All right. So do you remember when Elon Musk said that Teslas would soon be able to just drive themselves across the entire country with no one in the driver's seat thanks to full self-driving I remember that too, but that's not real yet. But this demo that I'm going to start right now is as close to that as I can possibly get. I'm gonna hit this button on the steering wheel and I have the navigation set and this car will now drive me to the studio.

I will attempt to interrupt this as few times as possible, but as you'll see, it has its strengths and weaknesses and there are probably going to be times where I do have to either put my foot on the brake or take over steering or do something for the car. The number one reason I've had to do that so far is not safety, but actually just embarrassment like it just slammed on the brakes seeing that car backing up and now it has the blinker on for some reason, but it's way too early. It needs to go all the way to the stop sign. Now it's going and then it used to handle a roundabout so pedestrians, oncoming cars.

there's a lot going on. I Have a feeling I'm gonna have to interrupt on this roundabout. We'll see there's a lot happening, but the bread and Butter is definitely highway driving so we'll see you get to that point and we'll see what it does. So now it's creeping forward and it has to deal with New Jersey drivers which is kind of a lot.

visibility, Cars moving in and out. I am a little bit nervous it's she's waving me on thanks but it's also looking at that car so it might hit the brakes, but it doesn't Okay heads to the roundabout Dives right in, hits the brakes for some reason, makes it through okay, hits hits this turn for some reason. Oh, that's the okay, that's the navigation and we're off. This is like there's a lot going on here and I'll talk you through it through this whole uncut video.

We have the camera facing me. we have the camera facing forward, but I'm gonna try not to cut through them too much and I will not cut anything out of this drive. So right now, the speed limit according to the signs that it's red is 35 miles an hour and it can default to up to 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. So now it's comfortably going 45.

Totally fine. There's lots of cops like this one that don't seem to mind, so that's cool. Uh, but it's also coming up to a turn here so it's gonna have to slow down. Put the blinker on and hit that left turn so it slows down puts the blinker on.

It's got some oncoming traffic and it also has this car here over the line, but we'll see what happens. New Jersey Drivers tend to not let you in, but they're letting me in so it makes the turn. Don't hit anything Okay, oh man, apply a light Force So every once in a while you're gonna see it light up the screen in front of me and it says to apply a light Force to the steering wheel because the idea is this is just a little bit more than regular traffic aware cruise control so it wants to make sure my hand is still on the wheel so it wants a little bit of firm pressure on the wheel every once in a while. This is a hard merge.

This is a highway speed Route 17 entrance ramp and I'm not so sure how it's going to handle this one. Let's let's give it a chance here. There's also a car really close to the edge so autopilot's creeping forward and checking for visibility and I have a feeling it's just going to wait until they get a red light over there because it says on this screen it's going to try to get into the second lane and that's just not happening at the speeds. I've seen this go.

So I'll just say that the most common interference that I've had to do like I said was by embarrassment. There we go. It's because it tries to be very cautious so it just went out into the third lane there which is fine because there was no one behind me. but now it's speeding up and it says upcoming Lane change to get into the left Lane because we'll need to make a left-hand exit off of 17.

tap to cancel if you want, but I'm totally cool with that. It slowly speeds up 60 miles an hour max and it's comfortable. There's the blinker it checked my shoulder it changed lanes I I Definitely feel more comfortable with it on a highway than anything. Um, but also if I just open up my camera here and point it at this Dash This is one of the reasons why they said there is a yoke in these cars is because the top half of the steering wheel would have blocked this otherwise really impressive view of all of the things that the car sees and displays.

so it displays the road, the signs, the other vehicles around you, pedestrians. I'll fire the camera up again when there's a lot more impressive stuff to show. But as of right now, we're taking an entrance ramp to a new highway and then we'll have to do an exit and another entrance which is interesting. Light forces, steering wheel, uh, what else.

Oh, there's a camera up here in the middle of the car. and what? I've noticed because I've had this beta for maybe two weeks now is if you look away from the road for too long, that camera will notice and it'll start beeping at you and tell you hey, look at the road or I'm going to pull over and stop doing the self-driving so that's good to know. there's some construction signs up here I think it sees them. Let's see it.

let's see it merge. there's a truck behind me I might have to take over it I'm gonna take over, so that's a pretty good instance of an unusual set of things on the road. I'll re-engage here. Uh, that it just didn't seem to pick up where if you were driving it would arrive at those unusual things and I'm sure if I wasn't as embarrassed I could have just let it figure that out for a few more seconds, but I'd rather not do that I'd rather just let it do its thing on roads it's comfortable with.

But as you can see, it sees those cones over there and it is going to try to take this exit and I don't think it's going to get this. Okay, let's let's see what happens. It says upcoming land change with some cones I would be really impressed and that construction detected navigation on Autopilot Limited says that on the screen and yeah, I'm gonna have to take over it. Did not know that it had to take that exit there.

Uh, that's fine, but what I do know is the actual highway driving part is typically it's Forte So this is what I'm calling the full self-driving beta. But what I've used in the past is just a much more limited version of what Tesla calls autopilot. Most people don't understand that. that's literally just basically traffic where cruise control um, and I mostly only use that on highways when it's like stop and go traffic and it's annoying to drive.

so let me turn it back on Auto steer temporarily unavailable. Interesting. How about trying it again? Okay, that time it did get mad at me. Weird.

So here comes the merge. There's a car behind me. he let me in. cool.

and now there's a toll booth coming up, which I think it can also handle because it's basically just staying in. its Lane But we'll see about that. I mean I have Easy Pass so it should follow the car in front of me. Cool.

Apply light Force got it. I'm sorry I'm sorry. toll booth detected. So it knew it was a toll booth.

but it did that right. And here's another look at all the things it sees in front of me. Lots of cones, the stripes on the other side of the road. New Jersey Drivers just doing insane things.

That's fine. and now it sees that the speed limit is 35 miles an hour. But I think when it gets on this highway, it's going to know to bump up to highway speed. So it takes this turn.

kind of slows down a little bit, but now we're on the highway and it's bumped up to 65 miles an hour and it ramps up to the appropriate speed. This is stressful. This is not uh what you would hope, which is like taking the stress out of driving and just being a passenger and looking around and having a good time. This is a lot more making sure the car doesn't do weird things.

Um, okay. there are three settings here. If I go into this uh, settings for autopilot on the car, you scroll down full self-driving Beta has either average chill or assertive for the driving profile. Now it's sitting here in the right lane behind the CRV I'm going 58 into 65.

it's pretty chill. but I Do have it in assertive mode and it says that changes your follow distance and more frequent speed lane changes and will not exit passing Lanes. So theoretically on the next four and a half miles of Highway if it sees a gap, it will move over into a faster passing Lane to pass this. CRV I Also still have a little bit of control here because right now it sees 65 mile an hour as its Max and that's actually totally in the flow of traffic right now.

But I'm going to bump that up to the 10 over that it's comfortable with to 75. So if it finds the gap as I sit behind this truck here in a not great spot. If it finds the Gap it will overtake, it'll change lanes and it will stand a passing. Lane because it's in assertive mode.

Maybe I've been like hovering over the brake pedal this entire time. Okay, this is much more reasonable. uh, parts of the drive. what? I Also noticed is you know you're putting your destination to enable this full self-driving thing.

Uh, but it often doesn't know exactly when to end the navigation. it might arrive at like a parking lot or a pullover on the side of the road where it thinks the GPS location is where your drive is supposed to end, but it doesn't know to get into a parking space. I Mean we'll get to the studio and we'll just see what it does. Um, but I Have a feeling we're not going to end up in the parking spot I Usually park in.

We'll find out when we get there though. See a little bit traffic up ahead? another Tesla I Wonder if they're self-driving Probably not. Uh, but so far it has not found any reason to change lanes yet or pass this. CRV Even though it's set to 75., it's been comfortable sitting at 65.

Totally reasonable. So yeah, this is this is what it's like getting driven around by the car. I Mentioned Elon's promise at the beginning. Elon's promise was kind of along the lines of uh, these cars eventually becoming Robo taxis which is obviously a very far out promise and a a very optimistic looking future.

But theoretically you spend most of the time not in your car. You'd commute in the morning, you drive home in the afternoon, and the rest of the time the car just sits around and does nothing for you. So what if your car would drive like a lift for you or drive like an Uber for you while you're not using it? If self-driving was good enough that could actually work? Uh yeah, I don't think it's that good yet. I Would not feel comfortable sitting in the back seat of this car without the ability to intervene as this very moment.

uh, there are some cars passing me a little bit weird in the lane here, kind of ping-ponging back and forth between the lane changes. and now it's finally deciding to Lane change. Confirm Lane change into faster so use the signal to do that. So I hit the signal to confirm that I wanted to move into the faster Lane Now I'm in the faster Lane and it's going to finally pass that CRV in the middle.

Cool. Honestly, I'm totally fine with it on a highway I Feel much more comfortable with what it does in these very obvious roads that don't have construction that are well lined. I Will also note though, that Tesla has moved their systems entirely to Vision based meaning they just use the cameras, no radar, no lidar, and we're doing this in a pretty comfortable set of driving conditions. Visually, the sun might be in my eyes or whatever, but like this is well lit, there's not a whole lot of crazy things going on, but what if it was snowing? or what if it was just white out fog? or there was a lot of rain and it was hard to see the lines on the road? I Kind of wonder if full self-driving takes a meaningful hit in functionality if it just works worse there.

Uh, either way, it's signaling an upcoming Lane change. Now to go back to the right lane because my exit is in one mile now. A human driver would confidently just slow down and pop in there right there. It's deciding not to do that.

It's going to keep following this truck and it has 0.9 miles to get over it to the right lane. So it's passing this truck and this is one of those things where like the advantage of an electric car is the instant torque and the ability to just position yourself on the road anytime you want. I Would have made this Lane change a long time ago, but it's saying now confirm Lane change to follow root and use the turn signal to confirm. so I'll hit the signal but now it's got to really figure out when to get over.

I'm going to show you actually what it's showing me on the screen which is it's kind of picking a spot right now. Wow, that is assertive. That was an assertive move right there. Okay, that qualifies as assertive.

It picked a spot on the road, it put the blinker on and it did a little Jersey slide. That was the best thing I've done so far. All right. One last highway exit and a toll here now.

I Think the speed limit is about to change, but we'll see it's got to put the blinker on here. There you go. Exit, stay on the lane. thank you and we're about to hit some heavy braking.

I'm not going to interrupt. Okay, good, very nice. The car sees a lot. Like it's very clear.

it can see Three Four Five cars ahead of me and it can see the brake lights on all of the cars around me. so it knows when cars are breaking before a human would even recognize it. It instantaneously instantaneously sees that, which is super cool. Uh, so it can theoretically respond to things faster than I could.

But here comes the exit ramp. Nothing too insane here. Apply a light Force to the steering wheel. Yeah, I'm still here.

I'm paying attention. Don't worry, it's a big wide. Lane This is a little sloppy, but it works. It works.

And I think that's kind of the motto of full self-driving beta right now. It's kind of sloppy, but it works. dot dot Okay, coming around this last turn, we've got a little over a mile to go to the studio. It's behind this van.

It sees the van and it's about to hit one of the hardest merges in. uh, in the entire state of New Jersey which is like two to five and then five to two. Now it's gone. This is not going to work if it doesn't see that it's yet there's a cone here.

it's not Con: yeah I'm taking over so that was bad. there's a cone over there I took over and I also need to be back over to the right, which this car did not position itself well for. So I'm going to go back into the correct Lane here and get around these potholes and re-engage So two disengagements so far: one for traffic cones on a highway that it had a really hard time recognizing to the point where the trucks behind me were slamming on their brakes and beeping at me. and two was for a cone, a single cone blocking one lane of a multi-lane merge with a toll booth.

Admittedly not typical driving. but as I hopefully merge here I'm gonna again hit the gas pedal I didn't disengage I just hit the gas pedal the accelerator pedal to give it a little oomph uh to make sure it got into that merge because it was about to hit the brakes and I was about to get beeped at by another truck. This is the home stretch here and I don't think there's any more crate. Actually, there are a little more interesting pieces of the drive left to go and then we'll see how it decides to park.

But yeah so far I feel like I'm kind of in the same place as where I started before. I got the beta which is I'd watch some YouTube videos and it looked like it would be comfortable on a highway and not much else. It looked like it kind of just wanted to Swerve to avoid that trash bag which is interesting and I've even noticed it do some kind of human things which will be like if you're on a road with a shoulder you need to get over, you need to get over. Oh, you're going to the next one.

Cool. I'll I'll be driving on a road with a shoulder and a biker on the shoulder and it'll move over a little bit in the lane to give the biker more room. I think that's cool. Do not hit the brakes here.

There's a truck behind me. Thank you. Cool! Uh, so it does some interesting human things and I believe that those are programmed in and I'm glad that they work, but it does some also like embarrassing old lady things. It maybe it's just embarrassing because it happens to be a car that's capable of like great driving.

Um okay. one last turn here. blinker thank you I was just dealing with these trucks. Now this actually could get dicey.

Yep, truck is right on my bumper. It can go around here but it's waiting. That's fine. I'll see what it does at the stop sign.

but I'm gonna guess one more disengagement. That's my prediction. Man, my heart rate is definitely higher during this drive than the average normal drive to the studio. It's a lot.

It's a lot breathing. I Don't know. Let me know what you guys think in the comments about whether or not you trust a system like this. I mean I think it's pretty clear you wouldn't want to be in the back seat.

but even if you have a car with this full self-driving beta which I will say it is a beta and it is not widely available and it's here we go. Here's the last bit. Why are you so far behind the truck? Human driver would have moved up by now. Truck has to do weird things so let's let the truck do weird things.

Yep, truck has to go. Now you go. Now you go. Now you go.

Truck is still being slow so I am still being cautious. Yep, go ahead. Autopilot's creeping forward, checking visibility. Go ahead.

I Won't disengage. I'm not embarrassed I'm just driving like an old lady. It's fine I think I just see the the grill of the truck like four inches from my back bumper. like are you gonna go or not? That's that's the experience.

the Autopilot beta experience. But yeah, it's beta. so you know would you trust this type of thing if you have the ability to take over? Or would you just drive like a normal driver. I mean I Live in this is New Jersey People don't have that type of patience.

Uh, this truck's going kind of slow because I think it's about to turn and so I almost guarantee someone's going to beep because the truck is just stopping in the middle of the road. But I guess everyone can see that it's a truck and we're just kind of okay with that. What is the truck doing if this truck backs up? I am absolutely screwed. Please don't back up.

Please don't back up. Please don't back up. There's the beep I promised and he's stopped in the middle of the road. He's got his hazards on and I don't think that this car knows what to do I believe I will have to do my predicted third disengage after this truck flies by.

Me: Yeah, he's just got his hazards on. All right. I'll just go around him. not sure what happened there.

Good luck to you with whatever you're doing. All right. let's see how it decides to end the drive. So I'll re-engage and we can see we can see that there's one more stop sign and then it sort of turns into a parking lot and then it dropped a pin at the GPS coordinates of the end of the drive.

Um, so maybe it does decide to pull into the parking lot and then I can handle parking myself. but I'm just kind of curious what it's going to end up doing anyway. creeping forward, driving forward. I've been shadowing the pedals this entire time and now what? I was going to pull into this parking lot? Well, this is good.

Oh, chill, Chill. Okay. I think it's decided that it's arrived. I'll give a credit, this is the front door.

That's that's enough autopilot for one day for me. I'm just gonna pull over and take in look at I Just want to open the camera one more time just to show you guys look at how much this car can see. I'm in a parking lot right now with a pedestrian with dozens of other cars and it sees every single one of them. It sees that stop sign right there.

It sees everything. There's a lot going on with these cameras and with the the AI processing all the data very quickly on the computers inside the car. But I'm going to end it there. Let me know in the comments what you think: self-driving or not, you trust this thing.

Catch you guys later. Peace.