Tesla supplied me a weekend-long Demo Drive within the new Mannequin Y, a brand new program the corporate is providing to individuals as a method to style what it’s prefer to personal an EV. For me, it was a fantastic look into proudly owning an EV whereas renting a townhouse with out charging infrastructure, however it gave me much more perception as properly.
A Gross sales Advisor at an area showroom texted me a number of weeks again to see if I’d need to take the brand new Mannequin Y from the showroom to my home for a weekend. I instantly mentioned sure, scheduled a weekend when household and mates could be close by to expertise issues like Full Self-Driving, and booked it.
I picked it up on Saturday at 6 p.m. because the showroom closed, and I used to be on my means again house inside ten minutes.
First Issues First
My first order of enterprise was getting some Full Self-Driving demos in, taking my Fiancè for a hands-free — however supervised — journey first. It was not her first time experiencing FSD, as we had taken a Demo Drive a number of months again and skilled {Hardware} 3 and the previous iteration of the Mannequin Y.
Nevertheless, we solely used FSD for about ten minutes whereas trying out a Mannequin Y to purchase again in February.
The following morning, we picked my dad and mom up for breakfast and took them on their first-ever FSD expertise. They dwell in a rural a part of my hometown in Southern Pennsylvania, the place there aren’t any strains on the highway, potholes all over the place, deer continuously crossing the highway, and sharp turns that may be harmful throughout the daytime, as you can not see oncoming headlights.
🚨 First order of enterprise: Took my dad and mom on an FSD journey.
“Wow!”
“That is loopy!”
You can hear the skepticism in my Dad’s voice as I began the drive. By the top of it, he couldn’t imagine the way it navigated non-lined backroads to his home! https://t.co/qisRxDlY5O
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) Might 4, 2025
It was actually one thing to see how my Dad modified his perception on FSD within the matter of only a few minutes. The evening earlier than, I took my Mother and Step Dad on a drive, and so they felt the identical means. My Dad is simply extra vocal about his skepticism, so I used to be joyful to listen to the reversal of his perspective.
Residing with out Charging and How It Modified My Mindset
One of many largest issues that saved me from shopping for the Mannequin Y we checked out in February was the dearth of charging in my neighborhood. I don’t get to park straight in entrance of my entrance door, and my neighborhood remains to be contemplating some minor infrastructure for residents.
With the Lengthy Vary All-Wheel-Drive model of the brand new Mannequin Y, Tesla boasts a variety of 327 miles. We picked it up from the Showroom at 98 % state-of-charge.
We ran our normal errands, went out to dinner, drove round for leisure to benefit from the automotive, and in spite of everything that, we nonetheless returned the automotive with 40 % left. This actually eradicated any considerations I’d have about charging at house, at the least within the close to time period.
Realistically, I want to have charging at house. The expertise made me notice I’d in all probability be driving to a Supercharger as soon as every week to get vary, which is about as frequent as I go to a fuel pump now. It could not be an amazing change, and it made me notice that after I do ultimately make the bounce, if I’m nonetheless dwelling in our townhome that we lease, I’d get by it with none actual points.
Take my phrases as a bit of recommendation: If you happen to’re overly involved about not having charging at your condominium or house, don’t stress an excessive amount of about it.
The Good and Dangerous with Full Self-Driving
Total, our Full Self-Driving expertise was extremely helpful. My plan was to drive the automotive manually more often than not, however I really solely did that for roughly 5 % of the miles we traveled collectively.
I deliberate for a giant stress check on Sunday night, and that’s what we did. We needed to run out and get some issues for a marriage we’re attending this coming weekend, and it required us to journey throughout York from the East finish to the West finish, a lot of which was spent touring on the Lincoln Freeway. In West York, this stretch of freeway is extremely dysfunctional, busy, and is without doubt one of the drives I rue probably the most within the space.
Full Self-Driving made it very simple, as I simply set the vacation spot on a number of events and let the automotive do all of the work.
Our first drive took us from our home to our native Goal. It did all the things flawlessly. I took over as soon as we obtained into the parking zone simply to discover a parking area by myself:
🚨 Tesla Full Self-Driving takes my Fiancé and I to Goal
Flawless drive! We’ll doc the remainder of our errands at present! pic.twitter.com/TAx3mWmVgh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) Might 4, 2025
I didn’t file the journey from Goal to the Burlington Coat Manufacturing facility, only a mile away, however I did file the following leg of the journey, which was from Burlington in East York to Burlington in West York. This was after I had my first criticism with FSD, and it handled the operation in parking heaps.
You’ll see at the start of this video that there was an occasion the place the automotive waited for one cross-traffic warning to cease earlier than continuing, however ignored one other cross-traffic warning from the opposite course. The automotive pulled out on this particular person, you’ll see me wave to apologize, then I take management of the automotive, because it was too near that different automotive for my liking. This was the one difficulty we skilled on this drive:
🚨 On this drive, FSD pulled out of this spot whereas there was a automotive approaching from our proper (you’ll see the Purple cross-traffic warning on the display)
It additionally approached that car somewhat too shut for my liking, so to be secure I took over.
An ideal drive throughout city… pic.twitter.com/ANuZ4QcZB6
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) Might 4, 2025
I discovered that parking heaps have been a weak level of FSD. It’s not that I didn’t really feel assured in its talents to make it by these heaps safely, however it jogged my memory a number of what I feel a 16-year-old who simply obtained their license would drive by a busy parking space: hesitant, not assured, tentative.
A number of of our X followers mentioned the identical factor:
That is such an issue… To the purpose I don’t even use begin FSD from Park anymore
— ProjectRCC (@Project_RCC) Might 5, 2025
Parking heaps are little little bit of a weak spot. However I imagine this can be solved within the subsequent replace we get 💯
— Overly Optimistic Future (@OOpFuture) Might 4, 2025
Leaving the West York Burlington and heading to a Walgreens to select up some footage we had printed was the following leg of our journey. This was the place we obtained to check a troublesome off-ramp on I-83 south and Autopark within the Walgreens parking zone.
The off-ramp for the Market Avenue exit and the on-ramp use the identical lane, so merging visitors is usually a little bit of a nightmare for these making an attempt to get off of the freeway, which is what we have been making an attempt to do. FSD managed it cleanly, as a number of automobiles have been merging onto I-83, the automotive discovered a comfortable spot within the visitors and obtained off with none difficulty. This impressed me as a result of I do know it may be irritating at occasions, particularly throughout rush hour.
Autopark labored properly and backed right into a spot with no points:
🚨 The ultimate leg of our journey right here: FSD did a fantastic job of navigating by this parking zone and getting us onto a freeway with a really quick on-ramp (a really typical a part of dwelling and driving in Pennsylvania).
Additionally, Autopark did a fantastic job! I want to see it enhance by… pic.twitter.com/OBefKZKDCo
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) Might 5, 2025
Our closing journey with FSD was from our house to the showroom. This is able to be our longest single-trip utilizing FSD, and it was probably the most spectacular but.
The very first thing it was tasked with was merging onto the freeway with a really quick lane to take action. FSD acknowledged this, noticed an oncoming automotive that didn’t recover from into the passing lane to create space (regardless of it having the room to take action as a courtesy), and sped as much as take the slot it was given. It overtook slower automobiles, stayed in the best lane close to on-ramps to make merging for others simpler, and obtained us by the Harrisburg cut up with no points.
As we turned onto the Carlisle Pike, the best lane was closed a couple of quarter-mile after we merged onto it. We had a car beside us that didn’t need to allow us to over, so FSD waited, allowed the automotive to go, and shortly took the three-car-length hole, safely getting on. This was a humorous one as a result of I seen my Fiancè’s hand seize the deal with on her door as a reactionary response.
She realized after it was pointless, and it did a greater job than many individuals we all know would have finished:
🚨 The brand new Tesla Mannequin Y drove my Fiancé and me again to the Tesla Showroom at present to half methods 🥺
It was superior to have a whole weekend with this superior automotive. This 45-minute drive is condensed to simply 36 seconds.
One portion of this drive included a formidable merge right into a… pic.twitter.com/TjCXcpRUXG
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) Might 5, 2025
This completed our expertise with the Mannequin Y for the weekend, and it was onerous to say goodbye.
Conclusion
Plainly a trade-in can be occurring within the coming months. My largest reservation was residential charging, and I discovered it actually was not one thing I wanted to be overly involved about.
Full Self-Driving was actually the large factor that offered me on this automotive. The brand new Mannequin Y is clearly a fantastic car to start with, however FSD was the primary factor that I’ll miss as a result of it made driving such a breeze.
Extra novelty issues I’ll miss are with the ability to watch YouTube whereas I wait within the automotive, and pranking individuals with the Fart on Contact/Sit Occurs characteristic, one thing that gave us all a superb snicker.
It was a fantastic weekend with the brand new Mannequin Y! Within the coming months, I hope to get my palms on one other car for a weekend.