My recent experience with FSD on HW3 Model Y

Med_Man1 | 2026-02-16 19:13 | 12 views

I have an early 2023 Model Y with HW3. I recently was given a Model Y loaner from Tesla with HW4 and FSD. I was really impressed with how far FSD had come and after driving around for about an hour was pretty confident with its abilities. I had previously been a skeptic of FSD and had no interest in checking it out. The last time I tried it was about 2 years ago when Tesla offered a free 30 day trial. I am in Southern California and over the weekend had to drive from Orange County to LA, so I decided to purchase a month of FSD to test it out in my car. There was a significant difference in the FSD experience between HW3 and HW4. Some of the issues I had was FSD would frequently tailgate the car ahead of me. When traffic ahead was slowing down it would start braking way too late and get way too close for comfort to the car ahead. At one point my wife actually yelled out "stop" because she thought we were going to hit the car ahead of us. I do want to point out that I had my foot hovering over the brake and was ready to take over the entire time. It had a hard time maintaining a consistent speed. I tried all 3 modes hurry, standard and chill. In chill mode FSD would just park in the far right lane and only go 1-2 miles over the speed limit, even though I had the offset set to 15% and max speed set to 76. I think that autopilot is a better experience than FSD. At least I can set the following distance and not have the car constantly changing lanes. If it's not obvious, I will be cancelling the subscription.

Comments (8)

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xasx 2026-02-16 19:26

I think you don’t trust it yet and are therefore over reacting to it. Set it to standard and enjoy the drive. It’s never going to drive exactly how you want it to. Also use common sense, if you see traffic that it can’t, just take over and brake yourself and then turn it back on. Your eyes are always going to see much farther out than the car can. I use it to goto work and back everyday. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s made my commute so much less taxing on my mental energy.

JustinVincib1e 2026-02-16 20:58

Agreed I prefer autopilot. Don't want to pay for something that I can do, rather i autopilot help me on highway when driving is boring.

fastoid 2026-02-16 22:52

On HW3 you can adjust the FSD cruising speed and distance to the car in front of you during your drive with scrolling wheels. The loaner car most likely was fine tuned by someone else and it was close to your expectations. All drivers have different preferences and there's no one single set up satisfying everyone. Just find yours. There are many small tweaks to do that. Also, it is also a slight learning curve to get used to it. Edit: also the many updates of FSD if received simultaneously might not sync perfectly, just do a soft two scroll wheels reset a couple of times. Or the FSD updates might not be getting up to the latest pack. I use HW3, learned it, and am very satisfied.

Med_Man1 2026-02-16 22:54

Thanks, I did play around with the scrolling wheels and it adjusted max speed and FSD settings for chill, hurry. I will look into more. Appreciate the advice.

ceramic_cup 2026-02-17 21:23

I've got FSD 12.6.4 on my 2019 Model 3 RWD LR with HW3. Since the holiday update, it's actually been performing really well during traffic on the freeways. I'm in LA as well and before the holiday update the car would wait until the last moment to brake. I was afraid to get rear ended. Since the holiday update, it comes to a gradual stop with no issues. Still some outliers that need intervention and reporting but 90% of the time it's perfect.

Med_Man1 2026-02-17 22:35

I tested it out during the day today and it seemed to do much better. Not sure if the cameras do better during the day? I tested it on surface streets as well as a short stint on the freeway. Although, traffic was much lighter today. One thing that made me a little nervous was that it would wait until the last 1/4 mile before changing lanes for an upcoming turn on surface streets. I guess I am just a more cautious driver.

ceramic_cup 2026-02-17 22:42

Also, try cleaning the front windshield where the cameras are located. I cleaned off the offgassing haze that accumulated on the glass and performance improved.

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