Tuesday/ venturing out

I had to go to a doctor’s appointment this morning.
I told myself ‘You can do it, don’t be a scaredy-cat’ (driving on the snowy, icy roads).
My car does not have snow tires, but the electric motor on the rear axle, plus another on the front axle, makes it an all-wheel drive. The wheels also have traction control (electronics that limit how much the wheels can spin, making it easier to drive on slippery surfaces).

I put a ‘scheduled departure’ into my Tesla app, a good practice in icy weather. That way the car is nicely warmed up inside, with the battery pre-conditioned (warmed up) as you get behind the wheel to drive out.
I was good to go.

The City of Seattle provides this handy map of the roads that had been plowed. The reds are streets with steep grades— big trouble if they have snow and ice on.
Here’s the Eastlake Ave & Stewart St intersection. ‘NO TURN ON RED’ .. but is it red? The traffic light scones are all clogged with snow, and one can barely make them out. This could be trouble for Tesla’s ‘Full Self-driving’ mode: an edge case, as it is called. I would think the car would come to a stop, when the cameras cannot make out the color of the signal (assuming they would recognize the boom & light fixtures as a traffic light).
This is 18th Avenue. Not a problem to drive on, as long as one goes nice and slow. The brakes can do only so much to stop the vehicle on a slippery surface. (Yes, my Model 3 has anti-lock brakes, but I have no intention of testing them out, if I can help it).

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