13 Things You Don’t Know About The Tesla Model X

If you’ve heard of the Tesla X, you’ve definitely heard of the Falcon doors, but there are a host of other features that may surprise you.  I’ve been wanting to check out the Tesla X since it came out, and this month I found one for rent on Turo, so I pulled the trigger.

More so than any other car I’ve driven, the Tesla X is… different. Most cars’ appeal is judged by the size of of their engine, the outside styling, and the comfort of the cabin, but those factors alone aren’t enough to judge the X. Sure, the X is plenty fast, has some fancy doors, and a luxurious interior, but Tesla went beyond that to add features that people weren’t asking for.  There’s a a quirkiness to the X that makes it fun to drive and will have you constantly fighting the urge to say “check this out” to any first time passengers.

Here are some of the unexpected features I’m talking about.

Open The Doors With Your Key

The key for for the X looks like a little car, and you can open or close each of the Falcon doors by pressing on the door part of the key.

Doors Avoid Obstacles when Opening

The Falcon doors have sensors embedded in them that allow them to change how they open to avoid other cars or walls. It’s a good thing too, because you can only operate them by pushing a button, so there’s no option to open them slowly on your own. Without this little bit of innovation, they’d be trashed in no time.

The Car Can Be Summoned

Don’t feel like opening your garage or walking to your car? You can summon the Tesla X to come to you. If you program your garage opening into it, it can even open the garage, drive to you, and close the garage behind itself.

Driver Door Opens for You

Having one of those days where you’re feeling especially lazy? Lazy enough that you don’t want to open your driver door? Great news! As long as you have your key on you, the Tesla X notices when you approach the driver’s side door and opens it for you. Want to close it? Just push your foot on the brake pedal, and it’ll shut itself!

Bio-Hazard Cabin Filters

Do you constantly live in fear that some catastrophe may happen while you’re out driving around, far from the safety of your in-ground bomb shelter? No need to fear! The X has a bio-hazard filter to scrub the cabin of any bacteria, viruses, pollen, mold spores, or even your common air pollution. In all seriousness though, it seems like it’s a big step up from traditional filters. Tesla put one of their X’s in a big bubble and ran an experiment in air that was polluted almost 100x the safe levels posted by the EPA, and it took only 2 minutes to scrub the air completely clean.

Adjust the Ride Height

The X has an air suspension system that can adjust the ride height of car a little more than 2 inches.

There Are No Door Handles

Trying to open the doors of the X for the first time can be a confusing process. What look like door handles are actually just buttons.

The Windshield Just Keeps Going

It’s hard to understand just how big the windshield is until you ride in the car. You can get some sense of the size from the photo below using the location of the rear-view mirror, but even this photo doesn’t do it justice.

Magnetic Sun Visors

With this huge, uninterrupted windshield, they had to come up with a different way to tackle sun visors, so they put them on the A-Beam.

Autopilot

Right up there with the Falcon doors, you’ve likely already heard of Autopilot, but it’s hard to really appreciate it until you use it. In other cars, I’ve used adaptive cruise control to keep my speed in check, as well as lane assist to keep the car square in the middle of the lane unassisted, but Autopilot is a completely different beast. It took A WHILE for me to trust it to make each turn and keep speed, but it never faulted once. Even with my hands hovering just by the wheel, it still gave me pause heading into a turn at 55 MPH and trusting it to make it.

You Can Browse the Internet on The Center Screen

With Autopilot engaged and handling the driving, there’s no need to ever look at the road again, so why not catch up on some news or email?* You can browse the internet or even change it to split screen to do multiple things at once… including driving the car.

*(I’m of course joking)

It Has a Front Trunk

Without a traditional engine, and with the batterypacks securely stowed beneath you’re feet, there was enough room left over in the front for a “frunk.” It’s not huge by any standard, but is bigger than may you’ll find on rear-engine cars.

It Has “Easter Eggs” Galore

The hidden Easter Eggs are where the quirkiness comes out in full force. From showing the “Rainbow Road” from Mario Kart on the dash, to playing the Saturday Night Live “I Need More Cowbell” skit over the speakers, to the car full out dancing with it’s doors and lights to Christmas music, there’s something that’s going to make you smile.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the X, and it’s going to be hard to top in the “different kind of car” category. If you haven’t caught on from my previous posts, I’ve been renting a new car every month on  Turo to test out. It’s sort of like AirBnB or HomeAway for cars, which means there’s a much more interesting selection than your typical car rental service, and the prices are much easier on your wallet. I rented this one for a little over $200/day, not bad for a $100,000+ car.

 

Have a car you’d like me to review? Let me know below in the comments or shoot me an email at Dylan@LifeByDylan.com