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I took a Tesla Model Y weekend-long Demo Drive – Here’s what I learned

I had a weekend with the new Tesla Model Y, and it truly solidified that EVs are the future, if we didn’t know that already.

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1 month ago

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Tesla offered me a weekend-long Demo Drive in the new Model Y, a new program the company is offering to people as a way to taste what it is like to own an EV. For me, it was a great look into owning an EV while renting a townhouse without charging infrastructure, but it gave me a lot more insight as well.

A Sales Advisor at a local showroom texted me several weeks back to see if I would want to take the new Model Y from the showroom to my house for a weekend. I immediately said yes, scheduled a weekend when family and friends would be nearby to experience things like Full Self-Driving, and booked it.

I picked it up on Saturday at 6 p.m. as the showroom closed, and I was on my way back home within ten minutes.

First Things First

My first order of business was getting some Full Self-Driving demos in, taking my Fiancè for a hands-free — but supervised — journey first. It was not her first time experiencing FSD, as we had taken a Demo Drive a few months back and experienced Hardware 3 and the past iteration of the Model Y.

However, we only used FSD for about ten minutes while checking out a Model Y to buy back in February.

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The next morning, we picked my parents up for breakfast and took them on their first-ever FSD experience. They live in a rural part of my hometown in Southern Pennsylvania, where there are no lines on the road, potholes everywhere, deer constantly crossing the road, and sharp turns that can be dangerous during the daytime, as you cannot see oncoming headlights.

It was really something to see how my Dad changed his belief on FSD in the matter of just a few minutes. The night before, I took my Mom and Step Dad on a drive, and they felt the same way. My Dad is just more vocal about his skepticism, so I was happy to hear the reversal of his perspective.

Living without Charging and How It Changed My Mindset

One of the biggest things that kept me from buying the Model Y we looked at in February was the lack of charging in my neighborhood. I do not get to park directly in front of my front door, and my neighborhood is still considering some minor infrastructure for residents.

With the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive version of the new Model Y, Tesla boasts a range of 327 miles. We picked it up from the Showroom at 98 percent state-of-charge.

We ran our usual errands, went out to dinner, drove around for leisure to enjoy the car, and after all that, we still returned the car with 40 percent left. This truly eliminated any concerns I would have about charging at home, at least in the near term.

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Realistically, I would like to have charging at home. The experience made me realize I would probably be driving to a Supercharger once a week to get range, which is about as frequent as I visit a gas pump now. It would not be a tremendous change, and it made me realize that when I do eventually make the jump, if I am still living in our townhome that we rent, I would get through it without any real issues.

Take my words as a bit of advice: If you’re overly concerned about not having charging at your apartment or home, don’t stress too much about it.

The Good and Bad with Full Self-Driving

Overall, our Full Self-Driving experience was incredibly valuable. My plan was to drive the car manually most of the time, but I truly only did that for roughly 5 percent of the miles we traveled together.

I planned for a big stress test on Sunday evening, and that’s what we did. We had to run out and get some things for a wedding we’re attending this coming weekend, and it required us to travel all over York from the East end to the West end, much of which was spent traveling on the Lincoln Highway. In West York, this stretch of highway is incredibly dysfunctional, busy, and is one of the drives I rue the most in the area.

Full Self-Driving made it very easy, as I just set the destination on several occasions and let the car do all the work.

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Our first drive took us from our house to our local Target. It did everything flawlessly. I took over once we got into the parking lot just to find a parking space on my own:

I didn’t record the trip from Target to the Burlington Coat Factory, just a mile away, but I did record the next leg of the trip, which was from Burlington in East York to Burlington in West York. This was when I had my first complaint with FSD, and it dealt with the operation in parking lots.

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You’ll see at the beginning of this video that there was an instance where the car waited for one cross-traffic warning to stop before proceeding, but ignored another cross-traffic warning from the other direction. The car pulled out on this person, you’ll see me wave to apologize, then I take control of the car, as it was too close to that other car for my liking. This was the only issue we experienced on this drive:

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I found that parking lots were a weak point of FSD. It is not that I did not feel confident in its abilities to make it through these lots safely, but it reminded me a lot of what I think a 16-year-old who just got their license would drive through a busy parking area: hesitant, not confident, tentative.

Several of our X followers said the same thing:

Leaving the West York Burlington and heading to a Walgreens to pick up some pictures we had printed was the next leg of our journey. This was where we got to test a difficult off-ramp on I-83 south and Autopark in the Walgreens parking lot.

The off-ramp for the Market Street exit and the on-ramp use the same lane, so merging traffic can be a bit of a nightmare for those trying to get off of the highway, which is what we were trying to do. FSD managed it cleanly, as several cars were merging onto I-83, the car found a soft spot in the traffic and got off without any issue. This impressed me because I know it can be stressful at times, especially during rush hour.

Autopark worked well and backed into a spot with no issues:

Our final trip with FSD was from our home to the showroom. This would be our longest single-trip using FSD, and it was the most impressive yet.

The first thing it was tasked with was merging onto the highway with a very short lane to do so. FSD recognized this, saw an oncoming car that did not get over into the passing lane to make space (despite it having the room to do so as a courtesy), and sped up to take the slot it was given. It overtook slower cars, stayed in the right lane near on-ramps to make merging for others easier, and got us through the Harrisburg split with no issues.

As we turned onto the Carlisle Pike, the right lane was closed about a quarter-mile after we merged onto it. We had a vehicle beside us that did not want to let us over, so FSD waited, allowed the car to pass, and quickly took the three-car-length gap, safely getting on. This was a funny one because I noticed my Fiancè’s hand grab the handle on her door as a reactionary response.

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She realized after it was unnecessary, and it did a better job than many people we know would have done:

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This finished our experience with the Model Y for the weekend, and it was hard to say goodbye.

Conclusion

It seems that a trade-in will be happening in the coming months. My biggest reservation was residential charging, and I learned it really was not something I needed to be overly concerned about.

Full Self-Driving was truly the big thing that sold me on this car. The new Model Y is obviously a great vehicle to begin with, but FSD was the number one thing that I will miss because it made driving such a breeze.

More novelty things I will miss are being able to watch YouTube while I wait in the car, and pranking people with the Fart on Contact/Sit Happens feature, something that gave us all a good laugh.

It was a great weekend with the new Model Y! In the coming months, I hope to get my hands on another vehicle for a weekend.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Tesla blacklisted by Swedish pension fund AP7 as it sells entire stake

A Swedish pension fund is offloading its Tesla holdings for good.

Published

3 days ago

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June 13, 2025

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tesla
(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla shares have been blacklisted by the Swedish pension fund AP7, who said earlier today that it has “verified violations of labor rights in the United States” by the automaker.

The fund ended up selling its entire stake, which was worth around $1.36 billion when it liquidated its holdings in late May. Reuters first reported on AP7’s move.

Other pension and retirement funds have relinquished some of their Tesla holdings due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in politics, among other reasons, and although the company’s stock has been a great contributor to growth for many funds over the past decade, these managers are not willing to see past the CEO’s right to free speech.

However, AP7 says the move is related not to Musk’s involvement in government nor his political stances. Instead, the fund said it verified several labor rights violations in the U.S.:

“AP7 has decided to blacklist Tesla due to verified violations of labor rights in the United States. Despite several years of dialogue with Tesla, including shareholder proposals in collaboration with other investors, the company has not taken sufficient measures to address the issues.”

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Tesla made up about 1 percent of the AP7 Equity Fund, according to a spokesperson. This equated to roughly 13 billion crowns, but the fund’s total assets were about 1,181 billion crowns at the end of May when the Tesla stake was sold off.

Tesla has had its share of labor lawsuits over the past few years, just as any large company deals with at some point or another. There have been claims of restrictions against labor union supporters, including one that Tesla was favored by judges, as they did not want pro-union clothing in the factory. Tesla argued that loose-fitting clothing presented a safety hazard, and the courts agreed.

tesla employee

(Photo: Tesla)

There have also been claims of racism at the Fremont Factory by a former elevator contractor named Owen Diaz. He was awarded a substantial sum of $137m. However, U.S. District Judge William Orrick ruled the $137 million award was excessive, reducing it to $15 million. Diaz rejected this sum.

Another jury awarded Diaz $3.2 million. Diaz’s legal team said this payout was inadequate. He and Tesla ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount.

AP7 did not list any of the current labor violations that it cited as its reason for

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Tesla owners across the globe prepare for Robotaxi launch with this neat customization

Tesla will eventually have Robotaxis worldwide. Some owners are already preparing.

Published

4 days ago

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June 12, 2025

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Credit: @HanChulYong | X

Tesla owners are already preparing for the company’s launch of the Robotaxi platform with a new, neat customization that is appearing around the world.

On Tuesday, the first Tesla Robotaxi test mule was spotted in Austin, where the company will launch the first driverless rides of this ride-hailing service. At first, it will be a limited rollout, reserved for a select few. CEO Elon Musk said public rides could occur as soon as June 22.

First Tesla driverless robotaxi spotted in the wild in Austin, TX

However, the Tesla Robotaxi platform is not one that will be confined to cities and geofenced to certain areas.

Eventually, Tesla will gain enough confidence to roll the Full Self-Driving software straight to every car in the customer fleet that paid for it. Owners will be able to generate income for themselves while they sleep, as the cars will operate as ride-hailing vehicles for people to use for transportation.

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In an effort to prepare for the launch of Robotaxi, Tesla owners across the globe are installing Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ word art on their cars.

Here’s one in South Korea:

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Here’s another in the U.S.:

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Obviously, this is more of a symbol of support for the Robotaxi launch, but many owners are recognizing that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software will extend to them the ability to use their personal cars as ride-hailing vehicles, becoming a part of the global fleet of self-driving chauffeurs.

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Elon Musk

Tesla sues former Optimus engineer for stealing trade secrets

Tesla is suing a former engineer who worked on Optimus after he left and immediately started a robotics company that achieved quick development of a hand.

Published

4 days ago

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June 12, 2025

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla is suing former Optimus engineer Jay Li in federal court after accusing him of stealing trade secrets and using them to enable a startup he founded after he left.

Li is accused of stealing confidential files and using them to help get his company, “Proception,” off to a rocking start. Tesla says the files Li took helped his new startup “shortcut the typical development process” for robot hands, something that took Tesla years to develop and evolve.

The company said in the complaint (via Reuters):

“Through Li’s pilfering, Defendant Proception purportedly achieved in a matter of months what it has taken Tesla over four years, hundreds of employees, and billions of dollars to achieve.”

Li was an employee at Tesla for several years, working on the Optimus sensor team from 2022 to 2024. The company says it utilized and devoted “extraordinary resources” to the development of Optimus, which has come a long way since its unveiling several years ago.

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Tesla Optimus to receive hands with 22 degrees of freedom later this year

Li allegedly downloaded confidential files related to Optimus’ robotic hand movement research before departing the company. He did not work on the hands at the time. However, he left and swiftly started Proception, as the suit states the company was founded just six days after he left Tesla.

Proception was gloating about its ability to build robotic hands just five months after the company was founded. Tesla says the hands have “striking similarities” to its own design for Optimus.

The company is looking for monetary damages and a court order that would block Proception from misusing the secrets it accuses Li of taking.

This is not the first suit Tesla has filed over trade secrets and confidential information theft. Recently, it accused German-Canadian dual citizen Klaus Pflugbeil of stealing battery-related secrets. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison.

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Men accused of selling Tesla battery secrets arrested in undercover sting

The U.S. Department of Justice used an undercover sting to arrest Pflugbeil.

Tesla is being represented by Josh Krevitt, Orin Snyder, and Angelique Kaounis of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

The case is Tesla Inc. v. Perception Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:25-cv-04963.

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