In the early days of Flux, I often sent a link to our tech stack to candidates. In my mind, a big draw of working at a startup is the freedom to assemble a tech stack from the beginning, experiment with it, and learn from the experiences. Now is my time to say goodbye to the stack and write some thoughts.
Background: Flux is an HR Tech startup with six engineers for the first three years, acquired by Beamery in 2021, and grew to 16 engineers in 2022. The product consists of a web application and a recommender system (matching engine).
魁北克的旧城相比蒙特利尔来说要更有趣一点,河边沿着山崖分成高低两层,中心有一座著名的古堡改建的大酒店Fairmont Le Château Frontenac很气派。酒店里面像极了去年在班夫逛了一下的那个大酒店,周边修剪整齐的园艺,气派的城堡塔尖,餐馆酒吧购物一应俱全,几乎可以算是个小购物中心。魁北克/加拿大的特产除了常见的枫糖冰酒,还有皮毛制品和各种因纽特人的手工制品,比较原生态。
我们在魁北克旧城逛到下午两三点离开的时候有点惊讶于游客的密度,已经和纽约SOHO这种地方节假日的情况不相上下了。我觉得可能是因为景点很集中所以全城的游客都在这一带转悠。之后我又去了个博物馆Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec人就稀少了很多,大部分展馆里都只有个位数的游客。有个Alexander McQueen的特展,还有很多本地艺术家的奇异作品。有一个馆是因纽特人的各种工艺品,有一些是雕在鲸鱼骨,海豹牙,还有独角鲸的角上的,有点开眼界。
我对加拿大这个“峡湾”的景色其实是有点失望的,跟挪威差别太远,两边的山势完全不够瞧,也就是一个正常河景,得脑补下面是海水这个事实来意会。这个镇还是挺nice的,我们去了一个很随机的景点Musee de la Petite Maison Blanche,是旧木浆厂改建的博物馆。里面的内容出乎意料的丰富,除了各种当年的设备和历史之外,还有一个很大的当地著名艺术家Arthur Villeneuve的展。这个人很有意思,40岁开始画画自己走出一条野路子,画的东西很有风格,有点小孩涂鸦的感觉又有些阴郁怪异,后来成了世界闻名的画家。他当年把自己的一座小房子里里外外的墙上天花板地板都画满了东西,一度被邻里街坊包括市长嘲讽,但后来他成名之后这个房子就成了他早年最大的作品。整座小房子被铲起来运进了这个博物馆,可以进去看。
Car rental hasn’t been the same since Covid. It was sold out everywhere for a while, then the price basically doubled. When planning my Montreal-Quebec City-Tadoussac trip, I found most car rental agencies at the Montreal airport were sold out, so the remaining options were either small agencies for ~$100 per day, or Turo. Turo had some interesting options including a Tesla Model Y 2022 for about $160 per day. I always wanted to try a Tesla on an actual road trip, so I took the plunge. It’s also the first time I rent from Turo.
The pickup process surprised me a bit. The owner (or more like a car manager?) was waiting for me at the airport arrival curbside when I landed. I don’t know how he managed to park there for so long, lol, but it couldn’t be more convenient for me. He also gave me a brief of the car. Definitely felt more “white glove” than a usual car rental.
The fun began when I started driving. I’m not really a fan of car “performance”. But man there are so many configurations to fiddle with, on a huge screen and as a phone app! It felt more like a huge tech gadget. The single-pedal driving control took me an hour or two to get used to, but was not a problem at all. It was really nice to use phone as key, and to have lights/wipers all automated. As a rental I didn’t have access to autopilot, but I probably wouldn’t really trust my life on it yet…
Now, on charging. For the first two nights in Quebec City, I stayed at a hotel with two Tesla chargers in the parking lot, so it was very easy to fully charge the car overnight. The third day I drove from Quebec City to Saguenay then Tadoussac. I didn’t charge the car during lunch at Saguenay, and took some side trips and stops along the way. So when I finally started driving to Tadoussac, an 800-person village, I found the battery would drop to 1% when I arrive, and the car warned me to stay below 95 km/h to “reach the destination”. There were no charging stations whatsoever until Tadoussac. So I turned off AC and used cruise control to maintain the speed constant… when we rolled into the first charging station, there were no charging poles! Later on I found Tesla navigation located that non-Tesla charging station a few hundred meters off. We drove to the second charging station in the village and found two charging poles, but the power plug doesn’t fit the adapter I had in the car! I called the car owner, he assured me I could at least use a usual power plug to slow charge… I then asked the hotel front desk and found there was another charging station right across the road at where I parked, which couldn’t be found on Google Maps.. thank god this one worked with the adapter I had. It was slow but enough to prevent the car from becoming a dead weight… I parked my car there charging. Two hours later someone unplugged it… I guess they need the charging station more.
I used Tesla superchargers a few times on the way back. It was impressively fast, 20 times faster than the one that saved me in Tadoussac. The locations of superchargers also seem to be nice so you have something to do while charging. One of the chargers we stopped at was at an ultra-modern SPA hotel. We appreciated the hotel design and had a great lunch there.
A notable shortcoming I noticed while driving was the loud tire noise. It wasn’t unacceptably loud, but was definitely louder than SUVs and some sedans. The car doors also felt a little flimsy when shut. Overall it’s a fancy car, but doesn’t feel high-class or luxurious.
I was a little surprised to find Tesla doesn’t work with Apple CarPlay or Google Maps. Tesla navigation was ok, and shines at planning charging stops. But it’s not as good as Google maps. It located a third-party charging station wrong for me, and sometimes gave dubious directions with “unnamed roads”. I also couldn’t “add a restaurant along the way while checking their detour time and reviews” like what I often did on Google Maps.
Summary:
Pro: feature-rich
Pro: power
Pro: driving range is pretty good (400km)
Pro: supercharger was nice, and cheaper than gas
Con: tire noise
Con: no Google Maps or Apple CarPlay
Con: charging requires more planning and forces some idle time when stopping for charging, and it becomes a challenge in remote destinations
Verdict: I’d consider a Tesla if I’m staying at a hotel with chargers. For road trips to remote places, I will stick to gas for now.