Two weeks ago, I went with one of my roommates, Catie, to have lunch with her grandparents. Usually, grandparents tend to be behind the times of technology, not really sure of any of the new items that are out there or how to use them. While her grandparents both have iPhones, there is no wifi or TV in their house near Lake Norman. What they do have, though, is a Model S Tesla.
They let Catie and I take the Tesla out for a drive after we had eaten, and the technology in that car amazes me. Everything is so touch and interactive based – the dashboard is a huge touchscreen, bigger than the screen on your laptop. You can do directions, find music, and even surf the internet on this screen. On the dashboard behind your steering wheel, there are more digital images: changing digital scales of your speed and gas level, as well as a little tiny Model S where you can see where you are in the lane, what is around you, and what to do next. Even as a millennial, I was out of touch in this car. Catie and I could barely figure out how to work most of its functions!
This is a semi-accurate representation of what Catie and I were doing when we put the Tesla on autopilot, where it drives itself, moving the steering wheel while on cruise control:
We thought the technology was incredible, but it was easy to see some of the shortcomings in the Model S as it is right now. You can set it to autopilot on the highway, but it won’t drive you everywhere, nor will it change speeds, so you can’t use it in traffic, with stop signs or stop lights, and it doesn’t follow your google map directions. While the tractor trailer may have been easily visible to us, I could see how the Tesla could mistake it during that fatal crash last year. The range of what the car can “see” is limited, and definitely, there are still kinks to be worked out. As of now, while the car can do some driving of itself, it is still a long way from the true self-driving cars that would take you from point A to point B without you ever touching the steering wheel.