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Tesla FSD

Ranked 2 of 9 driver assistance systems by recommenders

Recommended for smooth, capable driving on complex roads, often with few interventions. Main caveat: it still needs an attentive driver supervising at all times.

Recommended for smooth, capable driving on complex roads, often with few interventions. Main caveat: it still needs an attentive driver supervising at all times.

161 people gave an opinion

recommend it
73
criticize it
88
approval share
45%
Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 12 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Owned for 2 years

Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.

Each square is one year.

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 73 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Safer than average human driving

    “It's taking something that's already relatively safe and making it approximately 5-7 times safer using visual processing alone.”

    Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

    “it's already safer than the average human driver…and autonomous cars will only get better”

    Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study”

    “The data shows that FSD (supervised) is safer than human alone driving.”

    Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “What is happening to jobs? Separating AI hype from reality”
  • Few interventions on long drives

    “The first 100% autonomous coast-to-coast drive on Tesla FSD V14.2! 2 days 20 hours, 2732 miles, zero interventions.”

    Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Tesla owner completes first autonomous drive across America”

    “everyone that owns a Tesla has experienced FSD in which it goes from A to B without being touched”

    Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

    “I find my Tesla Model Y FSD to be incredible, requiring effectively no intervention”

    Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Waymo in Toronto”
  • Handles complex roads and routing

    “we found FSD to be excellent in handling pretty complex scenarios, including one of the worst, a busy airport loop”

    Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans”

    “Testing out 13 this weekend, it drove on country roads, noticed a road closure, rerouted”

    Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

    “FSD seems quite capable of routing around standing water in many cases”

    Comment from 15 May 2026 in “Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after they drive into flood waters”
  • Rapidly improving with each version

    “Like FSD V12 to V14, the last several years in AI can only be characterized as an unprecedented rate of improvement”

    Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “The Insecure Evangelism of LLM Maximalists”

    “FSD is here, it wasn't 3 or 4 years ago when I first bought a Tesla, but today it's incredible”

    Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

    “if your impression of FSD is a year old or older, then you are woefully out of date”

    Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Tesla is committing automotive suicide”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Still needs constant attentive supervision

    “It mostly works. But I'm vigilantly monitoring it in a way that isn't supported by Tesla's marketing”

    Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Tesla allegedly in autopilot mode crashes into Texas house, woman killed”

    “It's like a Tesla fsd; it kind of works but you have to be vigilant”

    Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “OpenAI begins rolling out GPT-6 Astra”

    “Tesla FSD still requires active driver supervision and is not legally or technically a robotaxi system.”

    Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Sub-$200 Lidar Could Reshuffle Auto Sensor Economics”
  • Inconsistent, sometimes nonsensical behavior

    “Its inconsistency and Tesla’s “seat of the pants” approach to safety have gotten enough people injured”

    Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

    “Stellar performance in most common contexts, but bizarrely nonsensical behavior sometimes when not.”

    Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”
  • Driver bears legal liability

    “Yet if the car crashes while in FSD mode, it is still you who are legally the driver and you who will be responsible.”

    Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Why SpaceX 2040 Revenue FCST $4.3T in highly unlikely”

    “Tesla is in a weird level 2-4 space. They've managed to shunt liability onto their customers until now”

    Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”
  • Behind Waymo on safety data

    “The latest disengagement data for FSD 14 shows that Tesla is still behind where Waymo was more than a decade ago.”

    Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee”

    “It is a real product which can really kill people. And the relevant fact is that it is less safe than Waymos.”

    Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16”

Other driver assistance systems people recommend

The four most recommended other driver assistance systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Tesla FSD compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD)26861830%123 yrs32 owners—
Tesla FSDThis page738845%122 yrs4 owners—
comma.ai openpilot341077%9—Approved
Tesla Autopilot2714815%82 yrs3 owners—
comma.ai comma device24486%11—Approved
See all 9 driver assistance systems, ranked

What people said

40 of the 187 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“Tesla FSD is already better than almost every human driver out there.”

RecommendsComment from 30 Oct 2026 in “AI isn't replacing SREs, it's deskilling them”

“The current FSD system has no relation to the old Autopilot, is enormously better, and very pleasant to use.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Oct 2026 in “"I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math”

“I find my Tesla Model Y FSD to be incredible, requiring effectively no intervention”

RecommendsComment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Waymo in Toronto”

“Arriving at a destination using FSD completely fresh mentally is really quite something.”

RecommendsComment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Rivian's gambit for full autonomy”

“It's like a Tesla fsd; it kind of works but you have to be vigilant”

MixedComment from 3 Sep 2026 in “OpenAI begins rolling out GPT-6 Astra”

“The data shows that FSD (supervised) is safer than human alone driving.”

RecommendsComment from 27 Jul 2026 in “What is happening to jobs? Separating AI hype from reality”

“as a FSD fan it really got "good enough" recently with version 14”

RecommendsComment from 26 Jul 2026 in “What is happening to jobs? Separating AI hype from reality”

“It is a real product which can really kill people. And the relevant fact is that it is less safe than Waymos.”

CriticizesComment from 24 Jul 2026 in “DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16”

“It mostly works. But I'm vigilantly monitoring it in a way that isn't supported by Tesla's marketing”

MixedComment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Tesla allegedly in autopilot mode crashes into Texas house, woman killed”

“Yet if the car crashes while in FSD mode, it is still you who are legally the driver and you who will be responsible.”

CriticizesComment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Why SpaceX 2040 Revenue FCST $4.3T in highly unlikely”

“FSD seems quite capable of routing around standing water in many cases”

MixedComment from 15 May 2026 in “Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after they drive into flood waters”

“I just got FSD v14.3.2 and it is quite impressive. I drove all over the Bay Area today”

RecommendsComment from 4 May 2026 in “First Tesla Semi Rolls Off High-Volume Production Line”

“I don't think ANY of our cars are going to get "unsupervised" FSD with the hardware they were shipped with.”

MixedComment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Waymo in Portland”

“The truck can drive itself almost flawlessly from start to finish and feels natural.”

RecommendsComment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Tesla admits HW3 owners need upgrades for true 'Full Self-Driving'”

“Tesla FSD v14 is the best autonomous option for a supervised system that you can actually use.”

RecommendsComment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Tesla Hid Fatal Accidents to Continue Testing Autonomous Driving (French)”

“It has a wide angle camera in front that you usually can never see outside service menu. It should cover that case.”

MixedComment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Sub-$200 Lidar Could Reshuffle Auto Sensor Economics”

“Tesla FSD still requires active driver supervision and is not legally or technically a robotaxi system.”

CriticizesComment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Sub-$200 Lidar Could Reshuffle Auto Sensor Economics”

“we found FSD to be excellent in handling pretty complex scenarios, including one of the worst, a busy airport loop”

RecommendsComment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans”

“seen first hand how far ahead Tesla FSD is compared to competitors in the consumer space”

RecommendsComment from 2 Feb 2026 in “XAI Joins SpaceX”

“The latest disengagement data for FSD 14 shows that Tesla is still behind where Waymo was more than a decade ago.”

CriticizesComment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee”

“if your impression of FSD is a year old or older, then you are woefully out of date”

RecommendsComment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Tesla is committing automotive suicide”

“Tesla FSD will change lanes when you use the blinker. It will also accelerate and remain engaged if you press the pedal”

RecommendsComment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Tesla ending Models S and X production”

“Tesla FSD works well enough that I'd rather drive next to a Tesla with FSD than a drunk driver”

RecommendsComment from 26 Jan 2026 in “AI will not replace software engineers (hopefully)”

“I use it almost all the time now, it feels safer than me driving.”

RecommendsComment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Open-source self-driving for 325 car models from 27 brands”

“It basically drove us door to door without a single intervention.”

RecommendsComment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee”

“Like FSD V12 to V14, the last several years in AI can only be characterized as an unprecedented rate of improvement”

RecommendsComment from 14 Jan 2026 in “The Insecure Evangelism of LLM Maximalists”

“everyone that owns a Tesla has experienced FSD in which it goes from A to B without being touched”

RecommendsComment from 13 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

“It's taking something that's already relatively safe and making it approximately 5-7 times safer using visual processing alone.”

RecommendsComment from 12 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

“FSD still needs to be supervised. It's impressive and better than what my Subaru's lane-keeping software can do.”

MixedComment from 11 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

“FSD is here, it wasn't 3 or 4 years ago when I first bought a Tesla, but today it's incredible”

RecommendsComment from 11 Jan 2026 in “BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech”

“Tesla won every category despite this being a test performed in China by Chinese outfit.”

RecommendsComment from 1 Jan 2026 in “BYD Sells 4.6M Vehicles in 2025, Meets Revised Sales Goal”

“The first 100% autonomous coast-to-coast drive on Tesla FSD V14.2! 2 days 20 hours, 2732 miles, zero interventions.”

RecommendsComment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Tesla owner completes first autonomous drive across America”

“it's already safer than the average human driver…and autonomous cars will only get better”

RecommendsComment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study”

“FSD is good enough that it'll detect the driver's fallen asleep and pull over and park the car.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Tesla reports another Robotaxi crash”

“The Tesla on fsd13 is considerably more courteous and safer than at least the bottom quintile of drivers.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

“Tesla is in a weird level 2-4 space. They've managed to shunt liability onto their customers until now”

CriticizesComment from 11 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

“it was smooth, reacted better than most adult drivers to the situations I witnessed, and was significantly better at those things than the prior version”

RecommendsComment from 10 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

“Testing out 13 this weekend, it drove on country roads, noticed a road closure, rerouted”

RecommendsComment from 10 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

“Stellar performance in most common contexts, but bizarrely nonsensical behavior sometimes when not.”

MixedComment from 9 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

“Its inconsistency and Tesla’s “seat of the pants” approach to safety have gotten enough people injured”

MixedComment from 9 Nov 2025 in “When Tesla's FSD works well, it gets credit. When it doesn't, you get blamed”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.