Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from New Orleans to Seattle?
Don't buy the stress score? Switch it off and the numbers still stand.
Fly it. 2,608 mi is more road than this trip is worth.
New Orleans to Seattle is 2,608 mi by road — 38h 35m of driving and 14 Supercharger stops — against 8h 2m door to door by air. Flying is the better call: the flight costs $862 against $254 to drive, and it saves 30h 33m of travel. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 100 and the flight 73.
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.