Tesla’s full self-driving is promising but not ready

As a Silicon Valley resident, I’m used to seeing autonomous cars from Waymo, Nuro and other companies being tested on local roads by professional drivers, and now I’m one of them. But, instead of being paid to test Tesla’s autonomous driving technology, I paid $7,000 (now $10,000 or $200 a month) for the privilege. And, after a couple of weeks of

testing its “Full

Self Driving (FSD) beta, I’m disappointed by its current behavior but optimistic it will get a lot better over time. To be a tester, you have to have paid for FSD and agree to let Tesla automatically monitor your driving to see if you qualify based on how well you avoid hard braking, forward crash warnings, aggressive turning, unsafe following and forced autopilot disengagement after “Tesla vehicle has determined that you have removed your hands from the steering wheel and have become inattentive.” It took me awhile to get my safety score high enough to get the beta, but I did reach that milestone.

My ‘Full Self Driving’ experience

Because it’s not yet ready, I turn it off for routine driving but use it for testing purposes. Although most of the time it drives as well or better than most humans, it does make some mistakes like consistently turning right from the left lane on city streets or making jerky left turns where I worry it might cross over to the wrong side (it corrects but it’s still scary). While it always stops at stop signs, red lights and for traffic, it sometimes brakes harder than I would. While it’s impressive, it’s frankly a little scary for me and my passengers. When I use it,

I feel that I have to be extra attentive. Not only do I have to avoid my own driving mistakes and watch for mistakes from other drivers, I now have to make sure the car isn’t making a mistake. The good news is that Tesla frequently updates and improves the software. It’s already gotten an update since I started testing it.