Are We There Yet? | Tesla Full Self Driving 2024 Review

The concept of a "self driving car" is nothing new but there's only one manufacturer that sells a product titled Full Self Driving. This package has been available for years and while it has certainly improved over time there are still many factors keeping this from truly being "Self Driving". So here in the year of 2024 we spend about 1,000 miles with this system to figure out how far it's come and what it's capable of!
#tesla #fullselfdriving #software #autonomous #adas #model3 #modely #models #modelx #cybertruck #autopilot #adaptivecruisecontrol #autosteer #autopark
EV Tax Credits Explained: alexonautos.co...
The Mountain Garden: / themountaingarden
Buy Merch! aoamerch.com
Follow us on Facebook: theautobu...

[@wpelfeta]

Very good review of the FSD. Good to see Tesla content that is non-biased either for or against Tesla. I hope cars start adopting more radar and lidar tech. I don't need a car that drives itself, but I do need better awareness where possible. I can't see through a truck, but if my car can, that's a huge plus.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

I don't mind a car making freeway driving a little easier but cameras can only go so far. It'll be interesting to see how lidar works its way into the mainstream and how quickly. -Travis

[@Pikminiman]

Radar is great! Lidar, on the other hand, will only go mainstream if hardware costs come down dramatically (not just in the absolute, but relative to cameras), and if researchers can figure out how to decide which sensors are more correct in which situations. Cameras are already insanely cheap, and sensor fusion is insanely difficult, so this seems unlikely to me. More to the point, adding sensors beyond cameras should provide unique data that cameras can't perceive, but Lidar is limited to very similar perception as cameras. Radar, on the other hand, can see through visual obstructions like rain and fog. If it's sufficiently high-resolution, radar offers great potential benefit, whereas Lidar is unlikely to add enough additional perceptual data to overcome its comparative expensiveness.

[@zdme4864]

infrared radar will solve the weather blindness if it’s affordable and adaptable to the primary camera sensors

[@t1328]

Excellent video Travis. I recently got the new Model 3, and it came with that free month of FSD. Like you, I tested it out a lot. My conclusion was the same as yours. Outside of highway navigation based driving, it’s actually less relaxing than me just driving. I have to expend a lot more energy ensuring it doesn’t do anything stupid, even if that happens very infrequently, than I do driving. Plus I enjoy driving.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

It's interesting to see how FSD handles certain situations. Lots of time it handles things fairly well, but there are enough instances of things going less than smooth to make driving less comfortable for me. -Travis

[@t1328]

@@EVBuyersGuide exactly. I feel the same way. It also sometimes drives like an old granny who can’t see well. Could become a danger from people driving behind you, like the part of the video where it slowed down to 10mph, or the hotel. I drove it to a CVS. Once it turned into the parking lot, it just crawled along at 2mph. Luckily no one was behind me.

[@rightlanehog3151]

Travis, What is all the fuss about? I see cars driving themselves (with negligible driver input) every day. 😉

[@EVBuyersGuide]

True enough. -Travis

[@ElroyMcDuff]

LOL!

[@zdme4864]

but not safely meatballs

[@stevewilson6193]

FSD is a mess. I have a Model 3 and got a month trial of FSD. I can't get further than a few blocks without it getting confused and disengaging. It tries to right turn on red when there is a sign that says "no turn on red", misses stop signs, etc... its really bad and very dangerous.

[@robertehlers3757]

Very illuminating. I especially appreciate the straightforward evaluation of the drawbacks.

[@infinotize]

This was a really good review, thanks

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Thanks for watching! -Travis

[@mr88cet]

Great illustrations of what it can and cannot do! Thanks. I have not used FSD, but I’m _guessing_ that the most unnerving thing about it is that many actions _you_ would normally initiate, _it_ now initiates. That would be fine if it were flawless, but it isn’t - dang impressive, but not flawless. So, I imagine that means that you have to be _constantly on the alert_ . When _you_ initiate every single action your car takes, you know _exactly when_ to be maximally cautious, and where to look. FSD, however, takes actions on its own, and I presume that puts you in a position of reacting to its actions, somewhat like the cars around you.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

It's not just about WHAT the system does, but how it does it. Even if an action is performed technically correctly it may not be the way you would have done it and that's going to be hard for people to adjust to (assuming they want to). -Travis

[@mr88cet]

@@EVBuyersGuide, reasonable point! Driving habits can be a personal thing - and one that people can get really nitpicky about. For example, I’m a real stickler for making complete stops at stop signs, and blinking my turn signal at least 4 times before turning or changing lanes. So, I can imagine myself getting annoyed if it didn’t do those things.

[@mr88cet]

@@EVBuyersGuide, I imagine that driving a car with FSD would be kinda like being a driving instructor!

[@arbitrary76]

Good one Travis. I've also had to intervene to stop FSD breaking the law (V12.3, May 2024).

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Paying attention is a functional requirement. -Travis

[@PaulHo]

With all that tech and capability, I'm still really surprised that Tesla hasn't implemented a notification that the lead car has moved or to move up to the limit line at an intersection. Tesla drivers are always 5 car lengths behind at a light or 10 seconds late to go when the light turns. It can tell you when a construction cone is on the shoulder or something is in your blindspot, but not dynamic things like pay attention and just go.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

There is a green light notification option, I let mine ding at me. -Travis

[@PaulHo]

@@EVBuyersGuide is that just with Autopilot active? I noticed the notification on your trip, it should totally be the same beep as the steering wheel minder.

[@joetacchino4470]

I had EAP on my 2018 Model 3 and on my 2020 standard Autopilot. EAP was not available. After living with it for a year, EAP came back on the market for a few thousand ($4k?). I decided I never used anything on EAP other than auto lane change, and even that the car didn’t do well. So I didn’t bother. Having had two cars with lane centering after that, I realize how much smoother they are than the Tesla. Plus, eliminating radar and forcing auto high beams were not moves I agreed with. Not upset to have moved on.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Tesla has definitely helped pushed things forward but their advantage is dwindling quickly (or gone). -Travis

[@apolloxgod]

Nice work

[@AlexCurtis]

This was a good review of FSD vs Autopilot and I too loved my free month access to FSD but I’m back to just Autopilot (though there are many days I miss driveway to driveway self-driving). Alex published a recent video of SuperCruise and I’m wondering why you all don’t do more direct comparisons of the technologies. You talk a lot about the camera-only tech vs those with other sensors, yet what you just showed, FSD & Autopilot are clearly doing way more than the other manufacturers with “just” eight cameras than with lidar and radar in many scenarios. Maybe not with weather, but make the side-by-side comparison. None of it is perfect, of course, but with every over-the-air update, they seem to be taking more problems off the table and offering more features, yes, with the same hardware. Do we see this from any other manufacturer at Tesla’s scale and as well? Please, come up with objective standards & tests and compare and contrast these self-driving techs. You all do this so well in so many other videos with your scoring systems.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Thank you for the feedback. It's not that we don't to test these side by side on an objective scale but since road and traffic conditions are exceptionally variable AND there are only so many of us (only one member of our team currently owns a higher level ADAS equipped vehicle) it would be difficult. And as you mentioned, there are a lot of software updates that come out which means we would have to pull everything together again to keep things up to date. We may be able to do this, but at the moment we wouldn't be able to at the standard we would like. -Travis

[@rolandogamez]

What is up with that screen color? Is it really purple like that?

[@EVBuyersGuide]

The screen isn't especially purple, no. It's probably just the way the camera captured it. -Travis

[@grownnotflown2]

Full self-driving real-time user not even close to being safe letting a Tesla drive itself

[@allenarakaki3804]

You're facts are wrong. You said tesla only has 6 external cameras. It actually has 8 (hw3 w/ 3 forward facing) 1.2 megapixel cameras or 7ish 5 megapixel (hw4 has 2 possibly 3 forward facing - sandy hasn't torn down a hw4 tesla and published one yet)

[@mhsohel47]

Fact check: Tesla's are using 3 camera's in front not one.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Thank you. -Travis

[@jenesuispasbavard]

If only they used more than just cameras.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Dare to be different I guess. -Travis

[@vancity2349]

We own a Tesla Model 3 that wife's uses as her daily driver. We love it and its amazing and has exceeded our expectations. Now self driving, and maybe I am alone here, I just dont get it or why any would want it. I want to drive my cars my way all the time. If you dont take a taxi....

[@EVBuyersGuide]

I use AutoPilot for nearly all my freeway driving but the difference between standard AutoPilot and FSD isn't much worth it to my mind. Not yet. -Travis

[@anumodalex]

I had a very bad experience with FSD. On a road where the speed limit was 60 mph, there was traffic signal on that road , when we were in FSD , the signal was green and the car was at 60 mph, at almost near the intersection, the car suddenly drifted to the left lane and in the same second it came back to right lane . We were literally scared , luckily there were no other cars in that signal at that time . But I have decided, I will never ever use this till when they announce that it’s fully tested and announce the production version. Now they are risking our lives and collecting the data ..

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Even if one is familiar with FSD there are still plenty of moments of unpredictability that can prove harmful if not fatal. At least Tesla added the word "Supervised" for the demo period. -Travis

[@naveenthemachine]

comma ai is as close as you can get to autopilot

[@EVBuyersGuide]

comma ai makes Tesla look like it doesn't have any hardware limitations. -Travis

[@shinybaldy]

"yet" is doing a lot of heavy lifting but I'm sure the cult will argue a whole bunch about how basic baked in hardware limitations will get better via software. yah okay.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

"Yet" only carries weight for those who count on it. -Travis

[@brandonbergeron4668]

You are not wrong, but you do have to admit it's pretty impressive what hey have done with just cameras. It's got a long way to go though, but so much of tech in general is 25-50% substance and the rest is fluff and selective omissions.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

What they've done with cameras is impressive but I think the difference between Tesla and other manufacturers is how much responsibility they're willing to put on the consumer and the trust they're putting in the cameras. -Travis

[@emoney1231]

Vehicles should remain in the rightmost lane unless passing. The Tesla was going 70 in a 70 for the first several minutes, and it never wanted to get in the rightmost lane?? That's super annoying.

[@brandonbergeron4668]

Keep right just means stay out of the left most lane not necessarily stay in the furthest right lane on a highway with more than 2 lanes. It would be pretty ridiculous for everyone to drive in the right most lane on a 4-6 lane highway.... It's arguably safer to drive in a lane with no cars in front or behind you, and minimal cars along side, (assuming it's not the left most lane) because the number of things that could go wrong goes down drastically, and your ability to react goes up drastically. This is especially important in a computer vision based "self driving" where you as the human are not only reacting to driving factors, but also potentially the car's inputs.

[@emoney1231]

@@brandonbergeron4668 Legally, you are probably right. But you can't tell me that on a 6 lane highway the right 5 lanes are designed for going the speed limit and the left one is for everyone else. You SHOULD be as far right as possible unless you are passing someone.

[@brandonbergeron4668]

@@emoney1231 The fewer times you have to change lanes the lower frequency of something going wrong. The car actually can see when a car is signaling to change lanes, but how often do people not bother with that, and move over anyway. It's an interesting endeavor to code for a seemingly endless number of permutations. I have no skin in the game I just find it interesting to see how these systems handle things most of us do daily as near second nature. Does the computer follow the rules of the road to a T knowing most people don't and wouldn't expect you for example, to come to a complete stop at each stop sign rather than rolling a bit. Middle lane on a 3 lane highway (most of what is shown in this video) is for travel, right is for oncoming and exiting, and left for passing, but this also varies by state, some states don't require this, and under certain conditions these rules/laws become mere suggestions such as in any major metro during rush hour. For example, one use case I know would be a huge edge case to account for is, some places let you drive in the breakdown lane during rush hour times.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

It seemed to want to avoid the right lane and my guess is it's to avoid merging complications. -Travis

[@PaulHo]

Pass or passing? No pacing. Just move.

[@brandonbergeron4668]

Tesla needs to send dev teams outside of California and I bet the software improves drastically. East coast roads aren't nice and gridded, lots of weird intersections, short on ramps and off ramps, roads without nicely painted lines, narrow roads etc. lots of room to improve edge cases, like a warning that the car will begin to slow due to rain like you mentioned.

[@ralanham76]

Yes I wonder if it’s because the first few versions were exclusively in the small area that has affected the development. Since it kind of puts in some set rules that are hard to change.

[@garzie]

California roads are far from nice lmao

[@brandonbergeron4668]

@@garzie far less weather (rain, snow, ice) to contend with. No road salt and frost heaves that eat away at road lines and create pot holes. Overall infrastructure and layout is at least 100 years newer in many instances. Road construction projects can happen largely year round compared to 7-8 months out of the year.

[@terig5584]

Very interesting video. The features for me never really rise above the level of "oh that would be neat" and I agree FSD seems more like something to have fun with on a roadtrip (while being very careful). The other big point is, it seems like Tesla has gone all in on perception management and wanting to stay ever so slightly ahead of the competition. But given the hardware limitations, I don't see how this isn't eventually going to impact them negatively in the future. I'm still skeptical that FSD will ever be realized on a grand scale (like cross country on back roads and whatnot) even with additional methods beyond optical cameras, so I feel like there's basically no chance Tesla can deliver on having all their current vehicles suddenly become robotaxis. And frankly, the time when the bill is coming due is fast approaching and it won't matter how good of a vehicle they are otherwise.

[@mhsohel47]

The man just called out "Thread". lol what a political view.

[@brandonbergeron4668]

Was this V12 or V11 Of FSD

[@ItsAlwaysAwesomeToday]

Obviously 12. The free trial required version 12.3 update to be installed.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

The latest version as of April, I believe that's V12. -Travis