https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/Roger Ridpath's first-hand Tesla FSD owner's log: real notes from 19,000+ miles, build by build.en-usThu, 23 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/parking-and-the-total-wine-hike/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/parking-and-the-total-wine-hike/Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000Parking is still not very desirable, and I keep hoping every build is going to be the one that fixes it. 14.3.5 isn't it either, I guess. So I told it to drive me to Total Wine and I let it park me, and where it parked me was way out in the middle of the lot with no other cars anywhere around me.…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/nineteen-thousand-miles-of-bugs/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/nineteen-thousand-miles-of-bugs/Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000This windshield is what a southern interstate does to a car in the summer. Every one of those specks used to be airborne, and the front cameras live behind that same glass. People ask whether the car goes blind when the windshield gets filthy, and the honest answer from my seat is: later than I do.…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-car-gave-me-a-strikeout/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-car-gave-me-a-strikeout/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000Somewhere in the Missouri bootheel on the way home this came up on the screen. Telemetry from your vehicle indicates improper use of Full Self-Driving. Four more of those and it quits working for me. My first reaction, I'll admit, was to argue with it. I'd been driving since early, I was tired, I…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/what-seventeen-percent-looks-like/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/what-seventeen-percent-looks-like/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000Same morning as the strikeout warning, same screen, and here's the detail I didn't write about the first time. Look at the top corner: 17%. Now look under the car: Sentry Mode currently unavailable, Low Power Mode is active. Nobody asked me about any of that. Somewhere south of twenty percent the…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/every-bug-between-here-and-the-gulf/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/every-bug-between-here-and-the-gulf/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000This is the plate after the last leg. Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, and then the whole way back up through the middle of the country, and I'm fairly sure every bug between here and the Gulf is on the back of that car. The frunk that had ice in it on Sunday had duffel bags in it on Monday, which is…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-frunk-is-the-cooler/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-frunk-is-the-cooler/Sun, 19 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000Nobody buys one of these for the trunk under the hood, and then you take one long trip and it turns into the thing you end up telling people about. I filled it with ice. Not a cooler set down inside it, I mean the frunk itself, ice poured straight in and drinks buried in the middle of it. There's a…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/i-said-id-never-have-a-streak/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/i-said-id-never-have-a-streak/Sun, 19 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000A while back I wrote that I'd probably never have a streak, because I take over too often for one to ever run. Turns out I was wrong twice in two weeks. Heading down on the seventh, north of Birmingham in the rain, the screen threw confetti at me. 250 miles without a takeover. Then coming home on…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/same-parking-problem-a-thousand-miles-away/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/same-parking-problem-a-thousand-miles-away/Thu, 16 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000This is the Winn-Dixie down on the coast, and look where it put me. Same story as the Verizon store back home, and the same story it would pull on me at Total Wine the week after I got back. There were open spots up by the door. It went to the back forty. So this isn't my lot, or my town, or one…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/what-a-500-mile-day-looks-like/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/what-a-500-mile-day-looks-like/Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000Before I left for Alabama I put the destination in and let the car do the math. It came back with 505.7 miles, a little under nine hours, and three Supercharger stops already picked out for me. It also told me what I'd roll into each one with, and what I'd have left when I got there. Twelve…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/charging-stops-are-just-rest-stops/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/charging-stops-are-just-rest-stops/Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000First stop out of Kansas City was the Buc-ee's outside Springfield. Here's the thing about charging on a road trip that I don't think gets said enough: you were going to stop anyway. You need a bathroom. You want to stand up. You're probably going to buy something you don't need, and at a Buc-ee's…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/mad-max-not-for-me/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/mad-max-not-for-me/Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000I'm always experimenting with the speed profiles. That's half the fun of a car that keeps changing under you, and over the year I've run everything at one point or another, Mad Max included. Here's where I've landed on the last two builds: the profiles themselves got stronger. Mad Max actually got…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/stutter-on-the-152-exit/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/stutter-on-the-152-exit/Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000I was on 152 today, exiting the highway in a turning lane, and the car did something I still can't quite explain. It stuttered. A quick brake and a little wobble in the wheel, right before it committed to the exit. There was nothing there to stop for that I could see. I'd already gone past the main…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/parking-and-the-verizon-dead-end/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/parking-and-the-verizon-dead-end/Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000Parking has been hit or miss for the last couple of versions and 14.3.4 hasn't fully fixed it. Sometimes it wants to park way too far from the building. Sometimes it backs in, sometimes it pulls in, and I can't always predict which one I'm getting. Today was a good example. I pulled up to the…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/why-ill-probably-never-have-a-streak/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/why-ill-probably-never-have-a-streak/Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000Tesla added a streak counter. It tracks how far you go without taking over and it'll throw confetti at you at the big milestones. I thought I'd try to let one ride. I couldn't do it. I love FSD, but I don't love wasting time, and letting the car wander around a parking lot or take the long way just…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/speed-limit-misreads-and-the-i35-i29-speed-trap/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/speed-limit-misreads-and-the-i35-i29-speed-trap/Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000FSD still misreads speed limits, mostly in construction zones, and I've found a way to live with it. The trick, if you want to call it that, is the speed profile. If I'm in Standard and the car's pushing harder than I like, I drop it down a couple of notches. If I'm in a hurry I'll at least pull it…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/construction-zones-wont-slow-down/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/construction-zones-wont-slow-down/Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000Kansas City is one long construction season, so this one matters to me more than most. Even on 14.3.4 the car still doesn't seem to want to slow down through the work zones, and that is my biggest gripe right now. The release notes and a few of the YouTube guys say construction handling got…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/charging-on-a-regular-wall-plug/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/charging-on-a-regular-wall-plug/Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000Here's a reality check I caught on my own screen. I had the car plugged into a standard 110-volt wall outlet, the same kind you charge a phone on, and it was sitting at 98% and still asking for about an hour and thirty-five minutes to crawl that last bit up to full. That's 110 volts for you. It…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-nagging-has-basically-stopped/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-nagging-has-basically-stopped/Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000The attention nagging has dropped way down. I think it started easing off around 14.3.2, and it's been getting quieter ever since I first picked the car up. At this point it's minimal, if that. I have to really try to bother it. Once in a while it wants a look from me if I've got sunglasses on, but…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/stop-signs-and-summer-trees/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/stop-signs-and-summer-trees/Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000I've never had FSD run a stop sign on me. What I have seen, and it's worse this time of year, is the car not spotting a sign until it's right up on it, because the trees have leafed out and half buried the thing. But here's the part that matters: once it sees the sign, it identifies it and it…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/brake-stabs-i-dont-get-them/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/brake-stabs-i-dont-get-them/Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000There's a lot of talk online about brake stabs, the car jabbing the brakes for no good reason. I keep hearing about it and honestly, I don't run into it. Maybe it's the kind of driving I do, or maybe it just doesn't catch my attention the way it catches other people's, but it hasn't been a problem…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/braver-than-i-am-on-unprotected-lefts/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/braver-than-i-am-on-unprotected-lefts/Sun, 31 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000Dirty Tesla says 14.3 will commit to an unprotected left the instant the blinker comes on, and he's right, I've seen it do exactly that. The car is very comfortable making a left across heavy traffic. The thing is, I'm not. It's bolder than I am. There are intersections around here where I'll…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/reaction-time-faster-than-i-expect/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/reaction-time-faster-than-i-expect/Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000AI DRIVR said Tesla's 20% faster reaction time claim was an understatement, and I think he's onto something. I can't put an exact number on it. The situations vary so much that it's hard to measure anything from the driver's seat. But the feeling is consistent, and it's this: the car reacts quicker…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-little-t-tells-you-everything/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-little-t-tells-you-everything/Sat, 16 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000There's a small Tesla logo inside the charge port door, and it turns out it's also a status light. Blue means the port is awake and ready, waiting on you or talking to the charger. Green means electrons are moving, and it pulses while the battery fills. Solid green, done. Red is the one you never…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/who-rides-on-my-dash/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/who-rides-on-my-dash/Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000Two small co-pilots ride on my dash, Jesus and Mary, and they've been aboard almost as long as I have. I won't claim they're part of the redundancy stack. But I'll tell you what they're genuinely good for. People get in the car, the car starts driving itself, and a first-timer never quite knows…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-tron-theme-is-real/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-tron-theme-is-real/Sun, 14 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000Somewhere in a software update my car got a TRON theme. The real one, licensed, TRON: ARES, with the Light Cycle parked in the middle of my screen and the soundtrack sitting in the media player. Tap it and the whole driving visualization goes red wireframe. My screen has been wearing it since last…https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-plate-before-fsd247/https://fsd247.net/driver-seat/the-plate-before-fsd247/Thu, 23 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000Before the plate said FSD247, it said JUNPR-Y. Juniper Y, for the refreshed Model Y generation this car belongs to, and I thought that was pretty clever at the time. That's the original plate in the photo, back when the car was new to me and the name was about what it was. Then a year of letting it…