A Tesla owner drove his Model Y for 2 years on factory defaults.
He thought it drove fine. A little sluggish on deceleration. A little jerky when stopping. Range lower than advertised. Autopilot following distance felt dangerously close or annoyingly far. Dashcam wasn't recording. The car rolled backward on hills.
His friend a Tesla service technician who's worked on 5,000+ vehicles sat in the passenger seat for one drive and said:
"You've been driving this car wrong for 2 years. Not dangerously. But every setting that controls how this car accelerates, brakes, stops, follows traffic, charges, and records is on the wrong default for how you actually drive. I can make this feel like a completely different car in 10 minutes. Without touching the hardware."
He changed 11 settings on the touchscreen.
The owner pulled out of the parking lot and said: "What did you do? This feels like a software upgrade."
"It is. The one Tesla gave you 2 years ago. You just never opened Settings."
Here's every setting he changed and why your Tesla is driving worse than it should ๐งต
A Tesla owner drove his Model Y for 2 years on factory defaults.
He thought it drove fine. A little sluggish on deceleration. A little jerky when stopping. Range lower than advertised. Autopilot following distance felt dangerously close or annoyingly far. Dashcam wasn't recording. The car rolled backward on hills.
His friend a Tesla service technician who's worked on 5,000+ vehicles sat in the passenger seat for one drive and said:
"You've been driving this car wrong for 2 years. Not dangerously. But every setting that controls how this car accelerates, brakes, stops, follows traffic, charges, and records is on the wrong default for how you actually drive. I can make this feel like a completely different car in 10 minutes. Without touching the hardware."
He changed 11 settings on the touchscreen.
The owner pulled out of the parking lot and said: "What did you do? This feels like a software upgrade."
"It is. The one Tesla gave you 2 years ago. You just never opened Settings."
Here's every setting he changed and why your Tesla is driving worse than it should ๐งต
The airline lost my bag for 72 hours.
They handed me a $50 โcourtesyโ voucher at the baggage desk and smiled like theyโd done me a favor.
I kept the voucher. Then I opened my laptop and used a 1999 international treaty they never mention at check-in.
Total recovered: $1,650.
Here are the three legal weapons most passengers never know they have.