I Took Tesla’s Full Self-Driving on a Multi-State Trip—Here’s What Happened

Last week, I finally had the chance to put my Tesla Model Y through a real test drive—well, not the casual "going to the grocery store and back" kind of test, but a real, long-haul road trip. My wife and I took a brief vacation out to Cape Cod, which marked the first time since buying the car in May that I used it for something beyond my usual local driving. And let me tell you, this trip wasn’t just about getting to the Cape for some downtime near the water—it turned into a measuring stick for the very things people remain skeptical about when it comes to EVs: long-distance usability and the capability of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (supervised).

For those wondering how long-distance travel works in a Tesla, let me explain. For starters, the car plans the trip for you. It’s true. You enter in your destination and the car calculates your route and plans your stops. Tesla removes the uncertainty about charging by automatically factoring in stops at Superchargers along the way, so there’s no moment of panic about where to plug in—the car has it figured out before you even leave the driveway.

What really made this trip different for me, though, was that this was the longest trip I’ve ever taken it in. and it was all with supervised Full Self-Driving. Around town, I’ve used FSD plenty of times, but there’s a big difference between daily errands in familiar surroundings and a multi-state drive where you’re trusting the system for hours at a time.

Here’s the bottom line: it worked—and it worked beautifully.

The trip out to Massachusetts included two charging stops, both of which were right where you’d want them to be: places with food options and bathrooms. People often harp on charging time being longer than filling a gas tank, but here’s the thing—it only matters if you’re standing next to the car doing nothing. If you plan your stops around natural breaks you’d take anyway for a meal or a restroom, the “extra” time waiting for the battery to top off doesn’t feel like a burden at all. It’s integrated right into the trip, just like a pit stop would be with any other vehicle.

But here’s the star of the show: Full Self-Driving.

No, it’s not perfect everywhere in America yet (and there were some wonky experiences while on Cape Cod) but on the long trip, FSD performed flawlessly. Not “mostly fine with a few nudges.” Flawlessly. It handled highway driving, lane changes, and even construction zones with zero interventions required from me. Normally, long hours behind the wheel eventually wear you down with the constant grind of lane merges, speed changes, and navigation. But in this case, I could focus on monitoring while letting the car manage all the tedious work that I hate. The difference in how relaxing that makes long-range travel is hard to overstate. Instead of arriving drained after a multi-hour drive, I felt like I’d cruised into my vacation with energy to spare.

While spending a few days on Cape Cod—a place I barely know—it was a game-changer to have the car handle the driving. Navigating unfamiliar roads felt effortless with FSD doing the work. Instead of stressing over directions or second-guessing turns, I could just relax and let it feel like I had my own robot chauffeur.

And this is where I think a lot of the sceptics miss the point. They’ll still throw out the tired lines about “range anxiety” or “losing all that time charging,” but for people who’ve actually used the car the way it’s meant to be used, those points just don’t hold up anymore.

The infrastructure is there, the software is there, and frankly, it’s already reshaping long-distance travel into something less stressful than shoving yourself behind the wheel of a gas-powered car for hours on end.

One snafu on the trip was that the bed-and-breakfast I stayed at had a charger, but for whatever reason, it didn’t work. But Tesla Superchargers were fairly accessible, and I pre-charged each night and could get moving each morning, no problem.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a Tesla, the clock is ticking. The tax credits are expiring soon, which means waiting could literally cost you thousands. On top of that, Tesla’s referral program sweetens the deal. If you take the plunge now and use my referral code, you’ll score three free months of Full Self-Driving. That means you can test everything I’ve just described for yourself before even deciding if it’s worth it for you to keep long term.

I’m confident you’ll find that it is.

My Cape Cod trip proved something that even I, as a regular Tesla driver, hadn’t truly experienced until now: this car has crossed the threshold from cool new tech toy into practical, reliable road-trip machine. It’s not just futuristic—it’s already here, and it works. At this point, the real question is whether you’re going to experience it yourself or let the skeptics keep talking you out of it.