For all of the flack, Tesla and its Full Self Driving technology gets, it's easy to forget that it's objectively very capable. Still, we've never seen the system tackle something as wild and twisty as the Tail of the dragon. Here's what happened when FSD met the deadliest road in America.
CGP Grey isn't a car YouTuber whatsoever. He typically tackles topics that could be conservatively be called obscure. That makes him a great person to test out Tesla's Full Self Driving Beta. He's not linked to the brand or the outcome. He's also a normal person with no extra-special car knowledge.
Taking his dad's Tesla Model 3 to the Tail of the Dragon to see how it handles the nation's deadliest road is interesting from the outset. He's nervous too. Just before the route begins, there's something called the Tree of Shame, where parts from wrecked vehicles decorate an old oak.
As the trail begins, Grey almost immediately is uncomfortable with how closely the Model 3 wants to be to the middle line. Having driven a Tesla with the regular Autopilot, I can confirm that at times, it wants to hug lines a little more closely than might feel comfortable.
Grey even comments about how he watched the last person try this with the old Autopilot. That driver had to disengage just minutes into the drive because it was "way too dangerous." Thankfully for CGP, his experience is the opposite.
The Tesla makes the entire drive without a single disengagement. 11 miles might not sound like much but keep in mind that there are 318 turns over those miles. In fact, Grey uses it for much of the drive back the other way too.
It's by no means a perfect system. There's a reason that it's called a Beta. But it's important to acknowledge the skills it does have too.
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