Back in 2012 (maybe 2013?), I dreamed of getting a Tesla!

I was an auditor for a large public accounting firm serving private equity and venture capital funds. I remember sitting in a VC fund client’s office in Palo Alto, California (the heart of Silicon Valley), where he told me about buying one of the first Tesla Model S cars just a few weeks earlier. I was young and had nowhere near enough money to buy one, but I told him I’d love to have one someday.

In 2021, I finally drove that Tesla into my driveway. It was a Model 3, not a Model S, but I was okay with that. I loved that little car. Yet by the time I got rid of it, I was happy to let it go.

I love driving EVs. They’re fast and fun to drive. And I’m more obsessed than ever imagined that I never have to stop at a gas station. But I’m over the Tesla.

window seals not under warranty

With about a year left on my lease, some of the windows stopped closing all the way—not enough to let in rain, but enough to make the noise of the wind as you drove annoying. I brought it to a service center to fix it, but the issue wasn’t covered by warranty (and was pretty expensive).

I found out it was not uncommon. 🙄 I chose to live with it until the end of the lease. But I felt like window sealing should have lasted at least the life of a three-year lease.

self-driving that’s definitely not safe

We chose not to pay for access to the self-driving functionality, which would have cost $12,000 at the time we made the decision. All the cars have the hardware to use self-driving, so it’s a simple software upgrade should a driver decide to pay for it.

Twice during our lease, Tesla offered us one-month free trial periods in exchange for recording the inside of our car while using it. I’m not sure of all the details now (and it sounds pretty awful in hindsight that I agreed to this 🫤), but I’m pretty sure Elon and Tesla use the video data to improve the self-driving system and, more importantly, train the AI for his other company.

Privacy concerns aside, I gave it a shot. It was pretty terrible. Like many new cars at its price point that have adaptive cruise control and hands-free highway driving, it can drive on highways pretty well.

However, self-driving does not work reliably on regular neighborhood roads, especially when things get tricky. I would much rather my twelve-year-old drive than use the self-driving function.

Tesla's self-driving feature leisurely ran my car through a red light. It turned the wrong way down a one-way alley. The self-driving AI was confused about when to cross a busy five-point intersection with unusual road alignment and stop signs for all incoming drivers. It casually moved across the intersection when it was definitely not my turn. It's a good thing other drivers were paying attention!

The self-driving functionality uses various control features inside the car that automatically disable self-driving when the car thinks the driver is no longer paying attention. You must touch the steering wheel often to confirm you’re awake and alert. That seemed reasonable.

The system also tracked my head and eye movements and disabled self-driving when it detected that I wasn’t watching the road diligently enough (like when I looked at someone in the passenger seat for too long). I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I’m pretty sure it tracked my eye movements even when my head was facing forward.

Those safety features make sense on paper, but it’s jarring when the car unexpectedly disables self-driving functionality.

Maybe one gets used to it over time, but self-driving felt far more stressful for my husband and me. In regular driving mode, a driver proactively controls the car. In self-driving mode, the driver operates in a reactive mode, waiting for the vehicle to make mistakes or disable self-driving and then quickly correcting the car's course at a moment’s notice.

We chose not to use self-driving during the second free trial month for obvious reasons.

new tires to close out the lease

In February 2025, as I approached the end of the lease, I tried to set a date in the Tesla app for drop off, but to no avail. It turns out I had to pay almost $2,000 to put four brand-new tires on the car before being allowed to return it. One of the tires was less than 18 months old.

I learned my lease contract required payment for new tires if the treads were under a certain threshold. I suppose it was in the fine print of the lease terms, but it seems so unusual I never thought to look for it. Even had I seen it, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, assuming the threshold represented something above and beyond normal wear and tear.

Tesla knowingly exploited my lack of car expertise to sneak an extra $2,000 out of my bank account when I had no leverage at the end of the lease. Surely, I’m not the only one who thought regular wear on tires was included with the lease payments.

Paying to put brand new tires on a car at the end of a lease for a vehicle that was slightly under the contracted mileage and had only regular wear and tear felt pretty shitty. It didn’t make me feel better that AI made the decision about tread depth, and the actual human employees had no power to override it, or so they said. What a way to leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth.

more than a protest; bad brand experience

For me, ditching Tesla was more than a protest. I didn’t have a great customer experience and wouldn’t recommend it to others. Many good cars, including good EVs, are on the market. You’ll probably be just as happy in something else. And if you do get a Tesla, be sure to set aside a couple grand for new tires at the end of the road. They’ll be happy to take it from you.

I have no animosity toward those who drive Teslas. Drive whatever you want. If you’ve had a Tesla for a while, no judgment, no matter what you want to do with it now. But as a former Tesla driver, I wouldn’t get another one regardless of what Elon was up to. I liked the car for the first two years and quickly fell out of love with it in the last year of my lease, all politics aside.

community action moves the needle

Given Elon’s disgusting behavior toward our government and the people of the United States, I was happy to drive that Tesla out of my driveway and replace it with something else, despite being a big fan of the brand for a very long time.

And I’m not upset about a #TeslaTakedown. Actions have consequences. Most arrogant billionaire bros buy Get Out of Jail Free cards (often literally). But once in a while, the power of the people extends consequences to even the most financially mighty among us.

Tesla’s share price has plummeted in recent months. Elon’s upset about it. But according to Elon, during an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience:

Elon didn’t say all empathy is terrible, so let’s not take that comment out of context. But according to him, sometimes empathy can benefit people or institutions who don’t deserve it. Sounds like he was talking about himself.

Elon needs no one’s empathy. As the wealthiest man in the world, happy to take a chainsaw to the United States government with little knowledge of how the machine works, he’s earned every ounce of his criticism.

Don’t let the “empathy robot” trick you into thinking Elon needs your empathy. While a lack of empathy might cost him some wealth, it’s a natural consequence of his behavior. I wonder if he remembers learning that in kindergarten? 🫶🏼

In the same interview, Joe Rogan nailed it:

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Sorry, not sorry, Elon. Karma’s a b*tch.