EVERYTHING WRONG With My Tesla Model 3 After One Year

What's up you guys? It's Graham here.

So, as some of you know, last year I bought a Tesla Model 3. In typical me fashion, I tried to be as frugal as possible to get the car's price down as much as I could by skimping on all of the options. I decided to pick the base model with a shorter distance because it was cheaper. I got the car in the standard black paint job because it didn't cost extra. I got the black interior because that came included at no extra cost, and I skipped one of the options that most people tout as the revolutionary feature of Tesla, and that would be the full self-driving option.

Now, at the time I bought the car, this was a $5,000 upgrade that allowed it to fully navigate highways, lane change on your behalf, auto park, and a myriad of other features that were only limited to those who had $5,000 to shell out to Elon Musk. Back then, I thought to myself, “Nah, I don't need all those extra features. The basic autopilot that just stays in its lane is way good enough for me.” For $5,000, I would just rather invest that money back into Tesla stock because I could park my own car and navigate my own highways.

Well then, this happened: Tesla began ramping up the price of their autopilot feature from $5,000 to $6,000 to $7,000 to now $8,000. They promise that one day soon this feature will allow the car to fully navigate city streets, pick you up wherever you are, and even turn itself into a robot taxi that could earn its owners up to $30,000 a year, perhaps in a not-so-distant future.

So, of course, I reached out to Tesla to see if they offer a free trial option so I could try this out myself before buying it, and the answer is no for anyone wondering. I took that as a sign that, you know what? It's not meant to be. I'm not going to go and buy it. That's when, all of a sudden, the almighty Elon Musk blessed thy Tesla stock and caused it to skyrocket in value.

So, I think it is a token of my appreciation for Tesla stock. I may as well just go and give some of that back to Elon Musk, and I'll be able to show you what the $8,000 full self-driving feature really gets you. So you're not gonna have to spend $8,000 like I did, or maybe you will if it's worth it. I don't know. I did not plan this video ahead of time, so I genuinely don't know what's gonna happen.

So with that said, if you wouldn't mind just gently destroying the like button for the YouTube algorithm because this video cost me $8,000 to make, it would be greatly appreciated. Plus, if you like this video, I’m going to be showing you a cute picture of a sloth right here.

So first we gotta go ahead and buy the autopilot feature. But one thing I noticed is that here in California, you're charged $760 in sales tax in addition to the full price of autopilot. Obviously, I’m not the only one who is shocked by this because everyone else in the Tesla forums is just as perplexed as I am. In most states, digital products are exempt from sales tax when there's no physical delivery of an item. But nope, not this one, and this is not just a California thing either. If your state has sales tax, that sales tax is added on to the cost of this.

But I trust that Tesla has looked into this already and knows their sales tax laws way better than some random guy on YouTube. So let's go ahead and we're gonna buy it. We're gonna buy it right now and, uh, $8,760 later, it's gone. It's all gone.

Alright, wow. So for $8,000, here's what it should do. The first thing we should try out is the auto lane change, which assists in moving to an adjacent lane on the highway when auto steer is engaged, or in other words, the car is going to lane change for you without you doing much work. So let's give that a shot and see just how worth $8,000 that is.

Autopilot: navigate on autopilot. That's just a yes. Summon beta? We'll turn that on as well. That's a yes. Alright, so we got auto steer engaged. Let's see if it lane changes.

Oh, whoa! It did it! Overall, I admit it's a cool feature to have, but let's be honest, I would rather just do it myself and save the $8,000. Maybe I was new to this whole autopilot full self-driving thing, but when you're in traffic surrounded by a whole bunch of other cars, the lane change assist feature is not as intuitive or smooth as you would expect it to be.

Oh, yikes! I'm getting antsy here. Like when you're in traffic with the blinker turned on, there needs to be a fair space next to you for the car to actually want to change lanes over. Otherwise, you're just sitting in there with the blinker turned on. It doesn’t know what it wants to do right now. Now it's freaking out. Let's not crash into this!

Oh, look at that car! Like, at least in Los Angeles, sometimes you just gotta nudge your way in there and create your own spot; otherwise, you're not getting it. But I expect that will probably improve over time as will the price.

Besides that, the next feature is called the navigate on autopilot, wait for it, beta. It actively guides your car from highway on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, navigating interchanges, automatically engaging the turn signal, and taking the correct exit.

Which just right there does way more than the average driver here in Los Angeles. See, what I have right now is basically just the normal autopilot feature that allows you to essentially cruise control in the same lane, and your car will adjust and make turns within the lines as it sees fit. But that’s it! It's really nothing crazy with this, though.

It should be able to figure out how to enter and exit different highways and navigate the maze that is California's highways. So we're going to be testing this out firsthand, starting with the 10 Freeway in Santa Monica and then navigating over to the 405 Freeway in Westwood. Ah, wish us luck.

So all we got to do is navigate on autopilot, or is it? Is that on? Which one is on? Alright, let's see if it's going to change the lane. Change the lane up! And it changed the lane. The car did it itself! I didn't do that! I did not do, wow, that's cool! You saw me? I didn't touch a single thing. It put the turn signal on by itself! That is what $8,000 just paid for!

Be a little lazy now! Now I'll be honest, navigating the highway like this is really cool, but would I pay $8,000 for it? The answer is probably not. I think it's a really useful feature in the grand scheme of things, especially as full self-driving and autonomy actually become a thing. But as it stands right now, even though it's kind of cool and fun to use, I would rather just save the money.

Next, we have the auto park, which automatically parallel or perpendicular parks the car with a single touch. So obviously, not to brag or anything like that, but parallel parking this car is extremely easy, especially with all the sensors around it, not to mention this giant camera screen right in front of you. But let's give it a shot and test it out.

Between what I could do and what the car can do, this is a parking spot, and today we're gonna be giving it a Tesla self-parking score. So I'm going to be first showing you my parallel parking skills. Just check this out right here! [Music] There we go! Check that out! Easy!

Let's see how close we got to that. So check this out, guys. We got the perfect parallel park right here. We got about four inches or so, I would say this was a success. Now let's see what Tesla can do. You know what? I got to learn how to do it. How do you do this?

It wants you to drive by until a P shows up on the screen. [Music] Why is it not working? Okay, so we got a P showing up on the screen right here and press the P. It's working! It’s moving kind of slow. Wow, look at this! That's pretty cool!

Wow! [Music] It worked! It worked! That's too cool! Okay, so they left a little bit more space here. It's not as good as mine, but you know what? Wow, the self-parking feature was really cool and precise, but let's be real, a lot of cars are offering this right now and it's not necessarily unique to Tesla, per se.

I also find it kind of difficult to recognize that sweet spot where Tesla actually acknowledges that space is a parking spot. So if you're in fast-moving traffic and need time to adjust for it to recognize it as a parking spot, you're gonna have a bad time and it's not very practical.

Now this one is probably one of the most anticipated features out there that's gathered all the headlines lately, and that would be the summon feature. As they say, it's gonna move your car in or out of a tight space using the mobile app or key. And what better place to use this than my super-narrow driveway?

So let's give this a shot and see if we can get the car to move forward. Alright, let's see! And it’s working! Look at that! Now let’s see if we can get the car to go back in because I hate having to back this car up here. Let's go reverse, this is worth it just for this so I’ll never have to pull my car back in ever again. Look at this! I think we're good!

Now we gotta say this one is really cool, and I could see how some people get a lot of use from this. Sometimes I just hate to wedge myself in narrow spots to try to get into the car and then open the door a little amount and hope I fit through. This would be the perfect solution for that.

It's also ideal if you're parked in a really tight spot or someone pulls in way too close next to you without leaving you a lot of room to get in and out. Now that of course arises the question: is it worth $8,000? And that just depends on how nimble you are to actually get into your car.

Now the next one is something I've always wanted to try, and it's called the smart summon. Tesla says your car will navigate more complex environments and parking spaces, maneuvering around objects as necessary to come find you in a parking lot. But after watching YouTube videos on this, it just seems rather disappointing and slow. But hey, that's not going to stop me from trying this out myself!

So now we're going to be trying the smart summon feature, and what we did is parked in an empty parking lot here that cost us, by the way, $2.50 every 15 minutes, so we gotta do this one quick! Parked the car all the way down there, we’re gonna use the app to see if we can get the car from down there over here about 150, maybe 200 feet away.

Warning! Please move closer to your vehicle! We're too far away! We can see the car; it's right over there. It's not that far away. So it wants us to walk a little bit closer. How close do you have to get to your vehicle for this to work? We may as well just walk to the car at this point!

Oh look, it’s going! Look at that! Wow, look at that! Oh, it doesn’t know what to do! Is it gonna hit me? The downside, obviously, I wanted it to be over there and have it go further. The radius here is not that great! I’ll be real; I'm disappointed it didn't work on a larger distance.

As it is right now, you gotta be somewhat close to the car for this to actually work, and at that point, you may as well just walk the rest of the way to your car and get in like a normal person. I'm sure at some point they got to expand the radius, and I understand this is just a beta mode for right now, but my only complaint as of today is that I'm not able to do it at a further distance.

And lastly, we got this one: traffic and stop sign control, wait for it, beta! Identify stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows your car to a stop and approach with your active supervision. This one is somewhat new, and I haven't really seen a lot of people making videos on this quite yet, so here we go, I’ll give it a shot.

After all, isn't it such an inconvenience that your autopilot can't even tell the difference between a red light and a green light, or a stop sign from a not-stop sign? Well, I guess you could say that stops today! Get it? Stops! I'll stop!

So we got a red light up here. I don't know if we're gonna get to it, but it seems like when you're in auto, it seems like when you're on autopilot, it seems like when you're in autopilot—wait! Is it gonna? Nope, it's definitely not gonna recognize that red light.

No! Alright, bad news, guys! Bad news! So, I was trying to figure out why this was not showing up, why it wasn't working, and when I went online, it turns out that cars produced prior to like May 2019 came with hardware 2.5 and not hardware 3 that's needed.

So what I need to do is get hardware 3, which requires actually making an appointment at Tesla, then they’re gonna be putting in the new chip. I would just expect that for $8,000, they would tell you up front that you need a hardware update for some of the features to become available. That requires you to make a service appointment.

Now, I realize this is certainly the epitome of a first-world problem, like boohoo, you have to make a service appointment for your Tesla to get the full self-driving feature you paid for! So I’ll make the appointments; I’ll get back to you. The biggest reason I'm disappointed is because I can't give you the content I was hoping to give you today.

So my only advice here for Tesla is that if they see certain cars have the hardware 2.5 installed, at least give those owners a heads up that they’re gonna need hardware 3 for these features to become fully available.

And finally, last but not least, the one we've all been waiting for: full city street driving. But they say that's upcoming, and it's been upcoming for quite some time. The reality is the feature we all want, which is full autonomous driving, where I could just get in the car and then let it take me to my destination without me doing a single thing, is probably very, very far away.

It's been promised by the end of the year for many years now with no real time frame as to when it's actually going to become available. But all of us are holding out with the hope that one day soon we could let our cars just drive themselves while we watch YouTube videos and smash like buttons.

I also find his business model for the Tesla autopilot extremely interesting and unlike any other car manufacturer out there. That's because the almighty Elon Musk can control how much money he charges for the autopilot feature, and therefore he has a direct influence on the resale value of all of his cars.

For example, if he chose to raise the autopilot feature to $15,000 next month, chances are all of the cars which already have the autopilot feature enabled would go up slightly in value because now it's a more expensive option for anyone else who wants to buy it. Doing this means he can influence the used car market and turn a one-time cost into a business model that continues to grow over time.

That's part of the reason I think Tesla is so unique. It's because of their ability to continually reinvent and upgrade their cars over the air, and that means these cars just continue to get better and better and improve over time. I'm excited to see what's coming next.

Now, as for whether or not the $8,000 upgrade was worth it, I'll be honest. As it stands right now, the answer is probably no. No, obviously, I understand that $8,000 is just the price you're paying to get in today before full self-driving is a thing and these cars can just navigate themselves on the streets without you doing a single thing.

Maybe at that point they're gonna cost more like $15,000 to $20,000 extra, but the risk you're taking is: how long is that gonna take to happen? Is it gonna be next year, five years from now, twenty years from now? And what's the opportunity cost going to be to buy into a feature that’s not fully functional yet versus just going and investing that money elsewhere?

For example, instead of buying autopilot for $5,000 back in 2019, I just used that extra money to go and buy more Tesla stock, and that $5,000 investment alone is now worth today more than $41,000. So I definitely made the right choice back then not to buy autopilot.

But what about now? I think in the next few years, if autopilot becomes fully functional, where you can just go and type in an address, sit down in the car, and the car takes you wherever you want to go, then I think it’s very, very well worth it.

But as it stands right now, I personally don't see this being worth $8,000 besides me just being able to get more content for YouTube. However, I do think it's worth it for the people who plan to hold their car a long time and expect more autopilot features to be added on to this before he raises the price again, and he will.

But for anyone else, I would say you're best off just investing the money instead and then waiting this one out until full self-driving is actually a thing.

So that's my review of the Tesla autopilot feature, and I understand there's a lot of other Tesla reviews out there, so it means a lot to me, and I really appreciate it that you would come and watch mine. I know my reviews, I know these videos might not be the most technical, but I'm a big fan of Tesla. I absolutely love the car and I'll always do my best to be as honest as possible and tell you practically whether or not this is actually worth it, which for this feature, I just gotta say, it’s probably not worth it.

If full self-driving is actually a thing, then yes, I think it will pay for itself many times over. But today, it's just not there.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it. Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram; I post pretty much daily. So if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there as my second channel, The Graham Stefan Show. I post there every single day I’m not posting here!

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