'Consumer Reports': New Tesla has 'underwater mode'
For a car known for its "insane mode," it's only natural that it would have an "underwater mode."
Now that it has worked out the kinks, Consumer Reports magazine is putting its new $127,000 Tesla electric performance sedan through its paces and making some amazing discoveries.
The magazine went out and bought a new top-of-the-line P85D, one of the fastest sedans on the planet. It even has an "insane mode" for added performance.
But it's the nuances that attracted Consumer Reports editors. They have listed10 cool things that the Tesla does and most other cars don't. For instance, you can open the sunroof from a button on the steering wheel. There's no push button or key to start the car. The car comes to life automatically when you sit in the driver's seat.
The Tesla also delights with a feature that appears on its center screen and in its instrument panel. There, the driver sees images that show what's going with the car. If you open a door, the image shows a car with an open door. If the lights are turned on, the image of the car is seen with its lights activated.
If you press on the Tesla "T" symbol, Consumer Reports says you can enter a service technician's code. And here's where it gets silly: If you put in 007, the screen image turns into the sports car that turned into a submarine -- the Lotus Esprit that Roger Moore, as Jame Bond, drove off a dock to escape an attacking helicopter in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Hence, underwater mode.
Makes sense. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has had a long fascination with the submarine car. He bought the movie prop for $989,000 at an auction.
"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater," says Musk in an email response to a query from USA TODAY. "I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."