A Telsa enthusiast has published a timelapse video of him between Silicon Valley and Los Angeles in a Tesla set to autopilot mode.
The YouTuber who goes by the name Whole Mars Catalog says the only human interaction required was when he stopped to charge the vehicle.
His description reads, “Tesla Autopilot FSD Beta drives from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley with zero interventions. Started at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles (Hawthorne) and made one charging stop in Kettleman City before arriving in San Jose.
“Absolutely 0 human driving for the entire 6 hour trip. Only thing the driver had to do was charge the car –– about 1 minute and 15 seconds of human control over a 6 hour drive.
“The fact that it made it all the way down to Los Angeles and then back up with zero intervention suggests that this is more than just luck. The software is getting better. This drive was even better than the last one, although there were still many mistakes and areas for improvement that didn’t require a disengagement. Can you spot them?”
The time lapse video is below while you can watch the full journey in real time by clicking here.
Whole Mars Catalog adds people had asked why he was touching the steering wheel at times during the drive, suggesting that meant he was controlling the vehicle.
He wrote, “Many people who aren’t familiar with Autopilot seem to be confused about why I’m touching the wheel throughout the video. This is a safety feature of Autopilot that is designed to make sure the user is paying attention, ie that they haven’t fallen asleep accidentally. The wheel touches are NOT controlling the car. The blue steering wheel icon on the screen indicates that Autopilot is engaged, and when it is engaged the wheel is being completely controlled by the computer. If the human moves the steering wheel, the blue steering wheel icon on the screen would disappear. Therefore, you know from looking at the blue steering wheel icon that my touches were not controlling the car’s driving. In the future, this requirement to touch the steering wheel will be removed once the software is reliable enough that attention is not needed all the time.”
(Picture – screen grab from Whole Mars Catalog YouTube video)
