We Let a Tesla Drive Itself from LA to NYC. It Worked.
In 2016, Elon Musk promised a Tesla would drive itself coast-to-coast by the end of 2017.
Nine years later, we actually did it.
The Bet
Alex Roy has been testing every version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving against Musk’s original promise. Each time, something would go wrong — a phantom brake, a missed exit, a snowstorm that confused the cameras. Each time, the record remained unset.
FSD v14.2.2.3 changed that.
The Run
Start: Portofino Inn, Redondo Beach — the official Cannonball finish line (we ran it in reverse)
End: New York City
Distance: 3,081 miles
Time: 58 hours, 22 minutes
Interventions: Zero
The start: Portofino Inn, Redondo Beach — traditional Cannonball finish line
The rules were simple: nobody touches the wheel. Not to correct a lane change. Not to speed up for a pass. Not even during charging stops.
The Team
- Alex Roy — Cannonball legend, general partner at NIVC, the guy who’s been trying to prove Musk right for almost a decade
- Paul Pham — FSD obsessive who knows every quirk of every version
- Me — Founded an AI simulation company, here to see if a decade of simulation work actually translates to real roads
The Weather
We drove into a winter storm.
Not around it. Not after it passed. Through it.
The route took us on I-10 through Arizona, then I-40 toward Oklahoma City and St. Louis. By the time we hit the Midwest, we were watching weather radar on the Tesla’s screen and seeing red everywhere.
Snow squalls. Icy roads. Visibility that dropped to nothing.
FSD kept driving.
FSD handled conditions that would have made us intervene in any previous version
“CRAZIEST events in snow – but FSD did it! Holy s**t. Snow performance and recovery is unreal.”
The Rest Stop Incident
Somewhere in western Pennsylvania, we stopped for a bathroom break. The car was still in FSD mode. One of us got out, walked inside… and the car drove away.
Not a malfunction — we just forgot to wait.
Rather than disengage FSD to turn around, we completed a 90-minute detour to circle back and pick him up. That’s how committed we were to zero interventions.
(He was fine. Cold, but fine.)
Why It Matters
This wasn’t a demo. There were no Tesla engineers riding along. No special hardware. No cherry-picked route in perfect weather.
This was three guys, a production Tesla, and a snowstorm.
Nine years after the promise, FSD finally delivered.
📰 Read the full exclusive coverage in The Drive →
Previously: How We Broke The Electric and Autonomous Cannonball Run Records (2017)