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A lot of us clean energy proponents are so disappointed with Elon Musk lately that we would like to sell our Teslas to make a statement. However, as a retired person, I don’t have the money to do that. My 2019 Tesla Model 3 has nearly 150,000 miles on it and is still going great. I will be 85 this year and I’m planning to make my Model 3 my last car. Also, my wife and I will be making our annual spring migration from Utah to northern Wisconsin in May, and a Tesla is still the only EV that can make that run without us worrying about charging. Many other brands can use Tesla Superchargers now, but only the newer V3 250kW versions. All the Superchargers on I-80 across Wyoming are still the older V2 150kW versions. I’m sure other brand EVs could make the run, but only with careful planning of the whole route.
Full Self Driving Supervised V12 (2025.2.8) does many things incredibly well. When we first got Tesla’s FSD Beta in December of 2021, I was blown away by the way it would make our Model 3 drive automatically to any address you entered into the NAV on city streets without intervention most of the time. In the latest versions, it will also perfectly avoid parked cars, bicycle riders, construction barrels, etc.; navigate rotaries perfectly; and slow down for speed bumps. It drives in most situations like a smooth, experienced driver.
A little something the NAV system does that blows me away now: If I go somewhere frequently, the NAV anticipates and puts that location at the top of the list NAV choices. It knows that I am going to church on Sunday in northern Utah, southern Utah, and Wisconsin and puts the correct address for the church at the top of the list. If I am starting my trip at 6:30 a.m., it knows I am going skiing with my brother and puts my brother’s address first and then Alta Ski Area (see the lead photo) at the top of the list of NAV choices. Unfortunately, it still can’t read my mind — I still have to select my destination or it won’t know where I want to go.
However, FSD Supervised still makes mistakes.
For example: a few days ago, I was driving in Utah County and set my navigation for Alta to go skiing. We were driving north on State Street in American Fork, which merges nicely onto I-15. FSD Supervised missed the exit onto I-15 and I had to intervene. Coming home last night from Heber, Utah, twice FSD Supervised put me in the turn lane when that was not the correct choice. It recovered nicely, but I never should have been in the turn lane. I have had other occasions where FSD would pick a lane inconsistent with the navigation at a light or stop sign. When I turn right onto State Street from 200 South in Lindon, Utah, it turns first into the bike lane. However, it corrects into the auto lane much quicker than it used to do.
FSD still won’t slow down to 20 mph for the flashing school zone signs/lights.
Something that drives my wife crazy: I-15 where we live is a 12-lane freeway with HOV lanes in the center. The HOV lanes extend for 63 miles and if we are driving in the HOV lane for 10 miles or more, we like to stay in the HOV lane. It is now very difficult to get FSD to keep me in the HOV lane, it is always trying to exit the lane. You can only get it to stay in the HOV lane if you hold down the turn signal stalk. If you let up, it will try to exit and even at times will try to illegally cross the double white lines.
FSD Supervised has two methods for determining if you are paying attention to the road: a) you can apply a small amount of torque to the steering wheel b) much better: the camera above mirror observes if your face is directed towards the road. There have been times when I have my hand torquing slightly on the steering wheel and am focused like a laser on the road and I still get the blue flashing warning on the screen that I am not paying attention to the road. At this point, I have to push the right stalk up to disengage FSD. I then pull it down to activate FSD again. In spite of my best efforts, a few minutes later I will be warned again. At this point, I have to turn off FSD from the control screen and can only use traffic aware cruise control. This problem is intermittent. There are other times when FSD works just fine.
A new feature of FSD Supervised is to remove the requirement to torque the steering wheel. Hurray! I love it! The camera observing your face knows if you are paying attention. Problem: It doesn’t work at night when the cabin light is too low. Even turning on the cabin light doesn’t solve the problem. At night, I still have to apply slight torque to the steering wheel.
I have a confession to make. When I first got my Model 3 in 2019, I was chatting with a Model S owner at a Supercharger. He told me that if I stuck a plastic water bottle into my steering wheel, I wouldn’t have to apply torque with my hand. This worked until you had to spin the steering wheel in a parking lot, for example, and the bottle would fall off. Eventually, I had a 2 lb steel weight made with a groove in it which I would strap to my steering wheel with a tie wrap. It worked great and I used the weight for 4 years. Since I don’t trust FSD, I would always supervise it like a hawk and intervene when necessary, so I never had an incident or an accident. An amusing thing: Tesla’s software would detect the weight and give me a text warning (Defeat Device Detected) on the screen. However, it never took action or penalized me. When Tesla removed the requirement to torque the steering wheel, I rejoiced and cut off my weight. Since torquing the steering wheel was still required at night, I strapped the weight back on. Recently, however, the weight no longer served its purpose and I took it off. I have been alcohol (I mean weight) free for 3 months now and see no reason to ever go back.
If you find any of my articles helpful to you and you want to buy a Tesla, feel free to use my referral link: https://ts.la/arthur73734. If you are buying a new Tesla and use my link (be sure to use it when you make your order), you’ll receive $1,000 off your purchase price of a Model 3 or Model Y and 3 months of Full Self-Driving. (Just be prepared to intervene immediately if it screws up.)
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