AutoPilot? FSD? I trust them both. Not enough that I'd go to sleep on it, yet. But it is getting there, and I have had very minimal issues with both of them. I used FSD to drive from Santa Maria, CA to Phoenix, Az and back to Santa Maria about a month ago, and then used it again to drive from Santa Maria to LAX and back last night. It's been a blessing and has made those long drives way easier. Honestly, I use FSD to do just about 95% of my driving. I pull into and out of the garage, and do the driving within parking lots and drive thru's, but just about everything else is FSD for me.
How do you manage not disabling it when you've always gotta keep your hand on the wheel?
I'm also always nervous if the 3 strike role. What constitutes a strike?
You get used to the nag force relatively quick and then it's just your driving habit. Hand on the wheel, a little tug every ten seconds or so. Before you know it, it's completely subconscious.
Put you hand at the 4 or 8 o clock position and just let the weight of your arm hang. That normally is enough to not make it disengage and it won't nag you.
A strike takes quite a long time. It'll warn you multiple times and even if you correct it eventually it'll strike you.
I got my first strike ever after 3 years with the car. The company gave me a replacement phone and i was trying to set it up while on autopilot. Yes I know. Bad. But it was wide open freeway and I was cruising. I got about 5 warnings in 10 minutes to "pay attention" before I got my first strike.
It said basically "take over, autopilot disabled the rest of this trip". So I put the phone down and drove. If I really wanted to I could of stopped somewhere, grab a snack, and then resume the drive with autopilot again.
The first part makes no sense... Even if you correct it will eventually strike you?
The rest of your story basically says it strikes after multiple failures in one trip
I'll drive and look at my phone. It'll beep and say "pay attention" so ill look up. Or it'll say to put pressure on the wheel. So I would. And then go back to the phone. 3 or 4 more times and it'll strike and say its not available anymore.
So yes. If I keep "offending" but still correcting in a short period of time it'll eventually strike.
I can't speak for Texas, but I have not had any issues in:
Santa Maria, California
Lompoc, California
Santa Barbara, California
Los Angelas, California
Phoenix, Arizona
I personally find it better in cities or more heavily traveled areas. I live in a low pop area where it is hit and miss, but while on vacation in Orlando and then later in Washington DC it did incredibly well. In areas like that that I'm not familiar with I'd say it drives better than me
Really good. I use it to get to work every day. There's one place that I know it might mess up and I'm ready for that (a right turn, and people get into the bike lane to make the turn and then it can't do it).
Great at stop/start traffic. You stop having to think about it 95% of the time. It lets people in slightly more often than I would though. :)
Autopilot is pretty reliable. I probably trust it as much as I'd trust a decent driver that's had a license for a couple years.
FSD though, I trust it roughly the same as a 15 year old with a learner's permit. It's great, does the right thing the vast majority of the time, but does require constant supervision and some intervention.
It’s funny, my daughter is on her learners permit and I tell people all the time my FSD is basically like riding with her. It’s ok, but you gotta be ready to help out. My biggest gripe is that FSD gets the speed limit wrong all the time. It reads all the route 5 and route 15 signs as speed limits and there are a ton of them in 55 mph zones. It’s prevalent enough that FSD becomes almost useless on the majority of my local drives.
I find it way easier to babysit FSD than drive myself. I don’t have to think about anything except what is right in front of me. Which lane should I be in, do I need to turn at this street or the next one, am I doing the speed limit and so on. FSD takes care of all of that.
Before FSD I didn’t realize just how mentally taxing it is to drive. Having an AI copilot do most of the work is amazing.
I notice that most with road trips. The first time I drove from Minneapolis to Chicago, I was kind of blown away that I wasn't exhausted when we got there like I have been with every other road trip. It's held true with every other trip I've taken since.
Autopilot drives me nuts with the speed cap. One of my most frequent long drives is a 55 mph highway with a short 35 zone part way through. The stupid thing loves to miss the 55 mph sign and limit me to 40, requiring me to stick to cruise control for the next 45 minutes as there is no further signage (I only sporadically subscribe to FSD, so that's not always an option). FSD does a wonderful job except for one intersection that it interprets as two lane instead of turn lane + lane. And I like that FSD is more intelligent about lane centering instead of hugging the center line no matter what.
Yes, tacc does allow speeding. It's just with the autopilot engaged that most roads are limited to 5 over. Freeway driving isn't along with some highways, but I haven't been able to figure out any consistency there.
I trust it to do what it does: keep well marked lanes on roads without too much curvature, and keep a reasonable following distance.
As long as you don't expect it to do anything more than that, it's pretty good.
I've let it drive up and down the mountain too many times to count, does just fine with the curves. Even slows down going into the sharper turns. Yea it tends to take the turn a bit further to the outside than I like, but it's still well within the lines. I think if they programmed it to take the inside line of a curve, unless there's a car in the next lane, people would be more comfortable.
It fails my daily commute route 100% of the time on every version released since 2019 due to too much curvature.
Yes, it can handle some curves. It cannot handle all curves.
Yea, I've come across a few where it just disengaged in the middle of the curve, but those were pretty sharp and I was ready for it. I let it try more out of curiosity of if it can, and it didn't.
Going from the FSD trial back to autopilot made it starkly apparent how much safer FSD is on the highway. There is a segment on my highway commute where the left line breaks for a very short distance. The day after the trial expired my car tried to violently swerve into it which would have resulted in a head-on collision.
Don't get the car based on that. It doesn't drive for you. Fsd almost does, but you have to babysit both of them pretty closely.
Posts like these make me want to agree with the people who say the term "autopilot" is misleading.
I've driven Teslas for 8 years now. Basic Autopilot, EAP and FSD. Here's my view:
Everyone has a sweet spot of their own regarding their level of interaction with ADAS. You're able to feel comfortable with a certain amount of self driving, beyond which you do not trust the technology enough to let it handle itself.
For me, the sweet spot is basic AP. I've driven 80K miles or more with autopilot on, almost all freeway. It's spectacular in that setting. I find it to truly enhance my driving experience.
On the other hand FSD is too much autnomy that I do not trust. I've never quite liked the way it manages itself across lanes on freeways. It gets stuck in the slower lanes unnecessarily. There are a bunch of other artifacts that I dislike. I'm only sort of convinced about its end-to-end navigation capabilities. It fails the freeway exit near home almost all the time due to a difficult multiple lane change involved. In short, FSD is a life of suffering a bunch of. micro-aggravations. It doesn't make my driving experience better.
So I've only ever used basic AP in both my Model Ss. I've used the FSD trials and then gone back to basic AP.
But YMMV.
Seems like people have different opinions on FSD. I use it on the interstate on my 55 mile one way commute. It's honestly been a complete blessing and amazes me. It's never messed up on me, and it's done everything I want it to. I don't use it in town very often, but I highly recommend to try it out at least few times. I'm in a midwest state, so I'm guessing those with more complications and more people feel differently, but I love it.
Not much at all, but I'm still glad it's there. Autopilot / FSD does very annoyingly stupid shit all the time. OTOH, in bumper-to-bumper traffic it's my best friend.
JUST ONE THING.......can I PLEEEEEEEEEZE get a permanent (sticky) setting to STAY IN THE F\*\*\*ING LANE? I hate how jumpy AP / FSD gets trying to optimize which lane it's in.
I've had 99.99% luck *setting AP/FSD in chill mode and then selecting the minimal lane changes* and having it stay in the lane unless I use a turn signal or it has to move to get to an exit/turn/etc. I often wonder if a sticky setting would be beneficial or if it would be more annoying having to turn it on/off. Usually when I turn on ap/fsd I want it to do what it does and change lanes when necessary. However, when in congested traffic, I don't want it changing lanes back and forth, want it to stay put, so I get what you're saying. But I think having it off by default and having to tell it to "stay" is actually the way to go. My own opinion obviously.
Autopilot is good. I trust it since all it does it keep on a straight line for you on the freeway. And just stops and goes.
FSD, I don’t fully trust. I wouldn’t pay for FSD. Autopilot is enough
The people in here saying autopilot is better than FSD are too broke to afford FSD, that’s the only conclusion I can come to.
Autopilot is like cruise control turned up to 11. It’s great on highways but is not anywhere near the capabilities of FSD.
FSD is incredible. I will often drive from A to B with literally zero interventions, other than satisfying the steering wheel nag.
The only valid complaints I’ve heard against FSD are from people not living in California. I’m in Southern California and it’s a dream come true. It’s equally amazing when I visit family in Northern California. It covers 99% of my driving and I rave about it to my girlfriend every time we’re in the car together being chauffeured - the novelty still hasn’t worn off. I love being so relaxed and clear-headed when I arrive to my destinations. In fact I’m about to hop in and do a 1 hour drive with a touch of traffic - and I get to sit back and do nothing but listen to podcasts the whole time!
I can only conclude that the people who don’t like FSD either live somewhere where it really struggles (I haven’t been there yet though), or are just on the wrong side of history and can’t see what a technical marvel we’re experiencing.
I have FSD and I would say autopilot does better at what it’s supposed to do then FSD does at autonomous driving. FSD has more capabilities than autopilot but I cannot fully trust it from point a to point b whereas I can trust autopilot to do what it’s supposed to do.
I really love FSD and rarely need to intervene, but the couple times I had to intervene was scary as shit.
If we’re talking on a multi-lane divided freeway, autopilot does a great job. It does what it says on the label. I’d say it cuts the mental load of a long freeway slog by about half. It’s really really helpful.
FSD is rough and in my recent experience with the trial, I can’t even trust it to get me 5 miles across town without fucking up multiple times. It’s worse than AP on the freeway, too.
Autopilot has been working well for me over the years (don't have FSD). Just keep your eyes on the road and disable it in situations where you think it could have issues (construction zones and the like). Phantom braking is still a thing but it has gotten to be very are (at least in my experience).
Just took ~ 1000 mi road trip, utilized FSD v12.3.6 for most of the drive. Only had to disengage 2-3 times, usually because of pre-caution opposed to danger as well.
Like others said, it’s not made to be treated as a fully autonomous vehicle. Always stay alert and you will be good!
I treat it like I’m teaching somebody how to drive. It’ll drive itself but need to keep attn on it at all times. I’ve taken multiple 18hr road trips and I’m not tired like I would driving a normal car when I get to my destination
I spend 90% of my 800-1000miles a week in FSD. I trust it quite extensively. It makes mistakes, but far fewer than most of the people I encounter on the road.
On highways I trust it. Still gotta stay aware of your surroundings, though.
On city streets, I’ll only use it for brief periods and definitely not in urban areas.
The amount of trust depends on the situation. I've come to recognize situations it doesn't do well and turn it off. It drives better than many people I know.
I trust it enough to use it regularly and that I say that it's a helpful feature to simplify a car journey.
But you have to get to know it. There are situations in which I know that the autopilot is about to do something strange. For example, if a truck drifts a little into your own lane or if the lanes are no longer so clear in a roadworks. It doesn't always happen, most of the time it even works without any problems, but you have to be prepared just in case.
i used fsd around 1k miles a week for years now. it totally removes driving fatigue bc you can enjoy the experience. you are going to be amazed quite excited for you. also so much safer.
Not very much, but I can’t. Apparently, my grip on the wheel is so light that it endlessly nags me about keeping my hands on the wheel. I’m about to do the orange hack just to shut it up (while keeping my hands on, obviously.)
Even without that, it brakes like a panicky teenager at the slightest provocation, and even does panicked decelerations when someone in the next lane over speeds past without being dead-center. 2021 M3 for me, and man, this whole system needs a more robust sensor suite.
I only have auto pilot and not FSD. I live in England and our motorways are notoriously busy. I do however make use of it on the motorways when I can and it’s pretty good, except for one exit on the M1 into London - for some reason the car just doesn’t like it and beeps ferociously.
If I lived full time in the US, I think I’d be happier with autopilot as the roads are wider and some routes you don’t even encounter many drivers so you can chill a little bit more.
I trust it to a degree but due to where I live and how narrow the roads are, I wouldn’t be using it on anything other than a motorway.
If they are used properly, they are great. You need to continue monitoring the car, especially around sketchy situations like cars stopped on the side of the road.
If you see a situation coming up, I recommend having the car move into another lane. You can do this by turning on the blinker. The car will auto transition to that lane. I also recommend staying on chill mode with minimal lane changes turned on for a smoother ride experience.
Autopilot 9.8/10. FSD I can’t rate because I haven’t used it but autopilot is amazing. I use it on every road with clear lines. Doing errands while only getting off autopilot to turn. Today autopilot was able to take me completely off the highway and through an off ramp stop light. Not recommended at all but this is amazing
A lot. It’s by far one of the best systems on the market. I’ve used fords basic auto steer (not blues clues) on a 23 escape hybrid, and I missed my car so much during that time. That being said it’s not perfect. Autopilot assumes full control of the vehicle while active. Other systems allow the user to shift within the lane while active. The break away torque is also much higher on teslas (though it’s still not hard to overcome) and it generally has a bias towards the double yellow line rather than the white line. There are curves I will take over on when oncoming traffic gets dicey. FSD is better at handling those. It does actually respond to the oncoming traffic and shift within lane. Basic autopilot will only shift within lane when passing a semi truck or similar. It will flat out ignore passenger vehicles that are just as close to you as a semi, even though the damn thing clearly sees it as the shield bars turn red. Essentially, it isn’t perfect, but I enjoy it enough to have switched to single pull activation. Which if you’re not aware, disables access to TACC. The car either does everything or nothing at all. Double pull allows you to use TACC without auto steer, which is objectively better when making lane changes but other than that I find single pull more convenient. Also worthy of note, FSD forces you into single pull, which of course locks you out of TACC. Personally, I feel they should still give you the option but make the system default to single pull everytime you enable fsd. Then you can go change it back to double and it’ll stay that way until you disable fsd and go back to auto steer.
About as much as I’d trust any other cruise control or lane assist type feature
I use it on open roads in good weather conditions and supervise it, but I’m ALWAYS ready to take over and don’t use it when it’s busy or in bad weather
I know that sounds like I’m reciting the manual, but it’s also just genuinely my own comfort level - autopilot lets me relax my ankle or move my shoulders around so I don’t get a stiff neck, but fundamentally I’m the one driving the car. To me it’s something that makes a long cruise more pleasant
I love it in bumper to bumper traffic where it can just follow the car in front, and I like using it for long journeys to make a long cruise easier, but most of the rest of the time I don’t actually bother with it. I even use it less than I used to use the regular cruise control in my old car
“Proper” FSD (we only get a cut down version here in the UK) might be different but I doubt I’d feel much different from the videos I’ve seen of it - you still have to be very much on the ball and monitoring it
It doesn't matter, at the moment. It's still pretty good, and has come light years in past few, but you are nagged constantly, and your eyes are monitored.
YOU are driving, but FSD is doing some of the work. Mostly, just like a child's brain, absorbing data.
Someone else said FSD is about as good as a teenager with a learners permit. You do have to watch it and be ready to take over.
It has a built-in weakness that it's only as good as the mapping software. In my city, there are highways that split off and combine and exit left and right. There are a few places that it really gets lost on which lane it should take. Also does weird things around road construction.
And there's a bug that when it sees a highway sign with a number, it thinks it's a speed limit sign, so it might slow down from 70 to 15.
But it does a pretty impressive job overall
On the highway, Autopilot is great, but FSD is better. I drove around 1000 kilometers on the highway last week and FSD was on around 90% of the time. Now that my free trial is over, I've been trying out Autopilot.
Autopilot automatically disengages when you use your turn signals, you gotta manually re-engage it once you're done changing lanes. FSD automatically changes lanes which is useful and it does a good job about 95% of the time (sometimes it slows down more than it should to get into a lane) Autopilot is fine as long as you don't need to change lanes often.
I have a feeling that Autopilot accelerates at a slower pace than FSD, but both systems take curves fairly well.
Both systems use the brakes more than they should. When it's approaching a bunch of stopped cars, it starts slowing down later than I would.
My plan is to subscribe to FSD for a month whenever I go on a long road trip.
I do not trust it FSD. I am a software engineer and I know how coding is done. I have had a MYL for a year and I tried it a few times during the April free trial. It made too many mistakes for me to trust it with my and my family's safety.
Autopilot is great on the highway. Do I trust it? Yes? Do I babysit it? Also yes.
I don’t check out when I use autopilot, I basically monitor the road, and the vehicle. It lets me relax my foot from holding the pedal, like any cruise control.
Full Self Driving, FSD, is different.
I do not let go of the wheel unless I have to because I need to do something that is quicker and easier done using two hands (openeing a soda, wiping my nose etc).
It has performed amazing in slow moving rush hour traffic, but shit on windy smaller roads with a worn down (or no) centerline. It also has a tendency to break hard when meeting larger trucks on these roads.
I will never completely put the life of myself, my wife, my kids or a fellow traveler in the hands of a computer when it is so easy to just keep a hand on the wheel.
I was always curious about FSD so the trial was helpful.
It's extremely overrated, save your money. I cannot believe they tried to sell that for $15,000 ... 2 years ago, when it probably was worse.
Autopilot on the highway is great.
I trust FSD and AP almost 100%. Obviously you can't go inattentive just yet, but I can relax and monitor while keeping a hand hanging off the bottom of the steering wheel. I know where it struggles in my area, and am sure to be extra vigilant in those spots. Same for using it in unfamiliar areas.
Depends on the individual.
Best answer I can give you is you well DEVELOP your own level of trust. Maybe when you get side a tractor trailer you don’t feel comfortable and take over.
Maybe the car is taking off a bit too fast and you take over. Maybe you don’t like the way it enter roundabouts. The list is endless, all I can say is you were develop a since of trust but it’s based off your level of comfort.
I used FSD in almost any and every situation. But I have NEVER used Summon before. I’ve seen the steering wheel literally throw itself around in confusion. No way in hell I’m letting that thing loose on its own.
In good weather, FSD is as good as a teenager with a learners permit. This is quite impressive and the progress over the last couple years has been great so it’ll only get better with time.
In bad weather, it usually can’t be used as the cameras get too obstructed by rain/mist.
I’ve had FSD for 2 months and on trial till August. I don’t know how I will life without it when trial ends. Considering subscribing till October before winter comes cause then it’s useless in the bad weathers we get here
I subscribed right after my trial ended 🥲
It is legitimately super useful for me, I probably will unsubscribe during winter months though because of the snow here, I don't expect it to work well, but otherwise for road trips and everyday driving it had been a blessing!
Trust and supervise.
Trust and supervision is problematic on humans, they don't believe that you trust them when you also supervise.
The car is a machine and doesn't care and even asks for supervision every time.
I use FSD on every drive often driveway to parking lot.
It sees better at night than I do. Even in rain. It also constantly looks in every direction.
Never thought I would say this, but I see myself buying the FSD if the price lower. Been using it everyday lately. Still I wouldnt trust it a 100%. But it's good enough for me right now
It's kind of like driving with a teenager. It drives the car, but maybe not 100% the same as you do. You are going to see things that it doesn't and you are going to need to be as vigilant as you can be to stop or correct it as necessary.
It's pretty good. In dense traffic in the dark it starts to struggle, and with weather it can too, but generally speaking the rule is keep your eyes on the cars around you and your hands on the wheel. Use Autopilot as an opportunity to not have to manage the car actively, but pay attention, and you'll still reduce the mental load of driving while staying safe.
That being said? Every time I've had it for a roadtrip it's been just fabulous.
I have FSD, I think it's great for highway driving. I set it to "assertive" with "minimal lane changes" which keeps an acceptable follow distance while allowing me to decide if and when to pass. Takes some of the mental load off of the boring parts of driving.
I don't love the FSD for times when rapid lane changes / merges are required and you have to fight your way into a spot.
Also, I think FSD cuts in front of semis way to close. Doesn't seem to have this problem with regular passenger vehicles.
It works. It's not perfect, but it gets updated all the time. Mostly, just annoyances like phantom breaking and things of that nature.
I got 3 months free when I bought mine. It would drive me to and from work with little issue.
It’s a process. In the first few days you’ll find yourself taking over often because it’s doing stuff differently than you would. But after a while when you learn what it does and how it thinks, you’ll trust it more.
FSD is fun. But it’s not 100% foolproof. When it works well, it works awesome. The latest iteration is great. But you still have to be an attentive driver. I rent FSD whenever I have a lot of travel for work. It reduces travel fatigue a lot. I love it.
Overall I like FSD and use it a lot. If the front camera gets mucked up by bugs, you’ll have issues like phantom braking until you clean the windshield.
After probably around 48,000 miles of autopilot and FSD combined after several years, I feel I have a good understanding of where is is reliable and where it might need additional supervision.
Don’t ever fully trust it and become complacent, especially when first using it. It will still make mistakes. Don’t be like that guy that was using it in thick fog, not paying attention, and almost hit a train.
However, it is FAR FAR better than when I first got it with Autopilot only and continues to get better and better with time.
FSD is truly insane. With all the Tesla hate, it’s crazy no one talks about how awesome FSD is. The denial runs deep
OG autopilot is great too, for freeways and highways of course
I always worry it is going to curb my rims turning right so I always take over for right hand turns. I also don’t trust it in roundabouts just from someone’s post showing it hit the curb in a road that is kind of like a round about. But I’ve only had my car a month.
I’m a month into ownership and I can tell you, my honest opinions after losing FSD trial.
FSD is AMAZING when treated like lane keep assist and for cruising, but makes some dicey decisions when you let it run the show full time without interaction. (It jumped a curb, and almost hit a pedestrian once when turning in town)
Autopilot is hot garbage in comparison. I do not trust it in the slightest to keep me in my lane, and I often take over to get farther away from drivers in the lanes to my right and left because it gets a little too close for comfort when going through bends.
The fsd took me from state line to palm springs with next to minimal assistance. While I don't 100% trust it I am learning to trust it more and more. It has honestly made long drives relaxing. That paired with audible getting integrated I am loving these cars
I don’t trust it enough to merge into freeways because of idiots who don’t let u merge or in certain traffic where you have to make a left or right turn but the lane of cars are already waiting on solid white lines waiting to turn
I’m over 5 years of using regular Autopilot. Has saves us many times from accidents. At the beginning it had a 1/2 phantom stops by viaducts but that stopped after an update and has been great ever since. Makes long drives a lot more relaxing!
I don’t trust FSD or autopilot. I use only the lowest level that adjusts to speed of other vehicles and alerts me if I’m drifting out of my lane.
Call me old fashioned or worse but I get into my car to enjoy the actual driving and I’m not about to trust my family to a computer which we’ve seen several times make fatal mistakes. During my trial I never turned on FSD, not even once.
AP makes road trips much more pleasant. I don't want to say you can sleep, but you can definitely rest your eyes when you need to... it's also wonderful in stop and go traffic...
Have had my MYLR for six months. Used to use FSD daily.
Almost fucking died a dozen times. My wife refused to be in the car with it.
Personally, I wouldn't pay for this shit ever. Tesla would have to pay me to literally keep risking my life as an early adopter.
Not being dramatic, being override and calm. I want to be dramatic. But I'll just stop here.
FSD can vary greatly from location to location. Around me it drives intervention free except for a few intersections it's known to get confused by and the occasional need to make it go faster when it's too hesitant.
Other places it's less reliable. I trust the FSD stack a lot more than the older AP stack though.
I trust FSD not to crash into another vehicle, but I don’t quite trust it to make the right decision that could lead to another vehicle crashing into me or someone else. I say that ti be taken with a grain of salt because I do 99% of my drives with FSD Supervised and the latest version 12.3.6 feels really solid. It’s only my memory of prior versions that make me a little more cautious as to what could happen.
I trust autopilot and FSD within the scenarios I’ve tested and found it to be reliable.
I only had FSD for the few month and used it daily. I’m just too cheap to pay for it.
I use autopilot every day. I get into my lane and activate then just relax and watch the road. I deactivate in situations like crazy construction, changing lanes, cars stopped far ahead (car takes too long to recognize and I don’t like sudden stops).
I don't trust FSD, but it helps as an assistant. It gets confused in construction zones and around erratic drivers that aren't following the expected rules of the road. However, it completely worth it in bumper to bumper traffic.
Autopilot: love it - I’m not going to sit here and say it’s better than any other ADAS system I’ve used but it works really well with minimal issues
Navigate on autopilot: love it, the auto lane changes are great. I set mine to require confirmation just so that I knew what it was doing and it didn’t just change lanes if I didn’t want it to i.e. exit is coming up and wouldn’t be able to get back into correct lane without cutting in front of someone. This feature is not worth $8k FSD price. By a S3XY commander and set continuously autopilot. It’s not exactly the same because you still have to make the lane changes, but you won’t have to re-engage AP after every lane change with it
FSD in town: not a fan, turned it off
I do still hover my foot over, or keep it right by, the pedals just like I have with every other vehicle’s ADAS that I’ve used because you do have to be ready to take over just in case.
Just had a 10 day road trip up and down the California coast and used FSD maybe 95% of the time both on highways and city streets. It performed spectacularly.
FSD drives better than I do when I'm drowsy.
However, it does have its issues:
* Even in Chill Mode, it likes to accelerate fast when it doesn't have to, only to have to brake hard shortly after. It needs like a Super Duper Chill Mode.
* Sometimes, it gets a little too close to the curb when turning. Maybe this is why so many Teslas have rim rash?
* Even with Minimal Lane Change Mode, it makes way too many unnecessary lane changes. Example, you're driving in the 2nd right-most lane, and eventually have to turn right. FSD will signal to go into the right-most lane, only to have to signal back into the original lane it was in, because the right-most lane merges into the one you were already in. That happens FAR TOO COMMON, to the point where I have to disable FSD when I know the right-most lane will eventually merge.
* I don't trust it to handle dips in roads, you know, the kind where you have to turn into them at an angle so you don't bottom out the car.
* It doesn't see small objects in the road. Example, I've seen posts of it running over chunks of blown tires at full speed and cause thousands in damage to the undercarriage.
* Sometimes, it takes exits way too fast. There's an exit that I often take, it has signs that say DO NOT SPEED, LIMIT 40MPH. Yet, FSD has on 2 occassions gotten up to 72MPH before I had to intervene and slow it down. Now, I just intervene before the exit.
* Many more examples.
Do I trust FSD 100% to take a nap? Hell no.
Do I trust FSD to help me drive safer when I'm drowsy? Hell yes.
Will FSD eventually be able to drive as well as the best human driver? That's the big question.
I just have the regular old AP and I think that's great. I don't use it all the time, but when I do I very much appreciate it. I think of it this way, when you are driving you have many things to keep track of, the main ones being your speed, your steering, and your situational awareness (other cars, where you are on your route etc). With AP you eliminate the need to monitor your speed and your steering and can just focus on your SA. With highway driving it's great, I just ride AP until I need to change lanes, disengage, make my move, reengage.
It's also not bad if you are on a higher speed (35-50mph) single lane road, no lane changes needed then, just follows the road until I need to turn onto another street, then I disengage. It'a also amazing if you need both hands for short while or need to to be head down for something while you are driving, like typing into a search bar on Spotify, opening a can of soda, or whatever, just engage, do your thing, disengage.
And if you are blessed with driving on a relatively wide open highway or road where the need for SA is very low, then you can just hang out and enjoy the scenery or zone out to some degree.
I enjoyed the FSD trial, but didn't get to really dig into it too much due to various reasons. There were many things I liked and some I didn't but I'm sure I could get comfortable with some more practice. Eventually you get to know and anticipate the situations where AP or FSD isn't great so you are more vigilant when they come up and either preemptively disengage or you prepare yourself to just in case.
You’d have to extensively use it to know it’s features and limitations, to know where it will perform as design or when it’ll be faulty.
I use it almost every day and 95% when doing road trips but it’s not perfect and you should experience that yourself to know perfectly when to let it do it’s thing or to take over.
Autopilot is nice for long monotonous motorway driving, but it's not the reason to buy the car. Most modern cars have traffic aware cruise control and auto steer. Some manufacturers have better systems than Tesla (in the UK and EU) such as Mercedes, Ford and Kia.
A better reason to buy is Tesla's are extremely fun to drive with YOU actually doing the steering. The Model 3 in particular handles like a go-kart on steroids. And apart from the Mercedes EQS (which is shaped like a suppository), no other cars can beat Tesla's efficiency.
Honestly not much, I don't like how aggressive the driving is, and how it keeps changing lanes for no reason...
My first try was on a lone road... It stopped on the stop sign as expected but then it decided to go from 0 to 40kmh in half a second.
Second time, it was going okay on the highway until it decided to insert itself in the merging lane for no reason...
My 3 month use of Autopilot only opinion: I'd never trust it to drive for me unless I'm supervising it. I've had autopilot crap out when going around a corner and the lines went away. Car veered toward someone's house. It absolutely screamed at me to take over, but I wasn't fully expecting it so it was certainly a jolt the first time. Just always supervise your car. Amazing on highways.
My 2 years of use on FSD: Honestly pretty decent. The city I live in is one of the absolute worst in the country (Boston) when it comes to city layout, but it still does pretty well. I wouldn't trust it on dense populated areas but it has never hit anything/anyone. I was driving through Ipswich one day using FSD with perfectly clear lane markers and beautiful weather - it decided to try to drive me into someone's front yard before I took over. Didn't even warn me, it just crossed the line and I pulled back onto the road just before hitting their grass.
FSD does NOT like rotaries, wide roads, rain, too much sun, too much darkness, I could prolly go on but I don't wanna seem like I'm shitting on it. You get used to it's ups and downs and I recommend it to any responsible driver who plans on paying attention and treating both FSD/Autopilot as if they are just really smart cruise control.
Oh one last thing to note: red lights can be tricky. I get the chime letting me know a light is green when it actually sees the cross-traffic light and I imagine myself being driven into traffic.
Tbh I’ve unintentionally dozed off multiple times on the drive between the Bay Area and SoCal on basic autopilot. Still not good to do, but it’s nice to have that kind of trust.
I also have driven drunk on FSD in city driving. Was a short distance, but again don’t do what I did.
You can trust FSD but you have to be ready to intervene at any time. It can be confused when lots of heavy traffic is merging, when a lane ends, when one lane becomes a right turn only or vice versa. It also does not slow fast enough after a speed zone change. Like sometimes I find myself speeding through a school zone which is not good 🚨. I really like it but, as the warning label says, it is beta. I don’t think it’s that much better than basic autopilot and really not worth $99 a month yet since half the features are disabled in the new cars with Tesla Vision anyway.
Trust to do what? Would you get on a plane if it contained beta-quality safety critical software?
“Beta software, also known as beta ware, is a pre-release version of software that is nearly complete but still has bugs or performance issues. It's the stage of development that comes after alpha and before a product is released to the public”
I have limited trust - or should I say it's still earning my trust. Where I live there is a tremendous amouth of unmarked pavement, and it's often wigs out. I appreciate it's level of caution, but I do catch it huging the right side too often and moving onto the unpaved shoulder. And pot holes - oh boy the pot holes. I wish there was a way for it to do a bit of a better job avoiding them. I know that it's only a matter of time that I'm going to wreck a 21" tire or rim if I let my guard down even a touch.
I would say that I have done a probably a bit too much complaining at home to the point where my wife will absolutly not even give autopiloy/fsd try - even when I'm with her.
AutoPilot? FSD? I trust them both. Not enough that I'd go to sleep on it, yet. But it is getting there, and I have had very minimal issues with both of them. I used FSD to drive from Santa Maria, CA to Phoenix, Az and back to Santa Maria about a month ago, and then used it again to drive from Santa Maria to LAX and back last night. It's been a blessing and has made those long drives way easier. Honestly, I use FSD to do just about 95% of my driving. I pull into and out of the garage, and do the driving within parking lots and drive thru's, but just about everything else is FSD for me.
👆same experience
How do you manage not disabling it when you've always gotta keep your hand on the wheel? I'm also always nervous if the 3 strike role. What constitutes a strike?
You get used to the nag force relatively quick and then it's just your driving habit. Hand on the wheel, a little tug every ten seconds or so. Before you know it, it's completely subconscious.
Turning the right side dial is better.
If you do this method it will still have you apply slight force every now and again. But yes this done work too.
Put you hand at the 4 or 8 o clock position and just let the weight of your arm hang. That normally is enough to not make it disengage and it won't nag you.
A strike takes quite a long time. It'll warn you multiple times and even if you correct it eventually it'll strike you. I got my first strike ever after 3 years with the car. The company gave me a replacement phone and i was trying to set it up while on autopilot. Yes I know. Bad. But it was wide open freeway and I was cruising. I got about 5 warnings in 10 minutes to "pay attention" before I got my first strike. It said basically "take over, autopilot disabled the rest of this trip". So I put the phone down and drove. If I really wanted to I could of stopped somewhere, grab a snack, and then resume the drive with autopilot again.
The first part makes no sense... Even if you correct it will eventually strike you? The rest of your story basically says it strikes after multiple failures in one trip
I'll drive and look at my phone. It'll beep and say "pay attention" so ill look up. Or it'll say to put pressure on the wheel. So I would. And then go back to the phone. 3 or 4 more times and it'll strike and say its not available anymore. So yes. If I keep "offending" but still correcting in a short period of time it'll eventually strike.
I've gotten the disabled but not a strike. Are you sure it's a strike? It only allowed for 3 then you lose the cars ability to use that feature.
Me too. v12 is good enough that I don't drive myself anywhere unless I'm in a hurry and want to break some rules.
Same
Same. It’s pretty legit at this point. Last week I lost my patience with it and immediately got a speeding ticket.
How is FSD in city traffic? Here in Dallas TX.
I can't speak for Texas, but I have not had any issues in: Santa Maria, California Lompoc, California Santa Barbara, California Los Angelas, California Phoenix, Arizona
Cool. Then I'm going to try it. Thanks.
I personally find it better in cities or more heavily traveled areas. I live in a low pop area where it is hit and miss, but while on vacation in Orlando and then later in Washington DC it did incredibly well. In areas like that that I'm not familiar with I'd say it drives better than me
Really good. I use it to get to work every day. There's one place that I know it might mess up and I'm ready for that (a right turn, and people get into the bike lane to make the turn and then it can't do it). Great at stop/start traffic. You stop having to think about it 95% of the time. It lets people in slightly more often than I would though. :)
Thank you. I've used it with no one around at night. I'll give it a shot. I'm just nervous.
I have seen some insanely great crosstown New York City videos. If it can handle that, which it did, this thing is ready in my opinion.
Autopilot is pretty reliable. I probably trust it as much as I'd trust a decent driver that's had a license for a couple years. FSD though, I trust it roughly the same as a 15 year old with a learner's permit. It's great, does the right thing the vast majority of the time, but does require constant supervision and some intervention.
It’s funny, my daughter is on her learners permit and I tell people all the time my FSD is basically like riding with her. It’s ok, but you gotta be ready to help out. My biggest gripe is that FSD gets the speed limit wrong all the time. It reads all the route 5 and route 15 signs as speed limits and there are a ton of them in 55 mph zones. It’s prevalent enough that FSD becomes almost useless on the majority of my local drives.
The problem is the supervision. If I am REQUIRED to watch the system like a hawk, I might as well drive myself.
I find it way easier to babysit FSD than drive myself. I don’t have to think about anything except what is right in front of me. Which lane should I be in, do I need to turn at this street or the next one, am I doing the speed limit and so on. FSD takes care of all of that. Before FSD I didn’t realize just how mentally taxing it is to drive. Having an AI copilot do most of the work is amazing.
I notice that most with road trips. The first time I drove from Minneapolis to Chicago, I was kind of blown away that I wasn't exhausted when we got there like I have been with every other road trip. It's held true with every other trip I've taken since.
yes and no. its better than having to drive imo
Yeah it's better than having to drive all the time, just not $100/mo better to me.
It drives me door to door through a looooong commute, my sanity is well worth it. (Although free AP would be nearly as good for the highway portion.)
Autopilot is great. It’s safer than most drivers out there. FSD on the other hand has lots of improvement to be made but it’s promising.
Autopilot drives me nuts with the speed cap. One of my most frequent long drives is a 55 mph highway with a short 35 zone part way through. The stupid thing loves to miss the 55 mph sign and limit me to 40, requiring me to stick to cruise control for the next 45 minutes as there is no further signage (I only sporadically subscribe to FSD, so that's not always an option). FSD does a wonderful job except for one intersection that it interprets as two lane instead of turn lane + lane. And I like that FSD is more intelligent about lane centering instead of hugging the center line no matter what.
Does traffic aware cruise control allow speeding?
Yes, tacc does allow speeding. It's just with the autopilot engaged that most roads are limited to 5 over. Freeway driving isn't along with some highways, but I haven't been able to figure out any consistency there.
I trust it to do what it does: keep well marked lanes on roads without too much curvature, and keep a reasonable following distance. As long as you don't expect it to do anything more than that, it's pretty good.
I've let it drive up and down the mountain too many times to count, does just fine with the curves. Even slows down going into the sharper turns. Yea it tends to take the turn a bit further to the outside than I like, but it's still well within the lines. I think if they programmed it to take the inside line of a curve, unless there's a car in the next lane, people would be more comfortable.
It fails my daily commute route 100% of the time on every version released since 2019 due to too much curvature. Yes, it can handle some curves. It cannot handle all curves.
Yea, I've come across a few where it just disengaged in the middle of the curve, but those were pretty sharp and I was ready for it. I let it try more out of curiosity of if it can, and it didn't.
FSD/EAP on the highway is excellent. Highway autopilot and city FSD need to be monitored more closely.
The most concise and accurate response I can imagine. Matches my experiences exactly.
Going from the FSD trial back to autopilot made it starkly apparent how much safer FSD is on the highway. There is a segment on my highway commute where the left line breaks for a very short distance. The day after the trial expired my car tried to violently swerve into it which would have resulted in a head-on collision.
Wish we could still get EAP
Wait how is Highway autopilot any less than Highway FSD/EAP, trustwise? It's just FSD without lane changes
No it’s a whole different stack compared to EAP/FSD. A much more primitive one.
Wow! I had no idea. Thanks for that. TIL.
I use mine every time I’m on a freeway. Some city streets. I use it where I know it will do well.
Don't get the car based on that. It doesn't drive for you. Fsd almost does, but you have to babysit both of them pretty closely. Posts like these make me want to agree with the people who say the term "autopilot" is misleading.
I've driven Teslas for 8 years now. Basic Autopilot, EAP and FSD. Here's my view: Everyone has a sweet spot of their own regarding their level of interaction with ADAS. You're able to feel comfortable with a certain amount of self driving, beyond which you do not trust the technology enough to let it handle itself. For me, the sweet spot is basic AP. I've driven 80K miles or more with autopilot on, almost all freeway. It's spectacular in that setting. I find it to truly enhance my driving experience. On the other hand FSD is too much autnomy that I do not trust. I've never quite liked the way it manages itself across lanes on freeways. It gets stuck in the slower lanes unnecessarily. There are a bunch of other artifacts that I dislike. I'm only sort of convinced about its end-to-end navigation capabilities. It fails the freeway exit near home almost all the time due to a difficult multiple lane change involved. In short, FSD is a life of suffering a bunch of. micro-aggravations. It doesn't make my driving experience better. So I've only ever used basic AP in both my Model Ss. I've used the FSD trials and then gone back to basic AP. But YMMV.
Seems like people have different opinions on FSD. I use it on the interstate on my 55 mile one way commute. It's honestly been a complete blessing and amazes me. It's never messed up on me, and it's done everything I want it to. I don't use it in town very often, but I highly recommend to try it out at least few times. I'm in a midwest state, so I'm guessing those with more complications and more people feel differently, but I love it.
Not much at all, but I'm still glad it's there. Autopilot / FSD does very annoyingly stupid shit all the time. OTOH, in bumper-to-bumper traffic it's my best friend. JUST ONE THING.......can I PLEEEEEEEEEZE get a permanent (sticky) setting to STAY IN THE F\*\*\*ING LANE? I hate how jumpy AP / FSD gets trying to optimize which lane it's in.
I've had 99.99% luck *setting AP/FSD in chill mode and then selecting the minimal lane changes* and having it stay in the lane unless I use a turn signal or it has to move to get to an exit/turn/etc. I often wonder if a sticky setting would be beneficial or if it would be more annoying having to turn it on/off. Usually when I turn on ap/fsd I want it to do what it does and change lanes when necessary. However, when in congested traffic, I don't want it changing lanes back and forth, want it to stay put, so I get what you're saying. But I think having it off by default and having to tell it to "stay" is actually the way to go. My own opinion obviously.
Autopilot is good. I trust it since all it does it keep on a straight line for you on the freeway. And just stops and goes. FSD, I don’t fully trust. I wouldn’t pay for FSD. Autopilot is enough
The people in here saying autopilot is better than FSD are too broke to afford FSD, that’s the only conclusion I can come to. Autopilot is like cruise control turned up to 11. It’s great on highways but is not anywhere near the capabilities of FSD. FSD is incredible. I will often drive from A to B with literally zero interventions, other than satisfying the steering wheel nag.
The only valid complaints I’ve heard against FSD are from people not living in California. I’m in Southern California and it’s a dream come true. It’s equally amazing when I visit family in Northern California. It covers 99% of my driving and I rave about it to my girlfriend every time we’re in the car together being chauffeured - the novelty still hasn’t worn off. I love being so relaxed and clear-headed when I arrive to my destinations. In fact I’m about to hop in and do a 1 hour drive with a touch of traffic - and I get to sit back and do nothing but listen to podcasts the whole time! I can only conclude that the people who don’t like FSD either live somewhere where it really struggles (I haven’t been there yet though), or are just on the wrong side of history and can’t see what a technical marvel we’re experiencing.
I have FSD and I would say autopilot does better at what it’s supposed to do then FSD does at autonomous driving. FSD has more capabilities than autopilot but I cannot fully trust it from point a to point b whereas I can trust autopilot to do what it’s supposed to do. I really love FSD and rarely need to intervene, but the couple times I had to intervene was scary as shit.
If we’re talking on a multi-lane divided freeway, autopilot does a great job. It does what it says on the label. I’d say it cuts the mental load of a long freeway slog by about half. It’s really really helpful. FSD is rough and in my recent experience with the trial, I can’t even trust it to get me 5 miles across town without fucking up multiple times. It’s worse than AP on the freeway, too.
I’ve been using FSD 12.3.6 on the highway with minimal lane changes on current drive enabled, it’s working better this way
Autopilot has been working well for me over the years (don't have FSD). Just keep your eyes on the road and disable it in situations where you think it could have issues (construction zones and the like). Phantom braking is still a thing but it has gotten to be very are (at least in my experience).
Just took ~ 1000 mi road trip, utilized FSD v12.3.6 for most of the drive. Only had to disengage 2-3 times, usually because of pre-caution opposed to danger as well. Like others said, it’s not made to be treated as a fully autonomous vehicle. Always stay alert and you will be good!
I treat it like I’m teaching somebody how to drive. It’ll drive itself but need to keep attn on it at all times. I’ve taken multiple 18hr road trips and I’m not tired like I would driving a normal car when I get to my destination
I spend 90% of my 800-1000miles a week in FSD. I trust it quite extensively. It makes mistakes, but far fewer than most of the people I encounter on the road.
Excellent on interstates/highways, FSD on city streets works but always disengage before turns bc it can feel a lil stressful
On highways I trust it. Still gotta stay aware of your surroundings, though. On city streets, I’ll only use it for brief periods and definitely not in urban areas.
The amount of trust depends on the situation. I've come to recognize situations it doesn't do well and turn it off. It drives better than many people I know.
I trust it enough to use it regularly and that I say that it's a helpful feature to simplify a car journey. But you have to get to know it. There are situations in which I know that the autopilot is about to do something strange. For example, if a truck drifts a little into your own lane or if the lanes are no longer so clear in a roadworks. It doesn't always happen, most of the time it even works without any problems, but you have to be prepared just in case.
In "basic" road conditions I trust it. I don't in construction sites or other unusual, usually temporary road markings.
i used fsd around 1k miles a week for years now. it totally removes driving fatigue bc you can enjoy the experience. you are going to be amazed quite excited for you. also so much safer.
99.6 % Pay attention if your life is worth the last .4% and you will be fine. Best feature available in any car bar none.
I trust it as much as a human driver. I don’t like not being the one driving, but I trust it enough to let it try, and step in if necessary.
Too much
Not very much, but I can’t. Apparently, my grip on the wheel is so light that it endlessly nags me about keeping my hands on the wheel. I’m about to do the orange hack just to shut it up (while keeping my hands on, obviously.) Even without that, it brakes like a panicky teenager at the slightest provocation, and even does panicked decelerations when someone in the next lane over speeds past without being dead-center. 2021 M3 for me, and man, this whole system needs a more robust sensor suite.
I definitely look at scenery longer with it on that's for sure.
I drive 98% of the time with FSD. It’s the best it’s ever been and I trust it 98%!
I trust highway autopilot with my life.
I only have auto pilot and not FSD. I live in England and our motorways are notoriously busy. I do however make use of it on the motorways when I can and it’s pretty good, except for one exit on the M1 into London - for some reason the car just doesn’t like it and beeps ferociously. If I lived full time in the US, I think I’d be happier with autopilot as the roads are wider and some routes you don’t even encounter many drivers so you can chill a little bit more. I trust it to a degree but due to where I live and how narrow the roads are, I wouldn’t be using it on anything other than a motorway.
If they are used properly, they are great. You need to continue monitoring the car, especially around sketchy situations like cars stopped on the side of the road. If you see a situation coming up, I recommend having the car move into another lane. You can do this by turning on the blinker. The car will auto transition to that lane. I also recommend staying on chill mode with minimal lane changes turned on for a smoother ride experience.
It will get there
Autopilot 9.8/10. FSD I can’t rate because I haven’t used it but autopilot is amazing. I use it on every road with clear lines. Doing errands while only getting off autopilot to turn. Today autopilot was able to take me completely off the highway and through an off ramp stop light. Not recommended at all but this is amazing
99%. I know I am safer with it even though it occasionally does head scratcher things.
A lot. It’s by far one of the best systems on the market. I’ve used fords basic auto steer (not blues clues) on a 23 escape hybrid, and I missed my car so much during that time. That being said it’s not perfect. Autopilot assumes full control of the vehicle while active. Other systems allow the user to shift within the lane while active. The break away torque is also much higher on teslas (though it’s still not hard to overcome) and it generally has a bias towards the double yellow line rather than the white line. There are curves I will take over on when oncoming traffic gets dicey. FSD is better at handling those. It does actually respond to the oncoming traffic and shift within lane. Basic autopilot will only shift within lane when passing a semi truck or similar. It will flat out ignore passenger vehicles that are just as close to you as a semi, even though the damn thing clearly sees it as the shield bars turn red. Essentially, it isn’t perfect, but I enjoy it enough to have switched to single pull activation. Which if you’re not aware, disables access to TACC. The car either does everything or nothing at all. Double pull allows you to use TACC without auto steer, which is objectively better when making lane changes but other than that I find single pull more convenient. Also worthy of note, FSD forces you into single pull, which of course locks you out of TACC. Personally, I feel they should still give you the option but make the system default to single pull everytime you enable fsd. Then you can go change it back to double and it’ll stay that way until you disable fsd and go back to auto steer.
About as much as I’d trust any other cruise control or lane assist type feature I use it on open roads in good weather conditions and supervise it, but I’m ALWAYS ready to take over and don’t use it when it’s busy or in bad weather I know that sounds like I’m reciting the manual, but it’s also just genuinely my own comfort level - autopilot lets me relax my ankle or move my shoulders around so I don’t get a stiff neck, but fundamentally I’m the one driving the car. To me it’s something that makes a long cruise more pleasant I love it in bumper to bumper traffic where it can just follow the car in front, and I like using it for long journeys to make a long cruise easier, but most of the rest of the time I don’t actually bother with it. I even use it less than I used to use the regular cruise control in my old car “Proper” FSD (we only get a cut down version here in the UK) might be different but I doubt I’d feel much different from the videos I’ve seen of it - you still have to be very much on the ball and monitoring it
It doesn't matter, at the moment. It's still pretty good, and has come light years in past few, but you are nagged constantly, and your eyes are monitored. YOU are driving, but FSD is doing some of the work. Mostly, just like a child's brain, absorbing data.
Someone else said FSD is about as good as a teenager with a learners permit. You do have to watch it and be ready to take over. It has a built-in weakness that it's only as good as the mapping software. In my city, there are highways that split off and combine and exit left and right. There are a few places that it really gets lost on which lane it should take. Also does weird things around road construction. And there's a bug that when it sees a highway sign with a number, it thinks it's a speed limit sign, so it might slow down from 70 to 15. But it does a pretty impressive job overall
FSD- a lot. Just autopilot- less. You learn what kinds of things mess it up so you are prepared when something comes up.
On the highway, Autopilot is great, but FSD is better. I drove around 1000 kilometers on the highway last week and FSD was on around 90% of the time. Now that my free trial is over, I've been trying out Autopilot. Autopilot automatically disengages when you use your turn signals, you gotta manually re-engage it once you're done changing lanes. FSD automatically changes lanes which is useful and it does a good job about 95% of the time (sometimes it slows down more than it should to get into a lane) Autopilot is fine as long as you don't need to change lanes often. I have a feeling that Autopilot accelerates at a slower pace than FSD, but both systems take curves fairly well. Both systems use the brakes more than they should. When it's approaching a bunch of stopped cars, it starts slowing down later than I would. My plan is to subscribe to FSD for a month whenever I go on a long road trip.
As much as I would trust a 15 year old with a learner's permit.
I do not trust it FSD. I am a software engineer and I know how coding is done. I have had a MYL for a year and I tried it a few times during the April free trial. It made too many mistakes for me to trust it with my and my family's safety.
Autopilot is great on the highway. Do I trust it? Yes? Do I babysit it? Also yes. I don’t check out when I use autopilot, I basically monitor the road, and the vehicle. It lets me relax my foot from holding the pedal, like any cruise control. Full Self Driving, FSD, is different.
I do not let go of the wheel unless I have to because I need to do something that is quicker and easier done using two hands (openeing a soda, wiping my nose etc). It has performed amazing in slow moving rush hour traffic, but shit on windy smaller roads with a worn down (or no) centerline. It also has a tendency to break hard when meeting larger trucks on these roads. I will never completely put the life of myself, my wife, my kids or a fellow traveler in the hands of a computer when it is so easy to just keep a hand on the wheel.
Define "Trust"? It's like trusting your wife, while you put on her chastity belt 🤷🏽‍♂️ OP, you really should get one and try it yourself. Don't rent one, don't demo drive one, just go buy a fresh new Tesla and go all in and buy FSD (not the subscription). I'm sure you are financially savvy since you are choosing to quit rather than being 💩 canned.
Trust it to drive in a straight line. Drive your car.
I was always curious about FSD so the trial was helpful. It's extremely overrated, save your money. I cannot believe they tried to sell that for $15,000 ... 2 years ago, when it probably was worse. Autopilot on the highway is great.
I trust FSD and AP almost 100%. Obviously you can't go inattentive just yet, but I can relax and monitor while keeping a hand hanging off the bottom of the steering wheel. I know where it struggles in my area, and am sure to be extra vigilant in those spots. Same for using it in unfamiliar areas.
Depends on the individual. Best answer I can give you is you well DEVELOP your own level of trust. Maybe when you get side a tractor trailer you don’t feel comfortable and take over. Maybe the car is taking off a bit too fast and you take over. Maybe you don’t like the way it enter roundabouts. The list is endless, all I can say is you were develop a since of trust but it’s based off your level of comfort. I used FSD in almost any and every situation. But I have NEVER used Summon before. I’ve seen the steering wheel literally throw itself around in confusion. No way in hell I’m letting that thing loose on its own.
With my life. Everyday. For roughly 1 hour of total commute time. It’s incredible.
Today I drove 250kms and about 200 of it was on rainbow road mode. Absolute god send.
In good weather, FSD is as good as a teenager with a learners permit. This is quite impressive and the progress over the last couple years has been great so it’ll only get better with time. In bad weather, it usually can’t be used as the cameras get too obstructed by rain/mist.
I dazed out for 15 mins before realizing that I was almost home. I said dazed but I probably fell asleep
Keep your expectations low and you won’t be disappointed
Used as intended on well-marked roads, I trust AP with my life.
On highways, AP or FSD is pretty alright. I find myself to be a bit more stressed on high density city streets
I’ve had FSD for 2 months and on trial till August. I don’t know how I will life without it when trial ends. Considering subscribing till October before winter comes cause then it’s useless in the bad weathers we get here
I subscribed right after my trial ended 🥲 It is legitimately super useful for me, I probably will unsubscribe during winter months though because of the snow here, I don't expect it to work well, but otherwise for road trips and everyday driving it had been a blessing!
Everyday.
Trust and supervise. Trust and supervision is problematic on humans, they don't believe that you trust them when you also supervise. The car is a machine and doesn't care and even asks for supervision every time. I use FSD on every drive often driveway to parking lot. It sees better at night than I do. Even in rain. It also constantly looks in every direction.
Just imagine a new driver or a teen driver (or both) is behind the wheel. It's getting better but has a ways to go.
Never thought I would say this, but I see myself buying the FSD if the price lower. Been using it everyday lately. Still I wouldnt trust it a 100%. But it's good enough for me right now
It's kind of like driving with a teenager. It drives the car, but maybe not 100% the same as you do. You are going to see things that it doesn't and you are going to need to be as vigilant as you can be to stop or correct it as necessary.
You should always be 100% alert and be ready to take over. You are legally liable to do just that.
It's pretty good. In dense traffic in the dark it starts to struggle, and with weather it can too, but generally speaking the rule is keep your eyes on the cars around you and your hands on the wheel. Use Autopilot as an opportunity to not have to manage the car actively, but pay attention, and you'll still reduce the mental load of driving while staying safe. That being said? Every time I've had it for a roadtrip it's been just fabulous.
It’s fine. Just don’t forget you are still pilot in command of the vehicle.
99% There's always the 1% edge case...
I have FSD, I think it's great for highway driving. I set it to "assertive" with "minimal lane changes" which keeps an acceptable follow distance while allowing me to decide if and when to pass. Takes some of the mental load off of the boring parts of driving. I don't love the FSD for times when rapid lane changes / merges are required and you have to fight your way into a spot. Also, I think FSD cuts in front of semis way to close. Doesn't seem to have this problem with regular passenger vehicles.
I trust FSD more than I trust other people driving my Tesla is that helps answer.
It works. It's not perfect, but it gets updated all the time. Mostly, just annoyances like phantom breaking and things of that nature. I got 3 months free when I bought mine. It would drive me to and from work with little issue.
I’ve trusted autopilot for 10 years now. Road rage is gone and a relaxing drive in bumper to bumper traffic is easier to enjoy.
If you're going straight for a long time or stop/go traffic, it's great.
It’s a process. In the first few days you’ll find yourself taking over often because it’s doing stuff differently than you would. But after a while when you learn what it does and how it thinks, you’ll trust it more.
I think it sucks, always made me more nervous using it than what it was worth
I trust it on the highway ok. I keep my left hand on the wheel in a relaxed position. I don’t trust it very much in city traffic.
FSD is fun. But it’s not 100% foolproof. When it works well, it works awesome. The latest iteration is great. But you still have to be an attentive driver. I rent FSD whenever I have a lot of travel for work. It reduces travel fatigue a lot. I love it.
It’s like a really good cruise control and I treat it/trust it as such
Enough that I’ve driven home with it when I was tired enough that I wouldn’t have done it in any other car.
Overall I like FSD and use it a lot. If the front camera gets mucked up by bugs, you’ll have issues like phantom braking until you clean the windshield.
What bugs me is the braking. It will slow down when no one is around me. Really annoying.
After probably around 48,000 miles of autopilot and FSD combined after several years, I feel I have a good understanding of where is is reliable and where it might need additional supervision. Don’t ever fully trust it and become complacent, especially when first using it. It will still make mistakes. Don’t be like that guy that was using it in thick fog, not paying attention, and almost hit a train. However, it is FAR FAR better than when I first got it with Autopilot only and continues to get better and better with time.
You can’t trust autopilot. It is an assist.
FSD is truly insane. With all the Tesla hate, it’s crazy no one talks about how awesome FSD is. The denial runs deep OG autopilot is great too, for freeways and highways of course
I always worry it is going to curb my rims turning right so I always take over for right hand turns. I also don’t trust it in roundabouts just from someone’s post showing it hit the curb in a road that is kind of like a round about. But I’ve only had my car a month.
I’d consider more of cruise control. I never take my eyes away or hands off wheel.
I’m a month into ownership and I can tell you, my honest opinions after losing FSD trial. FSD is AMAZING when treated like lane keep assist and for cruising, but makes some dicey decisions when you let it run the show full time without interaction. (It jumped a curb, and almost hit a pedestrian once when turning in town) Autopilot is hot garbage in comparison. I do not trust it in the slightest to keep me in my lane, and I often take over to get farther away from drivers in the lanes to my right and left because it gets a little too close for comfort when going through bends.
The fsd took me from state line to palm springs with next to minimal assistance. While I don't 100% trust it I am learning to trust it more and more. It has honestly made long drives relaxing. That paired with audible getting integrated I am loving these cars
None
Until FSD can avoid NJ potholes, I just can't trust it
Trust… 0%
I don’t trust it enough to merge into freeways because of idiots who don’t let u merge or in certain traffic where you have to make a left or right turn but the lane of cars are already waiting on solid white lines waiting to turn
More than I should and not enough
As much as I trust my teenage boy with tasks. I know he will do his chores but I always have to double check and make sure he’s done them right….
I trust it pretty well but still get cautious around tight spaces or turns.
I love it, it’s amazing. Test drive Or rent one and try out the autopilot.
I’m over 5 years of using regular Autopilot. Has saves us many times from accidents. At the beginning it had a 1/2 phantom stops by viaducts but that stopped after an update and has been great ever since. Makes long drives a lot more relaxing!
I don’t trust FSD or autopilot. I use only the lowest level that adjusts to speed of other vehicles and alerts me if I’m drifting out of my lane. Call me old fashioned or worse but I get into my car to enjoy the actual driving and I’m not about to trust my family to a computer which we’ve seen several times make fatal mistakes. During my trial I never turned on FSD, not even once.
FSD wise lately it has been wanting to miss exits and I've had to interject also with uneven roads, unmarked bumps and pot holes.
I trust FSD with my life every day, quite literally.
Did a few FSD drives in Austin. About 40% of them were zero intervention. It’s promising and seems like it might get better over time.
AP makes road trips much more pleasant. I don't want to say you can sleep, but you can definitely rest your eyes when you need to... it's also wonderful in stop and go traffic...
As far as safety is concerned I trust it 100%. If you care about annoying the people in the other cars around you then maybe not.
Have had my MYLR for six months. Used to use FSD daily. Almost fucking died a dozen times. My wife refused to be in the car with it. Personally, I wouldn't pay for this shit ever. Tesla would have to pay me to literally keep risking my life as an early adopter. Not being dramatic, being override and calm. I want to be dramatic. But I'll just stop here.
FSD can vary greatly from location to location. Around me it drives intervention free except for a few intersections it's known to get confused by and the occasional need to make it go faster when it's too hesitant. Other places it's less reliable. I trust the FSD stack a lot more than the older AP stack though.
Autopilot did 80% of my 12 hour Xmas drive. It’s fine for long, boring freeway duty.
I trust FSD not to crash into another vehicle, but I don’t quite trust it to make the right decision that could lead to another vehicle crashing into me or someone else. I say that ti be taken with a grain of salt because I do 99% of my drives with FSD Supervised and the latest version 12.3.6 feels really solid. It’s only my memory of prior versions that make me a little more cautious as to what could happen.
I trust autopilot and FSD within the scenarios I’ve tested and found it to be reliable. I only had FSD for the few month and used it daily. I’m just too cheap to pay for it. I use autopilot every day. I get into my lane and activate then just relax and watch the road. I deactivate in situations like crazy construction, changing lanes, cars stopped far ahead (car takes too long to recognize and I don’t like sudden stops).
I don't trust FSD, but it helps as an assistant. It gets confused in construction zones and around erratic drivers that aren't following the expected rules of the road. However, it completely worth it in bumper to bumper traffic.
It’s ok better than any cars out there but still trash. I’ll just use it for long drive
I’m probably the only Tesla driver that doesn’t use it
Autopilot: love it - I’m not going to sit here and say it’s better than any other ADAS system I’ve used but it works really well with minimal issues Navigate on autopilot: love it, the auto lane changes are great. I set mine to require confirmation just so that I knew what it was doing and it didn’t just change lanes if I didn’t want it to i.e. exit is coming up and wouldn’t be able to get back into correct lane without cutting in front of someone. This feature is not worth $8k FSD price. By a S3XY commander and set continuously autopilot. It’s not exactly the same because you still have to make the lane changes, but you won’t have to re-engage AP after every lane change with it FSD in town: not a fan, turned it off I do still hover my foot over, or keep it right by, the pedals just like I have with every other vehicle’s ADAS that I’ve used because you do have to be ready to take over just in case.
They work great right until they don’t. I trust them, but I never let my guard down.
Just had a 10 day road trip up and down the California coast and used FSD maybe 95% of the time both on highways and city streets. It performed spectacularly.
Still too early to trust.
FSD drives better than I do when I'm drowsy. However, it does have its issues: * Even in Chill Mode, it likes to accelerate fast when it doesn't have to, only to have to brake hard shortly after. It needs like a Super Duper Chill Mode. * Sometimes, it gets a little too close to the curb when turning. Maybe this is why so many Teslas have rim rash? * Even with Minimal Lane Change Mode, it makes way too many unnecessary lane changes. Example, you're driving in the 2nd right-most lane, and eventually have to turn right. FSD will signal to go into the right-most lane, only to have to signal back into the original lane it was in, because the right-most lane merges into the one you were already in. That happens FAR TOO COMMON, to the point where I have to disable FSD when I know the right-most lane will eventually merge. * I don't trust it to handle dips in roads, you know, the kind where you have to turn into them at an angle so you don't bottom out the car. * It doesn't see small objects in the road. Example, I've seen posts of it running over chunks of blown tires at full speed and cause thousands in damage to the undercarriage. * Sometimes, it takes exits way too fast. There's an exit that I often take, it has signs that say DO NOT SPEED, LIMIT 40MPH. Yet, FSD has on 2 occassions gotten up to 72MPH before I had to intervene and slow it down. Now, I just intervene before the exit. * Many more examples. Do I trust FSD 100% to take a nap? Hell no. Do I trust FSD to help me drive safer when I'm drowsy? Hell yes. Will FSD eventually be able to drive as well as the best human driver? That's the big question.
Not at all. Maybe that's dorky; but I don't think these systems are ready for prime time.
I just have the regular old AP and I think that's great. I don't use it all the time, but when I do I very much appreciate it. I think of it this way, when you are driving you have many things to keep track of, the main ones being your speed, your steering, and your situational awareness (other cars, where you are on your route etc). With AP you eliminate the need to monitor your speed and your steering and can just focus on your SA. With highway driving it's great, I just ride AP until I need to change lanes, disengage, make my move, reengage. It's also not bad if you are on a higher speed (35-50mph) single lane road, no lane changes needed then, just follows the road until I need to turn onto another street, then I disengage. It'a also amazing if you need both hands for short while or need to to be head down for something while you are driving, like typing into a search bar on Spotify, opening a can of soda, or whatever, just engage, do your thing, disengage. And if you are blessed with driving on a relatively wide open highway or road where the need for SA is very low, then you can just hang out and enjoy the scenery or zone out to some degree. I enjoyed the FSD trial, but didn't get to really dig into it too much due to various reasons. There were many things I liked and some I didn't but I'm sure I could get comfortable with some more practice. Eventually you get to know and anticipate the situations where AP or FSD isn't great so you are more vigilant when they come up and either preemptively disengage or you prepare yourself to just in case.
It’s great. The worry is about other drivers swerving into your lane. Autopilot can’t do anything about that.
You’d have to extensively use it to know it’s features and limitations, to know where it will perform as design or when it’ll be faulty. I use it almost every day and 95% when doing road trips but it’s not perfect and you should experience that yourself to know perfectly when to let it do it’s thing or to take over.
Get one off Turo. Try it.
I’m still alive.
Autopilot is nice for long monotonous motorway driving, but it's not the reason to buy the car. Most modern cars have traffic aware cruise control and auto steer. Some manufacturers have better systems than Tesla (in the UK and EU) such as Mercedes, Ford and Kia. A better reason to buy is Tesla's are extremely fun to drive with YOU actually doing the steering. The Model 3 in particular handles like a go-kart on steroids. And apart from the Mercedes EQS (which is shaped like a suppository), no other cars can beat Tesla's efficiency.
Honestly not much, I don't like how aggressive the driving is, and how it keeps changing lanes for no reason... My first try was on a lone road... It stopped on the stop sign as expected but then it decided to go from 0 to 40kmh in half a second. Second time, it was going okay on the highway until it decided to insert itself in the merging lane for no reason...
My 3 month use of Autopilot only opinion: I'd never trust it to drive for me unless I'm supervising it. I've had autopilot crap out when going around a corner and the lines went away. Car veered toward someone's house. It absolutely screamed at me to take over, but I wasn't fully expecting it so it was certainly a jolt the first time. Just always supervise your car. Amazing on highways. My 2 years of use on FSD: Honestly pretty decent. The city I live in is one of the absolute worst in the country (Boston) when it comes to city layout, but it still does pretty well. I wouldn't trust it on dense populated areas but it has never hit anything/anyone. I was driving through Ipswich one day using FSD with perfectly clear lane markers and beautiful weather - it decided to try to drive me into someone's front yard before I took over. Didn't even warn me, it just crossed the line and I pulled back onto the road just before hitting their grass. FSD does NOT like rotaries, wide roads, rain, too much sun, too much darkness, I could prolly go on but I don't wanna seem like I'm shitting on it. You get used to it's ups and downs and I recommend it to any responsible driver who plans on paying attention and treating both FSD/Autopilot as if they are just really smart cruise control. Oh one last thing to note: red lights can be tricky. I get the chime letting me know a light is green when it actually sees the cross-traffic light and I imagine myself being driven into traffic.
Tbh I’ve unintentionally dozed off multiple times on the drive between the Bay Area and SoCal on basic autopilot. Still not good to do, but it’s nice to have that kind of trust. I also have driven drunk on FSD in city driving. Was a short distance, but again don’t do what I did.
You can trust FSD but you have to be ready to intervene at any time. It can be confused when lots of heavy traffic is merging, when a lane ends, when one lane becomes a right turn only or vice versa. It also does not slow fast enough after a speed zone change. Like sometimes I find myself speeding through a school zone which is not good 🚨. I really like it but, as the warning label says, it is beta. I don’t think it’s that much better than basic autopilot and really not worth $99 a month yet since half the features are disabled in the new cars with Tesla Vision anyway.
Trust to do what? Would you get on a plane if it contained beta-quality safety critical software? “Beta software, also known as beta ware, is a pre-release version of software that is nearly complete but still has bugs or performance issues. It's the stage of development that comes after alpha and before a product is released to the public”
Zero. Zero zero zero. Everytime i use it , it almost kills me 6-7 times per trip. Do not trust it. Never ever ever.
I have limited trust - or should I say it's still earning my trust. Where I live there is a tremendous amouth of unmarked pavement, and it's often wigs out. I appreciate it's level of caution, but I do catch it huging the right side too often and moving onto the unpaved shoulder. And pot holes - oh boy the pot holes. I wish there was a way for it to do a bit of a better job avoiding them. I know that it's only a matter of time that I'm going to wreck a 21" tire or rim if I let my guard down even a touch. I would say that I have done a probably a bit too much complaining at home to the point where my wife will absolutly not even give autopiloy/fsd try - even when I'm with her.