{"id":672939,"date":"2026-07-04T06:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672939\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:01:16","slug":"tim-dowling-our-new-electric-car-has-a-mind-all-of-its-own-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672939\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Dowling: our new electric car has a mind all of its own | Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t say goodbye to your old car when you get a new car \u2013 I mean, I\u2019m presuming they\u2019d let you if you made a fuss, but they make no provision for it. It just gets left there in the car park, awaiting its next owner. They\u2019ve already taken the keys.<\/p>\n

Instead, my wife and I are escorted through a different exit, where our new electric car awaits, still wet in places from a recent wash. The salesperson is\u00a0leaning in the driver\u2019s window, explaining the dashboard display and steering column toggles to me, but I\u2019m not listening. After two long showroom visits, I\u2019ve had enough of car buying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat blue bar there,\u201d he says, \u201cshows the level of regenerative braking at any given \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, thanks, bye,\u201d I say, pulling away and out through the gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what any of this means,\u201d I say to my wife, waving at the screen and the dashboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to sit with the manual for a bit,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait, am I going left here?\u201d I say. \u201cHow do I indicate? Shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markAs my wife negotiates a narrow country lane, the car pings and a yellow warning light appears. \u2018Danger,\u2019 I say, paraphrasing the manual<\/p>\n

When we get home my wife takes the middle one for a drive through the neighbourhood, and then spends an hour sitting in the car trying to figure out how to draw in the wing mirrors manually, while the car is moving, rather than automatically, once the car is off.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fit in the drive,\u201d she says. \u201cThere must be a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

We had a hard deadline for buying a\u00a0car \u2013 the old car\u2019s approaching MOT. But meeting that deadline also meant taking possession of the new car a day before we were scheduled to make a\u00a0long car journey. Our learning curve was destined to be steep, but my wife did considerably more homework than I did.<\/p>\n

Shortly after we set off, my wife encourages me to download the car\u2019s app, as she has done, to secure a more meaningful connection between vehicle and phone. It becomes clear this is something the car won\u2019t let you do while moving, even if you press a\u00a0button assuring it that you are a passenger. Finally, the screen freezes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s it,\u201d I say. \u201cCut off, without information, lost and adrift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on the M3,\u201d my wife says. \u201cThe map is still on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even change the radio station now,\u201d I say. \u201cI miss our old car.\u201d<\/p>\n

I consult the manual. Eventually I\u00a0find what I\u2019m looking for: pressing the power button for 10 seconds resets the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSystems restored,\u201d I say. \u201cShould we be in eco mode?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is eco mode?\u201d my wife says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one of the modes,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, car!\u201d my wife shouts. \u201cWhat is eco mode?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGot it,\u201d the car says. \u201cSwitching to eco mode now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening?\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I just wanted to know what it meant!\u201d my wife yells.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t understand,\u201d the\u00a0car says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you make it change the radio?\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

Our destination is near the extent of the car\u2019s range, but we make it with about 30 miles to spare. A few days later we set off for home fully charged.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow we know we can do it in one go,\u201d my wife says, \u201cyou should find it less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d I say. Speaking for myself, I don\u2019t yet know whether range anxiety is a beginner\u2019s ailment or a permanent condition.<\/p>\n

As my wife negotiates a narrow country lane, the car pings and a\u00a0yellow warning light appears.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanger,\u201d I say, paraphrasing the manual. \u201cRisk of damage, injury, death, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

My wife touches the screen, selecting Car Status, and then the warning light update, which says \u201cno\u00a0information available\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a secret?\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she says. \u201cDo I\u00a0carry\u00a0on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat choice do we have?\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

A hundred miles on and I am driving, watching the battery tick steadily downward, teeth lightly clenched.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what I think happened,\u201d I\u00a0say. \u201cThe car entered a signal blackspot, and couldn\u2019t operate its dynamic road sign assist function.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what that is,\u201d my wife\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is the same reason the car status screen had no information,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve moved on,\u201d she says. \u201cYou should too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also the same reason the warning light disappeared as soon as we left that lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

The car pings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a diversion,\u201d my wife says. \u201cYou need to get off up ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA diversion?\u201d I say. \u201cHow many extra miles?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she says, zooming out on the map. \u201cFifteen? Twenty?\u201d<\/p>\n

As I move into the left lane, a little yellow light goes off in my head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t say goodbye to your old car when you get a new car \u2013 I mean, I\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-672939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}