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First long trip with FSD 12

Discussion in 'Tesla' started by sylvaing, Jun 9, 2024.

  1. sylvaing

    sylvaing Senior Member

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    Friday was my first long drive using FSD (12.3.6), from my place near Ottawa to my daughter's place in Etobicoke (450 km, 5.5 hours). My only disengagements were when I wanted to quickly pass slower vehicles on regional roads and during downpours on highways because the auto speed was maxed too low. Beside the heavy rain events, I never had such a relaxing long drive. Boring regional roads and highways were, well, boring. Small cities we crossed were handled perfectly. Very impressed with its performance.

    In Toronto Friday, we went through downtown to go eat and the downtown traffic didn't phase it. The only road I deactivated it was on a road under resurfacing where manhole covers were protruding too much. Cyclists, pedestrians (including beggars between two lanes), cars halfway out of driveways, tramways were handled perfectly. I got honk once though because the car didn't go through on a red. Well, that's Toronto for you lol.

    We did many trips in busy downtown Toronto yesterday. Wow, my only interventions were because I wanted to take a different route/lane than the one suggested and also when someone cut me off but that's by habit. I'm sure the car would have reacted to it too.

    We also went to Vaughan yesterday for dinner and again, no drama. People who were with me were impressed by how it drove, with zero intervention.

    We went watching some nice neighborhoods over there and drove in FSD without a destination set. It did some unexpected left and right unprotected turns in the neighborhood as if it knew we were sight visiting lol. We weren't expecting it to do that. Made us laugh.

    Today we did the opposite 450 km, 5.5 hours trip and it also was uneventful, even during downpour on regional roads.

    Yeah, it requires supervision but that's far less than the micro management that manual driving requires. It made those two long drives so much more relaxing than my previous trips and allowed me to focus on the safety aspect of the driving in downtown Toronto and not the traveling itself, which it handled almost perfectly.

    Can't wait to try 12.4.1.
     
    #1 sylvaing, Jun 9, 2024
    bisco likes this.
  2. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    My recent trip to fog limited, audio-only, witness of the 4th Starship launch was 1,180 mi down and 1,170 mi back (1,899 - 1,882 km.) Each took ~24 hours which FSD drove straight through, solo, with this 74 year old man. Lesson's learned:
    • Still subject to bad lane lines and left over road work, asphalt strips. But no risk to other cars, just some quick lane anomalies.
    • Perfect navigation to Superchargers but poor parking lot manners. Just drive the last 100 yards/meters manually.
    • Softer 'phantom brake' now more 'softer slow down' easily handle with the accelerator.
    • My attempt to take a 'short cut' on the way down turned out to have ~10 miles longer (~16 km) than the return driven totally FSD and navigation.
    • UV protection, safety glasses all but eliminated the cabin camera nags. They work both day and night.
    • Autopark is awesome. Best to be ~10-15 degrees cocked near selected spot.
    • Free L2 charging walking distance from motel is a Win-Win (ask the dogs.)
      • Located at a bar and grill, a 45-60 minute soup and snack were perfect for +30 mi charge.
      • At night, two blocks South and three blocks East.
    • Cybertrucks common as non-Tesla EVs
    • Only one Ford Mach-E charged at Supercharger
    I'll do it again when the booster landing is planned. Then again when the Starship landing is planned. The day after, I'll drive to the launch site to take selfies with the rocket background.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #2 bwilson4web, Jun 9, 2024
  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    EV charging costs using both Tesla App invoices and Tezlab data revealed:
    • On 1,170 mi return, Tesla charged $90.94 while Tezlab (from car data) reported $101.95
    • Both have overlapping data fields so they can be combined for a better understanding.
    The greatest insight is the first and last segments are 'free':
    • Free home to first SuperCharger (not on SuperCharge Visa); for a fee first SuperCharger, and; last segment free to home. So 2/3 'free' while 1/3 'fee'.
    • Free home segment; fee first SuperCharger; fee second SuperCharger, and; last segment free to home. So 1/2 'free' while 1/2 'fee'.
    The 'free' home segments are at Huntsville, AL, $0.12/kWh versus ~$0.32/kWh at Superchargers. The home segments seem relatively 'free' in part, because they are not paid on the SuperCharger, credit card. The return trip had 10 Supercharger sessions with 'free' charging sessions at each end, 10/12 ratio. Tesla credit card charges, ~$7.77 / 100 miles versus $2.50 / 100 miles at home and free charging at the bar and grill.

    In the past, I had claimed $3.00 to $3.50 / 100 miles based on the per kWh charge of ~$0.32 / kWh and 4 miles / kWh. But I now have a more accurate metric. More important, I have a way to accurately estimate the actual cost of long range driving.

    The most efficient (i.e., lowest cost), cross country drive is an overnight stay at a motel with free charging. With a good night sleep and shower, two SuperCharger segments become two free segments, to and from the motel. So rather than one 'butt busting' ~1,000 mi drive, it becomes two, ~500 mi days with a free charging motel near the middle. It is a lot easier to drive 12 hours than 24 hours even with FSD.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #3 bwilson4web, Jun 9, 2024
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2024
  4. sylvaing

    sylvaing Senior Member

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    Lane change were ok, except it camped in the passing lane until someone was riding my back, so I took the habit of switching lane by fully depressing the stick to activate the lane change.

    Indeed, it does have trouble to figure out where to go in parking lots. The entrance is in plain site and it just skips it. That's something Telsa will need to work on if they want to release the next version of Summon (and Bannish).

    I had an unexpected free level 2 charging when I went tona restaurant on Saturday. I was able to bring the charge from 56% back to 87% while there :) There were two stalls and nobody else's used the other one. I was surprised because I saw many Telsa (about one for every ten cars) passing by.

    I didn't see any other vehicle but Teslas at the Superchargers I went to.
     
    #4 sylvaing, Jun 10, 2024
  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Under Autopilot there is an option to "Minimize lane changes" that seems to help. Not perfect but good enough to stay in lane if the speed difference between traffic and speed limit is modest, ~5 mph.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #5 bwilson4web, Jun 10, 2024
  6. sylvaing

    sylvaing Senior Member

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    I had no problem make it go 25 km/h over the speed limit on regional roads (that was the traffic speed). I just had to bring it to that speed and V12 would keep it there until a curve would make it slow down. That was either to follow traffic or while I was ahead of the traffic.
     
    #6 sylvaing, Jun 10, 2024
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