
A Designer’s Tesla X Review: 7 mental shifts from driving ICE cars
I’ve been driving a Tesla X for the past six months, and I’m a user experience designer, so I thought it was time to share my experience so far. In this first post, I’ll introduce the car and share how I had to reset my expectations of driving compared to an internal combustion engine (ICE) car. In a second post, I’ll share my favorite parts of its design and my point of view for minor improvements for the product experience. My Tesla is a 60D Model X with the six-seat configuration.

First off, I’ll introduce you to the X in case you’ve never seen it or run into it online. It’s the car with the doors that go like this :arms moving up:, but there’s more to it than just cool looking doors. The X is the second production vehicle by Tesla (third if you count the Roadster), and is a cross-over SUV. It’s built on the same base as the S (the sedan car) with its battery lining the bottom of the body. That puts its center of gravity lower, making it feel more like driving a car than an SUV.

Because the X is electric, it doesn’t have an engine in the front, and that space has been made into a frunk, and provides more storage than just the trunk and a larger crumple zone. Because of this crumple zone and the low center of gravity, the X is the safest SUV on the road, and is the highest rated SUV ever.

It has sensors all around and a super computer crunching all that data. My X has the second version of the hardware (released in October 2016), which increased the number of external cameras to 8 and added additional sensors. Both feed into the second version of Autopilot and will eventually allow the car to be fully autonomous. For now, Tesla is slowly rolling out Enhanced Autopilot functionality as it’s been tested and trained.
When I started driving the X, I had to relearn how I approached driving and interacting with a car. I want to share a few aspects that you might need to reframe if you buy a Tesla.

1) It’s always improving through software updates.
We’ve gotten used to this paradigm with our smartphones and computers, but this car is the first I’ve had that won’t immediately be outdated after driving it for 6 months. Not only is the navigation updated regularly (a pain point in my previous 10-year old car), but the functionality of the car is also improved through these regular over-the-wifi updates.
These updates unlock and push new Autopilot features as they become available, too. When I took delivery of my X in December 2016, the cruise control wasn’t even available yet. But within a few weeks, they enabled that and a few of the basic Autosteer capabilities. Six months later, I have almost all of the Enhanced Autopilot functionality available to use. I get a notification on my phone or in my car when an update is available, and when my X is plugged in and connected to wifi at home, it installs the update within an hour or so.

2) You’ve got to charge it.
Also like our smartphones, you have to regularly charge your Tesla. This fact is pretty obvious for an electric vehicle, but it’s such a nice and different feeling to know I have a “full tank” every time I leave the house. I don’t have to worry about the next time I need to stop at a gas station; my car’s always ready to go.
The company recommends keeping it plugged in when you’re at home. That’s because the car will use its power to maintain the battery temperature and can top off from the plug if needed to keep it at an ideal range. If you’re on a road trip, you can use the Super Charger network for quick battery charging along the way. Otherwise, choose your battery pack based on the type of driving you do regularly, and then you’ll be good with just your nightly top off at home.

3) It never really turns “off.”
Relating to above, a Tesla won’t turn off fully like a normal ICE car. It’s always keeping track of the battery temperature, and heats or cools it to maintain it at optimal levels to lessen the battery degradation over time. This is a whole new concept for most drivers, because there’s not an “off” button nor do you turn and pull out a key when you park and leave your car. I’ve read other reviews where people looked through the menus to find the “off” button, but there is rarely a time you would actually need this option.
Since it’s always on, and connected to either wifi or data network, you can turn on your Tesla’s climate control from the smartphone app, no matter where you are. I live in Texas, so in the summer when it’s above 100 degrees outside, I’ll turn on the AC before I leave work to go home. My car doesn’t need to be within eyesight, and it’s chilled by the time I get to it.
4) You don’t need to lock it, or even close your own doors.
You park and exit the Tesla, and as your key fob gets far enough away, the climate control turns off and the doors close and lock automatically. No need to take any action. This takes a while to get used to, and it was a bit disconcerting for me at first, because I wanted visual confirmation that the car was locked and good to go. You can always push the key fob once to close all the doors and lock it, and it will fold the mirrors in to indicate it’s locked (see above). But there’s no satisfying “beep” or lock sound when you do it. You just have to trust that the car is locked up safe and sound.

5) The acceleration is fast and smooth.
If you don’t watch yourself, you’ll be accidentally speeding quite often in any Tesla. The acceleration is fun and fast, but it’s the smoothness that gets you in trouble. Driving at 80 miles per hour feels like 40, and it only takes a few seconds to get up to that speed. It makes maneuvering around traffic much more enjoyable, with short bursts of speed here and there, that is if you’re not in Autopilot the whole time. Whenever I take friends out for their first ride, experiencing this aspect is the most requested. The second most requested is the next point.

6) It (kind of) drives itself.
The Autopilot capabilities are impressive and definitely have a learning curve and take time to get used to. Especially knowing the best situations to use it in (highway driving) and when not to use it (around unpredictable, bad drivers). It requires a huge amount of trust with the system, and you slowly build that by trying Autopilot in different environments: on empty roads, then in super slow traffic, and finally in crazy Austin rush hour traffic. But that first time that you enable Autosteer and feel the car adjust the wheel to stay in its lane it’s exhilarating.

7) It’s still in early-adoption mode and sometimes has bugs.
The Teslas are pretty new, especially the X and the 3 coming up. They haven’t worked out all the kinks, and sometimes there are weird things that happen. Once my main screen didn’t turn on, and because of that, the car wouldn’t turn on the climate control. I had to reset it, just like you would reset an iPhone with the home button and power button, by holding down the steering wheel buttons until the screen turned back on. The service centers are wonderful support though, and any issues are easily remedied.
Don’t buy a Tesla and expect it to be perfect from day one or assume that you’re going to save a ton of money on gas. The price is still a bit too high to save much. It’s best if you consider this the beta test for the first wave of well-designed, electric vehicles, and our continual feedback and driving experience will help improve these cars for the future.
These seven mental shifts occurred over the past six months, and only came to light when I went back to driving my husband’s Jeep every once in a while. Now they’re second nature to me, and I don’t miss the gas stations at all!
In the next post, I’ll write about my favorite design elements of the Tesla X and a few small aspects that could be improved. Until then, let me know if you have any specific questions about the X I can answer from a designer’s point of view!
