A Non-Tesla Owner's Thoughts on Tesla

The Good

I recently did a trip with a friend in his new Tesla Model Y. (St. George, UT was the furthest west). I was amazed at how many Tesla-branded charging stations there were, and how integrated they are with the vehicle. You tell the dash navigation system where you want to go and it will route you based on your current charge, the distance, need for re-charge(s), and charging station locations.

The route info reads something like this…

Drive 100 miles to this station in a museum parking lot, you will arrive with 20% charge (and 4 of 6 chargers should be open), charge for at least 23 minutes (to 65%), then complete your journey… you should arrive with 15% charge.

We drove hundreds of miles over three weeks and it was correct every time. In that period we diverted our route once due to power concerns (off a very small highway in remote Utah).

Then you throw in the fact that there are independent chargers (both Tesla and non-Tesla) at many motels (usually the juice is free!)—and sometimes even restaurants and parking garages. My friend has adapters for most non-Tesla chargers. (I think you can by an adapter to allow other EVs to use Tesla chargers… if not now, soon?)

I'm on my third Prius and I had NO IDEA how robust the Tesla charging network is. I felt like I was seeing a parallel universe for the first time. It's basically squirreled away in obscure parking lots and back alleys. This makes sense, using space that is otherwise underused and local businesses benefit because drivers have 20-60 min of time to kill while they charge.

For example, Green River Utah, a town of less than 1000 off of I-70, has 8-12 supercharger stations in the parking lot of the John Wesley Powell River History Museum (worth a visit!). We pulled in, plugged in, went across the street to the Tamarisk Restaurant to eat dinner (nice place!), and by the time we were done the battery was full. We then drove on. 🙂

The Bad

That said there are several BAD THINGS about actually DRIVING a Tesla.

The most telling is that it's sensors are not as good as in my 2021 Prius. The Tesla MISREADS SIGNS and/or has bad data about speed limits. It will touch the brakes on it's own if it thinks the speed limit is 35 when it's actually 55. No way to turn this off as far as I know.

My Prius rarely misses a standard white speed sign. The current speed limit just appears on the dash. The car takes no action on its own. It DOES apply the brakes automatically IF the forward-looking radar detects something like a car turning in front of me. Alas, the Tesla apparently has NO RADAR, because the CEO told the engineers he wanted a pure video system (quoting my friend). I have no idea how it performs in a dense fog?! Give me radar any day!

Also, if the Tesla gets frightened by some figment of its video imagination, it will slam on the brakes for no good reason. This happened out of the blue even on the freeway, but also predictably on winding roads going up and down. It can't SEE the road ahead when you crest a hill, so it hits the brakes. 🙁

It also has this spooky ghost car display next to the steering wheel that frequently sees people and vehicles that ARE NOT THERE! Look at the screen shot my friend took in Arches Natl Park… We were moving slowly and there were NO people and NO semi-truck in front of me—just open space. I would NEVER engage the full auto-drive mode based on the above. It is insane that it is even allowed!