I thought this would be a fun poll. Hopefully I got all the reasons. 
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Why do you use FSD Beta?
- Thread starter Daniel in SD
- Start date
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
In its current state, FSD Beta is not safer or better than me driving. I use it because I am curious and want to be able to speak about FSD Beta from a position of personal knowledge. Also, I did pay for it so I figure I should get something for my money. But I will probably use it sparingly since it is not more convenient and does cause some issues with other road users. When I get the next update, I will try it some more and see if I notice any improvements.
Terminator857
Active Member
Under the convenience category: Multiple people have said they like that there is no confirmation after waiting for a red light.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
EVNow
Well-Known Member
Yes - I was using AP for convenience. FSD improves that in a couple of ways
- Starts on its own after a stop sign
- Starts on its own when the traffic light turns green
- Better lane keeping, at mergers and splits of lanes and intersections
- Handles unmarked roads
So, essentially we can use FSD like we used AP - and disengage when we need to turn or navigate a round-about. Compared to AP the issues are
- Phantom braking
- Occasional swerving within a lane
I haven't had a single phantom braking with FSD! The car sometimes decides not to continue driving, which is wrong and weird, but it's not like it brakes out of nowhere. I thought it was a fixed issue with this stack. Can you explain more? Is your braking the same scenario as AP? Or something different?
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Unfortunately, this convenience is completely destroyed by the near complete inability of the system to stop smoothly at any traffic light or stop sign. It's infuriating and makes me just want to turn it off.
It invariably slows down fairly rapidly a little too early, then eases off the deceleration, and then slows down again at the end. I've been checking recently with my foot on the brake pedal to see whether it's using the brakes (you can tell when the vehicle depresses the brake). It actually isn't using the brake most of the time! Most of this jerky deceleration is from regen only! There are definitely exceptions, and it invariably jams on the brake at the very end of a stop, often resulting in a nice final mild but completely unnecessary jerk (it should only apply the brakes when the vehicle is completely stopped, of course, just like a rational human).
Yes, as mentioned above, the phantom regen (and just general lack of smoothness) nullifies all of these benefits. It's simply not within the car's current capability to drive or slow down smoothly. To the point where my wife immediately tells me to turn it off every time I attempt to use it (and I'm in complete agreement with her that it is unacceptable for a passenger).
I use FSD (with no one else in the car), primarily for the purpose of seeing how well the technology works - so intellectual curiosity. It can also be amusing at times, in the right scenarios, so it has some mild entertainment value as well. It's like a jerky roller coaster ride. But I can only enjoy that entertainment factor when there is no other vehicle near me (which is when I use the system the most).
Having that reference point of reality also allows me to keep some sanity when it comes to reading forums such as this!
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EVNow
Well-Known Member
I've gotten used to it now.
Traffic lights stopping was mostly fine to start with. The stop signs are a bit weird - decelerates fast and then slowly creeps to a stop. Either the stop sign behavior has improved in 10.3.1 or I've got used to it.
Either way - definitely AP was better at deceleration & stopping.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
I mean, it's predictable, but it is super annoying and unnecessary so it makes me a bit sad.
I haven't found that to be the case. It's actually surprisingly consistent in the deceleration profile, as though it's intentional. I'll have to use it some more to try to identify when it does better. It might just be random though.
It's also possible that there is substantial non-linearity in the distance estimation from Tesla Vision, which would yield some consistency in the characteristics of the irregular deceleration profile, and explain the behavior. But you'd think if this were the case they would have noticed and corrected for it. Also you'd expect non-FSD AP (using Tesla Vision, so I have no reference point) to behave the same way, and it sounds like it doesn't.
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Hey, none of us have seen you driving! How can we be sure???
I have seen occasional moderate braking, though its not a hard "omg" brake event, the car just slows (a little faster than I would) because it sees something its not sure about. Sometimes these are obvious (a car coming the other direction that is drifting in its lane a bit), sometimes something I can't see (perhaps it was phantom, perhaps a real thing I missed). But if you mean phantom as in suddenly slamming on the brakes then no, I've not seen that at all.
What profile are you using? For me, the car is butter-smooth when it slows at a light or stop sign (and restarts). One thing I have noticed is that the braking profile the car uses is related to how well the car can see/deduce the stop line .. if its uncertain it tends to stop early and then creep up to the line. If the line is well marked the car behaves much more like a human. So it might be the lines are poorly defined (or hard to see) in the cases you have seen.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
I've been using chill most of the time but I've played around with it a little and I haven't noticed any difference.
I'm talking about stops from 40-50mph or so with traffic lights involved. Generally seems to be a bit smoother for stops from 25mph. Probably just because the "speed plateau" typically occurs around 25mph.
The lines are typically well marked; this is occurring on reasonably recently paved streets with fresh marking. I definitely get the sense the vehicle is responding to the traffic light state in the situations being discussed here. But I'll watch for that.
I am using FSD Beta out of curiosity with the progress and to help Tesla with more data. I have become more impressed with the abilities it does have, though it does not drive as I do. It accelerates to the speed limit much more quickly than I do, and brakes much later at lights or stop signs than I do, but does not appear to do these things unsafely (though stopping late at a light from 50 MPH Is a bit unnerving). I have had a few problems with it finding the correct lane on turns, and have had phantom braking, mostly at shadows, though it did come to almost a complete stop in the middle of a block for no apparent reason once. Using it requires my full attention, so it is not something I do when I need to get somewhere in a hurry or just want to have a relaxed ride. I am glad to be able to participate in the progress of this development.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
I guess we should have broken it down: “convenience, it makes driving easier” into two categories…1) ”it makes driving easier compared to using AP” and 2) “it makes driving easier compared to just driving myself.” Since a lot of people apparently were content using AP on city streets, that would change the perspective!
My ranking would be:
Driving myself is easier than using FSD, which is easier than using AP on city streets. So depending on the comparison it would change my answer.
My ranking would be:
Driving myself is easier than using FSD, which is easier than using AP on city streets. So depending on the comparison it would change my answer.
Too late to edit. My intent was "makes driving easier compared to just driving myself"
People have the choice to use neither on city streets!
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