My Beloved Tesla Model 3 is Gone, the Good Part: A New Model Y with HW4 & FSD V14

May 9^th 2026 was our grandson’s graduation day at UW Madison, and I had my first intersection accident in 70 years of driving.

For those of you who read my previous article leading into this one: Yes, I was driving my 2019 Tesla Model 3 using Full Self Driving V12 like always. If I had just let it drive, I wouldn’t have had the accident. However, I didn’t watch carefully for cross traffic and pushed the accelerator to hurry through the intersection. It was my fault! I had the stop sign, the woman who hit me did not. However, almost all intersection accidents happen when both parties do something wrong. I postulate that she was texting all the way into the back of my car. A slight turn of the steering wheel and she would have missed me. It was a fairly close call for our insurance company, but they totaled the car.

We evaluated all of our options and decided to go with a new Tesla Model Y, standard dark grey with rear-wheel drive. It was the least expensive option, which can be purchased for ~$40,000 with zero % financing for 6 years. We are living in our summer home in northern Wisconsin where the dealer association has managed to keep Tesla from delivering cars anywhere in the state.

The only option I can’t live without is the tow bar receiver that Tesla calls the “Tow Hitch” because I am often carrying two big mountain ebikes on a tray type carrier on the back. The delivery time for a Model Y with “Tow Hitch” factory installed was 11 weeks. However, Tesla had a base Model Y in inventory in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, on I-90/94 just across the Saint Croix River from Wisconsin near Minneapolis. I would need to have the “Tow Hitch” installed later. I could pick up the car as soon as I could get there. The only question was if I could qualify for the zero % financing, which required a credit score of 720. Mine was over 700, but not quite 720. Nonetheless, the credit evaluation came in and I was approved for zero % financing. We just had to drive the 251 miles to Lake Elmo in the rental car to pick up the Tesla.

Our new car was waiting for us with a big bow on top (see below).

New Teslas come with a month of Full Self Driving, but the only option is to pay $100/month to keep it. One of the hookers: If you don’t pay $100/month, you get only traffic aware cruise control. This is the first time Tesla has sold cars without steering assist.

After driving my Model 3 for nearly 7 years with multiple versions of FSD and writing over 100 articles for CleanTechnica, many about my car and FSD, I know a lot about Teslas. I had even taken a couple of test drives in new Model Ys. Even so, there was a lot to learn about the new car and the salesperson did his best to get me started. My 2019 Model 3 had two stalks behind the steering wheel. Tesla’s new cars have only the one on the left, which only activates the turn signals. Everything else is controlled by thumb wheels and buttons on the steering wheel or on the big display screen. In short, I am cool with that except for forward and reverse, which is controlled by sliding an infuriating little car up and down on the display screen. The car is supposed to automatically correctly pick forward or reverse depending on the situation, but after two weeks with the car, it rarely shifts automatically when I want it to.

One of the new features of the car is access to Grok, which you activate by holding down the mic button on the steering wheel. Grok is Musk’s AI implementation, perhaps equivalent to ChatGPT. You can have a very pleasant conversation with Ms. Grok and give her navigation commands like “Navigate me to X with stops at Y and Z.” However, Ms Grok still doesn’t know what a waypoint is and makes you stop at the stops even though your intention is to merely pick an alternate route. Also, Ms. Grok gets tired after only ~5 commands/day and wants money to talk to you longer.

Full Self Driving “Supervised” V14 is phenomenal, except when it isn’t. It drives perfectly down the center of the lane even on sharp turns and rotaries and makes extremely accurate turns at intersections. You have a choice between Sloth, Chill, Standard, Hurry and Mad Max modes of driving. Mad Max will drive you 30 mph over the speed limit, while Sloth is what you use when your wife says “drive slowly, I want to see this town.” Standard drives you the 5 mph you specified over the speed limit and slows down for speed limits in town. For the first time, I’m not constantly spinning the thumb wheel to adjust my speed.

In my next article, I will explain how my new Model Y made the 154 mile trip to Bayfield, Wisconsin, on Lake Superior much easier. On the way, we stopped at our favorite wood carver’s shop in Washburn, Wisconsin. In the photo below, you see old versus new — the 1952 Torpedo Studebaker he just bought, next to my brand-new Tesla Model Y. The delivery years of the two cars were only 74 years apart.

The salesman at Lake Elmo programmed my first multi-stop navigation. My wife had already gone to a nearby Olive Garden restaurant; the next stop was the Costco in Eau Clair, Wisconsin; and then the Supercharger in Wausau, Wisconsin. I pushed the blue Start Self Driving button and was off. I sat there not touching the steering wheel, accelerator, or brake while my car drove me out of my parking space at Tesla, found the Olive Garden, and parked in a To-Go spot at the restaurant. I figured no one would give me a ticket and it was near the door, so I left it there and went in to join my wife. This illustrates an important addition going from V12 on my 2019 Model 3 to V14 on the 2026 Model Y. It now automatically drives the beginning and end of your trip. My experience so far is that it almost always automatically drives out of your garage or parking place and exits your driveway or the parking lot just like you would have done manually.

However, it’s not smart enough to pick the same parking place, drive-through-lane, handicapped spot, etc. that you would pick manually at this point. And the biggie: you still can’t take a nap, text, or read a book while it drives even though Musk has been promising this for years.

I think “our” President Trump is one of the most despicable people on the Earth. The president of Tesla, Elon Musk, not only supported him, but helped him fire civil servants who had just been promoted for outstanding service, etc., etc. However, he was responsible for accelerating the world’s transition to EVs probably more than anyone else on the planet. Elon is the richest or second richest man on the planet, with a net worth of nearly one trillion dollars. However, he doesn’t make enough on the sale of a Tesla and has to try to suck a constant stream of cash out of us for a decent satellite navigation map, FSD, and now Grok.

There are many other outstanding EVs available in the US now. However, a Tesla is still the only EV where you can travel anywhere in the country on Super Highways without thought about where you are going to charge it. It also has by far the best automatic driving on any road in the US.

My 2026 Tesla Model Y and a 1952 Torpedo Studebaker. Washburn, Wisconsin. May 28, 2026. Photo by Fritz Hasler.

Tesla Referral Program

If you find any of my articles helpful to you, please use my referral link when buying a new Tesla: https://ts.la/arthur73734 (Be sure to use it when you make your order). Tesla keeps changing the program but here’s the latest: If you are buying a new Tesla Model 3 or Model Y and use my link, you will get 3 months of free Full Self Driving (a ~$300 value) or you will get $1,000 off your purchase price for a Cybertruck. Tesla cars now come with one month of FSD, so I assume with a 3 or Y you will get a total of 4 months of free FSD.

I just got FSD V14 on my new Model Y and it is incredible. You can give the command verbally and it will drive you automatically to any place you specify, or to any address you enter into the navigation. You will be getting the new Hardware 4 computer and upgraded cameras with a new camera in the front facia (bumper). This will enable running FSD V14. The steering is extremely accurate. It now handles the beginning and end of your trip. It will automatically back out of your garage or leave your parking spot or a parking lot and it will park automatically when you arrive. It slows down automatically for sharp turns and speed zones. If someone is about to cross the street, it will stop for them automatically, etc., etc., etc. It’s like having your car driven by a really good chauffeur.