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How handy? Traffic testing Tesla’s NZ-ticked FSD is a wild ride
Richard Bosselman
August 29, 2025
Elon’s software is said to be good enough to take you pretty much wherever, as a passenger behind the wheel. Here’s what it’s like when you’re a newbie chucked in at the deep end.
THE multi-lane motorway was thick with heavy truck and trailer units; within suburbia, parents in bulky SUVs were zipping this way and that on school pickups. Downtown was one traffic snarl after another.
Just another typical weekday afternoon in and around one of Australia’s biggest cities. With passing rain showers included.
There was plenty to keep this driver on high alert for three hours … not least when the ‘driving’ meant not touching the steering wheel (see our video).
Tesla still won’t say exactly when it intends to free up its most advanced - and most contentious - semi-autonomous driver assistance technology. But it’s potentially very soon. Maybe tomorrow.
We were invited to Brisbane as first media - actually first people not employerd by Tesla - to experience Full Self-Driving in a right hand drive environment.
Impression gained was that Model 3 and Model Y owners who already have cars built within the last two years with FSD as a paid-up option or are keen to use it can expect an activation availability alert any time from this moment on.
Are you ready for this?
This software product provides a range of self-driving features. It’s the next step up from the available Autosteer and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control features, which are little different to the adaptive cruise and lane-centring systems offered on most new cars.
They are also intended for motorways. FSD is for all types of roads. So, a whole new game.
FSD has been an option on NZ-market Teslas since 2017 - the latest Model Y has it as a $11,400 cost extra - but has never been unlocked.
‘Why’ is nothing to do with any legalities; in respect to those, the road is clear. Autonomous driving of any level appears to be okay in NZ.
The system’s cited transgressions are well known. Tesla semi-autonomous systems of all kinds have come under scrutiny from regulators in the few places where it’s been fully active, mainly North America. In the United States there have a slew of high-profile incidents. There have been law suits; Tesla is currently facing a massive class action.
Critics say the software has never been perfect and is a half-baked Elon Musk misadventure. Tesla and its chief executive have in turn consistently claimed perfection is just an update away.
Version 13 software incoming here is in the US as well. Media users there say is hugely improved over previous editions, mainly because it makes the car move more confidently and fluidly.
Here it’s bundled as FSD ‘Supervised’ and means just that. Forget about having a snooze in the back seat, or wiling away your time working on your laptop while the car traverses from A to B.
‘Supervised’ cannot be foxed by putting a sack of potatoes on the driver’s seat and weighting the steering wheel.
It absolutely requires a sentient, capable person behind the wheel, ready to take control. Even when not actively doing so, they are still the driver.
When FSD-S does enact here, it will initially restrict to product with ‘Hardware Four’ cameras; these are only in latest Model 3 and Model Y. Older cars with ‘Hardware 3’ cameras and sensors will require the newer tech; which has to be retrofitted by the make.
But Tesla assures all product it has configured for the NZ market can achieve the capability retrospectively. (Ex overseas’ used imports? Not so sure).
For NZ-accredited cars, there’s intention to make it not just a one-hit purchase but also a subscription model for all new purchases, with a free 30 day trial on delivery. In the US, subscription is $99 a month; that’s $170 here.
Determination to apply FSD-S in this country was shared to MotoringNZ.com by Thom Drew, Tesla's country director for Australia and New Zealand, in June. It’s now been elaborated that Australasia will be the first RHD market to have the tech.
We were invited to an August 19 event at the Royal Auto Club Queensland’s mobility centre. This is a world-class driver training, research, testing and education facility across 19 hectares at Mount Cotton, near Brisbane city.
They have numerous driving tracks there. I imagined we’d be taking a bit of a run around a prepared, closed course, perhaps with a guide, probably with the usual media assets of a photographer and video crew. Five, 10 minutes’ of demonstration. Repeat as required.
That’s not what happened.
Who’d be mad enough to allow total rookies out on the open road, alone in a car, relying entirely on it to faithfully follow a pre-set route for three full hours? One guess.
After a brisk briefing, mostly about the embargo, it was out into the world at large. Cold turkey. On our own.
No panels were dented, no paintwork blemished. No traffic police involved. Overall, it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in more than 40 years of writing about vehicles.
But also an emotional roller coaster. First time with a system designed to reduce driver fatigue had me wired. Afterward, too, some of us had war stories.
The system's cameras not only scan the driver for alertness but also the road for potential hazards beyond other traffic and to keep the car within legal speed limits; it scans for speed signs.
It is designed to change lanes efficiently and safely, to check blind spots to ensure that there isn't a speeding vehicle in the other lane and will warn the driver of obstacles on the side of the road that may not be visible to the driver.
When it worked as Tesla says it should, it worked very impressively indeed.
I’d read an article about FSD-S V13 in Motortrend magazine that said it still lacks the situational awareness and intuition to get through urban environments effectively and warned “it can't comprehend the limitless variables human drivers naturally learn over time.”
That wasn’t my experience.
Lane changes were deft, it kept tidy station in traffic, accelerated and brake with the dexterity you’d expect from a professional limo driver, and took bends smoothly.
I was extremely wowed by how confidently the car effected roundabouts, including some that were weird-shaped. In dense traffic, the car assertively but politely sidled through gaps.
It seems to be able to predict potential issues, too. The driver of a Toyota in the lane to my left deciding without any rationality or indication to slice right in front of me could have been a kamikaze move. But the Tesla simply read the moment and backed off just enough.
An Aussie colleague also related how, on the route she took, the car encountered a fallen tree branch and deftly manoeuvred around it without hesitation.
But …
Along the route was an active school zone. There were flashing 40kmh signs. My car did the right thing and slowed. An Australian colleague believed hers did not.
My car consistently obeyed traffic lights. A fellow Kiwi feared his might have mis-read one. Another said his car was befuddled about how to exit a cycle lane it had wandered into. Eventually, it just stopped.
I’d had a WTF moment within minutes of starting out.
The Model 3 fluffed just its second public road manoeuvre, a right hand turn off the top of a T intersection.
It had started well, slowing and indicating on cue. But suddenly the centre line was on my left. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic. I assumed control.
I also had to lay on hands when on the M3 motorway, but my fault then. Cruising comfortably in a lane at 100kmh, the car determined - correctly - I wasn’t paying enough attention. True, I was filming with my phone. It required me to resume command.
Later on, entering a public park that had been plotted as a sat nav waypoint also flummoxed. The requirement was tricky. A slight right from a controlled intersection, then almost immediately afterward a hard left into the park gateway. The car ventured timidly out of the Give Way then simply stopped. Interesting. I took control.
A couple of occasions there were long queues for right hand turns. Rather than join the back of the line, the car kept sidling it’s way along with the right indicator triggered, patently in hope someone would let it in. Which they did. I’m not sure if you could expect NZ drivers to be as courteous.
We all wondered how Tesla’s system might react in a situation where emergency services would be closing in from behind. Would it do the right thing and move aside?
Our run was in pretty much ideal conditions. What would it be like in worst case situations. Darkness, snow, heavy rain, fog are conceivably conditions when you might well need it most. But what chance its effectiveness will be reduced, perhaps even disabled?
There’s a famous South Island public road used by international car testers during winter. It’s my understanding the car has driven it on FSD in heavy sleet and with black ice underfoot without any issue.
When I had to over-ride the system, I had issues re-engaging. The steps are not particularly challenging, so it was just me.
Even so I was happy when, midway through the drive, I managed to talk a senior Tesla guy into riding shotgun for the remainder.
Tesla asked us not to reveal any names or undertake any interviews. All I can tell you is that the job ‘J’ has, as head of service engineering, is much less anodyne than it sounds. He has had a very direct involvement of FSD development for Australasia.
A young man with a massive brain, he lent fascinating background into the system localisation development. It’s been going on for years, used the North America market programming as a basis only and has been very, very comprehensive. It’s a story that deserves to be told.
Tesla built up FSD by using artificial deep learning software to recognise a vehicle’s surroundings and make complex decisions based on what they ‘see’ to steer a driver safely along a road.
The obvious long-term ideal for this kind of tech is that it will always interpret and react to situations as a human driver would.
To make any level of involved autonomous a complete reality, computer scientists need to create artificial neural networks (ANNs) that can do the same job as a human’s biological neural network.
FSD Supervised is not at that point. It’s just a way point toward the full autonomy Musk has recently said will be in action elsewhere in the world next year. The full suite will make what NZ is about to get look rather rudimentary.
Tesla owners will be aware of beta systems. Basically, they are early unreleased driver assist features that can be accessed, on understanding that if used, they might not always work seamlessly. Basically, users are helping in accrue data.
FSD-S has moved on from the beta phase. It’s at ‘production intent’, which means it has been deemed to be good enough for real life activation but has yet to be signed off.
Tesla puts total reliance on cameras. This breaks with conventional industry wisdom, which says these are only one vital and that the radars and ultrasonic sensors often already employed for cruise control and advanced driver assistance systems are just as necessary.
Many now believe another essential is light detection and ranging, lidar for short. It is like high-definition radar, using laser light instead of radio waves to scan a scene and create an accurate HD image of it.
When lives are on the line, the more tech the better is my view.
I’m personally irked how Tesla and Teslarati have long had habit of promoting impression FSD has ingredients to be a fully autonomous tool, when it doesn’t.
In China authorities have required Tesla to promote FSD as ‘intelligent assisted driving.’ I’d say this is a more relevant descriptive. It’d be smart for our government and agencies to remind people of this.
However, the way seems clear here.
NZ legislation in respect to allowing FSD seems supported by an advisory in respect to autonomous systems posted by Ministry of Transport.
This also suggests that while hands do not have to be on the wheel, a driver nonetheless has to involve.
“AVs were not a consideration when current transport legislation was drafted,” it says.
“Under the legislation a driver does not need to be present for a vehicle to be legally operated on a public road in NZ.
“However, most regulations and relevant international frameworks strongly imply that when a vehicle is in operation, it has a driver.
“Currently, any motor vehicle operating on a public road must comply with existing rules and regulations for the operation of motor vehicles under the Land Transport Act 1998, and other legislation that addresses the safe and secure operation of motor vehicles.”
Tesla’s own video about how to operate FSD is below.