An Electrifying Event: Behind the Wheel of a Self-driving Car

Alexandria, VA — I didn’t want to like the Tesla. Ten years ago, I’d have loved one, had I been able to afford it, but now they’re so ubiquitous that some of the “cool” factor has evaporated, or so I thought. But hold that thought.

The recent ALX “Electric Vehicle Ride and Drive Event” in Chinquapin Park provided a great opportunity to test-drive different electric vehicles (EVs) as well as electric bikes and scooters. Also on display was one of Alexandria’s electric school buses. And, on hand with all the facts were local auto dealership reps as well as city officials.

About five percent of the Alexandria City vehicle fleet is electric, a city official says, “and that will be 100 percent in the next 10 or 15 years.”

First vehicle I test-drive is a Hyundai Ionic 5, which starts at $42,600, and is the base model of the four Ionic EVs currently offered in the US.

Riding shotgun is a porter from Alexandria Hyundai, which provided the car, and who coaches test-drivers like me on how it functions. I always thought this model to be a bit odd-looking. Not unattractive—at all—but rather like something George Jetson might have driven in our collective imagined future. It doesn’t look particularly large, but I’m amazed at how spacious it is inside. Almost cavernous.

It boasts only 168 horses—but horsepower is a relative term with EVs. With no one following closely behind or in front, I slow to about 10 miles per hour on King Street, and then I punch it—to experience remarkable acceleration—way, way more than you would ever need.

Next up is the massive, tri-motor Rivian R1S, a three-row, seven-passenger EV, fitted out with an elegant, understated interior, right down to the copper dashboard. It gives off an elegant vibe more so than high-tech ambiance, but high-tech it is. With the push of a button on the computer screen, for instance, you can silently elevate the entire chassis for off-roading. 

Founded in 2009, Rivian is an American start-up and builds all its vehicles in Normal, Illinois. At 8,000 pounds, the Rivian, which retails just under $110,000, feels unlike any vehicle I’ve ever driven. It feels like I’m driving—forgive the cliché—a tank. Nothing sporty about it at all. But it also feels incredibly stable and safe.

I don’t have children, but if I did, and especially if we enjoyed camping, but I still wanted to have a vehicle that makes a luxurious statement, this is it. Acceleration is remarkably swift. But like the Ioniq, the Rivian has regenerative braking, which pumps energy back into the electric batteries whenever you take your foot off the accelerator. You don’t feel a thing in the Ioniq; in the Rivian, by contrast, the vehicle  practically lurches to a halt. “Yes—you can brake by stepping on the brake pedal, or simply by taking your foot off the accelerator,” the Rivian Rep informs me.

Such a vehicle needs a lot of horses, and the Rivian delivers; the tri-motor model I’m driving boasts 850.

“I’m a big advocate for moving from fossil fuels to electric vehicles,” said DC Resident Rita Campbell, as she removed her safety helmet following a test ride on one of the city’s rentable e-bikes, available through its partnership with Capital Bikeshare.

“I was very comfortable, because I ride bikes, so this is not a big step for me,” says Campbell, who is looking for “at least a small SUV,” because she carries around a lot of mulch to various collection sites. “I’d just like to have my next move congruent with ecological stewardship,” she adds.

Also on hand showing off their rides were two members of EVA-DC, the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington, DC. “We’ve been around since 1980 to try and encourage folks to get electric cars, but as you can imagine, in the 1980s there weren’t many choices in EVs—mostly just hobbyists converting gasoline cars into electric,” says Charlie Garlow, who is showing off his 2017 BMW i3.

It will go around 150 miles on a full charge, he says—but it also has a gasoline engine, which is good for another 50 miles or so, he adds.

And finally, to that Tesla, which is proudly owned by Jeffrey C. Jacobs, also with EVA-DC, who lives in the Maryland suburbs.

“Around 2010, the floodgates really opened for EVs,” says Jacobs, who’s owned three Nissan Leafs and two Teslas, including his current model, and he estimates he’s driven 250,000 electric miles. Soon we step into his machine, with its half-sporty, half-elegant black interior with white leather seating.

“Acceleration will be zero to 30 in about a second,” he says, “Are you in?” All in, I respond emphatically. After warning me to put my head all the way back against the headrest, Jacobs floored it, and I experienced a breath-taking acceleration that simply astounded. Then, seeing a pedestrian some 150 yards away, Jacobs stopped remarkably quickly, yet with no sudden lurch forward or screech of tires.

Slowing down to about 20 mph, we navigate back to the parking lot. “I’m using full self-driving right now,” he says. “It’s bending around the road and taking us around the circle and I’m not even touching it or doing anything.” I glance over, and sure enough, he’s not even touching the steering wheel.

Just like you, I’d heard reports of Tesla drivers napping behind the steering wheel on their morning commutes and such—but I thought it was hype. But indeed, the Tesla flawlessly drives us around the half mile circle and takes us back to exactly the same spot where we began the drive, and even parallel parks itself—perfectly—when he touches the screen.

“If I say take me home, it will take me all the way to the parking garage,” Jacobs says confidently. “But from the parking garage it really cannot handle the gate, so I have to take care of that myself.”

All I can say is, whatever cool factor I thought Tesla had lost, it has regained it all—and then some. I’m not sure I’m ready to go to sleep behind the wheel in self-driving mode, having read of a spate of sensational disasters in the popular press, and having seen that Super Bowl ad highlighting some of them.

Self-driving car manufacturers and proponents, however, are quick to counter that human drivers cause an alarming number of deadly accidents each year, with some claiming that self-driving autos are statistically far safer than human drivers.

Like all things, however, the technology is improving at breakneck speed, and—like or not—this, clearly, is the future of automobiles in America.