This is the moment of truth. I’m putting my life in the hands of a robot. I’m taking my dad’s Tesla on the Deadliest Road in America and letting the full self-driving, pre-release BETA software take the wheel. Will I survive? Will I crash my dad’s car and be in BIG trouble? Right now I don’t know, but either way, [sunglasses snap] it’s road trip time!
I’m taking my dad’s Tesla on the Deadliest Road in America and letting the full self-driving, pre-release BETA software take the wheel. Will I survive? Will I crash my dad’s car and be in BIG trouble? Right now I don’t know, but either way, [sunglasses snap] it’s road trip time!
The Dragon has killed multiple people along every one of its eleven miles, and is a challenge for even the best human drivers. I had to disengage the BETA auto-pilot several times on the drive up, and found the last guy who tried the old Tesla Auto-Pilot had to disengage minutes in, because it was, “waaay too dangerous.” I’m not confident she’s going to make this run without me having to disengage and take over, but I guess that’s the whole point right? BETA testing the robot. With. My life.
So here we go! I’m putting her in full self-driving BETA mode and I’m going to have my hands on the wheel but let the wheel slide through them so that you can see that it’s really the Tesla doing it herself. Ahh! I’m having some serious doubts about this.
Oh my god, haha, oh my god, it’s over! She did the whole road all by herself. Ahhh. Ha ha ha. Ah-mazing. Ooph. Wooh! She made it! Allll the way by herself. Zero disengagements the entire time. Ahh, I’m so pumped. Alright. Now it’s time to turn around and go back. That’s hilarious. She’s stopping for the photographer. Winter, I didn’t know you were a bit of a vain girl. [photo shutter click click click click….click]
Okay, this is it. This is the moment of truth. I’m putting my life in the hands of a robot. Here we go! The start of the Dragon’s Tail is here! We have arrived at our destination, so let’s head over to the General Store. I want to get something special for Winter, since she completed the entire route on her own. The self-driving test was still in its early stages, but she made it up and down the Dragon without any assistance from a human.