Al Root

Tesla and Tesla drivers face a new problem with the company's Full Self-Driving product.

It's getting too good.

That creates a paradoxical risk for technology that investors and regulators will need to prepare for. People will stop paying attention to the roads before they are supposed to.

Barron's has reviewed and tested Tesla's FSD consistently since 2022. We've tried to be fair. In 2022, we rode along with an early FSD beta tester. The software was interesting, but it needed significant help navigating traffic situations. In 2023, we likened FSD to a teenager with a learner's permit.

Then, in December, we tested version 14 of the software. That version drives better than I do. Since then, Tesla has started to do all my driving, we're talking 90%-plus of the miles driven.

Recent driving included a spring-break family road trip (a teenager to Ohio with parents isn't exactly the teen's ideal vacation), as well as trips to LaGuardia Airport and Brooklyn, among other less exciting locales.

Driving to, in, and out of Brooklyn during rush hour is a truly miserable experience. At some point, you realize the ETA is 30 minutes, and the remaining distance is three miles.

This trip to Brooklyn, and the other trips, were a little less irritating, though. The car did almost everything. Driving interventions were for things such as parking spots or adjusting the route on the fly.

The problem for me, and the technology, is that I found myself zoning out for long stretches. To be sure, I was ready to take over, as required, but to be fair, my attentiveness waned occasionally.

That's a new problem for autonomous driving systems before they become truly self-driving. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he hopes to have unsupervised versions of FSD software by the end of the year. "I think we would release unsupervised gradually to the customer fleet...as we feel like a particular geography is confirmed to be safe," said Musk on Tesla's first-quarter earnings conference call in late April.

That's just a few months away, but Musk usually overpromises. Whatever the time horizon, the industry now faces the problem of zoning out, with systems that require supervision to ensure maximum safety.

Maybe that means more nudging from the car to ensure compliance. Depending on the situation, a Tesla will gently warn with a message and a flashing blue light on the center screen, buzz, or require pressure on the steering wheel. Those should probably stay in updated versions.

The test Tesla is currently running version 14.2.2.5. Tesla is currently releasing 14.3.2, which includes some user interface enhancements.

Tesla makes it easy to track FSD. I've driven more than 3,500 miles with version 14 of FSD controlling the car. That's 57% of the miles driven. The percentage of miles driven recently is much higher.

Tesla, with regulators' permission, proceeding with truly unsupervised autonomy, will mark an interesting point for the car business. There will be cars on the market that people don't have to control to get them to their destinations. It could shift market share.

Musk has said in the past that Tesla was in talks with other auto makers about licensing his company's FSD technology. Nothing came of those talks. Other auto makers might want to revisit the idea. No one really wants the hassle of driving through Brooklyn on a Friday afternoon, no matter what they are driving.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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May 03, 2026 13:27 ET (17:27 GMT)

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