Chuck Cook Drive
We have some of the first videos using the full stack version of Tesla's FSD (full self-driving) software from Chuck Cook. There are a number of improvements, but let's summarize his first drive.
Close to lunchtime, Chuck Cook went out for a drive using FSD version 11.3. He went with Sid who owns a Model 3 Long Range with FSD Beta. Chuck Cook changed his profile to his FSD Beta, which turned off overriding speed and turned off his turn signal camera.
The drive started with an easy turn. The screen is similar, but there is a blue track line that is following the path in front of the car where it wants to go. There is also a stop line that shows up just ahead of the car where it needs to stop.
The blue track line will show an arrow animation toward the car when the vehicle is using its regenerative braking. The car proceeded with a left turn on a green arrow and had to immediately get in the lane to the right, and it did so with no problem.
On the first merge, Chuck was concerned that it wouldn't get out of the exit only lane, but it took its time and waited for an opening and moved over to the left to get out of the exit only lane. I would have tried to move over sooner, but the car did the maneuver with no problem.
There was also a merge on the freeway to consolidate the lanes from 3 to 2 and the car handled it with no problem. The car did a good job staying in its lane. There were cone markings and also gray patches on the side of the road, which looked like they were rendering black patches or the rough road that makes a noise when you drive on it.
The car changed lanes and exited the freeway when it needed to without incident. While driving on the city streets, there were no incidents except one where Chuck Cook had to hit the brakes because he didn't feel the car was slowing down enough for a car in front of him. That was the only disengagement.
At the end, Chuck used the auto park feature and the car was very careful and precise in how it parked.
There was an instance where the car didn't read the freeway speed limit soon enough and was going too slow. This is an issue with map data that Tesla needs in order to know the exact speed in real time. Tesla needs to have all speed limits correct at any given point in time, and it isn't there yet.
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FSD V11.3 Improvements
The improvements in FSD V11.3 are numerous. There is a cleaner user interface, showing a blue track line in front of the car.
It's easy to see where the car is going to stop with a blue line in front of the car. This helps the driver know what the car is planning on doing.
There are a lot more messages at the top center of the screen that are saying why the car is doing something. For example, the car displayed a message that it was getting out of the right lane to avoid merging traffic. That was a great addition and a smart thing for any driver to do.
The car seems to be driving much more smoothly in the way it turns and changes lanes. When changing lanes, there is a clear blue marker showing the path to the lane next to it where it is going. It makes it obvious what the car is doing.
I can see Tesla vehicles in the future communicating with each other in real time to know what every car is doing on the road in order to be even safer.
What do you think of Tesla FSD Beta V11.3? Is this a big improvement with a single stack of code?
For more information, see this video from Chuck Cook:
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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.