We tried Tesla’s ‘full self-driving’. Here’s what happened

By Matt McFarland | CNN Business

As a dozen small children crossed in front of ours Tesla with “full self-driving,” I had good reason to be nervous.

I had spent my morning so far on the back seat of the Model 3 using “full self-driving,” the system that Tesla says will change the world by enabling safe and reliable autonomous vehicles. I had seen the software almost crash into a construction site, try to turn into a stopped truck and try to drive down the wrong side of the road. Angry motorists crashed with their horns while the system hesitated, sometimes right in the middle of an intersection.

Model 3’s “full self-driving” needed lots of human intervention to protect us and everyone else on the road. Sometimes it meant pressing the brake to turn off the software so it would not try to drive around a car in front of us. Other times, we quickly jerked the wheel to avoid a crash. (Tesla tells drivers to constantly pay attention to the road and be prepared to act immediately.)

I was hoping the car would not make more stupid mistakes. After what felt like an eternity, the kids were done crossing. I exhaled.

We were ready to make our trip. The car seemed overly hesitant at first, but then I noticed a cyclist coming from our left side. We waited.

As the cyclist crossed the intersection, the car stopped and made a smooth turn.

Over the past year, I have watched more than a hundred videos of Tesla owners use “fully self-propelled” technology and I have talked to many of them about their experiences.

“Full self-driving” is a $ 10,000 driver assistance feature offered by Tesla. While all new Teslas are capable of using the “fully self-propelled” software, buyers will have to opt for the expensive add-on if they want to access the feature. The software is still in Beta and is currently only available to a select group of Tesla owners, although CEO Elon Musk has claimed that a wider rollout is imminent. Musk promises that “full self-driving” will be quite able to get a car to its destination in the near future.

But it does not. Far from.

Tesla owners have described the technology as impressive, but also flawed. One moment it’s running perfectly, the next moment it’s almost on its way into something.

Jason Tallman, a Tesla owner who documents his “full self-driving” rides on Youtube, offered to let me experience it first hand.

We asked Jason to meet us on Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue. It’s an artery that carries thousands of cars, trucks, cyclists and pedestrians into Manhattan. For even experienced human drivers, this can be a challenge.

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City driving is chaotic, with vehicles driving red and pedestrians on almost every block. It’s far from the suburbs and predictable highways around Tesla’s California offices or the wide streets of Arizona, where Alphabet’s Waymo operates fully autonomous vehicles.

Cruise, GM’s self-driving company, recently completed its first fully autonomous tours in San Francisco. But they were implemented after 11 pm, when traffic is light and few pedestrians or cyclists are present.

Brooklyn offered us a chance to see how close Tesla’s autonomous driving software was to replacing human drivers. It’s the kind of place where people drive because they have to, not the kind of place that a company headquarters chooses. This is where self-driving cars can have the biggest impact.

At one point, we were crossing the right lane of Flatbush. A construction site stood in front. The car continued at full speed towards a number of metal fences.

I felt déja vu while I remembered a video where a Tesla owner hit the brakes after his car appeared set to crash headlong into a construction site.

But this time I was sitting in the back seat. I instinctively threw my right arm up like the Heisman Trophy, as if to protect myself in a collision.

It was a moment I wished “full self-driving” would be quick to change lanes. In other cases, I wished it would relax on its aggressive twists.

“Full self-driving” sometimes makes jerky turns. The wheel begins to turn, but then shifts back before turning in the intended direction again. The staggered turns generally do not seem to be bothersome on sweeping suburban curves, but in a dense city largely built before cars, it is uncomfortable.

There is also the brake, which can feel random. At one point, a car came close to the rear end that ended us after a braking that surprised me. Getting tooted was common. I never quite felt like I knew what “full self-driving” would do next. Asking “fully self-driving” to navigate Brooklyn felt like asking a student driver to take a road test they were not ready for yet.

What “full self-driving” could do well was impressive, but the experience was ultimately nervous. I can not imagine using “full self-driving” regularly in a city. I noticed that I was reluctant to ever look down at the Model 3’s dashboard, such as to check our speed, because I did not want to take my eyes off the road.

Tesla owners routinely tell me how Autopilot, the highway-focused predecessor to “full self-driving” makes their rides less stressful. They arrive at destinations and feel less tired. Some have told me that they are more likely to go on long car trips because of the autopilot.

But “full self-driving” felt like the other way around. I felt like I had to be on guard all the time to prevent the car from doing something wrong.

In the end, seeing “full self-driving” in Brooklyn reminded me of the importance of the finer points of driving, which is hard for a car with artificial intelligence to master. Things like pulling a little into the intersection on a narrow road to make a left turn so that the traffic behind you has room to pull around. “Full self-driving” just sat in place while frustrated drivers behind us pushed.

For now, “full self-driving” seems closer to a party trick to showing friends than a must-have feature.

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