The number on the screen is 49,999. For most of this video that is the whole show: a phone held up to a Tesla’s touchscreen, the odometer line reading “49,999 miles,” and the speed readout beside it showing 70. One line of text stays pinned across the top from the first second to the last. It reads, typo included, “Will the honor the warranty?!”
The clip was posted by @shawntempesta, and the caption explains why it was worth filming at all. “This video is amazing for a multitude of reasons,” it says, “most impressively of which is my timing LOL.”
The timing becomes clear when the camera slides across to the navigation panel. The destination is listed as “Tesla Las Vegas,” on a street name the screen cuts off after “W Saha.” The arrival time is 12:16 pm. The car is five minutes and 2.3 miles from getting there, with the battery at 61 percent.
The trip card next to the odometer fills in the rest of the drive. It shows about 9.7 miles covered in 21 minutes on 1.6 kilowatt-hours. A second card, “Since Charge,” shows a little over 45 miles. So this is a trip of roughly 12 miles in total, and the car has reached the last two of them one mile short of a very round number.
The camera goes back to the odometer and waits. It still says 49,999. Then, about 20 seconds in, it says “50,000 miles.” The camera swings to the map once more, and the navigation now shows four minutes and 2.2 miles to go. The last shot pulls back to take in the whole screen, with the car slowing to 38.
That is everything the video contains. It runs 28 seconds. It does not say what the car is going in for, and it does not say how the visit ended, so the question on screen is left open.
The reason the question gets asked at all is the number itself. Tesla’s basic limited warranty on a new vehicle runs for four years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. A car that arrives for service showing 49,999 is inside that limit. A car that arrives showing 50,002 is not. This one crossed over with the building almost in sight.
For anyone whose own odometer is getting close to a warranty limit, the clip is a good prompt to do a few things earlier than this.
Find out your real limits. A new car usually carries more than one warranty. The basic coverage is the short one. The battery and drive unit on an electric car are covered separately and for much longer, and the figures differ by model. The terms are in the warranty booklet and on the manufacturer’s website, and each one ends by time or by mileage, whichever arrives first.
Report a problem when you first notice it, not when it is convenient. A service request made through the manufacturer’s app or over the phone creates a dated record of what you reported. If the appointment itself cannot happen until after the limit, ask the service department in writing how a concern reported before the cutoff will be treated. Get the answer before you drive in.
Photograph the odometer on the day you report it. A picture of the screen with the mileage showing is simple proof of where the car stood.
Leave yourself room. The drive to the service center counts. On this trip the odometer turned over with about two miles still to drive, and an appointment booked a few hundred miles sooner would have removed the suspense entirely.
And if a milestone is coming up while the car is doing 70, hand the phone to a passenger. The moment will look the same on video, and the driver’s eyes can stay on the road.