Amazingly, I had never ridden in a Tesla until today, after I’d made an appointment to try out Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which for me is the main reason I’d choose a Tesla over other electric cars.
So not only was I able to ride in a Tesla, after Rylan, the general manager (hopefully I recall his name correctly), took me for a demonstration ride with him in the driver’s seat, when we returned to the dealership on Mission Street I was given the opportunity to take out the Model Y on my own.
I came away really impressed with FSD. I’ll abbreviate Full Self-Driving (Supervised) to save wear and tear on my typing fingers. I’m not aware of any vehicle on the planet that has anything near as good as Tesla’s FSD. Maybe Chinese electric cars, but we can’t buy them here in the United States, sadly.
After Rylan showed me some of the features of a showroom Model Y, we went outside. He summoned the FSD demo car with a touch on his phone’s Tesla app. From across the parking lot a Tesla drove over all on its own and parked near where we were standing. “Handy feature in large parking lots,” I was told.
Getting in the car, I said that I’d like to go to Pacific Martial Arts on Court Street in downtown Salem, as I drive there three days a week for my Tai Chi class. He entered the address in the Model Y’s navigation, pressed a Full Self-Driving button on the touch screen, and we were off with Rylan’s hands resting on his knees.
Touching the steering wheel isn’t advised with FSD as turning the wheel disengages it, as does pressing on the brake pedal. While I’d watched several videos of FSD in action, experiencing it was way cooler. At first I was sort of nervous as the car headed down Mission Street in fairly heavy traffic. But it didn’t take long before I realized that the Model Y was driving safely and competently, more so than a lot of human drivers, for sure.
FSD can be set for different driving styles. “Sloth,” not surprisingly, has the car going below the speed limit. “Mad Max” speaks for itself on the other end of the driving style spectrum. Rylan said our car was set to “Chill,” I believe, which is close to the speed limit.
It’s just amazing to watch the Model Y steer, signal, change lanes, stop at red lights, make turns, and park itself when it found an available spot a block away from Pacific Martial Arts. Rylan then entered a Salem Hospital parking garage into Navigation that he likes to use to demonstrate FSD capability. Our car pulled into a narrow street on the hospital campus, drove through some surface lots, then entered a multilevel parking garage and found a space there.
Returning to the Tesla dealership, because Rylan didn’t have time for a longer demo ride, he left me with a key card that can be used to lock and unlock the car, as when it is left with a parking attendant. I was a bit nervous to head out on my own, since most functions of the Model Y are controlled by the touchscreen. It doesn’t even have a gear shift lever; you swipe up on the screen for Drive, down for Reverse, and press in the middle for Park.
I decided to drive to our house in rural south Salem along Liberty Road, then head back to the dealership via Ankeny Hill Road (near the wildlife refuge) and I-5. That would give me experience both driving in the city, along curvy two lane roads, and a freeway.
At first I drove the Model Y on my own without FSD. I instantly noted that the steering felt quite a bit heavier than any other car I can remember driving. Much heavier than my Subaru Crosstrek. Some Googling after I got home revealed that this is a common reaction. Some might view the steering as “performance” oriented. I just found it kind of annoying, but probably I could easily get used to it.
As I quickly did with the regenerative braking, which happens when I took my foot off the accelerator. After a few tries at stop lights, it didn’t take me long to learn how to bring the Model Y to a stop without using the brake pedal. Regenerative braking gives the battery some juice, a good thing to have in an electric car.
When I got to Liberty I pressed the FSD button. Wow. Double Wow actually. FSD simply works. Mostly. You still have to pay attention, hence the “supervised” part of the FSD name. For example, in one school zone with flashing yellow lights, indicating a 20 mph speed limit, the Model Y cruised along at 30 mph. I pressed on the brake to reduce the speed to 20, then had to indicate on the touch screen why I’d disabled FSD.
Once out of town on Liberty, the Tesla drove perfectly to our home. I was impressed when the car pulled over slightly toward the center stripe when a bicyclist was riding toward me on the wrong side of the road for bicycles. The Model Y noticed the cyclist before I did.
The car did fine on the freeway, staying close to the 65 mph speed limit in its Chill setting. The only glitch was in the construction zone near Enchanted Forest. The Model Y was going along in the right lane at an appropriate speed when it suddenly changed lanes and started toward the Commercial Street exist. I had to grasp the wheel and jerk it to the right to stay on the freeway. Google Maps also has a problem with that exit, somehow mistaking it for the freeway route during construction.
All in all, I felt pleasantly relaxed using FSD. It was great to turn over the chore of driving to the Model Y, like having an AI chauffeur. If I were more familiar with the Tesla, I would have feel even more relaxed, of course.
I’m seriously thinking about leasing a Model Y. Like I said, FSD is a main reason why I’d get a Tesla. It will keep on improving, with over a million people in the United States using FSD with their Teslas. It used to cost many thousands of dollars. Now it is $99 a month, a much more appealing deal. The Supercharger network is another reason I’d go with Tesla for an electric car.
Rylan pointed out that the Superchargers at the Tesla dealership are only for Teslas, even though owners of other brands can use Superchargers at many locations. From what I’ve learned, it just is simpler and easier for Tesla owners to use the Superchargers, compared to owners of other brands.
Oh, almost forgot. When Rylan looked at the screen for a while to show me some features, an alert popped up on the screen saying that he needed to pay attention to the road while using FSD. That was reassuring, since I’ve seen videos of early users of FSD reading a book or whatever while using FSD. Highly irresponsible. The Model Y has a camera that checks on where the driver is looking, a good safety feature.
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