Tesla Model Y: When A Car Starts Feeling Like A Gadget | Auto News
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Two hours with the Indian Model Y wasn’t enough for a proper review, but it was enough to realize I was more fascinated by its screens, cameras, and AI than by the car itself.
A first-hand look at the Tesla Model Y in India, where the car’s screens, AI and cameras stole the spotlight from the driving experience.
Today I got my hands on a Tesla Model Y. Actually, I got my legs on it too.
Before somebody starts asking me about suspension geometry, coefficient of drag or whether the steering provides adequate feedback at the limit, let me clarify something. I’m not an automobile reviewer. I had the car for barely two hours, not the two or three days that proper motoring journalists usually get to understand a vehicle.
I drove it, accelerated hard where conditions permitted, tried some fairly sharp turns to see how planted it felt and tested the brakes. It was quick. Very quick. It remained remarkably stable through the turns I tried, braking felt reassuring and within a few minutes I was quite comfortable driving it. That’s about as far as I’m going with the automobile review, because something else had already distracted me.
And there was another interesting part of driving it around. People noticed it. I saw heads turning, people looking at the car and occasionally looking again. Teslas are still not exactly a common sight on Indian roads, and for those two hours at least, the Model Y had considerably more road presence than I had expected.
The 16-inch distraction
The Indian five-seat Model Y Premium RWD (rear wheel drive) gets a huge 16-inch centre touchscreen. Tesla quotes 0-100 km/h in 5.9 seconds and a WLTP range of 500 km. Those are Tesla’s figures, not something I attempted to scientifically verify during my two-hour affair with the car.
But that screen… almost everything seems to live there. Navigation, cameras, climate, entertainment, vehicle settings, visualisation of what’s happening around the car.
What surprised me was how responsive it is. The touchscreen responds almost as quickly and smoothly as my iPhone Air, which probably explains why I enjoyed interacting with it so much. There’s very little sense that you’re operating a conventional car infotainment system. Touch something and it responds. Swipe around and everything moves fluidly. After a while I stopped thinking of it as an infotainment system. It felt more like the operating system of the car.
And being a technology guy rather than a car guy, I probably spent more time poking around that screen than examining the tyres.
I started talking to the car
Then I found Grok. This was probably my favourite part. Having Grok AI built into the car changes the nature of voice interaction. I found myself talking to the car rather than merely issuing commands to it.
Do I need an AI chatbot inside my car? Probably not. Did I enjoy having one there? Absolutely.
There is something wonderfully unnecessary about sitting inside a two-ton machine and casually chatting with AI. Twenty years ago we were impressed if a car stereo could read an MP3 CD. Things have moved rather quickly.
Then things got a little TRON
While exploring the themes I switched on TRON mode. Why? Because it was there.
Suddenly the very serious electric SUV I had been driving became something closer to a digital toy. Add that beautiful strip of ambient lighting running almost continuously across the front of the cabin and the whole interior changes character. Tesla calls it wraparound ambient lighting. I describe it as a very long tube light that somebody finally made cool.
Eyes everywhere
The camera system was another thing that fascinated me. The car gives you an extraordinary visual picture of what’s around it, and the blind-spot camera is particularly useful. Indicate before changing lanes and the corresponding camera view appears on the touchscreen. Tesla says the system can also display a red warning when another vehicle is detected in the adjacent blind spot.
In Indian traffic, where motorcycles occasionally materialise beside you as if they’ve arrived through a wormhole, I can see the appeal. I still looked over my shoulder though. Technology is wonderful. Noida traffic is Noida traffic.
And a roof that almost disappears
The panoramic glass roof surprised me more than I expected. Combined with the large windscreen and all that glass around the cabin, visibility feels fantastic and the interior feels wonderfully open.
I do have one very Indian question, though. May. Noida. 45 degrees. Ask me about that glass roof again then.
That’s something a two-hour drive simply can’t answer. Neither can it tell me what the real-world range will be, what charging becomes like in everyday life, or whether some of those touchscreen controls that initially fascinated me will eventually start irritating me. And I’m particularly curious whether talking to Grok will remain useful once the novelty wears off.
So what did two hours tell me?
I went in expecting to drive an electric car. I came out thinking I’d just driven a computer, a giant touchscreen, an AI assistant, several cameras, a rather impressive entertainment system and a light show… which also happened to do 0-100 km/h in 5.9 seconds.
I’m still not qualified to tell you how good a car the Model Y is. But as a gadget? I could have happily kept exploring it for another two hours.
Maybe four.
A small but important disclaimer
Throughout my time with the Model Y, I wore my seat belt and consciously stayed within the permissible speed limits. I touched 100 km/h only on a road where that speed was permitted. The sharper manoeuvring tests were carried out on an empty, controlled patch away from normal traffic – and no, I’m not revealing where that is. All my serious poking, swiping and experimenting with the infotainment system was done with the vehicle parked.
This is a brief personal experience from approximately two hours with the vehicle, not a professional automobile road test. Vehicle specifications mentioned above are based on information published by Tesla India.
Quick Answers
Ask News18Tesla quotes a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 5.9 seconds and a WLTP estimated range of 500 km for the Indian five-seat Model Y Premium RWD.
Ask News18About the Author
Anjan N Ghosh is AVP, Technology and Operations, Network18. Anjan is a technology enthusiast with a deep curiosity about gadgets and the technology we live with every day. He writes from real-world ex…Read More
September 16, 2026, 10:15 IST
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