I'm very happy to have the beta.
Well, I got back from my 5-mile drive around the neighborhood. I do have full video of the drive, but I don't want any viral videos, plus my GoPro setup is crap (forgot stabilization was not supported at 4K - need to redo in 2.7K), so I won't be posting the video. But I will give my general impression:
Suffice it to say...it's a work in progress! I have one challenging turn on my entire drive to work. It's an unprotected left. Visibility is generally good. After the left, you have the option of entering the center merge reservation while getting up to speed. Usually, I sort of do this halfway as I rocket up to 50mph in 3-4 seconds. I've been using it a bit more in recent days with the Safety Score.
This is the turn:
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This is the center reservation, and the direction I was turning:
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Went through it a couple times. The first time the problem was it started entirely too far to the left on Sunset Ridge, nearly in the lane people would be coming in on. It also doesn't creep quite far enough forward, probably (I'll have to review this next time I take the turn). Then, on the first left turn occasion, it nearly entirely missed the center reservation, rocketing across the road to the opposite lanes, before jerking painfully to the left to go with the flow of traffic. This was legal, but it was not smooth! I had a negative reaction in the video. It's not required to enter that merging lane, but what it did wasn't great. Maybe it's because I'm used to driving for the Safety Score?
On the second time through, it also did a lot of jerking, but did enter the reservation and then get up to speed. It slightly crossed briefly over the double lines at the end of the reservation. Not smooth.
All the relevant clips have been sent to Tesla, of course. I'll probably do more documentation of this in the day sometime, but it's an extremely dangerous turn so I'll have to pick the time carefully.
There were some other minor incidents too, where it jerked to a stop in left turn lanes, etc. It's generally not all that smooth. One exception was traffic control - it was very smooth in its response the couple traffic lights I happened to hit.
I had a couple disengagements due to steering wheel torque. Not because they needed to be disengaged - just because it wasn't taking the line that I would have and my hands on the wheel forced it.
I thought for sure I would get clobbered on Safety Score, but in spite of all the jerking and jamming on of brakes (one time it stayed in TACC after I disengaged steering on a left turn, I didn't entirely realize this, then it saw the left arrow turn yellow, and it jammed on the brakes or something as I was steering), I got a 100 score. A great start to the day. Must have all been masked. Either that or when FSD Beta is enabled you're not graded anymore, only 100s. Don't know which, don't care.
My general impression is that monitoring this is actually going to be quite difficult. It's probably fairly easy if you disengage all the time (for example, on these unprotected left turns), but if you actually let it pick its own line, it's actually quite challenging to determine what it's going to do and react to it (the unprotected lefts are one example - I never would have wanted to be doing them with any traffic around - the other disengagement on a protected left was just because I did not like its line. Not sure what I didn't like (I think I felt it might clip my rear wheel on the curb - but it was NOT going to - but anyway it disengaged). I think I will probably get much better at this with time, but it will be interesting to see how others feel. Just an initial impression - I might change my mind.
I second the impression that it's actually surprisingly bold in some circumstances, and is not afraid to cut corners on residential streets - so I hope it reliably sees all vehicles… It will take some getting used to.
Extreme vigilance is necessary, in any case. I'm definitely not going to use it with a lot of traffic around for a while. Good night!