Watch Tesla’s FSD beta easily handle obstacles on the side of the road

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software has only been out in the wild less than a week, limited to a very small population of owners, but it can already handle a number of interesting situations.

The first video comes from Tesla fan formerly known as Steve Jobs’ Ghost on Twitter. While driving down a residential street with no lane markings, the Tesla perfectly pulls around cars parked on the side of the road. While we’ve seen this before in other videos from beta testers, the last vehicle is particularly interesting.

Not only is the area around the car larger than normal due to several traffic cones beside it, the driver is standing next to the work truck with the door open and another car is approaching from the opposite direction. With Autopilot engaged, the Tesla slows down for either the oncoming car or the driver (or both?), perfectly navigates around the large truck, before properly returning to its half of the street.

We can see from the previous cars it drove around in this same clip that slowing was a direct response to what the car was “seeing.”

In this second video, Sofiaan Fraval, producer of the Third Row Tesla podcast, took his Model 3 named ‘Serendipity’ to the streets of San Luis Obispo. While driving through downtown, Fraval came across two police cars parked on the side of the road, with their lights activated.

Unlike what most drivers do when they approach service vehicles on the side of the road, the self-driving Tesla begins to slow down. During the sequence, the speed drops from 25mph (40km/h) to 11mph (17km/h). While there is a red light ahead, the car slows down well before it typically would when approaching a traffic light.

Another example of a Tesla with the FSD software perfectly handling a common situation comes from Kim Paquette, a beta tester in Newport, Rhode Island. While approaching both a cyclist and a jogger, the car slows down and pulls around both of them giving them more than enough space to feel safe from a passing car.

Critics have argued this example shows the Tesla illegally crossing double yellow lines, but I think I would want my self-driving car to do that instead of running over a pedestrian.

Even after less than one week in the hands of public beta testers, the FSD beta software is already showing off its impressive abilities. Not one to stand still, Tesla has already sent out an updated version of the software to testers over the weekend.

Hopefully we get to see it arrive in Canada sooner rather than later.