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Motor Trend reports on FSD in their long term test 2023 Model Y, https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-tesla-model-y-long-range-yearlong-review-update-9-full-self-driving-fsd-version-13/ [motortrend.com] They weren't too impressed with the first software version that came with the car,

I’m not using FSD because it’s bringing me much utility or, much less, enjoyment. I’m using it because we paid $15,000 for this software (it costs $8,000 today), and I’m going to do my job and report on how it works, dammit.

That’s despite FSD giving me many, many reasons to forsake it, to decide that my safety and sanity are worth more than what it cost. Yet the Full Self Driving note I created in my phone to log the system’s transgressions has an ever-increasing abundance of entries as we pile the miles onto our Model Y.

Dumb and Dangerous Decisions
      For example, there was the time it failed to recognize an increased speed limit sign and continued bumbling along at a 15-mph deficit. In stark contrast, later in that same drive, it detected a 55-mph speed limit sign specific to vehicles towing (which it wasn’t), decelerating from 75 mph so rapidly that traffic behind had to swerve around the Model Y. Moments later, FSD decided to change lanes to follow the navigation route toward its next turn—still some 10 miles away—cutting someone off in the process.
[...]
On a different day, FSD deviated from my navigation route because it neglected to recognize that the lane it was occupying became right turn only. After making that turn, it wanted to correct its error and resume the route by making a U-turn at the next intersection, where a “No U-Turn” sign was clearly posted. It tried to make its illegal U-turn from the right side of that double-protected left turn, such that if I hadn’t intervened it would’ve overlapped with the vehicle turning from the left-side lane.
[...]
FSD’s errors aren't always dangerous. More often, they’re just asinine. Like when our Model Y didn’t react to a green arrow for a protected right turn, inconveniencing me and drivers behind. Or entered a packed intersection as a yellow light expired, coming to a stop inside a crosswalk. Or braked hard after it accelerated up a freeway on-ramp because it detected an inactive traffic control signal. Or when it encountered an unexpected road closure and drove around the same block three times because each time it arrived back at the closure it failed to recalculate its route. Who knows how long FSD might’ve kept circling had I not turned it off.

Then the car updated itself to FSD v.13 and while the general experience was smoother there were still problems.

Twice in a week, FSD 13 completely missed freeway exits because it shifted over too late to negotiate fitting in with other traffic. Those bungles are bizarre given FSD 13’s tendency to otherwise move toward exits literal miles early, often abdicating the fast-moving left lane to fall behind slow vehicles to the right—vehicles it could’ve passed had it stayed put for longer. When merging onto a freeway, it will stubbornly attempt to fit into a gap regardless of whether those other closest drivers seem willing to allow it, ignoring suitable openings immediately ahead or behind. Generally, its lane shifting strategy is poor; I’ve counted as many as eight back-and-forth lane changes within a minute as FSD 13 tries to figure out what to do. The day this article was due, it veered toward a wall as two lanes converged into one.

If simple cruise control was the genesis for any self-driving tech, then FSD 13 represents an ignominious legacy as it struggles to maintain speeds. Once, it gradually relaxed its cruise speed to 64 mph in a 65 mph zone, when the maximum speed I allowed for it was 75 mph. There was absolutely no traffic, faulty input, or other detectable reason for this slowing. At other times, it doesn't keep up with leading traffic accelerating to the speed limit, driving slower than necessary and letting a gap ahead grow even when the Hurry logic is selected.

One would also hope that software ostensibly aware of the physical dimensions and dynamic abilities of the Tesla it controls would know how to avoid hitting markers along freeway curves and keep itself centered in the lane. Not FSD 13.

I believe this long term test car is being used in LA and surrounding areas. Ymmv if you live elsewhere.

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