We drove the Tesla Model Y in every traffic situation and found the thing we liked least about it is its name. How well does the Tesla Model Y's well-known Full Self-Driving system work? After spending several days letting it do its thing on the roads and highways surrounding Car and Driver's Ann Arbor, Michigan, offices, as well as in San Francisco, we can report that it works impressively well. Most of the time. In most driving situations. Usually. With an asterisk.
That asterisk comes courtesy of Tesla. The correct name for the feature is "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)." The word in parentheses says it all. In the company's literature explaining the system, Tesla emphasizes that drivers must keep their attention on the road to ensure that the system operates without disconnecting, which it will do automatically if it detects that you're looking away from the road for too long. Which is another way of saying that the system's not perfect, and it might make a mistake, so you have to keep your eye on it.
We found that was exactly the case in the two Model Ys that we sampled: the system worked flawlessly for us, until, briefly, it didn't. Our FSD (Supervised) experience came in two 2026 Model Y cars. The one we drove in Ann Arbor for several days traversed suburban streets and interstates expertly and was most impressive when handling the complexity of busy traffic circles, which it navigated seamlessly. It followed routes we input into the navigation system without issues. The San Francisco car wended its way in and around the city with equal ease, our C/D staffers reported.
View Price on AmazonBut in both cases, the system made mistakes: just a few, but some more concerning than others. The Ann Arbor car failed to notice a speed bump hidden in heavy shade in an apartment complex's access road. It also attempted to pull into our next-door neighbor's driveway twice rather than ours, forcing us to hit the brakes. We think the latter issue was caused by our driveway being obscured by a large forsythia bush as the car approached. It literally didn’t see our driveway until it was too late.
The San Francisco car had a pair of more worrying miscues. During a left-hand turn at a four-way intersection, it attempted to vector into an opposing turn lane until we disengaged the system. Another time, it turned left at a four-way intersection at too leisurely a rate for our taste, as oncoming traffic was bearing down on us.
Ultimately, none of these missteps resulted in close calls. But they kept us vigilant, always on high alert for that one moment when the system might unexpectedly hiccup. And that meant no relaxing on the job, confident that FSD would always make the right move. After days watching it operate, we were oftentimes in awe of the system's capabilities, but we also grew tired of micromanaging it.
Because we had to pay so much attention to it, always being at the ready to take over by hitting the brakes, punching the steering wheel activation button, or grabbing the steering wheel, we felt we might as well have been driving ourselves. And since we love to drive, that left us thinking of FSD (Supervised) like more of a high-tech novelty, one that we'd grow tired of micromanaging over time, rather than a set-it-and-forget-it labor-saving device.
That makes us wonder if it's worth the cost. At least Tesla has made that considerably more affordable recently. When we tested the Model Y in Ann Arbor in the fall of 2025, FSD (Supervised) was a straight $8000 option. Tesla now offers the system on a subscription basis for $99 a month. That way, Tesla owners can try it for themselves at a much lower cost than before, see how they feel about the system, and cancel the subscription should they decide they'd rather always be the captain of their ship. In the end, that flexibility might be Full Self-Driving (Supervised)'s best feature.
Source: caranddriver.com
