purchased wind turbine to charge his Model 3. He wanted to test the effectiveness and efficiency of the system, which was questionable due to the time it would take to charge the battery fully.
The Model 3 battery pack is 78 kWh, and with Callaghan’s 300-watt system charging his electric vehicle, it would take 260 hours to supply the Tesla’s battery to full capacity.
In the past, electric vehicle enthusiasts have asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk why the company’s vehicles do not contain solar glass roofing, which would charge the car while the owner is driving. Musk has explained that the efficiency of this idea is challenging and likely would not provide an ample amount of range.
When asked about the idea of putting solar panels on the top of Tesla’s vehicles in 2017, Musk responded that the idea was “Not that helpful, because the actual surface of the car is not that much, and cars are often inside. The least efficient place to put solar is on the car.” It also would not be cost-effective for Tesla because “the cost of the panels and electronics, R&D and assembly would never pay for itself in the life of the vehicle, compared to charging from the wall in your garage,” Quartz noted.
That being said, Tesla plans to implement solar panels onto the motorized tonneau of the upcoming Cybertruck. The idea was discussed on Twitter when Musk stated that the optional feature would add “15 miles per day, possibly more” when parked in the sunlight. Also, fold-out solar wings could help capture enough solar energy for 30 to 40 miles a day.
Watch Sean Callaghan’s video of his makeshift solar panel trailer below.
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