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Tesla Full Self-Driving mode: Positives & negatives after long testing

12th June 2024, 17:38 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I have been using the FSD mode in my Model 3 Performance for my everyday driving which includes backroads and freeways.

BHPian mobike008 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Tesla Model 3 Performance Full Self-Driving (FSD) Brief Feedback Report

As you are aware from my earlier post, Tesla offered “Full Self-Driving” which is also popularly known as FSD in the Tesla world. Being technology-inquisitive by nature, I was obviously excited and intrigued and wanted to test it almost like a “Beta Tester” of Tesla.

I have been using the FSD primarily for everyday driving which includes Backroads and Freeways.

How do both these roads differ? Backroads have plenty of stoplights, sloppy roads that have massive inclines (cannot see the oncoming traffic) and steep declines, sweeping turns and innumerable “roundabouts”. Freeways have multiple lanes (6-7) including the HOV and EXIT lanes.

Here is my feedback on FSD and how it works based on my rigorous testing over the last 3 weeks.

Positives

Tesla drives confidently or I should probably use the word “Over Confidently” in FSD. The regular Autopilot or Advanced Auto Pilot hesitates quite a bit and is more careful in its approach. Whereas FSD seems sure-footed with respect to stopping, acceleration, lane changing etc.
Biggest surprise for me was the “Roundabouts”. There are many of them in our area and some are really complicated and not 4-way roundabout but, 6 and sometimes 7 entry and exit points into a roundabout. There are plenty of accidents due to human error as even we are confused as to “who will go first”. I was blown to note Tesla takes the roundabout with ease. Stops before entering and evaluates cars coming into the roundabout (you may know the rule that if a car is in the roundabout, they have the right of way) and then enters into the roundabout and exits onto the main road smoothly. Absolutely flawless piece of action.
Lane changing is precise and does not make any mistakes. The only point where it gives me a heart attack is when it changes lanes sometimes too late (e.g.: 0.3 miles, it changes the lane into the leftmost or rightmost lane to exit).
Exiting freeways is beautifully done and another small issue is when you exit the freeway and get onto the exit ramp which is usually a 360” curved road and is typically a 30mph speed limit. It takes those 360” roads at 45mph or even higher which is little scary as its quite fast.
Double exits- You exit the freeway, get on the ramp and then either exit the second connected freeway or merge onto a new freeway. This entire manoeuvre is executed like clockwork.
Stops for red lights without any mistakes. When the light turns green, it accelerates really fast (I’m always in SPORTS mode- not sure if that makes any impact) which is again a little scary.
Tesla ensures that the driver is always aware and makes sure you touch the steering wheel once every 2 minutes. If you fail to comply, Tesla will disengage “auto steering” for the rest of the drive.
I tried checking my phone while FSD is on- A prompt appears on the screen to focus on the road, or it “threatens” that if it's repeated 4 times it will be permanently disabled. Man, that’s like someone is pointing a gun at you… LOL!

Negatives

When going around a roundabout it climbed the side of center footpath once. It never made any mistakes after that one lone time.
Lane changing - it automatically switches on indicators, then hesitates and does not change the lane. It happened a few times.
Phantom braking - It happened to me for the first time. A couple of days ago, on a freeway in Seattle, 5 lane highway, late night and no car ahead or behind me and it just braked, hesitated and then carried on.

To summarize, with respect to autonomous, I would say that Tesla is almost 75% there and needs to cover the remaining 25% gap which has more to do with confidence in the user and handling “unpredictable” road situations. Tesla had dropped the price from $15K to $12K for FSD. Is it worth it for that steep price? Nope, I don't think so. If it was $5K, I would have bought it eyes closed.

Here are some detailed videos that I took that will give you a perspective of how FSD performed. If you are interested in seeing it completely, I would urge you to see all the videos as they were recorded by me while driving the car while I sat back relaxed and used my iPhone to record all these videos.