We’re going back.
I’m taking my dad’s Tesla for a drive on the Deadliest Road in America, but I’m not driving - I’ve just installed the full self-driving, pre-release BETA software. It’s only allowed on a tiny number of cars for testing in urban environments, so of course I wanted to try it out on a famously dangerous mountain road to see what it can really do. Will I survive? Will I crash my dad’s car and be in BIG trouble? Right now I don’t know, but either way, it’s road trip time!
We’re in the Great Smoky Mountains, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, where lies a mountain pass of some of the most twisty and dangerous driving in the country. Just hours after we arrived, parts from accidents like these are salvaged to build the Tree of Shame at the entrance to serve as warning to others of what can go wrong. But here’s the thing - driving hundreds of curves faster than you should on a mountains edge is a lot of fun. Name it the Tail of the Dragon and the drivers will come!
I didn’t understand just how dangerous this was until now. The nearest hospital is an hour away, so on busy days like this an ambulance waits for the inevitable at the exit to save time. But ambulances are not immune from accidents. Off hours is when drivers push the limits when they hope, no one is around. Going over the speed limit to break records, crossing yellow lines and rounding blind turns with sheer drops. Trucks are banned from the road for being too great a risk, but signs don’t stop everyone.
I’m putting my life in the hands of a non-human driver. I’m having some serious doubts about this. On the drive up I had to disengage the BETA auto-pilot several times, and last night while doom-scrolling Dragon accident videos, I found the last guy who tried the old Tesla Auto-Pilot on this road, and he had to disengage minutes in because it was “way 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!
Okay, here we go! I’m going to put 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. Alright, motorcycle, high-crash area and… this is the official start. Here we go.
Oh boy! She did the whole road all 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.
Okay, this is it. We’re going back. The official start of the Dragon’s Tail is here! We have arrived at our destination, and I’m heading to the General Store. I’m getting something special for Winter - she completed the route all on her own. This self-driving test is still in its beta phase, yet it was able to make it up and down the Dragon with no human assistance.