What Would Cause You to Give Up on being part of FSD Beta Testing?

[wtwieder]

While I am currently thrilled and honored to be a FSD beta tester, looking at the snails pace of FSD improvementd in the past year, makes me less hopeful that significant improvements will come quickly. Howevrr, with more beta testers, now, the rate of improvements can dramatically increase. I am certainly going to hang in there as a tester for quite a while, but I thought of reasons one may want to opt out.

In the interest of discussion, what would it take for you to give up on being a FSD beta tester? (Hopefully, you won't)

1. Seeing no definite, consistent improvement over the next 3 (more or less) versions
2. Getting into an accident because of a FSD screw up, I couldn't have anticipated and prevented.
3. Too many phantom braking events in AP because radar on my car has been disabled, even though not using FSD. I want my old nonFSD software back.
4. Wear and tear on brakes, tires, suspension or steering that I am beginning to see because of hard braking and agressive turning with FSD, compared to the more gentle
way I usually drive.
5. Lack of feedback from Tesla regarding our test reports, personally or publically, with regard to how they are addressing our issues. No acknowledgement of our reported issues or timeline for fixing them is too discouraging for me to continue vigilantly testing.
6. I will never give up on FSD beta. It's not perfect. Even if it doesn't improve, it's better than nothing. After all, I paid for it.
7. Other reasons.

 

[ChicagoSox]

Still funny to me that people are excited to pay thousands to be FSD beta testers for a multi-billion dollar company.

 

[ATPMSD]

First, Tesla would need to actually provide the beta FSD before I could consider dropping it!

 

[EVRider-FL]

I don’t have FSD Beta yet, but if I did and was able to disable it for city driving (like you can for Navigate on Autopilot on highways), the only reason I would drop out is if it made other features worse. For example, if the FSD Beta introduced new issues with highway driving that weren’t there with regular FSD, which I could see happening if FSD Beta disabled radar that regular FSD uses, I might drop out.

With my current Safety Score of 93, I won’t have to make that decision anytime soon.

 

[mhan00]

While I am currently thrilled and honored to be a FSD beta tester, looking at the snails pace of FSD improvementd in the past year, makes me less hopeful that significant improvements will come quickly. Howevrr, with more beta testers, now, the rate of improvements can dramatically increase. I am certainly going to hang in there as a tester for quite a while, but I thought of reasons one may want to opt out.

In the interest of discussion, what would it take for you to give up on being a FSD beta tester? (Hopefully, you won't)

1. Seeing no definite, consistent improvement over the next 3 (more or less) versions
2. Getting into an accident because of a FSD screw up, I couldn't have anticipated and prevented.
3. Too many phantom braking events in AP because radar on my car has been disabled, even though not using FSD. I want my old nonFSD software back.
4. Wear and tear on brakes, tires, suspension or steering that I am beginning to see because of hard braking and agressive turning with FSD, compared to the more gentle
way I usually drive.
5. Lack of feedback from Tesla regarding our test reports, personally or publically, with regard to how they are addressing our issues. No acknowledgement of our reported issues or timeline for fixing them is too discouraging for me to continue vigilantly testing.
6. I will never give up on FSD beta. It's not perfect. Even if it doesn't improve, it's better than nothing. After all, I paid for it.
7. Other reasons.

I already love 10.2 because it’s NoAP on steroids for me. I don’t treat it as FSD, I treat it as a driver aid that needs my help and supervision. Similar to NoAP, I anticipate situations instead of waiting for the system to get into trouble. for example, If I think it’s going to have trouble getting into a lane it needs to be in due to traffic, I’ll signal myself early when there’s a gap so the car automatically changes lanes instead of waiting. It handles 95%+ of driving for me right now, even with my interventions.

I honestly can’t see how I could get into an accident due to a FSD screwup that I couldn’t have anticipated or prevented. I’m driving. I know what the car should be doing in any situation it’s in. If the car isn’t doing that, I can feel and see that because my hands are on the wheel and my eyes are on the road and my sense of intertia lets me feel if the car is accelerating or slowing down or not doing either when it should be, so I just take over. The most sudden movement I’ve had is the the car suddenly deciding to change lanes in the middle of the intersection (so far never with a car in the spot where its trying to go), and it’s been easy to just stop it.

I’m honestly not sure what people mean when they talk about phantom braking. Phantom braking, to me, is when the car slams on the brakes, which can scrub dozens of miles per hour from the speed in the space of a couple of seconds. I’ve had that happen once to me on NoAP, which was when I was in El Paso visiting a friend a couple of years ago. I’ve never had it happen in SoCal, and not yet on Beta (but I’ve only driven 300 miles or so on Beta, so small sample size). If they’re talking about brief, short slowdowns where maybe 3-5mph is scrubbed from the speed, I’ve experienced more of that on Beta than I did on previous versions, but not that often and to me it’s a minor issue. Phantom braking is a legitimate safety concern, minor occasional slowdowns is a mild inconvenience at worst.

 

[wtwieder]

I don’t have FSD Beta yet, but if I did and was able to disable it for city driving (like you can for Navigate on Autopilot on highways), the only reason I would drop out is if it made other features worse. For example, if the FSD Beta introduced new issues with highway driving that weren’t there with regular FSD, which I could see happening if FSD Beta disabled radar that regular FSD uses, I might drop out.

With my current Safety Score of 93, I won’t have to make that decision anytime soon.

Currently, FSD does disable radar whether it's turned on or not. Some say they see more phantom braking. Occasionally, I do too, but I know Tesla is working on this issue, so I can deal with it for now. It would take more than that uncorrected issue for me to drop out, unless I don't see significant improvement in FSD during the next few months. Hopefully, by the time you get to try FSD, it will have fewer problems.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Currently, FSD does disable radar whether it's turned on or not. Some say they see more phantom braking. Occasionally, I do too, but I know Tesla is working on this issue, so I can deal with it for now. It would take more than that uncorrected issue for me to drop out, unless I don't see significant improvement in FSD during the next few months. Hopefully, by the time you get to try FSD, it will have fewer problems.

I’m fortunate not to have experienced some of the severe phantom braking incidents that many others have reported. I have had the car brake unexpectedly on the highway, but in most cases this was caused by my car incorrectly detecting that a vehicle in an adjacent lane was moving into my lane.

 

[DaveG_NJ]

I personally don't see any reason to bail out of the program - you always have the option to just not use it if you find it janky. I'm still hoping to get INTO the program before Elon pulls the plug on the expanded rollout.

 

[wtwieder]

I personally don't see any reason to bail out of the program - you always have the option to just not use it if you find it janky. I'm still hoping to get INTO the program before Elon pulls the plug on the expanded rollout.

If you miss the radar capabilities of your car, only if you had them before, the only way to get that capability back, is to opt out and get software without FSD in it. . Without radar, I have experienced phantom braking that I never noticed before. It happens whether FSD is turned on or off. By itself, this phantom braking isn't reason enough for me to bail out, as long as I see FSD improving in a dependable way with future versions.
I

 

[Fernand]

Still funny to me that people are excited to pay thousands to be FSD beta testers for a multi-billion dollar company.

It grows on you.
Notice that it's the newbies who find it odd.

 

[Iain]

Still funny to me that people are excited to pay thousands to be FSD beta testers for a multi-billion dollar company.

When I lost the Beta for 24 hours my car seemed fairly boring. Hopefully non FSD cars will at least get the visualizations soon.

 

[nvx1977]

If you miss the radar capabilities of your car, only if you had them before, the only way to get that capability back, is to opt out and get software without FSD in it. . Without radar, I have experienced phantom braking that I never noticed before. It happens whether FSD is turned on or off. By itself, this phantom braking isn't reason enough for me to bail out, as long as I see FSD improving in a dependable way with future versions.
I

The phantom braking I experienced in classic AP is no longer happening with vision-only. These were overhead signs or bridges/overpasses that the radar thought was an obstruction on the highway. It would brake fairly hard and can be jarring.

I'm quite pleased this type of phantom braking is not happening for me anymore. But there are new situations that cause phantom braking, like when the car thinks a car in an adjacent lane might be drifting into your lane. While this is not ideal, at least the basis for the braking is not a false positive; it's more of a tolerance issue that can be refined with more training.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I do miss the ability to use AutoSteer at night without autobrights.

I could understand someone not wanting to be a part of the FSD Beta due to that annoyance. I haven't tried turning off the Beta to see if that allows me to turn off the autobrights.

I find it bothersome because I want to use FSD Beta on as-needed basis like I do with AP. But, not with the silliness that is the autobrights.

It wouldn't be so bad if they could tune it for the brights not to come on when there is plenty of light, and if they could tune it not to come on while on the freeway approaching other cars.

It would also be nice if it didn't constantly turn on/off. Like if its busy then just turn it off.

 

[nvx1977]

I do miss the ability to use AutoSteer at night without autobrights.

I could understand someone not wanting to be a part of the FSD Beta due to that annoyance. I haven't tried turning off the Beta to see if that allows me to turn off the autobrights.

I find it bothersome because I want to use FSD Beta on as-needed basis like I do with AP. But, not with the silliness that is the autobrights.

It wouldn't be so bad if they could tune it for the brights not to come on when there is plenty of light, and if they could tune it not to come on while on the freeway approaching other cars.

It would also be nice if it didn't constantly turn on/off. Like if its busy then just turn it off.

I've stopped using FSD at night because auto high beam is so slow to respond to other cars and sometimes leaves the brights on when I'm tailing someone.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I've stopped using FSD at night because auto high beam is so slow to respond to other cars and sometimes leaves the brights on when I'm tailing someone.

It doubly sucks because at night is when I really want to use it.

So far I haven't had a good experience with FSD Beta 10.3.1. The lack of usability at night along with annoying random phantom braking (not harsh, but just skittish) is really off-putting. It also tends to slow down way late so its ends up being rather embarrassing as it goes from 45-0 right before the line up of cars. Like today I just took over because I couldn't take it anymore.

It does look like the weekend will be sunny so I can finally get a chance to test it in nice weather.

The other night I tried out the vision self park, and it almost got it but then it canceled.

 

[wtwieder]

I've stopped using FSD at night because auto high beam is so slow to respond to other cars and sometimes leaves the brights on when I'm tailing someone.

I guess my experience is different with rhe autobrights. In the past, without FSD Beta, I had problems with my autobrights not working when I thought they should. In fact, I had my car into the SC for this issue. They checked and calibrated the cameras and re-aimed the headlights without any improvement. However, with 10.4, they are working much better.
Yes, they go on and off a lot on Freeways, almost as an aid to see signs rather than the road. I haven't had an issue with them not turning off with oncoming cars or when I approach the tail ends of other cars.

 

[UT4EVER]

Phantom braking is a serious problem for me on my commute….. Although I commute 83 miles! I can only engage FSD about half of the time because the phantom braking is making me car sick and wearing out my brakes. It is beyond annoying…

 

[nvx1977]

I guess my experience is different with rhe autobrights. In the past, without FSD Beta, I had problems with my autobrights not working when I thought they should. In fact, I had my car into the SC for this issue. They checked and calibrated the cameras and re-aimed the headlights without any improvement. However, with 10.4, they are working much better.
Yes, they go on and off a lot on Freeways, almost as an aid to see signs rather than the road. I haven't had an issue with them not turning off with oncoming cars or when I approach the tail ends of other cars.

the difference in behavior is likely due to the road type. Here where I live, most suburban roads are 2-lane and winding. Cars come around bends and over the hills all the time. When you're following someone, the red taillights frequently disappear around a bend or hill, and so the car turns on the brights when it sees the red lights are gone. But seconds later, the car is back in view, and it takes a second or so for it to react. The lead car basically sees my car turning on and off the brights constantly.

Likewise, oncoming traffic is not seen from far away, so when they come into view, they are somewhat close, and the brights turn off as they are passing me. Kinda useless.

 

[qdeathstar]

Someone giving me $100 bucks. PM me for details.

 

[qdeathstar]

Still funny to me that people are excited to pay thousands to be FSD beta testers for a multi-billion dollar company.

Not as an insult, but that’s because you aren’t a techie. Techies geek out over stuff like that and Tesla as a brand attracts a lot of techies.