Our Detroit Tesla Friend Toni Ezero has started testing Tesla’s recent updates to its Full Self-Driving beta technology. He’s been filming rides for a while now, covering every big update and also posting a few interesting videos in between, including one where the tech ran a stop sign and won him a ticket.
Anyway, even though Detroit Tesla just posted its usual lengthy Detroit driving video on Fully Standalone Beta (FSD) software update 10.69.2, he decided to make another shorter video after the next update. There has been a lot of FSD talk about You’re here forums and social media as the company released a few updates pretty quickly, and it’s dramatically increasing the number of Tesla owners becoming beta testers.
Toni hit the roads in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He clarifies that he is not driving on the usual downtown Detroit route, but is instead in the suburbs, about an hour north. He also notes that he usually does his filmed tests during the day, but this ride was in the evening. While the lack of daylight, different areas, road types and traffic can have some impact, Toni says the recent 10.69.2.2 update is the reason the car behaves differently.
The FSD beta tester shares that while Tesla just updated the technology via an over-the-air software update, and it should improve, it seems to have taken a step back. This is not uncommon, and has been pointed out by several beta testers in the past. While this may simply be related to Toni’s specific experience, these could be notable changes made by Tesla that will soon be pointed out by other testers. That’s why we watch many videos and read a variety of positive and negative reports from Tesla owners.
Detroit Tesla’s biggest concern seems to be the lack of “smoothness”. As you can see, the car seems to do a pretty solid job in many cases, but acceleration and stopping are often abrupt, and enough for Toni to mention it multiple times as the tech drives the car. He says it’s just not like before the last update.
It seems one of the difficulties with such technology is trying to properly balance smoothness with the need for the car to be aggressive at times. A human driver can make this change depending on the situation, but it seems to be extremely difficult for a machine.
As Tesla continues to update its beta FSD, this will likely continue to happen. We’ve reported a similar situation with branded vehicle settings, touchscreen updates, and even smartphone app updates. When you finally feel comfortable with something, Tesla can send an update and change it. Fortunately, it seems that the company, and especially the CEO Elon Muskis pay particular attention to its owners and their observations and requests.