Dalsi tester review
FSD 14 first impressions:
the good:
- destination options are incredible and very well done. parking has been fast and flawless so far, zero corrections and right between the lines. also pulls into the driveways of houses very reliably and actually parks itself, feels like the freakin' future
- V14 is always READY TO GO, if your car is in gear there is absolutely zero delay from pressing the "Self-Driving" button to when it actually takes off. feels like it's been considering what to do for a lifetime and you finally let it free lol, SUPER fast
- it squeezes gaps that V13 would never go for (see my narrow gate video for an example) and also just generally feels like it's never wondering what to do, it's always executing a maneuver and not pausing like V13
- speed profiles feel pretty different now (in a good way), although I'm pretty sure the new "sloth" mode just lowers the max speed to the detected speed limit which artificially limits it (sometimes feels like it wants to drive faster even in sloth mode but can't)
- there's a particular wide road with a 25mph speed limit near me that V13 would speed 10+ mph on very consistently, V14 did 5mph over on "standard" profile which is a big improvement
- it seems like it tries to stay within the lane lines much better than V13, which is technically the correct and legal thing to do but can sometimes make it feel slightly more jerky during turning. I had the same feedback in my Robotaxi rides. overall a positive though, it's definitely staying further away from curbs and not cutting corners like V13 sometimes would
- U-turns have absolutely never been handled better, I did a bunch for testing and it handled them all flawlessly even in the dark where the lights didn't light up some of the drivable space. felt like it remembered what it saw from the headlights in the moments before and just went for it
- I'm not sure if they updated the maps, but several places where the car did the wrong thing on V13 (like use wrong turning lane for incorrect address in navigation), V14 no longer does. I had 3 spots I was super excited to test and it passed 2/3 (the one that wasn't fixed wasn't a disengagement, it just went around the block and did a U-turn that was not necessary)
- I feel like I have not gotten even close to stress testing this, which I feel like I have to point out in the "good" section because man, it's crazy how far we've come. I was thinking about this a lot during the drive as it went through several areas where older versions would struggle with every time
- the car feels much more sentient, as others have described. you can definitely feel V14 "considering" a lot more when it's driving about its surroundings which is usually a great thing, but sometimes not (which I will explain below)
the bad:
- had two minor braking events that happened very quickly (was probably only braking a total of 1/10 of a second) but felt pretty harsh. like a quick jab of the brakes before going back to regular driving. both times it did this I was messing with the navigation route, but still startled me a bit
- had a moment where it tried to pull over to the side of the road for a moment due to someone approaching us behind with super blue headlights. it never actually pulled over, but signaled and started to go off the road, then immediately changed its mind and continued
- I chose two impossible destinations, the first was behind a fence and it just reversed all the way back out into the road and did several u-turns before arriving at the same spot each time, stuck in an infinite loop. the second was a destination pin slightly behind a closed road where it technically could have gone around, but didn't and instead stopped at the nearest stop sign and shifted itself into park (better than an infinite loop I suppose)
- there's a new message on screen that says "Increased attention required" that pops up whenever you approach a construction zone or RR crossing (possibly for other stuff too), but I feel like it's actually distracting. it appears suddenly and makes me take my eyes off the road to see what it says, which is probably the opposite of what they want. I think a subtle blue glow like before or maybe a sound would be better
overall, super impressed and can't wait to actually stress test tomorrow. seems like @tesla_ai absolutely cooked here and it seriously feels like a robotaxi with some of the features they've added. they've fixed SO many things in my local area, which I'll talk about in my first impressions video
https://x.com/AIDRIVR/status/1975525268195582250?t=F6SSkP7E6iZHbZ9K6DDGHA&s=19