All photos in this article by the Author ©2023 – 14850 Magazine
Last October, 14850 Magazine had the chance to ride along in a Tesla with the Full Self Driving (FSV) option. Back then it was in beta test, and drivers had to shell out thousands to join it, would have their driving monitored, and would only be accepted if they had good records and driving habits. Tesla apparently wanted to be sure that their data was skewed by responsible drivers. We got a friend who owned a Model 3 to give us a demo. We’ll call him “Marc” (because that is his name).
Our approximate route courtesy of OpenStreetMap
Now admittedly, it’s been a bit and in the meantime it’s come out of beta and is now called “FSV (Supervised).” It costs a lot less money, is offered as a trial in new Teslas, and doesn’t need a pristine driving record to use. But basically the system operates as you see here. It is designed to always have an alert human operator, and simply cannot be relied on to safely navigate and drive by itself. The driver must be constantly alert, as you can see. But it is still some impressive tech.
Before we start, a word about “levels” of self-driving cars. The EPA has defined 6 different levels, from 0-5.
Level 0: These cars don’t have any driving automation. The driver is always in full control, but they might get safety warnings or have features like automated emergency braking.
Level 1: This is driver assistance. The car can either control speed or steering, but not both at the same time. Think adaptive cruise control or lane assist.
Level 2: These cars can manage both speed and steering together but only in specific conditions, like below a certain speed. Examples include adaptive cruise control and lane centering. The driver must stay alert and ready to take over.
Level 3: Known as conditional automation, these cars can drive themselves in certain situations, like traffic jams. The driver needs to pay attention and can take over if the car alerts them.
Level 4: Highly automated, these cars can handle most driving situations on their own. If they encounter extreme conditions, they’ll safely pull over instead of relying on the driver. This is the level we would consider Tesla FSD to currently be at.
Level 5: This is full automation. These cars can drive themselves in any situation without any driver input.
OK, we’re off at Level 4! First off you can see the parking lot at Ithaca College. The car doesn’t know how to park or leave a space, so we plotted a course to the Allan H. Treman Marina near Cass Park, and manually left the parking space. Then the car took over and showed a map on the main screen, which is the entire dashboard. Notice in the photo above there is no instrument cluster in front of the steering wheel. The map is shown along with a digital representation of the road ahead, which gets more complicated once other cars and pedestrians start showing up. You can see in front of the little blue Tesla on the screen that there is the “snake,” which shows what path the car intends to take.
So the first hiccup happens when the car detects pedestrians. You can see them out the windshield, and they appear on the display. In this case, the car doesn’t really understand it’s a sidewalk because it’s not raised, as you can see above, so the car tentatively crept forward, stopped, and then lurched to the left to pass. A human would have just given space.
Next off, we stop at a stop sign, which the car can read with its camera, and take a right. However, the Tesla misjudges and jumps a sidewalk, and Marc has to take over.
No problem with a “keep right” instruction, as it can read those signs too.
The Tesla can also spot and obey any speed limit signs. It uses a combination of GPS location, GIS mapping data, and the camera recognizing speed limit signs, to know how fast to drive, and you can set an offset (i.e. how much under or over you would like it to drive). It also has three levels of aggressiveness (or timidity if you look at it that way) to set how its driving behavior will be. This one was set in the middle.
Predictably, as with too many Ithaca drivers, the car had no idea what to do at a traffic circle (or “roundabout” as Marc calls it given he is accustomed to driving on the left side of the road) so it spun the wheel and hit the brakes and needed a little manual correction.
From there we get to another sign that confuses many humans, an infamous and unusual “no turn on red (while pedestrians are present)” sign. The car went on to turn red, with no pedestrians present, but I don’t think it’s because it understood — I think it just ignored the “no turn on red” (as we will see again later).
Smooth sailing on 96B down the hill, the car properly signaled and waited until it was safe to pull to the left lane before we passed Rogan’s Corner, home of Smiley’s Mini Mart and Sunset Grill.
The corner of Route 96B and Prospect Street is another intersection that confounds drivers because the oncoming right turn has a yield, but if you don’t know that, it’s kind of a free-for-all. No issues for the Tesla.
Down by Coltivare, we can see the car doing more complex calculations. It tracks this pedestrian as they walk across the street, identifies other cars in the roadway, and even those parked outside of Pritchard’s and at the Hotel Ithaca. It waits dutifully at the red light and then proceeds when it turns green, as the car ensures the intersection is clear. Marc tells me that the computer in the car is about as powerful as a high end gaming console, and is also cloud connected to aid in its decision making.
I’m happy to report that Tesla FSD does not run over people with baby carriages!
It also swerves out of the way (and over the double yellow) to avoid hitting this lady and her daughter. If the programming were so rigid that it couldn’t do this, Teslas would constantly be stuck behind FedEx trucks that double park blocking the roadway. Would a human get a ticket for doing either of these things? Probably not.
Now at the West Clinton/North Meadow intersection which can vex even the most observant civil engineer, there is a no turn on red prominently above with the traffic lights, but FSV either misses that or ignores it, and it begins to turn right in front of cross traffic. Marc quickly brakes, and then presses on the screen to report a problem. Presumedly the Tesla engineers will analyze the intersection and change the guidance in the programming for future drives in the master database. This means all Teslas can learn from the input of a single driver.
Smooth sailing down Route 13 to Buffalo Street, and then over the bridge and onto Inlet Island.
Turning into the marina entrance, the Tesla sees the 15MPH limit sign… and promptly accelerates to 30. Mark has to again intervene, and curse.
Next, we come across these fine folks wanting to cross at a painted crosswalk. The car sees them (they are shown on the display) but doesn’t care, and just rockets past them. We wave a little “sorry” while commenting to ourselves that a human would have been much more courteous. Well, should have been. After this, the car basically just stops and tells Marc to take over, because it doesn’t have an exact ending point and is just using wherever the pin is set for the park. That’s fine with us. We take a leisurely stroll around the marina, and then head up to the mall in Lansing to test highway driving.
For highways, things change up a fair deal. We are now using “autopilot” which isn’t considered “Full Self Driving” and which comes with no additional charge. Think of it as a cruise control on steroids. For major highways, you set a destination and the car will hang in the right lane at the speed limit (plus whatever offset you have set) until it comes up on a slower car. With typical cruise control, a car would just keep going and rear end the other vehicle. With “adaptive cruise control,” a car can slow down and follow at a set distance, then speed up again when traffic allows. But with “autopilot,” the car will signal, make sure it is clear and safe to change lanes, move to the left, overtake the slower vehicle, and then pull back to the right when it is safe to do so. Kind of like how a human would do it. Tesla still insists people sit facing forward and not do distracting things like reading a newspaper, and if the interior cameras detect the driver isn’t paying attention, it will disengage the mode. But on a long road trip, or in bumper-to-bumper freeway driving, this is a game changer in terms of driver fatigue and road safety.
Riding in a Tesla in full self-driving mode offers a glimpse into the future of transportation, blending cutting-edge technology with a unique driving experience. While the convenience of hands-free navigation and the ease of automated features can be exhilarating, it’s essential for drivers to remain attentive and engaged. As the technology continues to evolve, the promise of enhanced safety and efficiency becomes more tangible, inviting us to rethink our relationship with driving. Embracing this innovation opens the door to a new era where the road is not just a pathway to our destinations, but a space for exploration and possibility.
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