I'll be answering your questions as I take this Tesla from Sydney to Melbourne in Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) mode.
In a world first, today I'm driving a Tesla, or rather a Tesla is driving me, from Sydney to Melbourne in Full Self-Driving (Supervised) mode.
You've been asking me plenty of questions along the way already, and I'll be updating this article as I answer them.
Can you get booked for speeding in Tesla Full Self-Driving mode?
I've actually set it to have a 5 per cent variance to speed for this trip. So when I'm driving in a 110km/h zone it could go up to about 116km/h.
But it is travelling at far less than that. When I have been behind a truck it has been sitting at 102km/h, and not making any aggressive moves to overtake that truck. So it will always be on the safer side of things, which is for me maybe a little frustrating, but it's certainly not putting me at risk or in danger in terms of speed.
So will you get booked for speeding? From what I have seen so far, the car's not going to speed. I would be surprised if I even hit 110km/h.
Will the car drive itself to a supercharger when it needs to charge?
Yes. The car has taken itself off the freeway and is navigating itself to the Tesla Supercharger in Goulburn New South Wales.
I thought it might park itself right in the charging bay, but it has just parked itself out the front.
Will it obey the "Keep left unless overtaking" rule?
The car will overtake, and then move back into the left lane. The car does try and stay in the left lane as much as possible.
It doesn't overtake as often as I would, but when it did overtake a truck in 110km/h zone it did not go over 109km/h. Then it moved back into the left lane.
Will the Tesla in self-driving mode avoid potholes?
I have not encountered a lot of pot holes yet. But what I have noticed is when the car stays rather close to road kill, and at one point drove over a small bit of road kill. So I am not sure yet if it is keeping an eye out for any imperfections in the road, but I'll keep a closer eye out.
How does it navigate road works and when the road is different to the map?
It navigates them impressively. I've come up to some roadworks where the left lane has closed and we have all had to merge to the right. It's seen the cones and moved across, and slowed down to the 40km/h limit. With no line markings is has been able to follow the direction of the road works and move over into the oncoming lane where the traffic has been redirected.
Do I really need to pay attention when in self-driving mode?
As soon as I put my sunglasses on, it keeps hassling me to touch the wheel. So I'm keeping sunglasses off for now because it is driving me a bit spare.
When I have my sunglasses on the attention monitoring camera can’t see my eyes. That triggers a requirement to constantly tug at the steering wheel to remind the car I am here.
Even if I look away or at the scenery it notices and flashes warnings on the screen, so I have to stay rigorously focused.
With over 20 years of experience in digital publishing, James Ward has worked within the automotive landscape since 2007 and brings experience from the publishing, manufacturer and lifestyle side of the industry together to spearhead Drive's multi-media content direction.
