Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from Los Angeles to San Jose?
Don't buy the stress score? Switch it off and the numbers still stand.
Tesla it. You save $367, and the trip is 69% less stressful.
Los Angeles to San Jose is 341 mi by road — 5h 26m of driving and 2 Supercharger stops — against 4h 29m door to door by air. Driving is cheaper: taking the Tesla costs $33 against $400 to fly, a saving of $367. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 18 and the flight 59.
Checking the route…
313 city pairs, run through the same math
Sometimes the car wins. Sometimes the plane does.
Real driving distances from Google, the same cost and stress model your trip gets. Blue lines are the ones where the Tesla won.
Car wins
227
Average $315 kept on those trips, in US dollars at fixed rates.
Plane wins
79
Long enough that the road stops making sense.
Too close to call
7
Either choice is defensible. Your call.
Biggest money wins
Where flying costs the most.
Just fly it
Long enough that the plane wins.
Closest calls
Within a rounding error either way.
108 of these have been checked by a person. Latest: McGhee Tyson Airport → Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Knoxville → Phoenix, Sacramento → San Diego.