Findings from the trip library
What 430 real trips say about flying versus driving.
Every trip anyone runs here is priced both ways and kept. This page is what those trips add up to — recalculated from the library itself, so it stays true as the library grows.
- Trips compared
- 430
- Driving wins
- 274
- Flying wins
- 135
- Toss-ups
- 21
Trips compared
Driving wins
Flying wins
Toss-ups
- Driving wins — 64%
- Toss-up — 5%
- Flying wins — 31%
The headline finding
Flying starts winning at about 350 miles
Past roughly 350 miles of driving, more than half the trips in the library come out in favour of the plane. It isn't a hard line — seats, fuel prices and how long the flight itself is all move it — but it is where the balance tips across every trip run so far.
Based on 252 trips of 350 miles or more, out of 430
- Driving wins
- Flying wins
- Toss-up
The two edge cases, in numbers
| Edge case | Trip | Drive | By car | By plane | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longest drive the car still wins | Dallas, TX → El Paso, TX | 635 mi | $150 | $463 | Drive |
| Shortest drive the plane wins | Vancouver, BC → Calgary, AB | 603 mi | $248 | $246 | Fly |
Cost per mile
What a mile costs, both ways, by trip length
Short trips are the plane's worst ground: the airfare, the bags and the two rideshares barely shrink, so they land on very few miles. Stretch the trip and flying's cost per mile falls while the car's barely moves.
Single traveller, US dollars, across 430 trips
- Drive
- Fly
Cost per mile, in numbers
| Trip length | Trips | Drive $/mi | Fly $/mi | Plane wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 300 miles | 145 | $0.12 | $1.74 | 0% |
| 300 to 600 miles | 141 | $0.16 | $0.84 | 0% |
| 600 to 1,000 miles | 43 | $0.39 | $0.67 | 79% |
| Over 1,000 miles | 101 | $0.25 | $0.34 | 100% |
Charging
How many Supercharger stops a trip actually needs
Stops come from usable range between charges on the real routed distance, not a round number. They are also the main thing that separates the drive's clock from the flight's.
Averaged across 430 routed trips
Charging stops, in numbers
| Trip length | Trips | Average stops | Drive stress | Fly stress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 300 miles | 145 | 1.0 | 13 | 59 |
| 300 to 600 miles | 141 | 2.4 | 23 | 56 |
| 600 to 1,000 miles | 43 | 4.2 | 45 | 55 |
| Over 1,000 miles | 101 | 12.9 | 96 | 72 |
Stress
The drive stops being the calmer seat around 900 miles
Below that, the car scores calmer than the flight on a 0-100 scale — no security queue, no gate, no bag carousel, and the car doing the lane-keeping. Above it, the hours themselves take over.
Average 62% calmer where the car wins
- Drive
- Fly
Stress scores, in numbers
| Trip length | Drive stress | Fly stress | Calmer seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 300 miles | 13 | 59 | Car |
| 300 to 600 miles | 23 | 56 | Car |
| 600 to 1,000 miles | 45 | 55 | Car |
| Over 1,000 miles | 96 | 72 | Plane |
Where flying wins
Cheaper to drive, and it still says fly
These are the honest ones. Driving costs clearly less and the flight still takes the verdict, because the day the drive eats is worth more than the money it keeps.
135 of 430 trips say fly
| Trip | Drive | By car | By plane | Behind the wheel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin, MN → Las Vegas, NV | 1,585 mi | $708 | $956 | 26h 31m |
| Austin, TX → Seattle, WA | 2,121 mi | $206 | $780 | 32h 41m |
| Chicago, IL → San Francisco, CA | 2,127 mi | $207 | $801 | 31h 4m |
| San Antonio, TX → Seattle, WA | 2,145 mi | $209 | $781 | 32h 34m |
| Milwaukee, WI → San Francisco, CA | 2,168 mi | $211 | $799 | 31h 37m |
| Indianapolis, IN → San Francisco, CA | 2,255 mi | $219 | $824 | 33h 8m |
What people check
The trips people actually run
Nobody was asked to run these. They are the city pairs visitors typed in themselves, most-checked first.
242 of 430 trips were run by a person
- Driving wins
- Toss-up
- Flying wins
The most-run trips, with links
| Trip | Times run | Drive | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA → Las Vegas, NV | 30 | 270 mi | Drive |
| Austin, TX → New Orleans, LA | 16 | 511 mi | Drive |
| Dallas, TX → New Orleans, LA | 14 | 505 mi | Drive |
| Austin, TX → Denver, CO | 11 | 911 mi | Fly |
| Omaha, NE → San Francisco, CA | 11 | 1,665 mi | Fly |
| Miami, FL → Charleston, SC | 10 | 585 mi | Toss-up |
| Austin, TX → Dallas, TX | 9 | 196 mi | Drive |
| Austin, TX → Little Rock, AR | 8 | 514 mi | Drive |
| Frankfurt am Main, DE → Copenhagen, DK | 8 | 504 mi | Toss-up |
| Fort Worth, TX → Colorado Springs, CO | 6 | 697 mi | Fly |
The edges
Longest, shortest and closest calls
The far ends of the library, and the trips where the two options land almost on top of each other.
From 430 trips
| Trip | Drive | By car | By plane | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longest: Sutherland, ZA → Cairo, EG | 5,806 mi | $3,035 | $758 | $2,277 |
| Shortest: San Diego, CA → Tijuana, B.C. | 19 mi | $2 | $192 | $190 |
| Close call: Denver, CO → Oklahoma City, OK | 678 mi | $255 | $254 | $1 |
| Close call: Vancouver, BC → Calgary, AB | 603 mi | $248 | $246 | $2 |
| Close call: Denver, CO → Tulsa, OK | 693 mi | $256 | $260 | $4 |
| Close call: New York, NY → Miami, FL | 1,288 mi | $336 | $331 | $5 |
| Close call: Fairlight, NSW → Noosa Heads, QLD | 653 mi | $253 | $258 | $5 |
| Close call: Seattle, WA → Reno, NV | 704 mi | $258 | $263 | $5 |
Where the visitors are
The answer changes with the country
Fuel, electricity and airfare are all local. Trips outside the US are priced in their own money and converted only here, at fixed published rates, so the regions can sit in one table.
5 regions represented
- Driving wins
- Toss-up
- Flying wins
Regions, in numbers
| Region | Trips | Drive wins | Fly wins | Average drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 350 | 239 | 101 | 829 mi |
| Canada | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1,056 mi |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 3 | 0 | 259 mi |
| Europe | 9 | 8 | 0 | 323 mi |
| Elsewhere | 60 | 21 | 30 | 920 mi |
Carbon
The car is the cleaner seat on 427 of 430 trips
Where the car is cleaner it averages 7.4× less CO2e than the same trip by plane, counting the grid mix where the car charges, charging losses, and the extra warming effect of emissions released at altitude.
427 of 430 trips, single traveller
7.4× less CO2e
Average difference where the car is the cleaner seat, counting the grid mix where it charges and the extra warming from emissions released at altitude.
The closest call is Tulsa, OK → Wichita, KS — near enough even that carbon shouldn't decide it. How carbon is worked out →
The short answers
At what distance does flying beat driving a Tesla?
Across 430 trips compared on Fly or Tesla?, the verdict flips at about 350 miles of driving: beyond that, the plane wins more often than the car (252 trips are that long or longer). Under it, driving usually wins, and the margin grows with every extra seat.
Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla?
Of 430 trips, driving wins 274, flying wins 135 and 21 are close enough to call a toss-up. Where driving wins it keeps $301 on average for a single traveller, counting charging, tyres, maintenance, road food and any hotel night the drive forces against airfare, bags and getting to and from both airports.
What does it cost per mile to drive versus fly?
under 300 miles: $0.12 a mile to drive against $1.74 to fly (145 trips); 300 to 600 miles: $0.16 a mile to drive against $0.84 to fly (141 trips); 600 to 1,000 miles: $0.39 a mile to drive against $0.67 to fly (43 trips); over 1,000 miles: $0.25 a mile to drive against $0.34 to fly (101 trips).
How many Supercharger stops does a long drive need?
under 300 miles averages 1.0 stops; 300 to 600 miles averages 2.4 stops; 600 to 1,000 miles averages 4.2 stops; over 1,000 miles averages 12.9 stops, based on usable range between charges rather than a rule of thumb.
At what distance does driving become more stressful than flying?
Around 900 miles. Below that the drive scores calmer than the flight on a 0-100 scale; above it the hours behind the wheel overtake the airport.
Is driving an EV lower carbon than flying?
On 427 of 430 trips the car is the cleaner seat, averaging 7.4× less CO2e than the same trip by plane, counting grid mix where the car charges and contrails on the flight.
Using these numbers
Everything above regenerates from the live trip library and is free to quote with a link back. The same figures are available as JSON, and the method behind them is written up under cost analysis, stress score and emissions. Costs and airfare are estimates, not quotes.