We have a 2023 Model X. Every now and then Tesla gives us a month of free FSD. This time, it’s far more impressive.
We live up in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley, so we have a few miles of narrow, twisty roads without sidewalks or even edge lines to deal with. In the past, FSD would have troubles, ranging from now knowing where the road boundaries were to not realizing these roads were two-way and so not keeping to the right even though there isn’t a center line marked.
Yesterday, FSD 14.2.1 drove me down the mountain onto the freeway, off the freeway, through town, into the parking lot, and then picked a spot and backed into it. All by itself. Granted, it was daytime clear, traffic was light, but it did what it needed to do. I may try a longer drive today.
Now, it may still have issues at night or in fog or with heavy commute traffic, but there has been serious progress since I last tried FSD several months ago. If my drives yesterday are not outliers, then I think most people will come away from an FSD drive with positive thoughts.
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I saw a video of FSD 14.2.1 driving through snow with zero intervention. The author said that none of the previous versions had managed it. He was as impressed as you. During the ride he would say things like, “It needs to think about how slippery it is and slow down to take the turn.” Then add, “It did it perfectly, like I would have done.” He commented that none of the previous versions had managed it.
The Captain
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Yesterday:
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In Carmel on a narrow steet, there wasn’t enough room for 4 cars: on each side - a parked and a moving car. FSD started to go, then saw another car coming, so it pulled off to the side before the parked car to let the other car go. The other car, in the meantime, had done the same thing. So, FSD then pulled out and went. We waved at each other - I could have waved with two hands if I wanted.
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Heading home up Highway 1 and Highway 17 at night, FSD was just fine. Hwy 17 doesn’t have lights in its twisty parts, but FSD drove well, even slowing down when visibility wasn’t so good.
I’ve had only one true intervention so far.
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In how many miles, would you say?
So, I’ve done another dozen or so trips, including some 60+ mile trips that involve narrow and twisty mountain roads, freeway, high-speed non-freeway roads (Highwa 1), and city streets, including parking. No “critical” interventions, meaning I didn’t intervene because I was worried about an accident, only because I was either impatient, wanted to snag a parking space a couple blocks from our destination, etc.
On Hwy 1, 2-lanes each way with a middle lane sometimes for left hand turns, a cop car with lights blazing and siren going was traveling down the middle. We were in the left lane; FSD signaled, pull to the right, and stopped until the cop car went by, then resumed. On narrow mountain roads, does a good job of deciding when to pull over and when to keep going when cars are coming from the other direction.
On Hwy 17, a lane was closed, and FSD did just OK merging into the other lane. Basically, it did the zipper thing, but it didn’t move over as soon as it should. The driver behind flashed his lights to let us know he was letting us in, so some impatience there - not that it mattered since we were then all in one lane and we kept reasonably close to the car in front after the merge. In general I would say that FSD needs to change lanes sooner once it has signaled and seen that the gap is more than big enough. Merging onto the freeway today, it actually went beyond the dotted line in the accleration lane, which becomes an exit lane, so technically, it crossed the solid white lane, which isn’t technically legal (most people don’t know/obey that anyway).
So, yeah, not perfect, but pretty darn good. Looking forward to several hundreds miles of road tripping over the upcoming holidays.
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