This Autopilot-heavy roadtrip features great power, lingering concerns, and a steep price.

It’s been quite an unexpected decade at Tesla. In 2007, if you said that the EV company would release an all-electric sedan that became one of the fastest accelerating vehicles of all time and sold tens of thousands of units with numerous hardware and software improvements along the way, you’d have been sent to the loony bin. And if you then predicted the company would release an all-electric SUV that would do the same and develop and release (sort of) an affordable, stylish, and long-range EV... well, maybe you’d have been mistaken for a member of the Musk family.

And yet, Elon Musk and Tesla have done all those things with the Model S, Model X, and Model 3. The company has gone further with things like the Gigafactory; home, commercial, and utility battery products; and previews of the new Tesla Roadster and Tesla Semi, too. To be sure, Musk has made a lot of ambitious promises and really missed a lot of deadlines over the years—but people who have bet against Tesla over have lost a lot of money. (Tesla's stock price is up almost 1700 percent since its June 2010 IPO, fyi.)

So far, Ars has spent time with two of Tesla’s initial big three. We reviewed the Tesla Model S twice (the P85+ in 2013 and the P85D in 2015), thanks to frequent updates to the car. And we stood among the first journalists to ride along (albeit briefly) with the Model 3s coming off the factory line last fall. But until now we'd only spent a few minutes behind the wheel of the Model X SUV, which began deliveries way back in September 2015. That changes today with a proper review of a Tesla Model X P100D.

I took the $161,750 SUV on an all-electric road trip from Mountain View, California to my home in Durango, Colorado, which means I got a lot of experience both with Tesla's Autopilot system and the company's long-distance Supercharger fast-charging network. (Thanks to the need to make 10 charging stops during that 1,119-mile/1,800km journey, I also had a lot of experience napping in the back.)

In short, the experience largely felt as dreamy as Tesla disciples would lead you to believe. But a fun road trip vehicle for car critics doesn’t necessarily make a sure-fire daily driving recommendation.

Powertrain

Without question, the powertrain is the best part of the Model X. Our test vehicle was a P100D with the Ludicrous Mode speed upgrade. The pair of "three-phase, four-pole AC induction motors"—one driving each axle—hustle the 5,531lb (2,509kg) beast from zero to 60mph in a claimed 2.9 seconds. That's supercar territory, and this SUV has output figures to match: 603hp (450kW)and 713lb-ft (967Nm) of torque.
With all that power, Ludicrous mode feels like an apt name. To start it up, launch control in the Model X is identical to the Model S:

1. Left foot hard on the brake.
2. Right foot hard to the floor.
3. Release left foot.
4. Warp speed.

The Model S looks and feels like a four-door sports car; you expect it to be fast. But standing next to the Model X, I'm surprised at how tall it is. The front windows are enormous, giving terrific visibility, but they also reminds you just how large this thing is.

Yet the speed—particularly in a vehicle this size—really is ludicrous. It’s jaw-dropping. Even after putting seven people in the Model X, though you can't go zero-60 in under 3 seconds thanks to the added weight, it still feels more like something that should be launching off the SpaceX pad at Cape Canaveral.

What’s more, the speed is intoxicating, with an almost-direct connection between the accelerator and dopamine production in your brain. If I owned this car and was having a bad day, a couple stop sign launches would put a smile on my face in no time. The various flavors of Dodge Hellcat work similarly, albeit with a lot more noise.

For all the joy I got from zero-to-60 blasts, these launches use a lot of electricity. And in day-to-day life, I can say that Ludicrous Mode is really not necessary—especially considering the Performance Package and Ludicrous Mode add some $34,450 to the cost of the car. That's almost enough to buy an entry-level Model 3.

In normal-paced modes, the 100kWh battery pack carries enough juice to give an EPA-estimated range of 289 miles (465km) across a city-and-highway testing cycle (346W watt-hours per mile). That's excellent, though I suspect that when most people think of range, they think "how far can I go on the highway?"

My average "fuel economy" on my 1,100-mile road trip was 433wh/mi, good for just shy of 231 miles (372km) if you were to push it to the limit. My longest stint was 181.1 miles, and I was feeling a little anxious towards the end as I watched the battery gauge drop (in retrospect, I really didn't have any need to be alarmed).

There are two battery options in the Model X currently, a 75kWh unit with 237 miles (381km) of EPA-estimated range, and the 100 kWh pack that my P100D unit included that can go the 289 miles. However, if you opt for the standard 100D Model X, it can go a touch further at 295 miles (475km) thanks to some reductions in power. All versions of the Model X include dual-motor all-wheel drive.

In day-to-day driving, where you wouldn't be able to try them back to back, it's unlikely that you would notice the difference between the P100D and the regular 100D. But I suppose there is something to be said for having the best.

Autopilot

Perhaps the most famous Tesla feature—aside from the fact that it runs on electricity—is Autopilot. The option has been included in the Model X from its release in 2015, and both the hardware and software of the advanced driver assist system have been upgraded over the years to add features and capabilities.

Beginning in October 2016, all Tesla vehicles switched to the so-called "Hardware 2" setup, adding several more cameras around the car, as well as more capable radar and sonar sensors. Tesla says the hardware in the system—it's powered by the Nvidia Drive PX 2 AI platform—will be capable of fully autonomous driving once the software is ready, though such tech is likely still years away depending on whom you ask. Tesla spokespeople wisely decline to put a firm date on it.

The current Autopilot combines three forward-facing cameras (one narrow with 250-meter range, a medium with 150-meter range, and a wide-angle with 60-meter range), a pair of forward-looking side cameras (80 meters), a pair of rearward-facing side cameras (100-meters), and a rear-facing camera (50 meters) that performs double-duty for both reversing and as a future autonomous sensor. There is a forward-facing radar that sees 160 meters, and a dozen short-range ultrasonic sensors that can see close-by objects in nearly all directions.

Officially, Autopilot is the name for Tesla's entire suite of advanced driver assist systems. But let us remind everyone again—the current system is far from autonomous, but when used properly it can make driving much safer and more pleasurable. It includes typical safety features like Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward and Side Collision Warning, and auto high beams. But it also includes a Level 2 driver assist that combines a lane centering technology called Autosteer with traffic-aware cruise control.

In practice, Autopilot can take over steering and speed management while the driver supervises. It's best suited for tedious stretches of driving like stop-and go traffic or long cruises on the interstate. Though it can be activated on nearly any road, it's clear that the Autosteer system is not really meant for crowded or twisty roads. But as long as the Autopilot system's cameras can see the surrounding lane lines, it will display a grey steering wheel symbol on the dash signaling that it's ready to go. When Autopilot is activated with a double-pull on a standalone cruise control stalk, the Model X gives a pleasant "bing-bong" noise and the steering wheel symbol turns blue.

Deactivating Autopilot can be done several ways. The simplest is to grab the steering wheel and apply some force. The wheel initially resists before suddenly releasing control and handing things back to the driver. It can be something of a jarring transition at first, but it seems Tesla's engineers want it to be crystal clear who is in charge of steering.

It's not difficult to disengage, but if the driver wants to make a slight steering correction, the torque needed to disengage Autopilot may result in a more significant turn than initially intended. Drivers can also push the cruise control stalk, or lightly press the brake pedal to disengage. No matter which way you do it, the system gives a slightly less pleasant "bong-bing" noise to acknowledge the move.

During my road trip, I used Autosteer for basically the entire time I was on the interstate—more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) worth. It was, for the most part, an excellent experience. On the well-marked interstates of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, Autosteer had little trouble keeping me comfortably between the lines. A quick tap on the turn signal indicator would have the car change lanes on its own if there was no car in the way, though the system is not yet capable of deciding to change lanes automatically.

Autopilot has come a long way since it was first released. Early versions would sometimes try follow the right-hand solid lane marker down an off-ramp, or engage in an in-lane "weave," drifting uncomfortably to the left and right in a manner that could sometimes lead to carsickness. For the most part, the car didn't do these things this time except at dawn and dusk, which remain the trickiest times of day for vision cameras to see those lane lines reliably. Even then, the weave was only really noticeable if you had your hand on the wheel and could feel the mild left-right-left-right motion.

When I pushed the limits of the car, it fared less well. Merging from two lanes to one was usually not a problem, but dealing with a single lane widening into two was much more of an issue. On more than one occasion the car began to steer back and forth rapidly as it tried to decide which lane it was supposed to be in. In most cases I tried to let the system figure out what it was supposed to do, but in one case I was so alarmed by the behavior that I grabbed the wheel and took over.

To be sure, I wanted to see what it was capable of, but a less attentive (or less-informed) driver might be startled by this lack of capability in a fairly common roadtrip situation. Construction zones were another issue with sometimes sharp lane changes that the system clearly wasn't prepared for. I shouldn't hold thathist against the system, however, as those situations are outside its current operational guidelines. But given Autosteer is so capable so much of the time, it’s easy to forget that it has very real and very severe limitations.

As long as the driver remembers what the car can and, more importantly, can't do, it's an extremely pleasurable experience. Autosteer makes commuting in stop-and-go traffic a significantly less stressful experience, and my lengthy road trip was almost relaxing. All I had to do was take in the beautiful desert scenery and make sure nothing too weird was going on up ahead.

I don't know what the future holds for Tesla's "Enhanced Autopilot"—the company has promised a litany of future features including changing lanes without driver input, driving hands-free from one freeway to another, exiting the freeway at the appropriate destination, or maneuvering to an open parking spot to and from your garage without any intervention. Eventually, the company says, its cars sold today will be able to drive completely autonomously.

Many in the industry believe that a third sensor system like lidar is necessary for truly safe self-driving, and this is a sensor that the Model X doesn't include today. Tesla disagrees, saying its vision camera system is advanced enough when combined with a boatload of Nvidia-powered processors and the forward-facing radar. We'll see—but for now, Autosteer works as advertised, as long as you use it as intended.

Exterior

When I first saw the Model X in person, I thought it looked like a fat Model S. And after a week of testing, I still think it looks like a fat Model S. The vehicle carries this weight well, though. It’s built on the same platform as the Model S, and is, in fact, the same car in many ways: similar motors, battery packs, suspension, and platform. For those who aren’t avid Tesla fans, it can even be difficult to tell the Model X and Model S apart at first glance. But look closer, and you’ll see that the X has been stretched in every direction.

The Model X gains an extra 10 inches (25mm) in height to 66” (1,676mm) and length is up 2.3-inches (59mm) to 198.3” (5,037mm). Its wheelbase has barely changed, growing 0.2-inches (5mm) to 116.7” (2,964mm). Ground clearance is up as much as two-inches with the air suspension, as one would expect in an SUV, to a maximum of 8.3” (211mm). As such, interior space is bigger in all dimensions and the car feels much less cramped.

The lead designer of both Tesla vehicles is the company’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, and it seems his primary design objective was to make the car look like a spaceship—and for it to be as slippery as possible. At the back is a raised spoiler that helps keep the rear-end planted at speed.

The Model X has a 0.24 drag coefficient, identical to the Model S. (Standard Ars disclaimer here: In real life Cd is much less meaningful than CdA and it’s about time companies started including frontal area in their drag claims.) Reducing drag is exceptionally important for an electric vehicle, particularly at highway speeds. Drag increases exponentially with speed, so slipperiness is essential. One day perhaps, government regulations will allow Tesla to eliminate the side-mirrors in favor of tiny drag-reducing cameras—but not yet.

Interior

On the inside, the similarities to the Model S continue. It has the same steering wheel, the same 17-inch center-mounted vertical touchscreen dominating the front of the interior, and the same digital instrument cluster. There’s a shelf directly beneath the center screen that is perfect for holding a smartphone or a wallet, and then the center console includes a cavernous bin for everything from a pocketbook and sunglasses to a bag of Chick-Fil-A on a long-road trip.

Behind that is a couple of cupholders and a pair of sliding armrests for the driver and passenger. The seats are firm but comfortable, and storage is not a problem up front. A pair of USB ports in the console and two more on the rear (for back-seat passengers) mean everyone’s devices can stay charged up.

Legroom for both front and rear passengers is particularly spacious, especially with the fully-flat floor made possible by the enormous battery pack and no need for a powertrain tunnel running down the center axis of the vehicle. The third-row is a bit more cramped, which is to be expected, but the Falcon Wing doors make it quite easy to step up and into the rear. For those with mobility issues, the rear of the Model X is likely one of the easiest vehicles to get in and out of. With the door completely out of the way, it’s simply a matter of stepping up into the car and then sitting down. As with most three-row SUVs, rear cargo space is rather limited when the third-row is up, but storage is ample when it’s down.

For fans of camping in their Tesla, there is plenty of room in the rear for a pair of sleeping bags. And when the Falcon Wing doors are open, there’s a lovely crossbreeze that would be much more limited if I were to merely open the windows. Getting in and out of the rear when sleeping is a bit undignified, but that’s the cost of napping in your car really. If you’re going to do it a lot, I’d suggest a foam mattress topper of some kind to smooth things out.

Toys

The biggest “wow!” piece of this car is definitely the Falcon Wing doors. Instead of opening outwards like a normal door, the rear doors on the Model X move upwards and fold out of the way. It’s a neat, and spectacularly unnecessary, trick. The Falcon Wing name is supposed to differentiate from the “gullwing” doors that you would find on the famous old Mercedes SL or on the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

The difference is that the Model X’s door has two joints, one at the top where it connects to the main roof pillar and a second along the more traditional roofline. The upshot is that the door can open without swinging out wide as a gullwing would. Using sensors, the door can detect when an obstacle is near and carefully unfold to avoid a nearby vehicle in a tight parking lot or a low garage roof. (Note: It won’t prevent you from getting bonked on the head if you stand in the wrong spot, as Cars Technica Editor Jonathan Gitlin discovered a while ago.)

The idea is, for example, to make it easy for Mom or Dad to carry their toddler over to the car, step in, and then put the child into a car seat. It’s definitely easier to get in and out, but given the production issues that Tesla had when the Model X first came out, even Elon Musk agreed that the tech stuffed into the car was too much.

That said, if you like being the center of attention, there isn’t much this side of a bright red Ferrari that will attract a crowd like the Falcon Wing doors.

That’s not where the door trickery ends in the Model X. The front doors can open and close themselves, too. If you approach the car at the right angle, with the key fob in your pocket, the front doors will open themselves. Most of the time this works well, but occasionally the doors will open when you don’t want them to and a light push closes them again. I’m not sure why the Model X can open and close itself other than the fact that it’s really, really cool.

From the center console or the keyfob, a single touch can close all the doors at once. And it’s super cool to be able to close everything simultaneously from the fob. Your five-year-old will love it, and they’ll be able to endlessly recreate that famous Volkswagen/Darth Vader Super Bowl ad.

The door handles have been upgraded from the Model S as well. They don’t “auto-present” themselves anymore; instead, they’re like big chrome buttons. Give a press and the door pops open. The Falcon Wing doors can be closed with buttons on the B-pillars, a red close button on the door itself (though this one is fairly high), or via the aforementioned keyfob or a window that pops up on the center touchscreen when any door is open.

Though the doors might be the most prominent feature on the outside of the car, once you climb in it’s the gigantic windshield that takes over. Instead of a normal windshield that stops just above the rearview mirror, Tesla chose to build one that continues up over your head until just over the front-seat headrests. It’s like being inside a spaceship, and the design gives incredibly visibility—which is great, for a while.

While the windshield is massive, it becomes evident that there’s a reason carmakers have built windshields of a certain size for decades. To prevent the sun from glaring in at the middle of the day, the glass is heavily tinted above the rear-view mirror. This means that at night, when you might want to look at the moon or the stars, it’s too dim.

There’s also the question of where to put the sun visors. Tesla has an inelegant solution where the visor sits on the A-pillar and can be swung out to magnetically connect to the rear-view mirror. And that mirror, which contains myriad electronics and vision sensors for the Autopilot system, has no place to hide its wiring. So Tesla’s designers were forced to run a black strip of plastic up the middle of the glass towards the roof. The effect is distracting and makes the massive windshield a little less special.

Still, it’s one more thing for your passengers to be amazed by.

EVness

Range anxiety is by far the most common complaint I hear from average car buyers when I ask them about electric vehicles. And with many electric cars, like the BMW i3 or Fiat 500e, that’s a very legitimate concern.

But Tesla has built its Supercharger fast-charging network across parts of North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. According to Tesla’s website, the company has 1,043 Supercharging stations with 7,496 chargers, and more are on the way.

I made 10 stops at Superchargers during my 1,119-mile (1,800km) road trip from San Francisco to Durango, Colorado. Most of those stops were quick top ups, but several lasted more than an hour if I had a long gap between stations. Tesla’s navigation system will route you from Supercharger to Supercharger on a long trip, but I found its estimates on fuel consumption to be a little optimistic. Still, Tesla’s charging network is second-to-none when it comes to long-distance electric travel. That may change over the next few years as more high-speed charging networks open up.

At the moment, buying any other electric car besides a Tesla means worrying about where to charge on long journeys—sometimes worrying even if you’ll be able to charge. With the Superchargers, you can’t completely ignore the range meter, but it’s perhaps as close as we’ll get for the foreseeable future.

Price/wrap up

Considered on its own, the Model X is a solid SUV. The powertrain is spectacular and the Falcon Wing doors are a hell of a party trick. But when you look at the price, starting at $79,500 and going up to the $161,750 top-of-the-line P100D that I drove, the Tesla is surrounded by impressive competition.

If you aren’t married to the idea of an all-electric vehicle, there is no shortage of alternatives. The BMW X5, Mercedes GLS, Porsche Cayenne, and (my favorite) Volvo XC90 all cost significantly less. Many are also available in plug-in hybrid variants. If you are eyeing the $160,000 top-of-the-line Model X, the Bentley Bentayga isn’t that much more money and its interior is the best of any SUV.

And if you want an all-electric vehicle, competition from Jaguar, Audi, and others will likely hit showrooms in the next three or five years.

All these other brands have established dealer networks and don’t have the same quality control issues that Tesla owners continue to see years after the Model S and X were introduced—my press loaner Model X had significant differences in panel gaps on the rear liftgate, for instance. That’s something that wouldn’t make it out of the factory at most luxury automakers, never mind to the press fleet.

Ultimately, Model X buyers are paying a lot of money for an excellent powertrain, an advanced driver assist system that Elon Musk says will get a lot better going forward, and some very clever toys like the Falcon Wing doors. But buying the Model X means paying a significant premium in both price and workmanship to have the most advanced drivetrain out there.

If that’s what you want, the Model X is truly incredible. If you’re less impressed with the tech wizardry, your dollars may be better spent on something from one of the more traditional carmakers—then, you can revisit the Tesla’s offerings’ latest updates when your lease is up.