Despite its name, Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” software doesn’t actually make Teslas capable of fully driving themselves. If that sounds like false advertising to you, you’re not the only one. And yet, Tesla is still allowed to use that term and recently decided that anyone with $20,000 to burn would be allowed access to the software. But as dangerous as it can be to use in perfect driving conditions, a new video shows how incredibly dangerous it can be to use in the snow.
InsideEVs recently posted a video from the Detroit Tesla YouTube account that showed the driver testing his Tesla’s deceptively named “Full Self-Driving” mode after the city received a couple of inches of snow. So we’re not talking about some blinding snowstorm that completely blanketed the city here. Just regular winter weather for large parts of the country. And as you can imagine, things did not go well. At all.
It only took about 10 seconds before the driver had to take over and stop the car from driving itself into a curb. It also decided on a speed that the driver felt was far too high for the conditions and started sliding when it had to stop at a traffic light. About two minutes into the video, he says, “I can’t even get my sentences out without the car going nuts.”
Yeah, that’s not good. The driver also says, “I don’t think they’ve trained the neural nets at all for snow still.” Considering the fact that Teslas already have trouble handling perfect roads in ideal conditions, that’s not surprising. But as the video goes on, seeing exactly how badly it handles relatively low-speed streets and a little snow is pretty scary.
After all, this is an attentive driver showing how dangerous “Full Self-Driving” is. But anyone with money could be on the road with you not paying nearly as much attention and easily ruin your day because they trusted a system that’s clearly not ready for prime time.
Obviously, it’s harder to program a car to drive in rain or snow, but that’s exactly the reason the name is so deceptive even with “Beta” tacked onto the end. And also why Musk’s claims that Teslas will be capable of full autonomy soon are absolutely ludicrous. Even with autonomous taxis operating in Phoenix, we’re still years away from anyone being able to hop into a private car and be safely driven to their destination regardless of the weather. And anyone who tells you otherwise has no idea what they’re talking about.