“It has too many aids.” He passes the practical driving test, but the DGT of Arizona denies it because he took it with a Tesla

When I took off the driving licensethe instructor kept telling me to shake my head when I looked in the rearview mirror. “But I look in the rearview mirror,” I complained. “Yeah, but the examiner has to see that I actually looked in the rearview mirror if you want to pass.” Something similar happened to a teenager from Arizona who found herself denied the driving license because, when passing the exam with a Teslaconsidered that the car was too safe.

Let’s clarify, from the start, that the way to get a driver’s license in the United States is little more than a mere formality compared to what is required in Europe and that one takes the test with the car of one’s choice. Even so, this case highlights something relevant in the era of the hybrid and electric car. Can it be proven that one really knows how to brake despite the regenerative braking?

But does he know how to brake?

Getting a driver’s license in the United States, a country where people depend on their cars for everything, is extremely easy. The theory test is very simple and consists of only 10 questions. The practical test means that if you can drive around the block without accidents and stop without hitting the curb or another car, you pass the test. Going to a driving school is not mandatory for the practical test and you can take the test with any car you want. And this is the preferred option in the vast majority of cases.

This is also what this teenager from Arizona (where drivers are allowed from the age of 16) did. After studying and practicing, she took the driving test in the family Tesla Model Y. She passed, but couldn’t get her license that same day due to a computer glitch. The next day, she went to the local equivalent of the traffic department to finally get it. Well, that didn’t work either.

The examiner thought he was using Full Self-Driving (FSD) Tesla and claimed that she had not pressed the brake pedal hard enough. The teenager’s family tried to explain that the car was not equipped with FSD, and that the standard regenerative braking system was doing the job. But the traffic authorities refused to budge.

“If we don’t know that he can brake with the brake pedal, how do we know that he can drive a car other than a Tesla?” the official told the father, according to his post and RedditFrustrated, he pointed out the inconsistency: “If someone who drives an automatic transmission takes the test, how do they know they can drive a manual transmission?”

At one point, one employee even hinted that they might have to ban Teslas from road tests altogether for being equipped with “too many security systems.” The father vented: “I wish I could afford another Tesla for our daughter because of its “too many safety features!”

From our perspective, it may seem absurd to pass a driving test in your personal car and not in a driving school car with two pedals. But local laws allow it, just as getting your license in an automatic car allows you to drive a car with a manual transmission.

This is not the case in Europe, and especially in Spain, where getting a driving license with a car with automatic transmission, whether electric or not, means that we will be prohibited from driving a car with manual transmission. Doing so, despite this, would entail a Fine of 500 euros and the withdrawal of 4 points of the driver’s license, as it is equivalent to driving a vehicle without having the license that accredits us to do so.

In the US system, getting a driver’s license with a Tesla or an electric car can be a problem. Stopping with an electric car that has strong regenerative braking, as is the case with most of them, involves very little or no pressure on the brake pedal and also allows you to brake much later than with a conventional car.

In these cases, it is difficult to prove that the student knows how to brake, i.e. in time, with the distance and force required by the situation, when the car does it instead. Even so, by the way, in the end our protagonist was given her driving license.

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