2023 Tesla Model X – Three Months

It has been three months since I picked up my Model X. I ended up driving to urgent care right afterwards for my ankle, so I have not driven it that much, probably less than 200 miles total. I do have some comments about the car, however.

• Not having a turn signal stalk is stupid. Since the turn activation buttons move with the steering wheel, it is not in the same location all the time.
• Likewise, not having a gear selector stalk in stupid. I like the steering column from my old Model S much better. Additionally, if I have to use the screen slider to select gears, I want the direction reversed: slide down for drive and up for reverse. This matches how I scroll the mouse on my computers. Like the turn signal controls, I have to pause and think about the motion each time.
• Removing the creep feature is also stupid. Electric cars have a lot of torque. Sometimes, especially when parking, you want the car to move slightly without the risk of pressing the pedal too much and crashing into your garage or other cars. Why make the car harder to drive? Why not leave it as an option?
• The falcon-wing doors are stupid. They will not open in home garages since there is not enough height clearance. I also have a garage opener and the hardware further reduces the effective ceiling height. It just means rear passengers need to enter/exit the car outside the garage. I also cannot put items in the back seat while in the garage since the fucking doors will not open.
• Full self-drive (FSD) is not stupid but just not ready. I used it several times during the three-month demo period. When it works, FSD is amazing. However, it did make annoying moves, like constant lane changes in local traffic, and it was outright dangerous several times.

There are lots of good things about the car. It is very comfortable and has a lot of power. It is a big car so it is very roomy. Most of the electronic systems work well, and is a definite upgrade from my old Tesla. However, these are incremental improvements, whereas the list above are deliberate changes and steps backwards in driveability in my opinion. I still like the car, but there is a lot of unnecessary frustration when driving.