A friend gifted me a free trial of Tesla's Full Self Driving, and after using it for about a week, I have some thoughts.
A good technical driver
Overall, my impressions were pretty positive. On the technical skill of driving, FSD is a good driver - probably better than me, honestly. It takes a lot of the stress out of lane changes because you don't have to be peering over your shoulder while trying to maintain attention to what's in front of you. I'm pretty sure it parallel parks better than me too. It's great for freeway driving, especially the boring kind that's liable to put you to sleep.
But too polite
On the negative side of things, I found the FSD to be a bit too "polite" of a driver. That is, it slows down too early rather than speeding up to beat a yellow light. When you're waiting to make a left turn, and the light switches from yellow to red, it tends to wait rather than go, even when I'd normally go. And when a car pokes its head out of a driveway, the Tesla FSD tends to stop to let it go, even when the Tesla has right of way.
This politeness, IMO, actually makes the FSD a somewhat less safe driver. Someone once told me, "To be a good driver, the main thing is to be predictable." The thing is, most people aren't that polite when driving. The norm is to speed up if you can beat a yellow, to left turn just as the light switches to red, and to not let someone out of the driveway when you have right of way. I don't know what the technical rules of the road are, but those are how people normally drive. When I slow down in the middle of busy road to let someone out of the driveway, that is less safe than going, because people are not expecting me to slow down.
Unreliable navigation
Another downside is that the FSD relies on Tesla's navigation system. But Tesla's navigation isn't quite as good as Google's. Once, it took a route that was blocked because of a ramp closure it didn't know about (but Google did). That mistake cost me about 10 minutes of extra driving time to detour around the closure. I actually had to take over driving because even after passing the closed ramp, Tesla's navigation kept telling the car to turn around and get back on the ramp.
Ease of use
On the plus side, taking over from the FSD is very smooth. They did a pretty good job with the interface design. Taking over briefly to speed up at the yellow or take the left turn that FSD wouldn't take is pretty seamless, and it's just as seamless to switch back to FSD. I found myself basically letting FSD do 90% of the driving, with me taking over at key moments where I would have made a different decision. I really liked how smooth it was to transition between the two modes.
Cost Benefit Analysis
Ultimately, is it worth $100 a month? It takes some of the stress out of driving, especially if you're already feeling tired. But how else do I benefit? I don't think I could concentrate on getting any real work done, especially for shorter trips. I guess I can surf the internet on my phone, but is that worth $100 a month? I do listen to a lot of audiobooks while driving, and I often want to jot down a note as I'm listening... the FSD lets me do that. But again, is it worth $100/month?
That being said, I haven't taken it on any significant road trips yet, like a 5+ hour road trip. I could see the FSD being really nice for that, letting me get work done or watch a movie while the car autopilots the boring freeway driving.
So, currently I'm still on the fence about whether we want to keep it. What do Stackers think? Has anyone tried Tesla FSD, or other self driving options?
Can we make Asian driver jokes in response to your dislike of the safe driving features?
I'll allow it
I test drove a cybertruck with FSD and was blown away. Even the shortcomings you mentioned here doesn’t turn me off. Before I didn’t care much for Tesla’s EVs but now I can’t wait to get one all because how cool FSD is.
would you pay $100/month for the FSD? I'm on board at say $20/month but $100 is pretty steep
Sure! That $100 goes to development to make it better. It’s not a rent seeking $100.
This is a great review! Often i hear mostly about the positives from people who have it and I really appreciated your more nuanced take.
On the is it worth $100 / month question: perhaps I am too high on the hopium, but I wonder if it's the kind of thing that you pay for without fully knowing that it will benefit you. To be honest, I rarely pay for such things myself, but I do think they can occasionally be worth it.
I think I would also be quite frustrated by a too polite robot car. Taking out ones aggression through hard driving is perhaps a guilty pleasure. Feeling like I was always the overly cautious driver would be soul-crushing.
Been thinking about getting one for my 80yo dad who is getting less confident driving (bay area)... have a brother unfortunately with irrational EDS ...
Was this outside of a geofence? I assume it'll be more accurate over time where there's density and each vehicle can report obstacles.
Probably another density issue, it's still "early", so even if its statistically 5x safer than a human driver a single incident will be scrutinized unfairly by all the worst people. Anything about such an incident that can be painted as at-fault by FSD will have huge implications for the company and the tech more broadly.
When it's more normalized the luddites influence will carry less weight and each car will have to account less for human entropy on the road. If the car in the driveway was another FSD vehicle, it wouldn't have to hedge against it pulling out.