Tesla Model Y: Here’s a firsthand account of contactless delivery

The start of Tesla Model Y deliveries started in the middle of a pandemic, but the automaker is still moving ahead with “contactless deliveries.”

Here’s a firsthand account of what it entails.

Tesla started implementing this measure over a month ago in China, where the coronavirus crisis started.

As the virus spread, the automaker started to impose similar social distancing measures on staff in other markets.

We heard about Tesla starting to implement these measures in the US, where it is starting Model Y deliveries, last week.

Abhay Rai, who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was one of the first Tesla Model Y buyers to experience this new contactless delivery process, and he shared his experience with Electrek.

Tesla finally won the right to sell, deliver, and service cars in Michigan after a long-fought battle against local dealers and automakers, but the company is apparently not quite ready to deliver in the state just yet.

They asked Rai to pick up his new Model Y at the Tesla Store in Lyndhurst, Ohio, on March 20:

Tesla store guys called me a day before and told me that this will be a contactless delivery, on the phone they clearly described the delivery process and asked me to watch the videos and wherever Model Y set up videos are not available, they asked me to watch Model 3 videos.

Here he is referring to Tesla’s support videos for Model Y and Model 3. They explain how all the features of the vehicle work.

Rai continues:

We arrived at the store 30 minutes early and they had the paperwork ready. Our Model Y was the first one for them so they did a little celebration with cheers and clapping. For signing up the contract, they had a new and separate pen, a clean desk and handed over everything to us. They remotely unlocked the car, enabled the app (this was tricky because I had a later appointment so they had to move my appointment and I had to log out and log back in in the app) and asked me to set up everything.

That’s where there’s a big difference with the normal process where a Tesla staff would normally walk you through the process and some of the features inside the car.

Rai added:

Also, they suggested that if there is an issue, I can turn the hazard light on and someone will come for help. But we were able to configure the Model Y and they took my wife’s and my picture with our Model Y using their own phone and emailed the pictures to us.

At the end of the delivery process, Tesla employees often asked if you want them to take a picture of you with your new car and they usually use your phone for it, but now it looks like they are not allowed to with the social distancing measures.

After that, Rai and his wife drove home with their new Model Y. He had 265 miles of range when leaving Tesla and completed the 190-mile journey with 19 miles of range left in the car, which is something to be expected in colder weather and at highway speed.

He shared with his experience with Electrek:

Drive back was fun, sensors calibrated themself within 5 minutes and the infotainment screen displayed the message that Autopilot is ready for use. Automatic lane keeping and lane change worked smoothly except in the cone/construction zone.

Rai also shared some pictures of his brand new Model Y:

As we have previously reported, Tesla has also started to implement touchless service appointments. We also shared a firsthand experience of that service.