After a couple of attempts, I was finally able to get access to the Full Self-Driving 'Autosteer on City Streets' beta (otherwise known as FSD beta). Here's what you need to do to get FSD and then the beta -
1) Subscribe to FSD through the app - it's currently $200/month. Or, you can purchased FSD outright - currently, that will set you back $15k....
2) Once it's active, you get access to 6 of the 7 capabilities that are part of FSD -
- Navigate on Autopilot (ability for the car to self-drive from on-ramp to off -ramp on highways).
- AutoPark - car can park itself is parallel or curb parking spots.
- Summon - car can back itself out of, or pull into, a garage.
- Smart Summon - car can autonomously drive to you in a mall parking lot.
- Auto Lane Change - car will initiate and make lane changes automatically when you signal.
- Traffic and Stop Sign Control - when using Autopilot, the car will stop for red lights and stop signs.
The big feature, and the one that everyone talks about, is Autosteer on City Streets. This is currently available as a beta feature so essentially, when you get this, you become a tester for Tesla. Data from your usage is fed back to Tesla to increase the knowledge base in their network. It is still very much a work in progress, as numerous Tesla testers have shown. My own experience after a couple of weeks has shown the same.
To get access to the FSD beta, once you have subscribed or purchased FSD, you then click a button on the car's screen requested access to the beta. Then you have to do a couple of things -
1) Drive 100 miles on Autopilot (which is the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer) - this should be done on a highway.
2) Maintain a decent Safety Score. The SS pops up on the Tesla phone app when you hit that request button on the screen, and monitors your driving habits - specifically, Forward Collision Warnings, Hard Barking, Aggressive Turning, Following Too Closely and Autopilot Disengagements. You typically need to be above an 80 to get access to beta. You have to maintain a score for about 7 days before getting beta access.
So, once you do those 2 things, based on current timeframes, you should get into the beta, and the fun begins!
The first chance I had to try it out was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Here are a couple of videos that I took that day -
This first one is just a straight shot down a divided 4-lane road in our town -
So that's the initial look. I've done some other tests without videos, but will do some more videos shortly. My subscription ends at the end of December so I have some time. Stay tuned!
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