Cross Nation with Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised)

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My spouse, our small canine, and our two massive e-bikes not too long ago made the 1500-mile journey from Utah to Northern Wisconsin in our Tesla Mannequin Three 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 cut 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 straightforward 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 bit bit like the problem charging a Cybertruck. My spouse must get out and assist me again up simply the correct quantity. Fortuitously, Four 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 may 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 lodge/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 lavatory break, walked again and my spouse had taken our canine for a stroll, we had solely 10–15 minutes 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 may make the journey, together with the final 100 miles in the dead of night, with little stress.

2) At our pace of 75 mph, we often wanted to cross slower shifting vehicles. FSD would often take us routinely into the lefthand lane, cross the truck, after which return to the righthand lane. Nevertheless, it didn’t all the time work. It was often fairly aggressive discovering a break within the visitors as a way to transfer to the lefthand lane. Nevertheless, it was a bit gradual returning to the righthand lane. When there was quicker visitors coming behind us, if I didn’t intervene, the visitors would cross us on the correct.

3) FSD screens your attentiveness in two methods: A) It’s good 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 just under the mirror is watching you. FSD is aware of if you’re trying to the correct on the foremost management video display screen too lengthy. It additionally is aware of if you’re your cellphone. When you 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. When you proceed to exhibit unhealthy habits, you get an audible sign.

Dangerous Conduct

When you exhibit unhealthy habits for just some extra seconds, you get what’s known 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. When you get 5 “Compelled 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 “Compelled Disengagements.” Nevertheless, 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 Could 11 at 6:39 p.m.

My automobile has returned to outdated pre-FSD habits the place it’s going to cease for cease indicators and cease lights. Humorously, it’s going to additionally once more cease for inexperienced lights except you manually sign it to proceed. Additionally, it’s going to solely proceed from cease lights routinely 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 means of the middle of downtown Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Nevertheless, we did have bother attending to the Oakdale Supercharger the place detour signage prompted us to loop to the exit 3 times earlier than we obtained it proper. FSD might have helped us keep away from this drawback.

It was fairly attention-grabbing. 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. Except I’ve whole focus, I’m not almost as correct as FSD conserving myself within the heart of the lane. Nevertheless, with entry to sensible cruise, the final 650 miles of the journey weren’t too tense.

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 not obtain the software program whereas Supercharging. Too unhealthy — that might 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 all the time carry with me. By the following morning, the whole lot 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 supply extra correct vary estimates. It’s alleged to take into consideration the age and situation of the battery. I’m not capable of consider this and haven’t seen some other modifications.

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 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 quantity for pace bumps. Nevertheless, it doesn’t acknowledge the flashing lights and gradual to 20 mph for college zones. Doing so at school zones looks like a straightforward repair that I anticipate to see quickly in future variations.

In northern Utah, now we have the 12-lane I-15 freeway operating the 93 miles from Spanish Fork by means of Provo and Salt Lake Metropolis to Ogden. There’s an HOV (double occupancy) left lane operating 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 often the one lane nonetheless shifting. Nevertheless, FSD will all the time attempt to make me exit the HOV lane earlier than I would like it to. Previously, when you slid the right-hand thumbwheel to the correct or left, you’ll management the Good Cruise following distance (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 automobile lengths). Nevertheless, 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 gained’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 Three diesels with one other diesel pushing on the finish (see Determine 6).

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

However, 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).