This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with David Moss, 28, a resident of Puyallup, Washington, who has been documenting his experience with Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system. Moss told Business Insider that he does not own Tesla stock.
Business Insider verified Moss’s travel logs, charging stops, and FSD mileage data that is displayed on his car. Tesla only displays FSD usage down to the 10th of a mile.
I’ve owned a Tesla since March 2024.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature was the primary reason I made the purchase. I would say the electric aspect is almost an inconvenience, and FSD is my main interest in the Tesla.
Charging around my hometown isn’t a pain. There’s a station near my house, and I have a charger at home.
However, my commutes are long. I’m a product manager for a company that makes 3D lidar scanners, and a lot of my job is visiting clients on-site all around America.
I drive over 50,000 miles a year. Given the number of miles I drive, an electric car is a slower form of transportation than a gas car.
My first Tesla was a Cybertruck, but unfortunately, I totaled it in August while I was driving it in off-road mode. In September, I bought the long-range Model 3. The company was running a promotion where if you bought a Model 3 before the tax credit expired, you got a free year of charging.
Since then, I’ve put over 23,000 miles on the car. So I’ve been making good use of the free electricity.
The 11,000-mile stretch
I began a road trip on October 28 and have since driven 18,741 miles.
Around November 25, while I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, I got the FSD version 14.2 update and have driven over 11,000 miles without any intervention as of December 31.
When I say no intervention, I mean down to the 10th of a mile — 100% no steering wheel or pedal touches. That includes parking and getting into a charging station.
FSD navigated restaurants, supercharger stations, office complexes — every single part of the drive.
During the trip, I’ve gone down several dirt roads and construction zones that had cones, reroutes, and road closures. One morning, I was in Reno, leaving my hotel, and the normal road was closed for construction. The car immediately turned around and found an alternative route.
One of the more interesting cases was in Wyoming during a severe windstorm.
There were alerts, warning of 80 mph winds. In about a hundred-mile stretch, I saw six different tipped-over semi-trucks.
I was a little nervous about driving on the freeway with high-wind caution alerts, but FSD handled everything while I was on Interstate 80, traveling from Cheyenne to Evanston. FSD drove without even touching a lane marker once.
I think in that situation, FSD shone more than usual.
Since Raleigh, I’ve traveled across the country — down to Miami, across Texas, through the Rockies, and up to Medford, Oregon.
After a two-day pit stop back in my hometown in Washington for Christmas Eve, I headed to Los Angeles and drove across the US until I hit South Carolina.
What I do while FSD drives
I put on a lot of audiobooks and podcasts while FSD drives. I also took business calls or calls with friends and family.
I haven’t tested out being on my phone with my eyes off the road. That’s still against the law, and it’s just not worth the risk.
I’ve never dozed off during the drive, but I’m also not constantly on the edge of my seat or grimacing while FSD is on.
I’m a million times less scared than I’ve ever been in an Uber ride or with most of my friends. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I’d say it’s the most pleasant driving I’ve experienced.
The updates mattered
When I started my road trip on October 28, my Tesla was on FSD version 13.2.9.
Eventually, when I was in the southern part of Alberta in Canada, I installed version 14.1. That was around the evening of November 5. Around November 25, I got 14.2.
I have a Starlink Mini mounted underneath my Tesla’s glass roof, allowing me to download updates remotely and install them while I sleep in my hotel room.
I wouldn’t call the difference between 14.1 and 14.2 a grand night-and-day difference, but there’s definitely been a noticeable improvement under version 14: the ability to park, more speed profiles like “Sloth” and “Mad Max” mode, and just the overall smoothness.
For the first time, with 14.2, I was able to win people over when I showed FSD to my friends and family. Before they were like, “Oh, that’s kind of cool,” “It’s a gimmick,” or “I’m not going to buy this.” Now, they’re saying, “Oh wow, I actually need that.”
I’m not traveling without FSD
I can’t speak enough about how much I love FSD and how much it inconveniences me to drive.
A lot of the driving I currently do is simply because I don’t want to fly. Because I know that when I arrive at the airport, I’m likely not going to be able to rent a car with FSD.
The record-setting was never really the focus.
I didn’t even check the FSD stat page for several hundred miles before I started seeing people post about it online, saying, “Oh wow, I’ve actually not touched the wheel at all.”
At this point, a technology like FSD is indispensable to having a car. The feature provides me with peace of mind, having that “extra set of eyes” on the road.
There’s also a personal side to that because my father is legally blind and can’t operate a vehicle. If there were one day an unsupervised Cybercab that he could buy, we’d buy it on day one.
My father’s ecstatic. He believes he’s one day closer to gaining his independence.
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