An 80-year-old man drove a Tesla for 5,000 kilometers and relied on FSD-assisted driving for 4,500 kilometers.

Abstract:

80-year-old American writer Bill Sniffin drove a 2018 second-hand Tesla Model

Sniffin is a columnist for Cowboy State Daily in Wyoming and a veteran early adopter of technology products.

After he purchased this second-hand Model X, he set out from Dallas, Texas, through Iowa and back to Wyoming, a total journey of nearly 3,000 miles. During the trip, FSD assisted driving covered approximately 2,800 miles, accounting for more than 93%. The remaining approximately 200 miles were manually driven by Sniffin, mainly on open roads with few vehicles ahead. He chose to enjoy driving by himself.

The charging experience on long journeys is a mixed bag. Sniffin needs to be stopped and charged approximately every 100 miles (approximately 160 kilometers), and it usually takes about 25 minutes to charge to 80%. The most thrilling scene occurred near Elkader, Iowa. The vehicle's battery power display returned to zero, with only 4 miles (approximately 6.4 kilometers) left to the next charging station, and the anxiety of battery life was directly exhausted. Fortunately, we managed to reach it in the end and didn't lie down on the road.

Sniffin admitted that FSD is not a panacea.

In complex road conditions such as construction sections, the system performance is not stable enough, requiring the driver to maintain attention and take over at any time.

He also mentioned the new "SLOTH" driving mode on Model X, which favors a gentle and smooth automatic driving style and is suitable for long-distance cruising. However, he has not yet tested the automatic parking and Summon summoning functions, and he is not sure whether this 2018 Model X can cope with the harsh winter road conditions in Wyoming.

As of June 2026, FSD’s cumulative mileage has exceeded 11.3 billion miles, with an average daily mileage of approximately 28.8 million miles. Tesla's safety report for the third quarter of 2025 shows that vehicles with Autopilot turned on have an accident every 6.36 million miles, while the U.S. average is once every 660,000 miles, and the accident rate is about one-tenth of that of ordinary driving. However, FSD is not risk-free. In May 2026, Tesla recorded 207 accidents involving the L2 assisted driving system, setting a new high in a single month.