Where Tesla FSD Still Fails (One 10-Mile Case)

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Editor’s note: Paul posted this on X and tagged me. It’s basically an article, so I’m posting it here with minor edits. Enjoy. —Zach

5 interventions in 10 miles v12.5.4.1 on a 4 year old Model Y, north of Tampa.

#1 — after 6 years of development, it still can’t reverse out of my garage, but we are told this feature is coming soon.

Navigated to a restaurant 5 miles from my home. FSD was smooth and did a great job with a u-turn.

#2 — I got to an intersection that only the left lane could go straight (and we needed to go straight) and it picked the right lane and then tried to cut in front of 20 cars that were in the left lane. I disengaged, since I didn’t want to rudely force my way into the left lane or if nobody let me in block the right lane for someone wanting to take a right turn, so I turned right and had to reroute to the destination.

The next 3 miles were great until

#3 — I needed to be in the left lane to turn into the restaurant. There was plenty of time to get in the left lane, but it stayed in the center lane too long and missed the turn (because there was a car in the way at the last minute).

#4 — On the way home it was good all the way home until I got to the community gate (which has caused thousands of disengagements). FSD needs to go within 2 feet of the bar code reader so that it let’s my car in. But it still goes 6 feet away, so I have to disengage.

#5 — It won’t park in my garage.

So am I to believe that just one year ago this 10 mile trip would have had 500 disengagements? No way, maybe it would have been 8 or 10, but it wasn’t that bad a year ago. I took a 3000 mile trip from Tampa to Seattle with my son and used FSD most of the way. Maybe had 8 or 10 disengagements but also didn’t use it if it was a tricky area or in heavy snow.

So why am I not seeing 100 times better driving? Is it not trained in Tampa? Is it not good on the 4 year old cars with the old computer? Or is it something more nefarious, like they aren’t telling the truth?

This isn’t a cherry picked route. I drive all over Tampa and this is about par for the course. I’ve had better and worse drives. I also drive a lot in Denver when I visit my daughter (she has two Model Y’s, a HW4 and a HW3). It’s maybe a bit better in Denver and maybe a bit better on HW4, but not 10 times better, maybe 30% better.

I don’t buy the line that the software is so good they have to drive many miles to find a mistake. I don’t have any problem finding issues on every trip.

On most upgrades it has the same issues as the last release. Maybe the turns will be a bit better or speed control will be slightly better. But lane selection and parking and unparking and my community gate have been broken for 6 years. I’m not to worry because it’s all going to be great with V13 by the end of October. /s