45-Minute Tesla Full Self-Driving Test Drive (supervised) – 3 Interventions (Video)

Sign up to receive daily news updates from CleanTechnica via email. Or follow us on Google News!

David Havasi and I recorded Tesla’s next (supervised) full self-driving test drive a few days ago. This was probably the most impressive of the weekly drive tests we’ve done since the introduction of FSD 12.3 (although the first test in which the FSD passed a set of roundabouts was quite exciting). I think it’s best to watch the entire video to get a complete, unedited, real view of how FSD works. However, I’ll summarize some of the key points below the video and include timestamps of those moments.

The first notable part of the drive, in my opinion, was at around 19:45, when the car needed to enter the left turn lane – a long lane that could have been merged into it slowly and carefully – but was cutting it too close to the curb at a fairly high speed (39 mph) I decided I had to disengage quickly. We’ve heard of cases of people getting a rash due to FSD, so there’s a good chance I would have gotten it too, or maybe I wouldn’t have, but it was too close for comfort and I reluctantly decided I had to take charge.

A few minutes later, at approximately 24:50, the car needed to cross three lanes of very fast traffic on the motorway in order to quickly reach one of the left turn lanes. FSD has been quite successful. David and I were shocked, or at least very impressed, and we’re sure the car made the move smoother and better than any human could have done.

At about 35:23, we went into a very strange and difficult 4-way stop with an island in the middle. It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. The car nailed it.

Unfortunately, after a minute and a half, there was a situation where the two left lanes take you onto I-75, and we wanted to go straight (and the navigation system made us go straight), the traffic is moving so fast and there’s so much of it, the FSD was basically going to box us in the far left lane It could potentially put us in a very dangerous situation or force us onto I-75. I tried to get us on track, but I couldn’t wait long enough and decided I had to quit.

Finally, after a few minutes, we were turning left off the same highway onto a smaller road that would take us back to the shopping center where the new Tesla store and service center (and David’s car) were located. There are three left turn lanes off this highway, and we should have been in the lane on the left, but were put in the lane on the right. After the turn, we had to move to one of the lanes on the left, but we did not do so before reaching the traffic light. Interestingly, at this spot, there is a median that ends up dividing the two left turn lanes from the lanes heading straight at the light. The FSD decided that even though she was in a lane going straight and there was a thin center line with leaves next to us, she would stop at the green light there and somehow try to make an illegal left turn. As I approached a complete stop and with traffic behind me and not at all expecting to stop there, I decided I had to disengage so I could drive the car with traffic flowing again.

Of course, these are just five highlights (and bright spots) from Tesla’s 45 minutes of (supervised) full self-driving testing. I recommend watching the full video for more!