Photo: Motortrend
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta has been the subject of many headlines in the past few years, but will it eventually bring about an era of autonomous car racing?
Motortrend took the Streets of Willow Springs racetrack in Southern California to find out, letting a Tesla Model 3 run with the FSD beta system activated.
The system was run while the track was empty for safety purposes, and the person in the driver’s seat only kept their hand on the steering wheel to avoid disengagement, rather than influencing the steering of the cars.
The tester also avoided touching the accelerator while going, even though its track times could likely have been shorter if they had.
The story also included a video of the test, which showed that FSD was able to take the Model 3 around for a lap. Still, Motortrend says that the system’s cautious pace, likely a relief for drivers testing it on real roads, means that self-driving racecars might still be a long ways off.
Still, it’s pretty cool seeing a Model 3 drive itself around the racetrack on its own, and users can watch the full video over at Motortrend.
The video shows off the power of FSD beta and how the Tesla system can navigate the entire racetrack just by using its cameras. No other self-driving system can do this it appears.
The news also comes just days after Tesla released its FSD beta version 11.3.1 to a broad network of testers, and just weeks after version 11 of the software combined city and highway driving stacks.
Update March 10, 2023: Motortrend’s Alan Lau told Tesla North the video shown was recorded back in November 2022, with the Tesla Model 3 running FSD beta 10.69 at the time.
Tesla FSD Beta 11.3.1 with ‘Over-the-Air Recall’ Fixes Rolling Out for Employees [PIC] https://t.co/WrKynhs7sW
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) March 7, 2023
