Waymo vs. Tesla FSD

real_aurgathor · 2025-05-18T07:14:04+00:00

This time it wasn’t a Wile E. Coyote test, but some driving in San Francisco, and Tesla’s FSD failed in a rather spectacular fashion by *running a red light*!!! 😲 Business Insider: We put Tesla’s FSD and Waymo’s robotaxi to the test. One shocking mistake made the winner clear. https://tech.yahoo.com/transportation/articles/put-teslas-fsd-waymos-robotaxi-080101482.html The Tesla’s console screen showed how the car detected the red light and came to a dutiful stop. Then, despite the traffic light not changing, the Tesla drove ahead. It’s not necessarily related to their respective performances since that red light running was most likely a SW bug,, but there was a huge difference between the amount of hardware used for self driving: The Waymo robotaxis are equipped with the company’s fifth-generation Waymo Driver and guided by five lidar sensors, six radars, and 29 cameras. Barr’s Tesla was equipped with Hardware 4 and FSD Supervised software v13.2.8. Tesla released a minor update to the software days after this test was conducted. The vehicle has eight external cameras.

real_aurgathor

That was fast – it took only *one* day for the NHTSA to start probing the Tesla Robotaxi for safety violations! 😲

In one video taken by investor Rob Maurer, who used to host a Tesla podcast, a Model Y he’s riding in enters an Austin intersection in a left-turn-only lane. The Tesla hesitates to make the turn, swerves right and proceeds into an unoccupied lane meant for traffic moving in the opposite direction.
[…]
In two other posts on X, initial riders in driverless Model Ys shared footage of Teslas speeding. A vehicle carrying Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, reached 35 miles per hour shortly after passing a 30 miles per hour speed limit sign, a video he posted shows.
[…]
In a separate live stream from Herbert Ong, a YouTuber with more than 123,000 subscribers, he commented that the vehicle was going faster than the posted limit of 35 miles per hour.

URL: https://www.jalopnik.com/1894249/tesla-robotaxi-fed-probe-austin-texas/

I general, I don’t consider minor speeding much of an issue, but on the other hand, wrong way driving is a very serious one.

real_aurgathor

Some more info on the Austin trial: https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/austins-streets-see-chaos-as-tesla-robotaxi-brakes-swerves-and-drops-riders-mid-road

From driving on the wrong side of the road to phantom braking and curb-hopping, the problems are mounting fast.
[Issues] included a Tesla pulling into oncoming traffic, stopping in intersections, and failing to respond to a reversing delivery truck.

Elsewhere I’ve read that the system can misinterpret shadows – that’s where a radar based system could be very handy, but Tesla is too cheap for that.

In another news, Cybertrucks on FSD sometimes brake checking other vehicles…. 😲

"Several Tesla Cybertruck Owners Share That Their Truck Goes Into Full-On Regenerative Braking Every Time They Engage FSD at Highway Speed – Add “I’m Brake Checking People Every Time”

Tom states that his Cybertruck does not automatically maintain the speed he was traveling at. Instead, when he eases off the accelerator pedal to let the FSD software take control, the vehicle automatically activates regenerative braking.
The vehicle only accelerates again and returns to Tom’s original speed after slowing down significantly in the middle of the highway.
Tom adds that this behavior is concerning and that he’s practically slamming on the brakes and brake-checking vehicles behind him every time he engages FSD.

https://www.torquenews.com/11826/several-tesla-cybertruck-owners-share-their-truck-goes-full-regenerative-braking-every-time

I guess that’s not a SW bug, just a driver checking “feature”….

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