Connect with us

Elon Musk

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.

Published

9 months ago

on

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.

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.

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.

Advertisement

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.

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:

Advertisement

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.

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

Advertisement

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.

Related Topics:

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

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk shares insights on SpaceX and Tesla’s potential scale

In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.

Published

3 hours ago

on

January 25, 2026

By

Credit: xAI

Elon Musk outlined why he believes Tesla and SpaceX ultimately dwarf their competitors, pointing to autonomy, robotics, and space-based energy as forces that fundamentally reshape economic scale. 

In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.

Space-based energy

In a response to a user on X who observed that SpaceX has a larger valuation than all six US defense companies combined, Musk explained that space-based industries will eventually surpass the total economic value of Earth. He noted that space allows humanity to harness roughly 100,000 times more energy than Earth currently uses, while still consuming less than a millionth of the Sun’s total energy output.

That level of available energy should enable the emergence and development of industries that are simply not possible within Earth’s physical and environmental constraints. Continuous solar exposure in space, as per Musk’s comment, removes limitations imposed by atmosphere, weather, and land availability.

Autonomy and robots

In a follow-up post, Elon Musk explaned that “due to autonomy, Tesla is worth more than the rest of the auto industry.” Musk added that this assessment does not yet account for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. As per the CEO, once Optimus reaches scaled production, it could increase Earth’s gross domestic product by an order of magnitude, ultimately paving the way for sustainable abundance.

Even before the advent of Optimus, however, Tesla’s autonomous driving system already gives vehicles the option to become revenue-generating assets through services like the Tesla Robotaxi network. Tesla’s autonomous efforts seem to be on the verge of paying off, as services like the Robotaxi network have already been launched in its initial stages in Austin and the Bay Area. 

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla to increase Full Self-Driving subscription price: here’s when

Published

1 day ago

on

January 24, 2026

By

Credit: Tesla

Tesla will increase its Full Self-Driving subscription price, meaning it will eventually be more than the current $99 per month price tag it has right now.

Already stating that the ability to purchase the suite outright will be removed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that the Full Self-Driving subscription price would increase when its capabilities improve:

“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD).”

This was an expected change, especially as Tesla has been hinting for some time that it is approaching a feature-complete version of Full Self-Driving that will no longer require driver supervision. However, with the increase, some are concerned that they may be priced out.

$99 per month is already a tough ask for some. While Full Self-Driving is definitely worth it just due to the capabilities, not every driver is ready to add potentially 50 percent to their car payment each month to have it.

While Tesla has not revealed any target price for FSD, it does seem that it will go up to at least $150.

Additionally, the ability to purchase the suite outright is also being eliminated on February 14, which gives owners another reason to be slightly concerned about whether they will be able to afford to continue paying for Full Self-Driving in any capacity.

Some owners have requested a tiered program, which would allow people to pay for the capabilities they want at a discounted price.

Unsupervised FSD would be the most expensive, and although the company started removing Autopilot from some vehicles, it seems a Supervised FSD suite would still attract people to pay between $49 and $99 per month, as it is very useful.

Tesla will likely release pricing for the Unsupervised suite when it is available, but price increases could still come to the Supervised version as things improve.

This is not the first time Musk has hinted that the price would change with capability improvements, either. He’s been saying it for some time. In 2020, he even said the value of FSD would “probably be somewhere in excess of $100,000.”

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online

The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.

Published

2 days ago

on

January 23, 2026

By

Credit: Tesla Malaysia/X

Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.

Tesla removes Autopilot

As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.

The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.

That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time. 

Musk announces FSD price increases

Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.

“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote. 

At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.

Continue Reading