A Self-Driving Prompt
“Start Self-Driving,” the Tesla urged with a prominent blue-grey button in the corner of the screen.
“We should give it a go,” I encouraged as we headed home from the gym.
“I’m not a fan of FSD,” my husband, who was driving, responded.
“Wait until we’re on a straightaway,” I urged. “What harm could it do then?”
But, once we reached a straight stretch of road, he tapped the button. A test drive of the future.
First thing the car did? It lunged for the shoulder.
I hadn’t even gotten the camera on yet. He swerved hard to override it.
Welcome to Tesla FSD.
The Fastest Autonomy on the Market
FSD v14.2.1 is Tesla’s latest attempt to bring true autonomous driving to consumer vehicles. It runs end-to-end on a vision-only neural net. No lidar. No radar. Just cameras and deep learning.
And unlike Waymo or Cruise, Tesla doesn’t fence its self-driving into safe zones or call centers full of remote operators. If you have the hardware (HW4), a steering wheel, and enough courage? You’re in.
According to Elon Musk, FSD v14.2 is finally ready for “wide release.” He’s called it Tesla’s best software yet — and hinted that v14.3 could be the leap that makes unsupervised driving real. The plan? Get rid of human drivers entirely by 2026.
But right now, as our hands hovered near the wheel, one thing was clear:
This car still needs a babysitter.
FSD in the Wild: What It Got Right
To its credit, FSD did a lot well:
Green light handling: No hesitation. It read signals clearly and moved through smoothly.
Flashing red: It interpreted the signal as a stop sign (correct) and executed a proper stop.
Speed match: When behind another car doing 65 in a 50, it accelerated to match. Aggressive? Sure. But natural.
Traffic signal warnings: On Monterey Highway, it correctly ignored a blinking red paired with a “signal ahead” sign. Old versions might have phantom-stopped.
These were clear improvements over FSD on HW3 (which I also drive). On that system, traffic lights felt like roulette. Here, they felt normal.
That’s no small leap.
...And What Still Feels Weird
The system also:
Changed lanes without asking. We hadn’t entered a destination, but it picked routes anyway. Turns out FSD will sometimes act on latent nav preferences unless explicitly turned off.
Refused to let us adjust speed upward. Chill mode limited acceleration. We tried scroll wheels (nothing), accelerator (worked, but temporarily disabled braking), and eventually discovered we could slow it down with the scroll wheel — not speed it up.
Creeped back to slower speeds. Even after we added speed, it slowly dropped back into granny mode.
Accelerated to 69 in a 50 approaching town. We did not tell it to do that.
“It’s like a very smart Autopilot,” my husband said. “As long as you’re going straight.”
Are the Cars...Aware?
After one sudden lane change, I told my husband:
“It’s just an algorithm. It’s doing what it was told.”
That’s technically true — but Tesla sometimes talks like it’s more than that. Elon Musk has claimed FSD cars are becoming “sentient.” Others call them “aware.”
Reality? These are powerful probabilistic systems making real-time decisions based on enormous datasets and inference models. They mimic awareness. But they’re not thinking. They’re reacting — fast.
And sometimes, a bird poops on the camera and the whole system says:
“Front camera obstructed.”
(Which might explain the shoulder dive. But the system didn’t catch it until about 25 minutes later.)
A Tale of Two Autonomies
Tesla’s approach (camera-only, fast iteration, consumer beta testing) puts it at odds with the rest of the auto industry. Most automakers are siding with Waymo-style autonomy:
Redundant sensors (lidar + radar + cameras)
Defined operational zones
External validation & regulatory alignment
Tesla has offered to license FSD. Most automakers declined. Why?
Liability: Who takes the blame if a Tesla brain drives a Honda into a ditch?
Control: Licensing Tesla means losing your autonomy roadmap.
Trust: Regulators want explainability. Tesla offers opacity.
In short, Tesla wants to move fast. The industry wants to move safe.
The Trust Cliff
We didn’t use FSD the next day. Too stressful. Even with a free trial still ticking.
The car is confident now. But we’re not.
And that’s the real challenge Tesla faces: not a technical one, but a psychological one. Can we trust something that works... until it doesn’t?
Robotaxis can’t rely on drivers ready to correct. Because soon, there won’t be any.
Until then, this isn’t a robotaxi. It’s a very smart kid with a learner’s permit. And we’re still keeping our hands near the wheel.
Vocabulary Key
FSD (Full Self-Driving): Tesla’s supervised Level 2+ driver-assist system that automates steering, braking, and acceleration.
HW3 / HW4: Tesla’s onboard computer systems. HW4 has upgraded processing and cameras, and is required for the latest FSD features.
ODD (Operational Design Domain): The specific set of conditions (weather, roads, speeds) in which an autonomous system is designed to function safely.
Chill Mode: A Tesla driving profile that favors smooth acceleration and conservative behavior over aggression.
Lidar: A laser-based sensor used in many autonomous vehicles to measure distance and create 3D maps. Tesla does not use lidar.
FAQs
Can you still adjust speed in FSD? Yes — sometimes. Scroll wheel reduction worked. Acceleration works briefly, but disables automatic braking.
Does FSD handle traffic lights well now? Yes — in our test, it confidently read green, red, and flashing signals with no hesitation.
Why do automakers reject Tesla’s FSD? Sensor philosophy, licensing control, validation concerns, and legal risk.
Is Elon Musk serious about FSD becoming sentient? He uses that word occasionally. But most experts say the system is intelligent, not aware.
Is FSD ready for full autonomy? Not yet. It still requires human oversight. And trust.
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