Coast-to-coast in 57 hours with Tesla's Autopilot taking the wheel!

2,995 miles electric journey
Ever since Tesla expanded its Supercharger network enough to make coast-to-coast driving in a relatively short amount of time practical, various EV enthusiasts have been trying to do the trip as fast as possible. A team from Edmunds first did it in 67 hours and 21 minutes in the summer of 2014. Then last spring, Carl Reese and Deena Mastracci drove 3,011 miles between Los Angeles and New York City in 58 hours and 55 minutes, crushing the previous record... But that wasn't good enough, especially now that there's a new tool available to would-be record holders: Autopilot.While it is still early days in public testing of this technology and there's some controversy, it appears to work quite well on the highway, which is perfect for such a long trip.
For this attempt, Reese and Mastracci had a third person on board, Alex Roy. Here's the team (minus the invisible driver that is Tesla's Autopilot):
#AutonomousCannonball LA2NYC mission accepted! @AlexRoy144 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/4sSRtNQbDF
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 20, 2015
It took them 57 hours and 48 minutes to drive the 2,995 miles between Redondo Beach, California, and NYC. The Autopilot drove part of the way, providing a good real-world test of it in a long road trip.
They live-blogged the trip on Twitter. Here are some highlights:
Deena testing #autopilot #teslaP85D #teslamotors pic.twitter.com/3ab7b99ojf
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 19, 2015
Charging:
Primm NV pic.twitter.com/5rDlRjCfnI
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 19, 2015
Deena runs through the night with #Autopilot pic.twitter.com/NxHwGQsmlE
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 19, 2015
When #autopilot is on. The stress is off!
Enjoy your world. pic.twitter.com/lLsTFd12Hm
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 21, 2015
#autopilot home! our team is entirely wiped out. 2906 miles to go! @P85dDeena @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/xc1Q25CsMP
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 22, 2015
Record setting trio...Waiting on our turn in the Lincoln Tunnel. @elonmusk #AutonomousCannonball pic.twitter.com/0aehyNfoio
— Carl Reese (@EVrecordattempt) October 21, 2015
Elon Musk seemed impressed:
Congrats on driving a Tesla from LA to NY in just over two days! https://t.co/hjAnAAIdMB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2015
Via Jalopnik