Cross Country with Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised)

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My spouse, our small canine, and our two giant e-bikes not too long ago made the 1500-mile journey from Utah to Northern Wisconsin in our Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary. It was our first cross-country journey with the brand new Model 12 of Tesla FSD (Supervised), V12.3.4.

Supercharging

The e-bikes on a tray-type bike rack in again drastically scale back our efficient most vary from about 250 miles to about 125 miles. Fortuitously, Tesla’s marvelous Supercharger community nonetheless makes it a no brainer and simple to handle. We stopped at six Superchargers in Wyoming on the 600-mile first day touring from Lindon, Utah, to Custer, South Dakota. Solely the 125-mile leg from the Supercharger in Rawlins to the Evansville (Casper) Supercharger required dropping our pace from our normal 75 mph to 65 mph to make it comfortably. The bikes additionally make backing as much as the Superchargers tough. It’s a little bit bit like the issue charging a Cybertruck. My spouse must get out and assist me again up simply the correct quantity. Fortuitously, 4 of the 6 Superchargers had drive-by chargers on one finish (see Determine 1).

Additionally, there was at most one different Tesla charging on the Wyoming Superchargers, so I might park sideways, which additionally allowed me to place my automobile relative to a charger with out assist (see Determine 2).

The entire chargers besides one have been inside 100 toes of a really good resort/motel with entry to the restrooms, as proven in Determine 1.

The opposite was a couple of hundred yards from my spouse’s favourite retailer: a TJ Maxx (see Determine 3). I dropped her off there earlier than I went to cost. Often, by the point I had walked into the motel, taken my rest room break, walked again and my spouse had taken our canine for a stroll, we had solely 10–quarter-hour of charging to do to renew our journey.

What about FSD V12 (Supervised) Driving Cross Nation?

1) The super-accurate lane-keeping helped me do the 600-mile day at age 83+ years in order that I might make the journey, together with the final 100 miles at the hours of darkness, with little stress.

2) At our pace of 75 mph, we continuously wanted to cross slower transferring vans. FSD would normally take us robotically into the lefthand lane, cross the truck, after which return to the righthand lane. Nonetheless, it didn’t at all times work. It was normally fairly aggressive discovering a break within the visitors with a view to transfer to the lefthand lane. Nonetheless, it was a little bit sluggish returning to the righthand lane. When there was sooner visitors coming behind us, if I didn’t intervene, the visitors would cross us on the appropriate.

3) FSD screens your attentiveness in two methods: A) It’s essential to apply a small quantity of torque to the steering wheel each 20 seconds or so, so it is aware of your hand is on the wheel. B) A digital camera slightly below the mirror is watching you. FSD is aware of if you’re trying to the appropriate on the foremost management video display screen too lengthy. It additionally is aware of if you’re taking a look at your telephone. For those who fail to tug on the steering wheel, or look away from the highway too lengthy, you get a blue flashing sign on the highest of the display screen. For those who proceed to exhibit unhealthy conduct, you get an audible sign.

Unhealthy Habits

For those who exhibit unhealthy conduct for only a few extra seconds, you get what’s referred to as a “Forced Disengagement.” That implies that FSD will fail to work till you come to a cease, put the automobile in park, and begin up once more. For those who get 5 “Forced Disengagements,” your entry to FSD will likely be withdrawn for 7 days.

I’ve had FSD 12 now for a number of months and had managed to restrict myself to 2 “Forced Disengagements.” Nonetheless, on an extended cross-country journey, it’s simple to lose focus ultimately, and by the top of our second day, I had managed to get three extra “Forced Disengagements” and misplaced entry to FSD. That meant that I misplaced entry for the final 650 miles of our journey. I might want to wait 7 days to regain entry to FSD and get a brand new set of 5 “Forced Disengagements.” I’m scheduled to regain entry to FSD on Could 11 at 6:39 p.m.

My automobile has returned to outdated pre-FSD conduct the place it is going to cease for cease indicators and cease lights. Humorously, it is going to additionally once more cease for inexperienced lights except you manually sign it to proceed. Additionally, it is going to solely proceed from cease lights robotically if you’re following one other automobile. I can nonetheless put my vacation spot into the navigation and get my route on the map, however I needed to reactivate the voice help to get turning directions. I did okay driving the whole east to west route on the busy freeways by means of the middle of downtown Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Nonetheless, we did have hassle attending to the Oakdale Supercharger the place detour signage brought on us to loop to the exit thrice earlier than we bought it proper. FSD could have helped us keep away from this downside.

It was fairly attention-grabbing. I now not have entry to auto navigation and steering help, however I nonetheless have sensible cruise. It was a impolite awakening to need to steer my automobile once more manually. Except I’ve complete focus, I’m not almost as correct as FSD preserving myself within the middle of the lane. Nonetheless, with entry to sensible cruise, the final 650 miles of the journey weren’t too annoying.

After I left Utah, I had FSD (Supervised) V12.3.4, however I used to be notified {that a} new software program model was able to be downloaded. Sadly, you can’t obtain the software program whereas Supercharging. Too unhealthy — that may be a time if you find yourself killing time anyway. Due to this fact, I waited till the night of the primary day on the Bavarian Inn at Custer South Dakota. The Bavarian Inn had two vacation spot chargers; one was a Tesla Vacation spot Charger that was already occupied by a Tesla Mannequin S. Due to this fact, I pulled into the J1772 charger and used the adapter that I at all times carry with me. By the subsequent morning, every thing was lined with 3” of recent snow, as proven in Determine 4.

However first I logged into the Bavarian Inn Wi-Fi and began the obtain of FSD (Supervised) V12.3.6. The discharge notes mentioned that the improve would supply extra correct vary estimates. It’s imagined to consider the age and situation of the battery. I’m not capable of consider this and haven’t seen every other adjustments.

My spouse likes to spend an additional day in Custer, South Dakota, so we are able to drive by means of the Wildlife Loop and see the large bison herd, donkeys, pronghorn antelope, and floor hogs (see Determine 5).

I’ve noticed the present model of FSD (Supervised) decelerate simply the correct quantity for pace bumps. Nonetheless, it doesn’t acknowledge the flashing lights and sluggish to twenty mph for college zones. Doing so at school zones looks as if a simple repair that I count on to see quickly in future variations.

In northern Utah, we’ve got the 12-lane I-15 freeway working the 93 miles from Spanish Fork by means of Provo and Salt Lake Metropolis to Ogden. There may be an HOV (double occupancy) left lane working the entire distance. I’ve been driving an EV for over 10 years, so I’ve one of many restricted variety of single occupancy passes for the HOV lane. Backside line: I at all times take the HOV lane when I’m driving a substantial distance right here on I-15. It implies that I solely want to fret about different automobiles on my proper aspect and even then I’m separated from them by a double white line. Additionally, in heavy visitors the HOV lane is normally the one lane nonetheless transferring. Nonetheless, FSD will at all times attempt to make me exit the HOV lane earlier than I would like it to. Previously, in case you slid the right-hand thumbwheel to the appropriate or left, you’d management the Sensible Cruise following distance (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 automobile lengths). Nonetheless, now a menu comes up with a button to scale back lane adjustments and a slider to set Chill, Assertive, or Aggressive lane adjustments. None of those choices make a lot distinction. FSD nonetheless tries to exit the HOV lane too early and the slider received’t keep the place you set it.

Driving by means of Wyoming is a land of contrasts. We nonetheless see mile-long closely laden “unit” coal trains pulled by 3 diesels with one other diesel pushing on the finish (see Determine 6).

We additionally see an immense (multi-gigawatt) coal energy plant.

Then again, we additionally noticed tons of of wind generators like we see in Determine 7. However essentially the most fascinating are the extremely lengthy wind turbine blades and tower sections en route on the interstate (see Figures 8–10).