So most of you guys know I drive a manual Toyota Tacoma.
I have for years.
My last truck was a manual, this truck is a manual.
I don't drive an automatic vehicle because I like being in control.
Well this is a Tesla, and it has something called autopilot, which means it basically
drives for you.
One of the questions I've had in my head is can you text and drive a Tesla at the same
time while its doing its autopilot thing.
Because it's actually illegal in 47 states to text and drive at the same time.
But what if you're not technically driving?
There's only one way to find out.
We're in the middle of nowhere right now on a very secluded road where it should be safe
to do this.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Alright so this is the Model X.
There are a total of 8 cameras surrounding this thing.
We're going to see if we can find them all.
I know up here by the rear view mirror there are three cameras, one pointing straight forward
and two at a diagonal, I believe.
Then there's another camera right here up here by the driver's seat.
It kind of like points down to the road to find the lanes that you're in.
There's also a series of ultrasonic sensors which are these little bits right here.
I assume they're plastic.
Here by the passenger side window we have another camera.
And there's another camera right here on the side pointing back towards the lane.
So that should be all of the cameras and the ultrasonic sensors.
There are another 4 sensors on the front as well...here and there.
Same on the other side.
So all of those sensors and radar, which I think is behind the rear view mirror as well,
it could be somewhere different, that's just where it's at on my Tacoma, should be able
to keep us safe while we're driving.
I just put my foot on the break, oh and the door closes.
Alright, so we are currently inside the Model X and it has this huge dash right here with
the display.
Got the Tesla logo.
So Dan, how do we turn on the autopilot?
[Dan] Okay so first of all you need to be driving.
The car is always looking and it's showing you up here in the front, it has to see the
lines on the road and see it long enough to recognize that okay, this is a road, we can
drive, I can look at this, and then it's always looking at the other cars.
So once it pops up and you're in a place where it's legitimately a safe or a good place for
you to do it, then there will be a little gray steering wheel that will pop up right
here, and then you know you're ready to enable it.
And at that point, there's a little lever on the side you just have to pull back on
it 2 times, and you'll be good to go.
[Zack] Alright, so right now our route is programmed for CES because that's where we're
headed.
We're headed to a high-tech conference in a high-tech car.
Pretty stoked about that.
So I am going to switch us down into drive.
There is no key for like, you know, ignition for this car because there's no combustion
engine.
It's just like an electric engine underneath.
And so the car is ready to go right now, and it's so weird to me because there's like no
explosions happening under the hood or under the bonnet if you're on the other side of
the ocean.
And so we're going to go ahead and merge over into this lane.
We're on the road.
And on the computer right now, if you can show the dashboard right here, it's showing
us that we can see the lanes that we're in.
It shows either side of it and it can, say like if I merge over a little bit to the side
right here, it shows me at the edge of the lane.
Or if I get on the other side, it'll move over to that side of the lane.
So it's keeping track with all of those cameras around the outside of the vehicle where we
are located in the lane itself.
Okay, one thing that is super important is that there does have to be lines on the road
for the autopilot to work.
And so if we want to show the road right now, we can see that there are lines on this newly
paved road so we should be fine.
And then here on the dashboard we have this grey steering wheel icon, which means that
we are enabled and ready to go into autopilot.
The icon is this little guy right here.
So in order to get on autopilot I'm going to pull in...so it's not these top two shifters,
but there's a shifter underneath and I'm going to pull it twice and I'll hear this little
ding, and then the steering wheel starts moving by itself.
It's the strangest thing!
And so right now it's set...it shows me the speed limit.
So the speed limit shows up right here and my max is one mile an hour above the speed
limit.
I'll drop that down one more.
And so this blue steering wheel right here shows us that we're in autopilot, and it shows
us where in the lane we currently are.
And the car's driving completely by itself...like it just took a turn in the car and I didn't
touch a thing.
So when I turn on the autopilot on this vehicle, there is a little warning message that pops
up telling me to keep my hands close to the steering wheel at all times.
Because remember, autopilot is different than autonomous driving, and I do have to be ready
to take over just in case anything goes wrong.
Remember full autonomous driving has not been approved yet in the United States, and that's
why the hardware is ready inside of the Tesla's, but it's not enabled yet.
So every now and then this will pop up a little warning telling me that I have to hold onto
the steering wheel in order for it to continue taking us to our destination or where we have
planned to go.
And so while I can look at you and talk to you and the car's going to do all the turning
and braking, and if like another car merges into our lane is going to stop, it's still
going to make sure that I'm awake and that I'm attentive by having me...see right here
it says “hold the steering wheel”.
And the outside of this frame has started to flash a little bit.
So I'm going to grab the steering wheel with my hands and then that warning sign goes away
and then it goes back to autonomous driving.
So I am looking forward to the fully autonomous driving in the future.
This autopilot is a step in that direction.
My question is what happens when someone gets too comfortable on this autopilot?
So right now that warning message just popped up on the steering wheel saying I have to
grab the steering wheel to show that I'm attentive, I'm not texting, I'm not, you know, watching
a movie or something like that.
So we're going to see how long it takes for the car to actually stop.
We just heard it beep.
And it doesn't know if I'm asleep, it doesn't know if I'm texting, it doesn't know if I'm
talking to a YouTube camera.
So it just beeped again.
So if I was falling asleep, I probably would be awake by now and I could show that I'm
attentive...Oh check out this... “auto steering not available for the rest of the drive.”
[Dan] And it stops in the middle of the road!
[Zack] It stopped us in the middle of the road.
So there's a car coming, so I'm going to move our car really quick.
It just said press the accelerator pedal.
Everything turned off as soon as I accelerated.
Okay, so now we're going to pull over and access what just happened here.
[Dan] I've never done that in my Tesla and I was pretty nervous, and I was surprised
at how fast it was, like that happened quick.
[Zack] Yeah, like if we...let's say I was having a heart attack or some kind of medical
emergency or something like that...now I kind of wish that it would have pulled over to
the side of the road.
Maybe with autopilot it doesn't know what lane we're in.
And so it just stopped in the center of the road and turned on our flashers, which was
probably a good thing.
But that was really interesting and it happened really quick.
What was that?
Between the time that we started autopilot and I never touched the steering wheel, it
was probably within about 60 seconds.
That was interesting.
That was pretty quick.
[Dan] That was a little scary.
I didn't expect it to stop in the middle of the road, like what if you were driving on
the actual freeway?
We were on a safe road off in the middle of a...not even a town, we're in some farmland.
But what if you're on the freeway, four-lane highway going 85 miles an hour, which in Utah
the speed limit is 80 on some of these roads, and the car just stops and turns on the flashers
right in the middle of the road?
I guess it's safer than if you had a heart attack and the car just kept on going and
veered off and stopped.
That's definitely one way to get your attention.
[Zack] One thing that did freak me out a little bit, and I hope that it doesn't mess up the
car permanently, it said that it was...that feature was not going to be available for
the rest of the drive.
So I'm curios now if we start the car up again if that gray steering wheel which allows us
to go into autopilot is not popping up.
So I wonder what that punishment period is.
I wonder how long that's going to last.
[Dan] Well thanks to your little test, Zack, it's not like we have 6 and a half hours left
till Vegas!
We're driving an autonomous car and we can't even use autopilot the rest of the trip.
[Zack] You win some, you lose some.
You know, we'll keep track of it.
We'll drive for another 4 or 5 hours and we'll see if that gray steering wheel pops up.
And in the mean time, I'm sorry Dan that your car is not autonomous anymore.
[Dan] Okay, here's what I think is going to happen, I'm hoping, we're about 15 minutes
away from an actual super charging station so I'm hoping that if we sit parked for maybe
30 minutes, get some electricity in this car, maybe it'll count as a new session, a new
driving session, once we get back on the road because 6 and a half hours of driving to Las
Vegas to CES with no autopilot..I know it's like first world problems, but I really like
my autopilot It's nice.
You may have killed it!
[Zack] I hope it comes back eventually.
Good news, we made it to Las Vegas, and even better news, the autopilot started working.
[Dan] Thank you for not breaking it.
[Zack] So we had to stop and charge like 15 or 20 minutes after we did our test, and then
we started the car again and the autopilot was working and it worked for the rest of
the trip.
We did not try to make the car break again, but it was interesting to see the probation
period between when we broke it and when it started working again.
[Dan] It really wasn't much, and I would think that Tesla would maybe punish you a little
bit more because, think about it, you fell asleep, or you were texting, or just weren't
paying attention, it was like yelling us, beeping and shining lights at us.
But yet, 20 minutes later...30 minutes later, autopilot is engaged.
[Zack] It'll be interesting to see what happens when the fully autonomous driving kicks in
and what kind of stipulations there are with that technology when it's legal and implemented
and everything.
The coolest part to me though about this road trip was that we didn't pay one single cent
for gasoline.
[Dan] That is really nice.
I mean, those of you that are buying a Model 3 right now, I know a lot of those are going
out, you have to pay for your supercharging at all of these stations always.
It's still cheaper than gas.
But for the Model S and the Model X they have this referral program right now to where if
you use somebody's code, somebody that already has a Tesla, then you get your charging for
free.
And that's only until I think January 31st.
And then Tesla will probably come out with another one, but if you're thinking about
getting a Tesla within the next few months, now would probably be the time so that you
can take advantage of that supercharging.
[Zack] So I'm going to steal Dan's code and put it down in the description so if you're
thinking about buying a Tesla, it's been on your mind and you want that free unlimited
charging for life...?
[Dan] For the life of the car, yeah, that you own it.
[Zack] That goes down in the description.
That's a pretty good deal.
So we're at Vegas and one of the coolest things that I'm looking forward to at CES is all
of the electric cars.
There's one in particular tomorrow that is especially fascinating So stick around for
that.
Thanks a ton for watching and I'll see you guys around.