Clarkson Is Astonished By The Self-Driving Tesla Model X | The Grand Tour

With its bobby-dazzler back doors, this doesn't look like a normal family SUV. It looks better, especially on the inside. And it's more practical, too, because you have seating for seven, a boot at the back that's big enough for an owl sanctuary, and then another boot at the front because, of course, it's electric, so there's no engine. Most of all, though, I'm intrigued by this car because it represents a whole new way of thinking about what a car actually is. Take this enormous command and control screen as an example. It does all the usual stuff, navigation, music, connectivity and so on. And so much more besides. For example, if I want, I can turn it into a sketchpad there, and I can just, you know, draw pretty patterns and so on as I go along. Or, if I'm bored with being in, where am I here? There you are, Swindon, which I am. I can change it so that I become on Mars! Look at that, I'm actually on Mars! I mean, I'm not there, obviously, but it says I am, and that's fun. Oh, and this is a good one. If you don't want to see the car you're driving depicted on the screen, you can change it so that it becomes... ...Bonds Lotus! That is actually quite funny. Of course, you may think all of this might be a bit of a distraction... ...when you're driving. Oh, well, now you see that's the thing, because if I pull this lever here twice, I get a bong to tell me I've engaged the autopilot, which means I'm not driving. It is. Seriously, it's doing it all by itself. Legally, cars aren't really allowed to drive around by themselves, but this is getting awfully close, because it's reading the white lines in the road and then simply sticking between them. And if I want to change lanes, I don't have to bother with any of that mirror-signal-manoeuvre nonsense, you just put the indicator on. And if it's safe to pull out, it does. Put the indicator on to pull back into the central lane and... That's just astonishing! All of this means that I can drive along writing important messages on my sketchpad. Because I know that if the car in front slows down, I'll slow down. If it speeds up, I'll speed up. If the traffic stops, I'll stop. Honestly, this is the most relaxing thing I've ever driven, because all I have to do is sit here. Unless, of course, I can't be bothered to do even that. Okay, the car is over there and I literally can't be arsed to walk to it. So, take out my phone, put it in summon mode, connect into vehicle and here we go. Look at that! I mean, it can't extricate itself from a parking space or come to you from the other side of town, so it is only a gimmick. But what's wrong with a gimmick? That's brilliant! And stop! But what's it like if you do actually drive it? Well, because it's electric, it's quiet, obviously. Eerily quiet. Stupidly quiet. Too quiet, as they say in the movies. It's also heavy because of its massive battery pack. However, because it's mounted under the floor, the centre of gravity is very low down. And because you've got one electric motor at the front, driving the front wheels and one at the back driving the back wheels, the car feels nimble and agile. Feels good. So, you're thinking it's a fun-filled family car with show-off doors and lots of stuff to excite your inner child. But that there's nothing here for the enthusiastic motorist. Not so fast on that one because... What I'm going to do now is drag race this family SUV against a mid-engined, V10-powered, 600-horsepower Audi R8. Right, before I do this, I'm going to engage what's called ludicrous mode. There we are. Hold on, I've got a choice. I really want to do this. No, I want my mummy. Yes, bring it on. There we are. And then, because I have the mental age of a nine-year-old, I'm going to use the warp speed graphic. And there it is. Right, good. I'm ready. That is astonishing. Small wonder this thing is fitted with my favourite mode of them all. Celebration mode. There we are. All I have to do now is put it in park, get out and lock the doors. What's this? So, this may be a two-and-a-half-tonne, seven-seater PlayStation. But it'll do 0-60 in 3.1 seconds and has a top speed of 155. So, it really does seem to be all things to all men. It's serious and light-hearted. It's sensible and daft. It doesn't feel like anything else. It doesn't go like anything else. It's fabulous. There are, however, some drawbacks. But before talking about those, Mr Wilmans said I should fill the remaining six seats with a team of lawyers. First thing I want to talk about is range, because Tesla say this will do 351 miles between charges. But in my experience, electric cars never do the range that... How extensive is your experience, Jeremy? How many electric cars have you driven? Two. Ah. Both of them failed to do the range that the manufacturer said they would do, because it depends on temperature. It depends on a million things in any way. As you've said, legally, we need to make very clear, it depends. It depends on the conditions. Most people are not driving like a maniac like you. I'm not. I'm doing 34 miles an hour. At the moment. But so are we clear. We completely accept that this car can do 351 miles between charges, don't we? I don't know. I haven't tried it. Well, I think we should accept that, if that's what Tesla says, and we don't have any evidence to the contrary. Well, you just take what a car manufacturer says as being gospel. Well, I wouldn't. Vauxhall says its cars are exciting. I wouldn't wish to contradict them on television, unless we had strong evidence to the contrary. Suggesting a claim of a manufacturer is untrue is not where we're going to go today, is it? All right, then. Batteries. We on this show have some experience of electrical fires in a crash. And this has the same sort of batteries that the Rimac had. Yeah, that was in a crash, wasn't it? Drove off an edge and rolled down two hillsides. What, you're saying Richard Evans is too small to steer over the steering wheel? I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that that was a crash. What people don't understand is that if you crash an electrical car and it has lithium-ion batteries, it could catch fire. And often the fire brigade will turn up and they've only got water on board. So as you're sitting there on fire, you're then being electrocuted. It's just something that's worth bearing in mind, isn't it? Well, I think we should make it clear that we're not suggesting that these cars have any inherent defect. I mean, look what happened with Samsung with their batteries. Well, we're not going to start defaming Samsung, are we? I think the battery is a good analogy for libel law and reviews generally and that it has to be balanced. You must have the positive and you must have the negative. Shall we bear that in mind? No, what we should bear in mind is that what I've just written on the screen. I know an area we need to discuss. I think the biggest drawback with this car actually is the width of it. It's so wide, 79 inches, that it won't actually go across Albert Bridge in London. It really won't go across the bridge? Or do you mean it won't go through a width restriction, a road narrowing? Right, so I have to say this is too wide to fit through the width restriction at the start and indeed finish of Albert Bridge. That's perfect. There is, however, one advantage to this size, especially in a supermarket car park when your Model X is full of lawyers. No, no, no, listen. Mean what you say, say what you mean, that's the law. All right, stay there. OK, got the phone. Summon mode forwards. Sorry, that never ceases to amaze me. A little bit more, a little bit more and stop. Right, now they can't open the doors. They're trapped, which means they can't interfere. When I tell you this car's really big drawback, it's £156,000.