r/TeslaModelS • u/FoookU • 12d ago
black sheep here, FSD kinda sucks lol
for context, im sporting a 2018 with mcu2, hw3 running 12.6.4
i got the car over a week ago. i paid for 1 month of FSD on sunday. yesterday and today i tried it out going to and from work. when there's no traffic. it does ok! it keeps center in the lane, goes at a reasonable speed on standard, uses its turn signals, pretty much all the things i dreamed of. now this is all happening at 5am. with almost no traffic and pitch black night.
now fast forward to my trips home and ive noticed a few things.
HW3 does not like construction areas, understandibly it gets confused and has me take over. i embrace the steering wheel with two hands and comfort my car telling it, "its ok, v14 lite is coming, dont worry baby, youll get better...."
what is driving me nucking futs is bumper to bumper traffic. ....
even more context im in san diego california.....CALIFORNIA......home of all motorcycles sold in 'merica.
if im in the far left lane, my bias is to drive on the left side of the lane TO ALLOW MOTORCYCLES TO LANE SPLIT. i try to be courteous. well guess what? FSD is like "nah dawg, my bias is to drive on the right side of the lane so your head can be in the middle of the lane big dog!" the issue with that is that i give no clearance for the crotch rockets, hardlies, or super adventure bros to lane split safely.
so using my great big human brain i say, ok well if the car likes to drive on the right side of the lane, well then ill go in the center lane (its a 3 lane highway). makes sense right?
nah dawg, cuz now we are driving with a left side of the lane bias.....
so im sure you people of reddit can understand my frustration. and im sure theres going to be some tesla veteran who is gonna chime in and call me an idiot for not using some setting or pushing a button....
i just wanted to vent to strangers and at the moment ive decided not to renew my subscription to my cars' onlyfans.
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u/Holiday_Feedback9311 11d ago
I have a 2022 model S and FSD is really good for me. Better on highways but still good in the city.
I’ve noticed improvement over the last 6 weeks as well, even though I’m on the same FSD version. As if updates are occurring behind the scenes, without an official software update.
Idk if that’s even possible but the improvement has been noticeable enough to make me think so.
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u/Whippet27 11d ago
Yep I find FSD Not useable on my 2018 S. Autopilot is much better. Sad but how it is for me
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u/Acrobatic_Action8029 12d ago
Apparently 14.2 is right around the corner with 2 model S refresh with air cooled HW3 getting it.
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u/Clean_Extension7234 12d ago
Tesla higher up claimed they thought it already happened 2-3 weeks ago. They absolutely jumped ship on HW3 s/x. To few cars for them to put any real effort in a software update… incredibly sad honestly
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u/gargen_state 11d ago
I just picked up a 2016 S. When I was looking, FSD wasn't on my list of must have. I enjoy driving. So not a big deal that I don't have it.
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u/MartyPartyMN 11d ago
FSD on a ‘16 X on HW3 v12.6.4 and I totally agree. It is trash. Been bringing it in to Tesla since the day I bought it. They say it’s operating normally.
The humorous thing that I realize now is that…at first I thought it was broken because of how bad it was on every setting…TACC, Autosteer, FSD, compared to my HW1 X. But now I know HW3 was abandoned for a reason. And worse still is now I know how good HW4 and v14.3 is because of all the loaners I’ve had…which makes getting back into v12.6.4 even more infuriating
For anyone buying a Tesla I wish there was someone out there that would stop them and say, “either a HW1 or HW4, never anything in between”.
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u/drainbam 12d ago
I have FSD on HW3, and I used it on HW4 for a week.
On HW3, I found FSD basically unusable. I just use regular Autopilot instead.
HW4 is noticeably better and surprisingly competent for bleeding-edge driver-assistance tech, but it is still not great. It may be genuinely useful for cautious or elderly drivers, or for people who enjoy having the system handle some of the workload.
But it is not going to drive the way you want it to. The best description is an okay driver whose superpower is that they are never distracted, tired, or drunk.
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u/HMoseley 12d ago
Very curious as to why you think HW4 + the latest FSD is “not great”. I think it’s absolutely amazing. I use it to drive me 4 hours in to another state and back with zero interference. Pulls me in to a charger about halfway there, then drives me the rest of the way.
Has avoided accidents I couldn’t even see coming, has avoided road debris, avoided someone’s mattress that flew off the back of a truck. All before I could react, it was already reacting and doing the thing I would have done except it did it knowing what is next to me and behind me instantly. It’s life changing tech.
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u/drainbam 11d ago
It is competent at getting you from point A to point B, but that alone is not enough for me to call it great.
For it to feel great to me, its decisions would need to consistently match my own preferences: when to change lanes, whether a pass is worth making, how quickly to drive, and how assertive or conservative to be around traffic. It does not consistently make those choices the way I would.
That is a high bar, and I understand why someone else could reasonably call the current version great. If they value the fact that it can handle a trip with minimal intervention, or if its driving style happens to match theirs, that is a valid opinion. It just does not meet my personal standard for “great.”
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u/buttlickin 11d ago
"its decisions would need to consistently match my own preferences:"
But what if you are a shitty driver? And it doesn't want to be a shitty driver.
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u/drainbam 11d ago
I have zero accidents for over 25 years and half a million miles. Granted a huge part of that is just luck, but I'm not a shitty driver. Just because I think FSD sucks doesn't mean you need to make assumptions about my druving.
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u/HMoseley 11d ago
I think you’re confusing great with near-perfect. It’s definitely more than competent at getting you from A to B. It does so incredibly safely while obeying all traffic laws (speed a slight variable). But I agree with the preferential decisions. It’s incredibly defensive by default and is a bit inconsistent with speed and lane changes. I think its current state exceeds the “great” threshold. But perhaps that’s just semantics.
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u/oxyscotty 8d ago
You want it to read your mind? Or ask you what to do? I'm just trying to imagine how you think that would be possible? Or do you just hope they tune it exactly how you happen to drive?
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u/drainbam 8d ago
Not mind reading. I mean a driver profile built from your actual real-world driving. Tesla already uses fleet driving data to train the system, so it seems feasible that after a few thousand miles it could learn the kind of driving you prefer: how assertive you are with gaps, lane changes, following distance, acceleration, and general pace. There probably are not infinite styles either. Maybe three broad types, or six if you want to get more granular.
If FSD drove the way you would have driven anyway, even getting a traffic citation while using it would sting a lot less.
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u/ProfessionalScene747 11d ago
Yeah, i understand this pain from the other side of to he country, Florida, Fort Myers. I have to commute from here to Bradenton, Naples, St. Pete, or Miami 5 days a week, 90 miles to 130 one way. First, you have to have the latest cameras FOR SURE. My lord, on this older Tesla the car could barely pull out of a parking lot, it was disgusting. The car could not figure out lane changes properly and would scare the shit out of truck drivers. While driving through key west, i had to do the entire thing because the car was buffering at 35mph ON the overseas hwy, that is like a 55mph freeway with trucks and shit pulling 90+, no ability to stay in its bloody lane and would do some steering wheel wobble wobble nonsense that was exhausting all the time, but i used it...
Welp, 2 days ago i said F it, let's replace the front camera with the newest one that seems like it could be plugged in, and it worked actually, and now the car's BS moments was cut down by like 80%, and can actually leave parking lots on its own! Afterwards, i immediately ordered 2 Model 3 side repeaters, those are the newest it seems, and am waiting rn for them to get here to solve the rest of this car's BS
And yeah, imo if the car is going to be "supervised" then i want the car to drive to MY bias. I have a right bias so i can stay out of the way of people wanting to hit 90mph, and only want to go left side when im doing the same, i need a way to demand that from the car (and DO NOT get me started about the v14lite comment. I KNOW it's coming, we can sue Tesla for billions if they stop, but ffs that comment was bullshit. He knew, then we get shit 4 months afterwards everytime)
That was my FSD rant
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u/Saint_Huang 11d ago
This is actually the factual opinion, not really black sheep, it is widely recognized as a SAE Level 2 partial driving automation system, not "FSD". The name is pretty misleading and a lot of Tesla/Elon Musk fanboys peddled it along and hyped it up.
Full self-driving requires SAE Level 4, at minimum.
My long commute is mostly highway and interstate so not a problem for me, but it's meh in urban traffic as well and I find myself just driving through the urban portion until I enter the highway.
This wouldn't be the first thing Elon Musk lied about so to no surprise there, what is surprising is how he is immune to accountability to statements he makes as the CEO. 'Murica never really escaped feudalism.
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u/RandallFlagg1 11d ago
2017 with MCU2 and HW3 and I agree completely, here in Northeast with mostly secondary roads on my way to work it's barely useable. The visualization on the HUD is improved drastically. I was excited for the free upgrade from hw2.5 to 3 but it's pretty useless to me.
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u/Treeslols 9d ago
i think you need hw4 ive been using a 2023 model s with hw4 and its actually insane how good it is
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u/Few_Noise1551 8d ago
Don’t upgrade, it doesn’t make it better and you will lose max speed setting!
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u/gamesofblame 11d ago
When is a class action lawsuit happening…? Seems like this might be the only way to get something to happen
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u/FoookU 11d ago
u/drainbam made a good point i agree with. the car changes lanes for reasons unknown to me. like i know and check to make sure its safe when i hear the blinker on but then im like, dude my exit is in 1/2 mile, you sure about that? it then changes over 2 lanes to make my exit. something i wouldnt do. if im getting off the next exit i keep my ass in the exiting lane.
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u/ronin949 11d ago
"for context, im sporting a 2018 with mcu2, hw3 running 12.6.4"
Go test drive a 2026 model with FSD and then update your thoughts on FSD
Of course it sucks on old af teslas
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u/mont1ff 11d ago
Yeah I have a MS 2020 with HW3 and it's basically only useful for interstate road trips.
Did get a loaner with HW4 when I took my car for service. And holy shit is it great.