Warning: ask me how I’m liking my Tesla Model Y Juniper at your own risk

You know how it goes. Sometimes before arriving at a social gathering, a wife or husband will say to their partner, “Be sure not to mention _______ to Kurt; once he starts talking about this, he never shuts up.”

That _______ could be fishing, golf, a trip to Europe, his job, or anything that Kurt finds way more interesting than anyone else at the party. So you’ve got to be careful in choosing conversation topics around him. At all costs, avoid any mention of his passion unless you enjoy listening to monologues.

I sympathize with guys (and gals) like Kurt, because I’ve become that sort of annoying person when it comes to talking about the red Tesla Model Y Juniper that my wife and I leased three and a half weeks ago — which I’m the primary driver of. Well, in fact so far I’ve been the only driver of.

I’ve owned lots of cars. I’ve enjoyed lots of cars. I’ve talked lots about how much I enjoy those cars. But the Tesla is a whole other automotive breed. While it’s obviously a car, I had no idea how different the Tesla is from every other car I’ve driven.

That difference is what makes me want to talk about the Tesla much more than most people want to listen to what I have to say. It’s sort of like your child making you a grandparent. Close friends and family will indulge your desire to share photos of the amazingly cute baby. Almost everyone else will suddenly realize they have an appointment they’re late for.

Pleasingly, my wife can’t avoid hearing me talk about the Tesla after I come home from driving it. Captive audience! She likes the car, but isn’t nearly as familiar with its amazingly cute attributes as I am. Which include, but are not limited to:

— Really good Full Self-Driving (Supervised).
— Excellent sound system.
— Fast. Consumer Reports measured 0-60 in 4.4 seconds.
— Quiet. Just road noise; no engine noise.
— Highly customizable. Kind of an iPhone on wheels.
— Refueling daily with a charger in our carport.
— Panoramic glass roof.
— Supportive comfortable seats.
— Automatic almost everything: lights, wipers, locking/unlocking.
— Phone app that I actually use, unlike other cars I’ve owned.

Full Self-Driving (FSD) is what I like to talk the most about, when I can find a willing listener. The Tesla has driven itself more than 95% of the time. It can feel almost sentient on FSD. About the only time I take control of the car is leaving and entering our driveway, and when using a downtown parking garage. I don’t trust FSD in those settings, though someday I might.

And occasionally I have to briefly turn FSD off when it makes a navigation error. Navigation is a Tesla weak spot.

For example, it thinks the speed limit in our rural south Salem neighborhood is 55 mph, which may be technically correct, but is much faster than people should drive on our curvy, hilly, two lane streets. Yet going north on Liberty into Salem, the Tesla shows a 45 mph speed limit, which is lower than the 55 mph it shows going south on Liberty for some reason, and is a reasonable speed on some sections of the road.

Overall, though, I feel considerably safer when the Tesla drives itself with FSD, than when I’m in control of the car. Today was a good example. Driving down Liberty through farmland, I suddenly felt the Tesla brake fairly strongly. A deer was running across the road not far in front of the car. I hadn’t even noticed the deer on the side of the road. The Tesla, with its eight cameras looking in every direction, has much better vision than my two aging eyes.

Also much better reaction time. Check out this video of how quickly a Tesla with FSD reacts to a person about to step toward the road: .13 seconds.

This is how Google AI describes that reaction time:

Here is how a 0.13s speed stacks up: