How Good is Tesla Full Self Driving, by a Motor Trend Road Tester
Motor Trend reports on FSD in their long term test 2023 Model Y, https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-tesla-model-y-long-range-yearlong-review-update-9-full-self-driving-fsd-version-13/ They weren't too impressed with the first software version that came with the car,
I'm not using FSD because it's bringing me much utility or, much less, enjoyment. I'm using it because we paid $15,000 for this software (it costs $8,000 today), and I'm going to do my job and report on how it works, dammit.
That's despite FSD giving me many, many reasons to forsake it, to decide that my safety and sanity are worth more than what it cost. Yet the Full Self Driving note I created in my phone to log the system's transgressions has an ever-increasing abundance of entries as we pile the miles onto our Model Y.
Dumb and Dangerous Decisions
For example, there was the time it failed to recognize an increased speed limit sign and continued bumbling along at a 15-mph deficit. In stark contrast, later in that same drive, it detected a 55-mph speed limit sign specific to vehicles towing (which it wasn't), decelerating from 75 mph so rapidly that traffic behind had to swerve around the Model Y. Moments later, FSD decided to change lanes to follow the navigation route toward its next turn-still some 10 miles away-cutting someone off in the process.
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On a different day, FSD deviated from my navigation route because it neglected to recognize that the lane it was occupying became right turn only. After making that turn, it wanted to correct its error and resume the route by making a U-turn at the next intersection, where a "No U-Turn" sign was clearly posted. It tried to make its illegal U-turn from the right side of that double-protected left turn, such that if I hadn't intervened it would've overlapped with the vehicle turning from the left-side lane.
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FSD's errors aren't always dangerous. More often, they're just asinine. Like when our Model Y didn't react to a green arrow for a protected right turn, inconveniencing me and drivers behind. Or entered a packed intersection as a yellow light expired, coming to a stop inside a crosswalk. Or braked hard after it accelerated up a freeway on-ramp because it detected an inactive traffic control signal. Or when it encountered an unexpected road closure and drove around the same block three times because each time it arrived back at the closure it failed to recalculate its route. Who knows how long FSD might've kept circling had I not turned it off.
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