I thought I'd start a thread where those of us testing FSD in the Seattle WA area could share experiences. I live North in Snohomish but work in the city and have driven all over from Federal Way to Bellingham. I've seen Gali's videos (HyperChange) and my experience has been different than his - which is to be expected. Here are some observations I've had so far.
1. Performance varies from time to time at the same places. It will take the same turn perfectly fine one time and fail another. Overall, I see better performance during the day vs at night. My worst experience have been at night with rain - but it amazes me that it worked at all under those conditions.
2. AP/NoA performance on I5 and Highway 9 has been improved for me. It slows for traffic much smoother instead of waiting until the last second to brake. I've also noticed it doing a much better job allowing people merging on the freeway when you are driving along in the right hand lane. Taking the interchange from 522 to 405 has been perfect as has 405 to I90. On two occasions, however, it darted to the side unexpectedly on HWY 9 near Snohomish. Since I always hold the wheel, I caught it but was surprised by this because I assumed the old AP/NoA stack was unchanged and it has always been very solid for me. Note to self - don't let your guard down on the freeway because you think you are using the older proven software since you see the old visuals.
3. Mapping errors are a factor. In my somewhat rural area, I've had multiple cases of missed turns, failure to signal, driving on a shoulder because it thinks its a lane, etc.
4. Hesitation at stops. This is probably my biggest source of disengagements. It simple stops WAY to far from a stop sign and then will spend minuets slowly/hesitantly creeping up to the sign before it can even consider if it is safe to proceed. Anytime anyone is behind me, I simply disengage. If I try to encourage it with some accelerator, it usually does the right thing and can make the turn but it feels like it doesn't like to be rushed
.
5. Looking at it from the perspective of extending the existing functionality of AP/NoA, its going really well. It takes interchanges much better and exits completely off the freeways - something that was very hit or miss before. As you get more onto the surface streets, its limitations increase (obviously). On simple roads with little traffic, its doing ok and success is the norm. When traffic increases, or you have multi lane intersections or any kind of complexity involving limited sight or needing to time its actions, failure is the norm but every now and then it succeeds and amazes you.
6. Smart summon seems significantly improved - once it connects. Since the big 4.x app update (I'm on Android with a Z Fold 3), connecting to the car is hit or miss. Once it connects, come to me or go to target are much quicker and sure. The routing doesn't seem to bounce all over like before.
For those of you in the surrounding areas, how is it going for you? Perhaps we can start to see how many of us there are and where/how much coverage we are getting in our testing.
1. Performance varies from time to time at the same places. It will take the same turn perfectly fine one time and fail another. Overall, I see better performance during the day vs at night. My worst experience have been at night with rain - but it amazes me that it worked at all under those conditions.
2. AP/NoA performance on I5 and Highway 9 has been improved for me. It slows for traffic much smoother instead of waiting until the last second to brake. I've also noticed it doing a much better job allowing people merging on the freeway when you are driving along in the right hand lane. Taking the interchange from 522 to 405 has been perfect as has 405 to I90. On two occasions, however, it darted to the side unexpectedly on HWY 9 near Snohomish. Since I always hold the wheel, I caught it but was surprised by this because I assumed the old AP/NoA stack was unchanged and it has always been very solid for me. Note to self - don't let your guard down on the freeway because you think you are using the older proven software since you see the old visuals.
3. Mapping errors are a factor. In my somewhat rural area, I've had multiple cases of missed turns, failure to signal, driving on a shoulder because it thinks its a lane, etc.
4. Hesitation at stops. This is probably my biggest source of disengagements. It simple stops WAY to far from a stop sign and then will spend minuets slowly/hesitantly creeping up to the sign before it can even consider if it is safe to proceed. Anytime anyone is behind me, I simply disengage. If I try to encourage it with some accelerator, it usually does the right thing and can make the turn but it feels like it doesn't like to be rushed
.5. Looking at it from the perspective of extending the existing functionality of AP/NoA, its going really well. It takes interchanges much better and exits completely off the freeways - something that was very hit or miss before. As you get more onto the surface streets, its limitations increase (obviously). On simple roads with little traffic, its doing ok and success is the norm. When traffic increases, or you have multi lane intersections or any kind of complexity involving limited sight or needing to time its actions, failure is the norm but every now and then it succeeds and amazes you.
6. Smart summon seems significantly improved - once it connects. Since the big 4.x app update (I'm on Android with a Z Fold 3), connecting to the car is hit or miss. Once it connects, come to me or go to target are much quicker and sure. The routing doesn't seem to bounce all over like before.
For those of you in the surrounding areas, how is it going for you? Perhaps we can start to see how many of us there are and where/how much coverage we are getting in our testing.
