Cybertruck FSD vs off-road

[FutureBoy]

So now with the FSD beta showing up, I’m curious how much of a road it requires in order to work successfully.

For instance, will FSD work on:

• quarter mile section dirt roads of rural farming communities
• forest management roads through federal lands
• Rough cut wild roads through pasture land where the double track is clearly visible

Of course the above examples are various levels of “road” that may not be seen by FSD as anything it knows what to do with. But based on where the CT is able to go, it would be cool if at some point the CT could traverse those on its own. Assuming of course you don’t hit obstacles like barbed wire fence gates that would require a human to open and then close.

But then one could further imagine FSD being used to get one “rescued” from wild back country where there might not even be roads. But for instance in the case of a medical emergency, you get yourself into the CT then tell it to backtrack from whence you came to get out of the wilderness and get you to a hospital.

Or if FSD was smart enough, perhaps it could find a new optimal route to a hospital instead of fully backtracking.

And then someday, perhaps FSD will allow a “driver” to get into the CT, turn on race mode, and let FSD run the Baja 1000 without human intervention. Or perhaps the summon feature will allow the “driver” to sit at the finish line and wait for the CT to complete the race without any humans inside at all.

2 years after that, SkyNet will probably start the human extinction campaign.

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[Jhodgesatmb]

So now with the FSD beta showing up, I’m curious how much of a road it requires in order to work successfully.

For instance, will FSD work on:

• quarter mile section dirt roads of rural farming communities
• forest management roads through federal lands
• Rough cut wild roads through pasture land where the double track is clearly visible

Of course the above examples are various levels of “road” that may not be seen by FSD as anything it knows what to do with. But based on where the CT is able to go, it would be cool if at some point the CT could traverse those on its own. Assuming of course you don’t hit obstacles like barbed wire fence gates that would require a human to open and then close.

But then one could further imagine FSD being used to get one “rescued” from wild back country where there might not even be roads. But for instance in the case of a medical emergency, you get yourself into the CT then tell it to backtrack from whence you came to get out of the wilderness and get you to a hospital.

Or if FSD was smart enough, perhaps it could find a new optimal route to a hospital instead of fully backtracking.

And then someday, perhaps FSD will allow a “driver” to get into the CT, turn on race mode, and let FSD run the Baja 1000 without human intervention. Or perhaps the summon feature will allow the “driver” to sit at the finish line and wait for the CT to complete the race without any humans inside at all.

2 years after that, SkyNet will probably start the human extinction campaign.

I like your examples. I have seen YouTube videos of people using autopilot on roads with no markings but they were paved. I bet it could handle dirt roads with tracks so maybe all of your examples would work. Time will tell I suppose.

 

[T3slaDad]

There's also a YouTube channel called Tesla Driver that tested EAP on grass ranges to see what would happen. If I remember right, it didn't go well until they painted clear reflective lines in the field to indicate to the cameras where lanes are. It was also a year or so back, and FSD will have come a long way by then!

I would love to see off-road ability with FSD, but there's also a lot of judgement that one has to use when traversing any off-road situation as edge cases are abundant. Actually, if there are no edge case scenarios, THAT is the edge case scenario! ?

 

[FutureBoy]

There's also a YouTube channel called Tesla Driver that tested EAP on grass ranges to see what would happen. If I remember right, it didn't go well until they painted clear reflective lines in the field to indicate to the cameras where lanes are. It was also a year or so back, and FSD will have come a long way by then!

I would love to see off-road ability with FSD, but there's also a lot of judgement that one has to use when traversing any off-road situation as edge cases are abundant. Actually, if there are no edge case scenarios, THAT is the edge case scenario! ?

So if we paint reflective lines up a rock crawl trail, you think FSD might try it out? I’d like to see someone do that.

For initial off-road FSD I’d expect there to be a created “road” as a minimum. What the minimum is I don’t know. Like the regular quarter section dirt roads in rural farming communities. The roads are pretty well defined but there are no markers other than the deep ditches on either side. And most of those dirt roads are mapped.

Forest service would be more difficult because there are a wide variety of development/maintenance levels, higher levels of risk (actual cliffs as road shoulders), and periodic blockages (fallen trees, rock slides). These are on some maps but may be more difficult to get on a Tesla map.

Beyond that, I’m not going to hold my breath for FSD to be able to handle driving.

 

[Eye of Elon]

I would love it if the cybertruck could drive itself backward down narrow logging roads, not as cool as tank turn, but almost as useful.

 

[T3slaDad]

What a cool idea, painting a FSD rock crawling challenge path!! Boy if I was a major YT'er and had the luxury of putting my CT through grueling situations with no concern for all the potential repairs that would come after, that would be a great series!!

Imagine watching a series all about the CT being challenged to handle various off-road terrains in FSD and the valuable data that it would collect in the process!

 

[FutureBoy]

What a cool idea, painting a FSD rock crawling challenge path!! Boy if I was a major YT'er and had the luxury of putting my CT through grueling situations with no concern for all the potential repairs that would come after, that would be a great series!!

Imagine watching a series all about the CT being challenged to handle various off-road terrains in FSD and the valuable data that it would collect in the process!

Yes, it would be interesting to have such a channel of testing FSD in various natural and contrived off-road situations. I'm pretty sure that the CT itself will be able to navigate most off-road environments. So the real question is how far off-road will the FSD be able to keep up with the CT's abilities.

Of course, while some of the off-road scenarios would be possible to test in another Tesla (X or Y say), the real off-road situations would have to wait for the CT. If I had the resources, it would be interesting to buy an X now and start testing.

 

[FutureBoy]

Teslarati has an article discussing a video of someone testing FSD on a gravel road with no road markings.

Tesla FSD beta impressively navigates unpaved, partially covered road with ease

This his video seems to be a promising start to what I'd like FSD to be able to do. Notice though that the road is marked on the map and has a speed limit sign so it is clearly an actual sanctioned road. I'm sure that having the road in the map is probably a help to FSD.

 

[carpedatum]

I'm sure that having the road in the map is probably a help to FSD.

At the current state of the art, it is pretty much essential to have the road in Tesla's map data, if FSD is going to make much sense of it. That doesn't speak to where things will be in 2022, though!