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Tried a FSD subscription. It's not worth it...

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I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.
1600px-Tesla_Autopilot_Engaged_in_Model_X.jpg

("Tesla Autopilot Engaged in Model X.jpg" by Ian Maddox is licensed under CC BY 4.0.)
 
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I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.

Kinda wish you posted before your road trip. Despite some people thinking this site is full of "fanbois" or "stans", I'd venture to say that a lot of us would have suggested that for a long-distance road trip, AP alone is more than sufficient, and NoA (and autopark, summon, etc) are really not necessary.

In November 2019, I drove from southern NH to Disneyworld (Orlando FL) and back using AP. It was so nice. Although I had NoA, I didn't use it because I find that I rarely agreed with its lane changes (which I tried turning off but it also had some rules around passing lanes, etc). It also frequently missed my exit on the highway here in New England, so I was in a habit of leaving NoA off. I did have user-initiated lane changes. That is very nice but not worth paying for an FSD subscription to get.

Right now, you don't get a lot if you get FSD (either lump sum or subscription). Those prices are really for a mature FSD-beta software, which could be years away. Agreed there is a LOT of confusion between what is FSD and FSD beta from people who don't follow this stuff closely.
 
I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.
Good feedback and I certainly agree with some of your points. Agree the name causes lots of confusion and Tesla would have been better calling it something else. My recommendation to my son and son in law who both own Tesla's and love the manual driving experience is it's not worth $12k.
  • Summon is mostly just a party trick but for some it has value. In my case my daughter is in a wheelchair and it's helpful to summon the car out of the garage every day. Otherwise I rarely use it and wouldn't pay for it. Will be interesting to see how the single stack expands the functionality.
  • For lane changes using NoA I just use the blinker to cancel any lane change I don't like. So 95% of the time lane changes are automatic.
  • FSD doesn't require you to confirm green lights. Are you sure you're using FSD?
  • I have no problems with Stop Signs or Lights except for one light with the intersection at an odd angle.
  • The one point I'd make to any new FSDbeta user is wait a month before making a final judgement. It takes time to understand how FSD works. When to disengage and when to user the accelerator pedal to help make the drive reasonably smooth. 90%+ of my drives are now with zero disengagements but I often use the accelerator pedal to make the car move smoothly thru intersections. Should you have to do that? Absolutely not but it helps FSD's performance significantly. I always take a snapshot when I do that and for nasty situations send Tesla's FSDbeta team an email. Took a couple of months to get comfortable with the whole FSDbeta experience and can definitely identify many personal situations that FSD use to butcher that it now FSD does "reasonably" well.
  • In general if someone is looking for FSD to work as described by Tesla, Elon and Omar (Whole Mars Catalog/Twitter) then the subscription services isn't likely to be worth it except to see what all the hype is about.
 
Maybe it's because I don't have beta that it doesn't seem that great for me? I don't know as I won't be keeping it long enough to get into the FSD Beta. Yea on my trip I had to confirm the green lights. I understand that having your hands on the wheel is necessary, and I'm not trying to "trick" the system by weighting the steering wheel, but that is a big part of my dislike of FSD. It's not Full Self Driving if I still have to make inputs to the steering wheel to let the system know I'm there. I can understand having my hand on the wheel, but why must I constantly make inputs that at any other point would move my car into an unsafe situation just to let the computer know I'm there?
Basically every annoyance on cars is due to a government requirement. Some beaucrat sitting in his office knows what's best for you.
 
I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.
FYI...word is, some persons have filed disputes with their credit card companies and informed them that what was delivered for the $199 was not what was promised. In great written detail to include what failed/didnt work as advertised. Word is, those persons successfully got the $199 back. With ease.
 
FYI...word is, some persons have filed disputes with their credit card companies and informed them that what was delivered for the $199 was not what was promised. In great written detail to include what failed/didnt work as advertised. Word is, those persons successfully got the $199 back. With ease.
The world is full of these kind of people. No wonder we have so many lawyers.
 
People who demand that they get exactly what they paid for and if they dont, they push back?

Yes, there are those kinds of people.
  1. Which features come with my subscription?
    The FSD capability features you receive are based on your configuration and location. Not all features are available in all markets, and features are subject to change. Learn more about Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability features.
    Note: These features are designed to become more capable over time; however the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous. The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.

So what part of that didn't they get?
 
FYI...word is, some persons have filed disputes with their credit card companies and informed them that what was delivered for the $199 was not what was promised. In great written detail to include what failed/didnt work as advertised. Word is, those persons successfully got the $199 back. With ease.
I don't think I'll be going that route. I am disappointed with what I received, but I was aware of the risks when I subscribed and prepared to eat the loss. I don't spend money I'm not willing to part with.
 
One thing I can say, is that although the fine print in the user manual explains in detail the capability of the Faux Self Driving, the way it is marketed is in no way representative to the actual capabilities and limitations of the system.

Some people expect companies to live up to their hype or promises and don't feel the need to get into the fine printed details until they've already purchased the service(gasp). It is irresponsible of Tesla to name the product Full Self Driving in it's current state. It is a driver assist at best. I can understand people requesting refunds for falsely marketed products.
 
  1. Which features come with my subscription?
    The FSD capability features you receive are based on your configuration and location. Not all features are available in all markets, and features are subject to change. Learn more about Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability features.
    Note: These features are designed to become more capable over time; however the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous. The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.

So what part of that didn't they get?
All depends on the individuals experience. If it happens to be the persons (for example) who have shown video evidence of the car crossing double yellow lines into oncoming traffic or the persons who uploaded video of the car running into the short poles, or if the person was driving in FSD down the highway and the car suddenly and unsafely kept phantom braking? I could see those persons feeling that they did not get, what was advertised/paid for.
But if the credit card company doesnt agree? Then the money simply wont get refunded if the Tesla owner is in the wrong..
 
All depends on the individuals experience. If it happens to be the persons (for example) who have shown video evidence of the car crossing double yellow lines into oncoming traffic or the persons who uploaded video of the car running into the short poles, or if the person was driving in FSD down the highway and the car suddenly and unsafely kept phantom braking? I could see those persons feeling that they did not get, what was advertised/paid for.
I can agree with you about feelings but that's very subjective. I think for $199 you got to see if you liked or disliked the system without forking out 12K.
 
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I can agree with you about feelings but that's very subjective. I think for $199 you got to see if you liked or disliked the system without forking out 12K.
It would be interesting to know where people live who ask for a refund. There certainly seems to be ample evidence that older cities and towns with antiquated road patterns are going to have more problems with FSD. The data mining that Tesla has available to them must be a treasure of interesting information. What I'd give to be able to spend a day slicing and dicing the data. That would be fun!
 
It would be interesting to know where people live who ask for a refund. There certainly seems to be ample evidence that older cities and towns with antiquated road patterns are going to have more problems with FSD. The data mining that Tesla has available to them must be a treasure of interesting information. What I'd give to be able to spend a day slicing and dicing the data. That would be fun!
Agreed.
Also, perhaps if Tesla marketed it as "you are actually paying us to do our autonomous driving testing for us on public roads" as part of their wording for FSD, it would more accurately and properly set expectations with customers.
 
I really like driving the car myself. First time since I was a teenager that I come up with reasons just to joy ride.

I can't imagine paying a bunch of money to be anxious while the software tries to drive.
I went on a long road trip with my 3 and full family. My EAP is not enabled by me, due to a recent encounter with a flying plywood board that seems to have knocked my radar off center, leading multiple false alerts and panic stops by the EAP.

What I discovered by driving the car myself was that it’s very nearly as capable as my old E46 BMW. Put the steering in sport, and drove fast. Fun, fun, fun!

I am also curiously relishing not having to watch over the EAP every single moment! It’s oddly… relaxing!? 😁😁😁

Now, back to the thread : I pretty much had the same experience as OP in my friend’s Model 3 few weeks ago. It was him driving, and he wanted to show me how good the FSD is. Car stopped at a red light. Light turned green, the car wouldn’t move for 10 seconds. Got honked, and took over. When merging on to the freeway, it yanked back into the ramp as another car one lane over was detected as though it was in the lane it was trying to merge.

So, yeah, no biting, nibbling, licking the bullets or arrows for me! 😄
 
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Had FSD on a Model Yand was in the beta for months. I eventually stopped using it due to it phantom braking too often, stopping in the middle of intersections far too often, and overall making me really miss driving myself. I’ve since sold it and got an old Model 3 w/EAP and that to me is the perfect sweet spot at the moment.
Likewise. I do not complain about the EAP much (well, the phantom braking apart). It was the best value for money, when it was offered. I still feel Tesla should offer it for $5K, which is what I paid.
 
I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.
View attachment 796011
("Tesla Autopilot Engaged in Model X.jpg" by Ian Maddox is licensed under CC BY 4.0.)
I am in the midst of my one month FSD rental. Definitely not worth it, yet.
 
I bit the bullet and tried the FSD one-month subscription option for a 1700 mile road trip this past weekend in my 2020 Model 3 Standard Plus. My opinion: not worth it.

Full Self Driving is just a terrible name for what is essentially Autopilot+. I'd imagine your commute would need to involve nothing but freeway driving to get much benefit from a $200 a month subscription, and definitely not $12000.

Summon is one of those features that's neat to play with, and might come in handy once in a blue moon. I'd pay $5 to sneak the car out of a tight spot once in a while, but not a recurring subscription.

Navigate on autopilot did relieve the necessity to keep turning autopilot off and back on every time I wanted to change lanes, which begs the question of why Tesla requires you to turn the autopilot off and back on just to change lanes. The cruise control worked the same as before, and honestly, I can handle lane changes on my own.

Stoplight and stop sign handling was terrible. It ID'd stop signs that weren't there, stopped the car in the middle of a highway, and tries to stop for most green lights unless you remember to tell it not to. It stopped for no reason multiple times during the trip. This in turn caused more safety hazards than if I just disabled it to begin with.

Autopilot is generally a great tool. You can turn it on, pay attention, and not really worry too much about your car doing things you'd rather it not do. FSD adds a whole new level of anxiety and complexity that is in no way a finished product. I can't imagine the FSD Beta being any better. I could understand it if it weren't so expensive, but at $12000/$200 per month, it is wildly overpriced. I've already canceled the subscription, and I doubt I'll be missing anything when it ends except the ability to impress friends by letting the car mope around a parking lot by itself.
View attachment 796011
("Tesla Autopilot Engaged in Model X.jpg" by Ian Maddox

Well! That’s quite the ordeal. Cannot say that I’m surprised. I’d never use it - simply because there are too many variables.

Mr. Musk can be the proverbial snake oil salesman.

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

👍
 
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All depends on the individuals experience. If it happens to be the persons (for example) who have shown video evidence of the car crossing double yellow lines into oncoming traffic or the persons who uploaded video of the car running into the short poles, or if the person was driving in FSD down the highway and the car suddenly and unsafely kept phantom braking? I could see those persons feeling that they did not get, what was advertised/paid for.
But if the credit card company doesnt agree? Then the money simply wont get refunded if the Tesla owner is in the wrong..

Agreed.
Also, perhaps if Tesla marketed it as "you are actually paying us to do our autonomous driving testing for us on public roads" as part of their wording for FSD, it would more accurately and properly set expectations with customers.
How Tesla "markets" or "advertizes" FSD subscription has nothing to do with it. When you make the order, you are supposed to read what you are subscribing to and Tesla's language is clear enough.

The obligations by both parties arise from the contract, not from the marketing. Also it's common knowledge that marketing/advertizing is always to be taken with a grain of salt.

So please don't bring the "Tesla promised such and such"-story, it isn't true at all.
 
During Tesla's Q1 2022 financial results, Elon openly accepted that he underestimated the complexity of FSD but is feeling confident about improving the software with data from 100k beta users. These beta users are not just testing a feature but are trying to make all roads safer for everyone, something that laws and speed cameras could never achieve. With autonomous driving, we can get rid of road rage, stress and even traffic jams, and of course, the actual autonomous driving part is a nice bonus. It will take several years, and Tesla with FSD is the cheapest car you could own to be part of this change. Another upcoming car with sophisticated Level 2+ hardware is a Mercedes EQS. Good luck affording that!