Tesla Is Making FSD Drive Slower on Purpose for New Owners

Image: Tesla

Tesla has quietly made a meaningful tweak to how new drivers experience Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and it’s one that should immediately feel more approachable — and arguably safer — for first-timers.

As first spotted by Not a Tesla App, Tesla’s updated Owner’s Manual for the 2025 Holiday Update, software version 2025.44, confirms that the default FSD Speed Profile has been changed to Sloth Mode for new vehicles and for owners activating FSD for the first time. Previously, FSD would default to the Standard profile.

This change is closely tied to how FSD v14 behaves. With the latest iterations of FSD, both Chill and Standard profiles are now more assertive and can drive above the posted speed limit to better match the flow of traffic. Sloth Mode, by contrast, is now explicitly defined in the Owner’s Manual as a mode that “drives under the speed limit,” making it a much gentler introduction to Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system.

The logic here is fairly straightforward. For many first-time FSD users, the most jarring part of the experience is watching the car confidently exceed the speed limit shortly after engagement. That moment alone can spike anxiety and erode trust. By defaulting to Sloth Mode, Tesla is easing drivers into autonomy, letting them build confidence before experimenting with more assertive profiles. It also doesn’t hurt from a regulatory standpoint, particularly with ongoing scrutiny from the NHTSA.

For the first time, Tesla has also clearly defined all of its FSD Speed Profiles in the Owner’s Manual, adding long-overdue clarity:

• Sloth drives under the speed limit.
• Chill prefers slower lanes and minimizes lane changes.
• Standard drives at a normal pace and adjusts to traffic flow.
• Hurry drives faster with more frequent lane changes.
• Mad Max is the most aggressive, driving quicker than Hurry with even more lane changes.

Sloth Mode itself is a relatively recent addition, introduced with FSD 14.1 back in October, while Mad Max returned shortly after with FSD 14.1.2. Today, the latest available iterations of FSD are branch releases of version 14.2, with Elon Musk teasing FSD 14.3 as the “last big piece” of the autonomy puzzle, expected in the coming weeks.

Importantly, once drivers manually change their Speed Profile, Tesla will remember that preference the next time FSD is enabled. So while Sloth is now the default, it doesn’t lock anyone into driving slow — it just sets a calmer baseline.