There were 5 of us when we picked up the car, and since our hike was cancelled, we decided to run a few errands and drive around. We piled in the car, me driving, and set off down the road.

The Tesla service center is in a crowded area, right next to a high school, so I headed West down a two lane city road. Everyone was expecting some acceleration, so once we were in a spot with no cars close in front, I hit the gas. Actually, not the gas, the accelerator.

I got a lot of “Whoahs” from the rest of the car. This is fast, crazy fast, going 0-60 in under 5s. That’s faster than any car I’ve driven, and certainly faster than any car with 5 adults in it.

The driving was smooth, and crisp, responsive to me. It corners nicely in the city, accelerates instantly at any speed, and breaks smoothly. I did the one foot driving, telling them about the regenerative breaking as I made my way through town to the bank and then towards CO-285 heading into the mountains. We hit the accelerator a few times, passing people, and enjoying the rush.

I wasn’t going crazy, mostly doing 0-40 quickly, though as I got into the foothills, heading towards Conifer, I did go from about 35-80 very quickly. I slowed down quickly as well, since I don’t need a ticket.

Autopilot

I engaged the Autosteer/Autopilot as we left town. I didn’t quite want to do it with the family in the car in city street traffic, but I did put it on as we left town. CO-285 is a 4 lane road, 2 each way, with a divider. As we were getting to the overpass over the highway, I had this on. I was in the right lane, with the Autopilot at about 50mph. A black truck came around the on/off lane to the right, just as I got was getting close and the car braked hard.

Not quite what it would be like for me slamming on the brakes, but certainly a very hard press. I’d kept my hands looped around the wheel and feet close, and I pressed the accelerator right away.

A slightly scary moment.

That was our only brake incident, and not quite a phantom break. More like an old man/old lady panic with a car turning the corner close to us and starting to accelerate. Not sure if the car was worried the truck would merge quickly, but as a human, I wouldn’t have blinked here.

I tried it a few other times on the highway, and it works well. It stayed in the lane, didn’t get too close to other cars, and worked well. It didn’t speed much, but I was in a lot of places where I was making decisions, turns, etc., so I didn’t try to turn it on very much.

Range

Our range when we started was about 270 miles, and as we drove up in the mountains, it fell quickly. We didn’t get to Conifer, but after about 45 minutes from pickup, the range was down in the 160 level. A little disconcerting, but as we turned around to get lunch, the range said we had 999 miles left. Gravity certainly helps efficiency.

Or hurts it.

We went to lunch, then drove back to pick up the other car and headed home. We got home with about a 170mi range. I think we’d driven 80 or so in total, so that’s not bad. That’s an estimate, and we’ll see how it goes over time.

Impressions

It’s fun, exciting, and crazy fast. I really enjoyed my few hours in the car and am looking forward to more.

There is a video of this post on my channel, if you want to watch and listen to me talk about this part of the experience.

Next: Mud Flaps