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Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from Palo Alto, CA to San Diego, CA?
Take the TeslaYou keep
$683
In the car
8h 44m
Car is calmer by
52%
Car 27 · Flight 56
4h 42m by air, only 1h 26m of it flying. 1 in 5 run late.
How this was priced
Palo Alto, CA to San Diego, CA is 475 mi by road — 8h 44m of driving and 3 Supercharger stops — against 4h 42m door to door by air. Driving is cheaper: taking the Tesla costs $240 against $923 to fly, a saving of $683. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 27 and the flight 56.
Priced with fast charging at $0.50 per kWh and 3.7 miles per kWh, airfare from a $95 base plus $0.13 a mile per person, one $35 bag and a $30 ride at each end. Airfare is modelled from flight distance, not a live fare quote, so treat it as a typical fare rather than today's price. Rates last reviewed 14 September 2026; this trip last priced 6 October 2026.
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- Distance and drive time come from live road routing, not straight lines.
- Every rate used is listed on Cost analysis and sourced on Sources.
- This trip as raw data: palo-alto-ca-to-san-diego-ca.json
- Last recalculated 2026-10-06 · checked 1×. Costs are modelled estimates, not quotes.