Marcus and I had the opportunity to take a Tesla out for a spin on our most recent date night. We actually got to keep it for 24 hours, take it out to dinner, park it in our own garage overnight, and take an excessive amount of pictures in it. We chose to test drive the Model S and were met with this dark grey beauty upon arrival.
In case you are unaware, Tesla is known for making fully electric cars that produce zero emissions (yay for the environment!). They can go over 300 miles on one charge and have one of the highest safety ratings of cars currently on the road. Most importantly, they are pushing the envelope on the technology front with their cars’ self driving features, which is what Marcus and I were really interested in testing out. It is incredible how smart these cars are. Check out Marcus “driving” below.
Here are some of my favorite features:
- The entire roof of the car is all glass, so it’s like looking out one big window.
- When the car is off and locked the door handles are flush with the side of the car. Upon unlocking they pop out.
- It tells you exactly how far you are from objects when parking, down to the inch.
- The screen on the interior is huge, and has everything from a built-in Spotify type radio to google maps to a browser to search the internet.
- It it voice activated. In other words, if you tell it to play Taylor Swift, it listens!
- When driving, the car detects other cars around you and shows you were they are on the dash. This is particularly helpful for your blind spots.
- When using autopilot, the car will slow down if the car in front of you starts to break, and then speed up again once they accelerate. We used this in stop and go traffic and it worked like a charm. We went from a full stop up to almost the speed limit without touching a single thing.
- When using autopilot (on the highway), the car sees the lines on road and will stay in between them, even on curves. This was the most impressive feature to me!
- When using autopilot, if you put your turn signal on, the car will safely change lanes on its own.
- You can turn autopilot off at any time by taking over the steering wheel.
- It can self park – even parallel parking. Sign me up for this, please!
- You can move the car forward and backward with just the key fob, without even being in it.
Overall, what Marcus and I decided was the best thing about the Tesla is just how far technology has come. Although we are definitely not in the market for this fancy of a car, we think it won’t be too long before other car manufacturers start incorporating some of this cutting edge technology into their vehicles. Driving this car felt like we were in the future, and if this is where we are going, there is a lot to be excited about.
I was a little nervous to drive it, but once I got in the driver seat I didn’t want to get out. This was such a neat experience and a pretty unique way to spend a date night. If you ever get a chance to drive a Tesla, don’t pass it up!
