Houston Chapter Tackles Tesla's Full Self Driving

 

Tesla Vision Park Assist is part of the Tesla’s Full Self Driving suite and provides visual and audio alerts of surrounding objects. (Image: Tesla)

 

The car-buying public is in love with electric vehicle technology. In most EV surveys, technology is the number one reason why car buyers pick EVs, while saving money and no-emissions come in second and third, respectively. So it’s not surprising earlier this year that the Houston chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association met and discussed Tesla’s Full Self Driving technology — and autonomous vehicle driving, in general.

Jim Thomson, a Houston EVA Member, gave a presentation on Full Self Driving with his Tesla Model X, and below is an overview of Tesla’s Full Self Driving technology and the full video at the bottom:

Key Features of Full Self Driving

  • Traffic Aware Cruise Control

  • Autosteer

    • Reads the lane markings on a road and it stays within your lane. 

  • Lane Departure Warning & Emergency

    • Thomson: “If you're not using autopilot and you start to drive over the lane markings, there's emergency lane departure warning. It will actually correct the course of the car and get you back in your lane.”

  • Speed Assist

  • Automatic Lane Change

    • Thomson: “I do like that when you're in FSD, it'll change lanes on a highway, of course, if you're in a slower lane. Then give you a signal on a dash or a little message, changing lanes faster, or another message might be changing lanes to follow the route and will switch lanes and continue on. 

  • Autopark — perpendicular or parallel

  • Navigate on Autopilot

  • Forward Collision Warning

  • Obstacle Aware Acceleration

  • Blind Spot Monitoring

    • Thomson: “This is great if you change lanes manually, it activates a little alarm, a training alarm.”

  • Smart Summon

    • Thomson: “You can summon the car but not on a public road. So limited use case.”

  • Traffic Light/Stop Sign Recognition; control

    • Thomson: “ I do like traffic lights and stop sign recognition. If in FSD, you come to a street level and approach a stop sign, it will honor that sign. Wait for clearance and the intersection, and it will advance and the same for traffic lights.”

  • Autosteer on City Streets

Full Self Driving by Jim Thomson

Jim Thomson, a Houston Electric Vehicle Association club member provides an overview of Full Self Driving by Tesla.

Become a Electric Vehicle Association Member

Local meetings and ride-and-drive events are a great way to meet real EV owners and find out why they’re always smiling! Find a local chapter and find out how easy it is to drive electric.

 
Grant Gerke