Cross Country with Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised)

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My spouse, our small canine, and our two massive e-bikes just lately 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 commonplace 75 mph to 65 mph to make it comfortably. The bikes additionally make backing as much as the Superchargers troublesome. It’s somewhat bit like the problem charging a Cybertruck. My spouse must get out and assist me again up simply the correct amount. 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).

All the chargers besides one had 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 toilet 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 nighttime, with little stress.

2) At our pace of 75 mph, we often wanted to go slower transferring vans. FSD would normally take us robotically into the lefthand lane, go the truck, after which return to the righthand lane. Nonetheless, it didn’t all the time work. It was normally fairly aggressive discovering a break within the visitors with a view to transfer to the lefthand lane. Nonetheless, it was somewhat gradual returning to the righthand lane. When there was quicker visitors coming behind us, if I didn’t intervene, the visitors would go us on the precise.

3) FSD screens your attentiveness in two methods: A) You have 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 digicam slightly below the mirror is watching you. FSD is aware of if you’re seeking to the precise on the most important management video display too lengthy. It additionally is aware of if you’re taking a look at your telephone. If you happen to 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. If you happen to proceed to exhibit unhealthy habits, you get an audible sign.

Unhealthy Conduct

If you happen to exhibit unhealthy habits for just some extra seconds, you get what’s referred to as a “Compelled 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. If you happen to get 5 “Compelled Disengagements,” your entry to FSD shall be withdrawn for 7 days.

I’ve had FSD 12 now for a number of months and had managed to restrict myself to 2 “Compelled Disengagements.” Nonetheless, on an extended cross-country journey, it’s straightforward to lose focus ultimately, and by the top of our second day, I had managed to get three extra “Compelled 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 “Compelled Disengagements.” I’m scheduled to regain entry to FSD on Might 11 at 6:39 p.m.

My automobile has returned to previous pre-FSD habits the place it would cease for cease indicators and cease lights. Humorously, it would additionally once more cease for inexperienced lights except you manually sign it to proceed. Additionally, it would 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 entire east to west route on the busy freeways by the middle of downtown Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Nonetheless, we did have bother attending to the Oakdale Supercharger the place detour signage precipitated us to loop to the exit thrice earlier than we obtained it proper. FSD could have helped us keep away from this downside.

It was fairly fascinating. I not have entry to auto navigation and steering help, however I nonetheless have sensible cruise. It was a impolite awakening to should steer my automobile once more manually. Until I’ve complete focus, I’m not practically as correct as FSD maintaining myself within the middle of the lane. Nonetheless, with entry to sensible cruise, the final 650 miles of the journey weren’t too traumatic.

Once 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 will be a time when you’re killing time anyway. Subsequently, 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. Subsequently, I pulled into the J1772 charger and used the adapter that I all the time carry with me. By the subsequent morning, every part 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 stated that the improve would offer extra correct vary estimates. It’s presupposed to keep in mind the age and situation of the battery. I’m not capable of consider this and haven’t observed some other modifications.

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

I’ve noticed the present model of FSD (Supervised) decelerate simply the correct amount for pace bumps. Nonetheless, it doesn’t acknowledge the flashing lights and gradual to twenty mph for varsity zones. Doing so in class zones looks as if a straightforward 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 Provo and Salt Lake Metropolis to Ogden. There’s 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 all the time 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 vehicles 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 all the time attempt to make me exit the HOV lane earlier than I would like it to. Previously, should you slid the right-hand thumbwheel to the precise or left, you’ll management the Good Cruise following distance (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 automobile lengths). Nonetheless, now a menu comes up with a button to scale back lane modifications and a slider to set Chill, Assertive, or Aggressive lane modifications. 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 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.

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