FSD 12.3.3 first drive - safe, super boring

[Wyeme]

So, to make the car go faster than the posted speed limit I need to turn off the setting that tells the car to go faster than the speed limit?
It's not a rhetorical question. It's my first FSD 12.x experience and I can see how Tesla would do that but is my interpretation above correct?

Sounds right. I think it’s labeled “auto speed” (or something like rhat” and was off by default

 

[gtg465x]

Between 'it' and the available Enhanced Autopilot, I would probably pick the EAP if the car had FSD 12.3.3.

I did exactly that yesterday. Drove around 400 miles with my family and was planning to use FSD v12 the whole way to try it out, but after the first 20 miles, I switched back to trusty old EAP. Not as “smart”, but sometimes that’s a good thing. I will definitely give v12 a lot more testing when my family isn’t in the car, but on first impression, it seemed worse than v11.

1) Exiting my neighborhood requires an unprotected left, and v12 did the whole thing where it stops way too far back, takes forever to creep up to where it can see, and then… even after we could see clearly and had a huge opportunity to go, it just kept creeping and not going for probably 5 seconds as our opportunity was closing. Everyone in the car started to pucker because we were fairly far out at this point, and a car was closing fast. Either go or freaking stop… this dangerous endless creep behavior reminded me of v10. Finally I hit the pedal and forced us to make the turn.

2) Less than a mile down the road, we have to make a left (literally the first turn after exiting my neighborhood), and it gets into the turn lane before the turn lane it’s supposed to, and there’s a divider between that forces you to turn, so it’s not like you can just get in early and stay there until the turn, so I had to disengage. Never happened in that spot on v10 or v11.

3) I make the left that it failed to make, re-engage, and then it proceeds to go 5 below the speed limit despite having the speed set to 7 above. It sometimes likes to go exactly the speed limit, or even below, and not obey your set max speed like earlier FSD versions. Honestly, one of the biggest benefits of previous versions of FSD over EAP was the ability to go more than 5 over on this two lane highway, but apparently that benefit is gone now.

4) On a couple sweeping curves, it failed to maintain the center of the lane and my left tires were hitting the reflectors on the center line. Standard Autopilot / EAP maintains center on these same curves without issue.

After experiencing all of these issues within a short amount of time, I just switched back to EAP. I could tell it was making my wife nervous and frustrated and I didn’t want to subject her to 6 hours of that. I love that EAP just goes the speed I want, gives me the ability to do automatic lanes changes, and also gives me the ability to require confirmation for lanes changes, so I can just ignore it if I don’t agree with its lane change decision.

 

[Huntfortelsa]

Disable the auto speed setting to see if that helps.
For me I drive on a lot of small, narrow secondary roads. Auto speed is very helpful since it will reduce your speed below the posted speed limit when needed. And yes normally posted speed limit signs are too low. Before auto max I simply turned FSD off on several roads so for me it's a mixed bag. Overall V12.3.2.1 speed control is ok and I'm not using accelerator nearly as much as with V12.3. So I would not agree with you that this feature is a mistake. I expect Tesla will continue to improve it like they just did.

My gripe isn’t with adding features but taking the options away. Auto speed is a great idea but doesn’t work for me. I don’t need the car to maintain limits below the posted signs but it may be useful to others- more power to them. But why tinker with speed limit options which had either speed limit or current speed before but is limited to speed limit now? It obviously created some sort of problem with the software because you can’t even increase the speed with scroll wheel now. One has to keep pressing the gas pedal to go faster - how’s that user friendly compared to before?

 

[Huntfortelsa]

Honestly, one of the biggest benefits of previous versions of FSD over EAP was the ability to go more than 5 over on this two lane highway, but apparently that benefit is gone now.

This right here - I’ll go ahead and say this was the only useful feature of FSD over EAP. All the other things like the car taking the ramp automatically weren’t a big deal. Hope Elon makes things right!

 

[DblOSmith]

I've heard from multiple people I trust that it was gotten much better and they've gone hundreds of miles on FSD with no problem. I will give mine another chance. Perhaps my experience is just atypical for some reason. I hope so.

 

[Arth Denton]

I've heard from multiple people I trust that it was gotten much better and they've gone hundreds of miles on FSD with no problem. I will give mine another chance. Perhaps my experience is just atypical for some reason. I hope so.

If the positive experiences came from YouTubers, they tend to generally stay with the posted speed limits. Probably because they try to avoid speeding tickets based on 'evidence' provided in their videos.

 

[KelvinMace]

Who are these replies really coming from.
I drove from South Carolina to NJ on 12.3 this week and it was great. My wife actually insisted to keep it engaged. In NJ I took several trips and found little to no issues. The slow speeds are easily increased by pressing the accelerator.
My daughter, an EV skeptic was laughing and screaming when I left my hands of the wheel. She was won over when the car stopped for a goose crossing the street. I can’t identify with most of the comments here. FSD is not a video game, grow a pair.

So, you had a perfect experience. Others didn't. Are you implying we are making problems up?

 

[Aellinsar]

Currently, it is much more stressful to monitor and correct FSD bumbles than it is to just drive myself. So, for now, FSD is a nice party trick, but not a useful tool. I'm not O'Dowd-ing and thinking it's going to kill us, but yeah... no thanks.

I played with it yesterday and today and that was my experience. It did many things really, really well. But a few things it did poorly (taking a sharp ramp way too fast and getting us pretty close to a concrete wall) and it was more stressful to monitor it than it was just to drive myself.

 

[Unclepaul]

While all this "testing" is going on, the computer is gaining tons of data to make the system even better over time. Forun feedback like this also make the human drivers more aware of the strengths and weakness of the ever developing FSD.

 

[Eto Demerzel]

12.3.3 trying for the first time bc of the free update.

can't use it on my neighborhood roads. They are narrow and some are without road markings. There are also intersections that are not 90° so cameras cannot see oncoming cars.
On well marked roads, fsd hugs the centerline a bit too close (better than the shoulder but its still a bit uncomfortable)
It takes off from stops too quickly (chill mode) and then will settle to speed. Annoying with a lot of stop signs.

I would only trust it as a glorified cruise control on the freeway tbh. To me, the risk is too high in the city unless it's low traffic and easily recoverable before you hit something.
I actually don't see the point of it other than as cruise control.

I like the highly detailed traffic/road display. Pretty cool to see that level of detail it's aware of.

 

[aerodyne]

I like the highly detailed traffic/road display. Pretty cool to see that level of detail it's aware of.

This might be the most compelling reason for doing the update.

 

[JeffreyC]

Got the free trial today and really wanted it to perform well, but it did not. Way too stressful to use regularly. In just a few miles of driving I experienced the following: 1) moving in to a turn only lane and then realizing it make a mistake and quickly darting back to the other lane (no car was in that lane); 2) Trying to out run a truck to merge into a highway and running out of space to do so - had to gun it to beat the truck and merge (truck driver was A-hole); 3) stopping at a red blinking light and treating it like a red light - I had to tell it to move forward (excusable) 4) stopping at a stop sign and then beginning to proceed even though there was a car coming that was very obvious - I had to hit the brakes; 5) turning left in front of emergency vehicle that was coming at us from the other direction with full lights and sirens. The vehicle was going very fast, but I don't think my car ever saw it coming. Again, had to hit the brakes.

How Tesla thinks this is something that I would even pay $1k for is beyond me.

 

[shoemakj]

I got a chance to test drive V12.3.3 a bit today and experienced much of what the OP did.

• It tends to over-brake on the approach to stop signs and traffic lights causing it to stop 1-2 car lengths short. Then it creeps forward to stop line. I hope that's just an over-cautious setting that can be dialed back after a while.
• I think this new acceleration curve is fantastic! Doesn't bother me or my wife one bit. I do get that not everyone is comfortable with it and hope that Tesla will give us some adjustment, perhaps via the Chill-Average-Assertive modes.
• I found Auto Set Speed to be very close to the speed I would drive in most cases today. I had a chance to observe it on some empty two-lane roads today and noticed that it seems to take *a while* (like 60 seconds or more) to settle into its "cruising speed". On one stretch of rural 45-mph road, the car initially accelerated up to 45 and stayed there for probably 15 seconds before then going up to 48. 10-15 seconds after that--50mph. Then up to 53 after several more seconds and finally settling on 55mph after about a minute total. That's the exact speed I drive this road, but many people go faster. Hopefully, they'll be able to tune that setting to work quicker, because that's way too long to decide that +10mph is a reasonable speed for this road. If there had been any traffic behind me I would have manually throttled up to 55 much sooner.
• One safety-critical disengagement was when it tried to make a left turn from the travel lane of a 55-mph, 4-lane, non-divided hwy when there was a suicide lane there for that purpose. There was no traffic behind me at the time so I waited until we were almost stopped before I took over and moved us into the middle.

 

[Tiger]

• no longer spells out on the screen the reasons behind its behavior, probably because of its mostly mindless 'neural net' training where it does things because other drivers do it but has no idea why it does it (is this really the future of AI?)

Probably it can chatgpt like a taxi driver in the future. This just needs to be trained in so that it can convert driving predictions to text/speech.

You'll probably love Mad Max Mode when it comes out. Until then, autopilot is sufficient.

 

[PennPhillyFun]

Who are these replies really coming from.
I drove from South Carolina to NJ on 12.3 this week and it was great. My wife actually insisted to keep it engaged. In NJ I took several trips and found little to no issues. The slow speeds are easily increased by pressing the accelerator.
My daughter, an EV skeptic was laughing and screaming when I left my hands of the wheel. She was won over when the car stopped for a goose crossing the street. I can’t identify with most of the comments here. FSD is not a video game, grow a pair.

I also just drove back this past weekend from SC (Myrtle) to Philadelphia on 12.3.2.1. While not too much difference during long highway stretches, the improvement on local roads was night & day. Not sure if you noticed anything significant while on the highways. But so far loving being on v12. I feel I can actually use it on Philadelphia streets reliably now. It even recognizes speed bumps really well, and I’m glad to know it’ll recognize animals!

 

[garydoe]

The biggest drawback with 12.3 was this dumb speed limit thingy. I was hopeful that 12.3.1 will take care of it. Now the version is 12.3.3 and no one at Tesla realizes it’s a mistake? Who the hell thought it was a good idea to take the current speed option away - this is a huge step back for what seems like very minor improvements with the overall drive. FSD is essentially useless for city driving now.

Just press on the accelerator, in my experience it maintains a higher speed.

 

[garydoe]

Who are these replies really coming from.
I drove from South Carolina to NJ on 12.3 this week and it was great. My wife actually insisted to keep it engaged. In NJ I took several trips and found little to no issues. The slow speeds are easily increased by pressing the accelerator.
My daughter, an EV skeptic was laughing and screaming when I left my hands of the wheel. She was won over when the car stopped for a goose crossing the street. I can’t identify with most of the comments here. FSD is not a video game, grow a pair.

Is that all you’ve got? Thumbs down?

 

[aerodyne]

While not too much difference during long highway stretches, the improvement on local roads was night & day.

I'd say definitely smoother and better. Stopped for a new stop sign instead of trying to blow through it like last year.

More assertive, when it should be, and in dicey situations, it stopped before it pulled into the intersection.

If I was having heart attack, I MIGHT let it drive me to the ER.

 

[DblOSmith]

I eagerly downloaded 12.3.3 today. ... Now Elon. You know I love you... I've forgotten about that whole thing in college. IT'S BEHIND ME OKAY!?

... but yeah. I live in a mid-sized city with well-marked infrastructure. The first 3 decisions FSD had to make resulted in disengagements.

1. System was engaged in my driveway. The very first thing the car did upon engagement is try to drive over my lawn/curb to get to the street. I took control.
2. Once onto the street, I re-engaged. About 100ft down the road, I came to a 4 way intersection with 2 lanes. My car straddled the middle lane confusing the car behind me.
3. The very next intersection, I needed to make a right on red turn onto a busy 60mph street. The car inched forward cautiously, then very slowly turned onto the street in the middle of traffic. I had to take over and accelerate hard before I was rear ended.

Damn. I was very hopeful for it, but for me, it's not here, yet. Not even close. For me, I can only recommend something if it makes my life easier. I can't recommend on promises and against my own experience. Currently, it is much more stressful to monitor and correct FSD bumbles than it is to just drive myself. So, for now, FSD is a nice party trick, but not a useful tool. I'm not O'Dowd-ing and thinking it's going to kill us, but yeah... no thanks.

I want to reply to my own message to correct the record.

I've heard from multilple that I trust and who were very critical of FSD that this newest iteration was amazing. I gave it another shot. It definitely performed much better. Took a long drive for about an hour and it performed very well. Aside from some lane-ing issues and once it got to a location, it kept a holding pattern instead of stopping or finding a parking spot, it was near-perfect. Much more trust worthy. Everything in my previous post still happened and I can't ignore that, but now I have a little more data and it's better than expected. I still think robotaxis are a decade away as there are a few 9's after the decimal that we need to achieve. ...but well done, Tesla. Well done.

 

[DblOSmith]

If the positive experiences came from YouTubers, they tend to generally stay with the posted speed limits. Probably because they try to avoid speeding tickets based on 'evidence' provided in their videos.

My trusted people are from family, some are more techy than I am, some are much less, both gave it glowing reviews.