A 76-year-old lady living in California feels like the queen of the road in her Tesla Model Y. She goes around running errands in her electric crossover, running exclusively on FSD after summoning it out of the garage.
This is how every drive starts, right after she unplugs the Tesla that she affectionately calls “Tessie.” To bring the car out of the garage, she stands outside, taps the Tesla app on her phone, engages the Summon feature, selects “Come to Me,” and the car backs out of the garage on its own. There is no way she would do this on her own. She says the space is much too tight.
She is the 76-year-old lady who proves that whoever said that senior drivers can’t adapt to new technology was terribly wrong. The driver you are looking at is impressively tech-savvy. She gets into the driver’s seat, tells Grok what she needs, taps the touchscreen, and off she goes.
Grok acts as an advanced voice-activated personal assistant inside her Tesla, allowing her to control the vehicle and manage errands entirely hands-free. At the age of 76, navigating through the menu would probably take a while. Grok is her shortcut.
Photo: Retired Young Now What | YouTube
She wasn’t this chill right from the start, she tells her son, who is filming her trip from the passenger seat. Her son, Tim, is a retired law enforcement officer, proud to have a mom this tech whiz. She tells him how she took a 250-mile trip to Fortuna, California, going through mountain passes and upgrading to Standard Mode.
She usually travels in Chill mode, which means the car specifically selects the slowest lanes, avoids overtaking, and generally provides a relaxed, cautious, and ultra-smooth ride. Standard, however, looks like the driving style of a confident person, maintaining a safe distance from vehicles in front but passing those who drive exceptionally slowly in front of it.
It may not sound like much, but for her, it is a big deal. She is just learning to yield control and feel comfortable enough to go to the next level. Once the car reaches its destination, it parks automatically, as Tim and his mom remember how it parked in the spot reserved for people with disabilities. “She only did that once,” his mother defends Tessie. That one time, she had to take over and park the car herself. She still got it!
In the meantime, the system has been learning. The 76-year-old owner has had it since July, when she traded in her 2018 Cadillac CTS. She went for the Long Range AWD Premium. Quite a technology and performance gap there!
Photo: Retired Young Now What | YouTube
Her Tesla is set in motion by a dual-motor powertrain, pushing out 397 horsepower (402 metric horsepower) and 389 pound-feet (527 Newton meters) of torque for a run from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph (201 kph).
She obviously hasn’t tested the performance of her EV. It will take a while before she goes all Mad Max with her FSD. It’s been three months since she has been traveling around, hardly ever touching the steering wheel. She believes Tessie is far better at driving than she is right now.
Besides, she hates driving at night because her eyesight is playing tricks on her. Having the Tesla Model Y allows her to stay out for longer in the evenings. She no longer needs to worry about driving in the dark.
She does keep her eyes on the road at all times. A camera monitors her attention every time FSD is on. However, it once insisted that she did that even though she was. The camera can easily see through prescription glasses, but dark lenses confuse it most of the time.
Photo: Retired Young Now What | YouTube
But she has different standards when it comes to fun driving. “This is fun,” she says as she glances at her son and keeps her hands in her lap. She likes to be spoiled by the car. She feels chauffeured. While her former car, the Caddy, was very comfortable, it could by no means do everything her Tesla is doing for her.
Now, she is always entertained, as Tesla released the Halloween mode, the latest 2026.38 software update rolling out right now. The new mode turns pedestrians into walking skeletons or zombies, cars into ghosts, and traffic lights into glowing pumpkins. Furthermore, the blinker sounds switch from the usual click to an owl hooting.
If you would expect the viewers to criticize her, pointing out that her driving skills and reflexes aren’t quite as sharp as they used to be, many jumped into the comments section to praise her for not being stuck at home, dreaming of wandering around.
A user says that his 2026 Tesla Model Y Juniper finished in black is the best thing that ever happened to him besides marrying Debbie in 1972, having two daughters in the 1970s, and five grandchildren afterwards.
An 80-year-old says they have had the 2026 Tesla Model Y for six months and it changed their life completely. “Severe depression made me a closet case, but Tesla’s FSD made me enjoy traveling. Fire your psychiatrist and buy a Tesla!” they recommend.
