Tesla Model 3 Full Self-Driving (Supervised) 2025 Review

It’s not quite clear exactly how much Tesla customers will be charged for the FSDS feature and the company isn’t willing to commit to an exact go-live date any more than it’s “closer than ever” at the time of writing.

However, what we do know is that customers are offered the option for $10,100 at the point of ordering - a box plenty of Tesla owners checked. In addition to the one-off payment, a subscription to the service will also be offered although the monthly/weekly ongoing cost has not yet been confirmed.

Model 3 and Model Y vehicles fitted with the company’s latest Hardware 4 (also known as AI4 or HW4) computer will be the first to get FSD switched on, but earlier models with HW3 will also be FSD compatible.

However, they will need hardware upgrades before the software can be loaded - again at a yet-to-be confirmed time and cost.

Allowing a group of motoring journalists out on public roads in a self-driving car, without a minder or any support beyond a list of emergency phone numbers and a navigation destination is surely one of the greatest statements of confidence a carmaker has made in recent memory.

And yet, that’s exactly what we did - a two-hour tour of Brisbane and surrounding areas alone with a self-driving Model 3. And, for the main part, it’s staggering how well the system worked.

It’s amazingly simple in its operation: Choose your destination, press and hold the blue Start FSD button on the touchscreen, and away it goes. That said, the system doesn’t need a navigation destination to operate and will simply maintain its lane and the most straight ahead direction until otherwise advised.

Using only an array of cameras and GPS (Tesla is adamant it doesn’t need the LIDAR all other tech companies are using), FSDS is capable of completing a journey typical of what any Queenslander may encounter on any given day without once touching the steering wheel or pedals.

Not only does it navigate busy junctions and roundabouts all without driver intervention, it can identify more spontaneous challenges. These include recent roadworks requiring lane changes, other moving vehicles and pedestrians in carparks.

Impressively, when the navigation route is complete, the Tesla will also establish the available parking spaces in the vicinity, select one, and park. This is another example of how the technology is capable of functioning in real time and processing the huge amount of information available to it.

One of the secrets to such versatility and adaption on the fly is it uses GPS and other road condition information in addition to the visual information from the cameras. So it’s actually ‘thinking’ far further down the road than a human driver is capable.

Perhaps most impressive is how human the system feels in its behaviour and reaction to other road users. To a degree, an autonomous vehicle needs a certain level of aggression (or perhaps assertiveness) to make decisions in situations where human drivers are displaying the same traits.

And that’s exactly what FSDS is capable of. It doesn’t wait for infinite gaps in traffic to emerge from junctions, nor does it fail to change lane or leave a freeway when other motorists are being bullies - it simply rolls up its sleeves and works it out.

Perhaps we’re too trusting or perhaps the Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system is more trustworthy than we’d anticipated, but it’s surprising how quickly we relaxed and put our trust in the vehicle to take control…

If you took time to read the Society of Automotive Engineers definition of the five levels of driving automation (J3016) you would see there is a distinct overlap between what Tesla says its system is - Level 2, and the next tier above it - Level 3.

The key difference is that Level 2 is regarded as an advanced form of driver assistance, while Level 3 is considered the first stage of autonomous driving and therefore illegal in Australia according to about 700 laws.

As such, the FSD system comes with the bracketed S denoting ‘Supervised’. That means the human driver is required to be monitoring and capable of taking over driving duties instantly. On more than a couple of occasions, this was necessary.

For a start, the technology doesn’t seem capable of spotting potholes and avoiding them with two nasty ones - the kind you’d definitely steer around - crashed through. It can identify 3D objects sitting above the road surface, but apparently not indentations below it.

Then, on three occasions, the vehicle seemed to forget (or wasn’t able to establish) the speed limit and defaulted to a slower speed.

On the most concerning occasion this happened as we were joining the freeway. While other nearby vehicles were accelerating to 100km/h the Tesla slowed to 30km/h and pulled partially onto the shoulder.

Understandably, other motorists beeped and had to avoid the Tesla at walking pace and it was critical to override the system by accelerating and grabbing the steering wheel.

Another incident was perhaps more worrying and happened on approach to a small traffic island in a quiet housing estate. Instead of bearing left and obeying the direction arrow sign, the vehicle paused, erratically shook the steering wheel a few degrees in each direction before driving the wrong way around the island.

Unlike the problem on the freeway, there was no evasive or corrective action that could be performed by the driver as the car had already committed to the incorrect lane and the traffic island prevented returning to the other side.

Thankfully there was no traffic traveling in the opposite direction and perhaps the presence of other vehicles would have allowed FSDS to better understand the situation and avoid the error.

Either way, this incident and a few others suggests the system is a long way from full autonomy at this stage and the human driver is far from redundant.

Finally, there is a cabin-monitoring camera which allows the system to establish if the driver is paying full attention and issues a warning if not.

But, compared to other similar systems in mainstream manufacturer models, it’s somewhat lenient and permissive of more distraction than it perhaps should.

It appears the difference between Level 2 and Level 3 comes down to how strict the driver monitoring virtual-dead-man’s-switch functions. In Tesla’s case it feels more like Level 3 in practice.

Stop us if we we’re at any point sounding evangelical - Tesla has enough of those proponents already. The FSD system is extraordinary, massively impressive and its presence on Australian roads is a motoring milestone regardless of how you feel about the brand and autonomy generally.

However, all of the above comes with a warning. While Tesla is clear this revolutionary system is an advanced driver assistance system and must be supervised at all times, we’re concerned customers may be tempted to treat it as an autonomous driver just as many have in existing left-hand drive markets.

To an extent we can’t blame them as features labelled as ‘self-driving’ and ‘Autopilot’ are arguably misleading in their very wording and contradictory to the advice/disclaimer Tesla offers.

If they do, the incidents that have occurred in overseas markets will surely be replicated on Australian and New Zealand roads along with the accompanying controversy and tragedy.

If used correctly though, FSDS is an exciting glimpse into a future where all vehicles are safer and more convenient in exactly the same way Tesla pioneered the electrification cause and accelerated the evolution of EVs. To that, we doff our hats.

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au