Hi and thank you for renting my Deep Blue Metallic Long Range All-Wheel Drive Tesla Model 3! I am excited to get you driving the latest and greatest in electric-vehicle technology! You’re going to have a wonderful time!

Normally, I have a walkthrough/schpiel, and test drive to demonstrate cool functionality that I give at the start of every rental to go through the features of my car but it is a bit more challenging amongst COVID.

To make guests more comfortable when renting my vehicle on Turo, I made this Rental Guide with explanations / heads ups / links to videos / etc to help you get the best out of your trip!

Things to do before you arrive to pick up ‘Cobalt’ my Tesla Model 3:

  1. Double check your Turo insurance policy, you will need Minimum or Standard Protection during your trip to rent my vehicle. You will not be able to Decline Coverage and drive this vehicle. (This will be verified at check-in)
  2. Setup a Tesla Account so you can use the phone-as-a-key functionality during your trip!
    1. To do this, you’ll want to go here: http://tesla.com/teslaaccount
    2. Click “Create Account.”
    3. Once completed, message me (through the Turo app) the email you used to create your Tesla Account and I will add it to my car upon pickup so you can use your phone as a key to lock / unlock / control the vehicle in many other ways I will describe more below.
    4. Download the Tesla app to your compatible iPhone or Android device.
      1. Click here to download it on your iPhone.
      2. And here for Android
    5. Log in to the Tesla App with the email / password you used to make the account. There, you will find a few helpful video guides to learn basic functionality about Teslas.
    6. You can also view the video guides on this page here as well as via the Touchscreen in the car, which I can show you upon check-in.
      1. These videos are super helpful to watch with those that will drive the car during your Turo trip! I would suggest taking 15-30 minutes or so to review them before your trip begins to become comfortable with the functionality of Autopilot and a few other things that make Teslas unique.

Things we’ll do when you arrive: 

  1. Complete the check out process in the Turo app by taking photos to document the condition of the car.
    1. You must take at least these 10 photos of the car at checkout, fitting the whole car in the frame/not cutting it off on the sides. You can upload as many as 20.
      • Left side
      • Front
      • Right
      • Rear
      • Battery level
      • Drivers seat
      • Passenger seat
      • Charge Cable in the rear trunk
      • Front trunk
      • Odometer/Mileage (tap the T at the top center of the screen)
    2. I will go over wear and tear spots with you that I am aware of (such as rock chips on the hood / any curb rash on wheels / etc) that I did so there are no confusions upon the return of the car if there are new spots / items to review.
  2. I will ask to see and verify the drivers licenses are current / valid for each of the named drivers for the trip that are present.
    1. Not all drivers have to be present at pickup / delivery, only the primary, but secondary drivers cannot pickup or return the car.

Things you will want to do when you arrive / before you start driving:

I will have created a Driver Profile for you with your name! At the top of the screen, you can tap on it and adjust the following settings, tapping “Save” afterward to save the changes to your driver profile. You can also tap “Restore” if you are unhappy with the changes made and want to re-adjust.

  1. Seat Position (sliders are down and to the left / right of the seat depending on Driver / Passenger seat respectively)
  2. Mirror Position 
    1. (quickly press and release the steering wheel right scroll wheel and say: “Adjust left side mirror”  
    2. You use the left scroll wheel to adjust positioning up/down (scrolling) and right/left (clicking)
    3. Repeat for “Adjust right side mirror”

Other reminders/things to note:

  1. Dashcam: (icon pictured to the right) Teslas come with an integrated dashcam. If at anytime an accident or other damage incident occurs, honk the horn to save the dash cam footage. Tapping the on-screen dash cam icon will also save the last 10 minutes of video footage from the exterior cameras of the vehicle. (Hopefully these things never occur, but if they do: always save footage in the event of an accident, hit and run, etc)
    1. Once tapped, the icon will save and then display a green check mark to indicate it saved the footage.
  2. Sentry Mode: When away from the Tesla during the entirety of your Turo trip, a feature called “Sentry Mode” is active and must remain enabled for the safety of the vehicle. (icon pictured to the right)
    1. This feature has caught countless thieves across the US / people who have keyed cars / hit and runs. If you do a Google News search for Sentry Mode you will find countless news stories where Sentry Mode has help capture thieves, people who have keyed their / other cars, etc.
    2. Here is information from Tesla about the feature if you’d like to read more: https://www.tesla.com/blog/sentry-mode-guarding-your-tesla
    3. Super helpful feature and must remain enabled for the entire duration of the Turo trip. If it is found to be disabled, it will be remotely enabled.
    4. If for some reason you find it disabled, please turn it back on by tapping the Sentry Mode icon. (red circle inside of the Sentry Mode icon means enabled)
    5. Assuming no incidents or damage observed upon vehicle return, I wipe both the Dashcam and Sentry Mode footage at the end of every trip.
  3. Always keep your phone(s) and Keycard with you in your wallet when you leave the vehicle. The vehicle will not lock if your authenticated phone(s) are left inside and will allow anyone to drive the vehicle away.

The do nots:

  1. No smoking in or right before getting in the vehicle. If you need to smoke, do it after you get out and will be away from the vehicle. Period. (No cigarettes, no marijuana, no vapes, none)
    1. If the car smells of smoking / vaping after the rental, you will be charged for cleaning.
  2. No transporting hazardous goods (gasoline / fireworks / etc)
  3. Do not speed excessively. They are fast cars, and 0-60 or 70 on the highway is fun, but please do so responsibly.
    1. If you are found to be traveling in excess of 90 miles per hour, Speed Limit mode will be enabled which limits the acceleration of the car and the speed to 75 mph, for the remainder of your trip.
  4. Food and drink are fine, just please be careful/courteous.
  5. Do not be late to return. If you are even 1 second late to your appointment and get in a wreck 1 minute after 10:00 PM on September 10th – insurance **will not cover your trip.**
    1. Please be on time, or plan to be 15 minutes early.
    2.  If you are going to be late, extend your trip time within the app by 30 minutes just to be safe.

Charging:

The best time to charge is when you are sleeping! You can use almost any regular household outlet to charge the vehicle. I include the adapter in the Charge Kit in the Trunk necessary to plug into these types of outlets:

Included chargers: Tesla Mobile Connector

Included adapters: J-1772 public adapter, NEMA: 5-15 (regular wall outlet, like a toaster outlet)

  1. Public Charging
    1. PlugShare is a great app for finding publicly available chargers during your Turo trip. It displays costs (many are free) and you can filter by charging.
    2. Here is a link to download on iPhone
      1. And for Android
  1. Supercharging/Road Trips
    1. Supercharging is NOT free during your trip. Try to prioritize public (J1772) / home / wall outlet charging where possible.
    2. Supercharging will be paid for after the trip is over, invoices will be provided after checkout and reimbursements will be requested within 12 hours of check out.
    3. Plug in a long-distance destination on the Touchscreen and go! Supercharging will take you there. The Touchscreen will also help you figure out how much charge you will have if you go somewhere and return to the same location, by scrolling to the bottom of the driving directions once you plug in a destination.
    4. A free app I recommend to use is A Better Route Planner. (iPhone / Android)
      1. This app will help you figure out charging stops and how much you will need if you go to multiple destinations.
    5. Just a tip for supercharging: If you’re worried about your arrival percentage, just wait an additional 5 minutes and get a bit more juice. They charge so quickly, the peace of mind to not be constantly checking the Energy graph during a trip will be well worth it.
  2. In-Car Energy App
    1. Tap the Up arrow Icon (two over from the car) the lower left of the screen and then “Energy” (when a destination is input or trip is in progress) you can visualize your energy usage / remaining range.

Other than these tips, I think that’s it!

After your rental, if and when you decide to purchase a Tesla and if you thought I have been helpful to your purchase experience😃 I have a referral link/code you can use to earn us both 1,000 miles of free supercharging.

http://ts.la/trevor88585 is that link or “trevor88585” is the code if you decide to order in-store at a tesla Store/Gallery.

Feel free to bookmark this link and as long as you order through this link/give them this code in-store, you and I both will get some free supercharging kickback! 

Leave your email below to keep up-to-date with the latest in spaceflight! (A few emails a month, max.)