About five years ago I wrote about why I chose to buy a BMW i3 instead of a Tesla like everyone else. I still love the i3 and think that it was the right choice at the time, but things have changed!
A lot of my complaints about Tesla are still true. I really hate that the interiors use fake leather everywhere. The touchscreen isn’t as bad as I expected, but I would love to have more physical buttons. And if it weren’t for one factor, I’d say that the cars are overpriced.
That one factor is Full Self Driving. Less than a year ago I predicted that in ten years self driving wouldn’t be good enough to do point to point. I am already totally wrong!
If you haven’t driven a Tesla on FSD 12 or later, you have no idea how amazing it is. A friend of mine in Vegas is a proud Tesla owner, and every time there is a new version of FSD, he insists that I try it. Up until version 12, it terrified me. I borrowed his car for a road trip to Utah once and my family was so scared by its driving on version 11 that they kept asking me to turn it off. Then I borrowed it on version 12 and it drove me all the way across Vegas, through construction, with zero scary moments.
My new car was on 13, not the newest version 14 (because the car dealership didn’t have it on wifi to get updates), but from the dealership in Arizona I typed in my address in Vegas and it just started driving. I cannot believe how competent and confident FSD is. In a busy dealership parking lot with cars and people moving everywhere it gracefully wiggled its way out, made some unprotected left turns, and got onto the highway. Other than choosing higher speeds than I’d choose (I adjusted later), it drove so perfectly that I actually forgot that I had to look at the road. I felt like a passenger in my own car, and felt safer than when most Uber drivers drive. Truly astounding.
It added a stop for a supercharger on the way. It pulled off the highway, drove to the supercharger, and backed into the spot! I didn’t tell it to do that, it just did it. Then I just plugged the plug in (it figured out my account and payment) and it started charging. It charges at a rate of 1000 miles per hour! So in five minutes I got another 85 miles of range, which was enough to get home. The supercharger experience is honestly one of the best commercial interactions I’ve ever had.
My wife’s car was at the airport and it couldn’t quite figure out how to get to the random parking lot it was parked at, but other than that it drove the rest of the trip perfectly.
I bought a 2023 Model S with AI Hardware 4. I did a lot of research and considered every model, but I chose this one for a few reasons. It has the best interior of all of the Teslas. I’d still say the seats are well below a BMW or Mercedes in terms of comfort and feel, but the wood trim looks nice and the minimal interior where everything is controlled from the screen isn’t as bad as I expected. The glass moonroof is cool. I got the cream interior and even though I don’t like the material, it looks good.
It’s all wheel drive, which is sometimes required to go up the mountain to go skiing in Vegas.
The car is absurdly fast. I didn’t get a Plaid version, but it’s still faster than most Ferraris. That’s pretty wild. Cargo space is great.
I like that the car looks totally unimpressive and you’d never guess it is (trying to be) fancy or fast. In that regard it reminds me a bit of the VW Phaeton, which I’ve always thought is one of the coolest cars ever made.
The 2023 model S has a range of about 400 miles! Even with some miles and wear on the battery, it still has much more range than the newest Model Y.
The phone key works incredibly well. You walk close to the car and it unlocks and the handles pop out. Walk away and it locks.
Really though, all I care about is that it can drive itself. No hands on the wheel, just looking out the front most of the time, and it feels like you have a chauffer. As I finished my five hour road trip last night (with zero fatigue), I realized that it doesn’t feel like a car to me— it feels like a totally new product. At the risk of a bit of hyperbole, it feels something like going from a horse and buggy to a car.
Part of what convinced me to buy the car is that the robotaxis use the same AI hardware. That means that within a year there’s a good chance I’ll be able to send the car from my house to the airport to pick me up, which is really the dream.
Anyway, now I’m one of those annoying people who may not be able to stop talking about Teslas. At the very least, ask to sit in the driver’s seat of a friend’s Tesla who has FSD 12 or later. Experiencing it as a passenger is cool, but it feels totally different when you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. The self driving is so good now that I think it’s insane to choose any other car. And there are also some pretty good deals to be had.
FSD 12 can run on Hardware 3 (HW3) and is absolutely good enough to be worth an upgrade from a normal car. FSD 14 requires HW4, and I think it’s worth paying the extra money for it if you can afford it. I’d rather have the worst HW4 car than the best HW3.
###
Photo is someone else’s Model S but mine looks exactly the same.
Gear post IS coming. I meant to take the photos at Thanksgiving but didn’t have the chance so now I have to schedule a trip to get them taken properly. It’s going to be a good one!
Leave a Reply