Tesla FSD 12.5 - the Most NATURAL Update Yet! 

5:40 I love how the steering wheel show FSD’s frustration at not being able to reverse.

9:31 was absolutely correctly handled imo. you should always yield towards cars coming from the left. the guy didn't have blinker on so you NEED to slow down or even stop. idk what he's on about

I actually think the roundabout at 9:30 was without fault. 2 cars in play, you could have flowed through but minor risk. You and I might drive like it's a race but what it did might be better than what we would do :)

Dude my mind os blown. No video on my channel yet, but my first drive with 12.5 is the first time I've really been like HOLY SHIT. This is good.

I can't wait to see the truck driving itself

I drove v12.5 today. Wow. It's the best yet!!

Just upgraded my '21 Model Y to the '24 model Y. Looking forward to seeing more and more FSD updates like this. Can't wait to get 12.5 as well. Getting bored with 12.3.6 issues over and over again. Great video as always!

I appreciate how you include the last tweets regarding the software. Really helps tie together info on the software version. Thanks Chris! Looking forward to getting this version.

Going to the bar and then church ? LOL 😅

That confidence sounds amazing! Looking forward to getting it this time hopefully. 😊

14:52 everything is correct here, cause it's a roundabout, so you should yield before every car, and only after that go. Autopilot did a great job here.

I’ve drove 12.5 for 5 mins and the first time it slowed down I can definitely feel the improvement there!! Much much smoother!

Great to see a real review coming from someone who is not a hype beast (you know who I’m talking about 😂). My only disagreement is how much the car should go over the speed limit. NO ONE does the actual speed limit where I live!

"Last Mile" (parking, starting from parking lot) should not be expected to work reliably until Summon and Banish are implemented.

Noticed that the last roundabout didn’t use signal when exiting roundabout. I do agree FSD should be able to read and understand all highway signs.

Definitely do point-to-point. That's the way most trips are. I only use waypoints when I want to force a certain route. Also, I have many un-mapped stop signs & even traffic lights which have been there for years in my small Mississippi city. The over-speed on Auto-Max is one reason I don't use it very much. The fact that I can't slow it down without disengaging keeps me from keeping it engaged. I really appreciate your reviews of the releases, so I can anticipate the things to watch for when it comes to me. Thanks again Chris!

I'm 70 and still drive fine, but I know my ability to drive is only going to go down-hill from here. I purchased FSD to maintain my independence as I age.

THANKS to you, Dirty Tesla, and a few other early posters I was comfortable with FSD right from the start after taking delivery of my 2023 MYLR in December. (98% 0f 16K miles FSD). I would love to be able to use Auto Max but local speed enforcement precludes it. I believe it is easily fixable and does not require a one size fits all approach since we do have the Chill, Standard, Assertive tiers. These are not yet being utilized yet as I think Tesla is waiting for a more developed and stable base programming competency which is now being stymied by regressions with each update. It will happen. I've been coast to coast with 12.3.6 and the most consistent "nag" I received was from my sister in traveling over 3k miles within Arizona and California(I'm from Florida)... "Wayne, please turn on FSD". I was not offended. I feel safer with it on also! We laughed repeatedly at my blunders when I overrode FSD and was proved wrong. Good days are here, better days ahead.

WOW. GREAT Progress. MORE UPDATES PLSSS put this thing to the challenge!!!

I am on a road trip on 12.3.6 so envious of you because it will be a week before I am back home on my wifi and able to get 12.5. 😢 That said, I am very satisfied with the performance of FSD. No critical disengagement and some long sections in extreme traffic back up that it handled perfectly with no worries about being hit from behind or me hitting some else in my impatience tailgating 😂

Thanks Chris, always appreciate your honest assessments

"We're going to the bar and then we're going to church right after that"! 😂

Thank You for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste .. 🙏🏻 😊 ✌ ☮ ❤ 🕊

In Silicon Valley, the rural roads that look like yours with the 25 mile an hour speed limits, usually have a 40 MPH speed limit and people drive between 40 to 50 mph. So it’s funny to hear you complain that 32 MPH is too fast.

i personally dont think the stop at the roundabout was bad at all. There was a car that looked like it was about to go into the circle, so it looked like the car was just being cautious

I've been impressed with V12. Mine is still 12.3.6. The only major issues are Construction areas and missing certain exits, even though the GPS lady announces it in plenty on time. Most of these misses are repeatable and have been reported numerous times. I've never seen a correction. V12 is miles better than 11, however they still have a lot to do before RoboTaxi.

Even with 12.3.6 I have seen the same sort of behavior as 15:24. It kept missing the right turn because the reroute would take too long and FSD doesn't know what it's gonna do without the route, so it immediately took the right as soon as it could once the reroute was done. Like, screeching the wheels, dangerous driving. I see they haven't fixed that.

In California, one can typically go 10% over the speed limit before you are in danger of getting a ticket. Going that fast in a 25MPH zone could get your a ticket.

I generally tend to agree with your speed limit expectations, but instead of a fixed number, I usually stick to +10-15% over the speed limit. Easy to calculate and still in a relatively safe speed: 25+25*10% = 25+2.5 = 27.5 or 70+70*10% = 70+7 = 77.

9 over in a 25 is standard nyc driving lol the speed limit was 35 just a few years ago and speed cameras don’t even activate until you hit 10 over. The problem with auto speed is when it starts going 10 under in a 55 while traffic around you is going 10 over

Yes, reading signs is essential. One couldn't get a driving license without it. You can't obey the traffic laws of you can't read signs like one way, school zone between these hours on school days, school zone when flashing, school zone 20mph when children present, no left turn between these hours, all of which are signs in my area.

And yet another update I haven’t yet received. Today we drove through the redwoods in Northern California. I had to disable auto speed adjust to keep the car (Mr. Toad) from charging across the centerline on some hairpin turns. We are just over 3600 miles into our summer road trip. We did a little whole mars driving in SF and some AIDriver Berkeley hills driving. It’s amazing and can be scary as hell. Overall, a good experience so far but there is about another 2K to go before we get back home. I’m sorry to hear my biggest gripe has not been fixed in your version.

Thanks for keeping it real Chris.

I just got it today on my 2023 Model Y Performance HW4, and easily the best FSD to date. It fixed all the regressions with 12.4.x and is almost perfect. Just a few edge cases and I think this might be it.

I’m so excited to get it!!! AND Tesla took care of us, completed the 2022 X buyback and got us into a 2022 plaid that is beautiful.

Please add to the graph with miles between interventions and disengagements v.12.3.6 (which had far better stats than the other 12.3.x versions, was the best version of all time) separately

The rule is to not stop inside a roundabout, not before entering. Entering suddenly when there are cars coming from the left is what could cause traffic to stop inside and clog up the roundabout.

Great video - There are some things I would love for them to do. 1. Add a checkmark to always allow minimum turns this trip option to be permeant instead of needing to turn it on every time 2. Add a chime to alert you when you need to move the wheel. I cant count how many times I’ve been kicked out because I look out the windshield not at the dash, I have an X, especially sitting in stop and go traffic in pouring rain. 3. An email address to send in feedback of dangerous things the FSD is doing, I have read that the “bug” report in the car really doesn’t go to Tesla but for the techs when you have it in service. Example the car tries to run me into down gates because it wants to get into closed express lanes. 4. Give more time to look at the screen to look for a charger or adjust a setting. Im getting like 5-8 seconds then I am yelled at to pay attention. The whole purpose of autopilot or FSD is to allow you to do that saftley. Turning it off to make an adjustment makes the whole system useless.

Just got the update! I had 12.3.6 prior to this. I didn’t know they were pushing the 12.5 update to so many people!

My drive is amazing with FSD 12.4.3 and I am not even an influencer. But they did fix something that had been a problem and they fixed it perfectly and consistently.

I liked the turn 😂😂

9:35 I think it handled the roundabout pretty good, because the truck from the left could have went straight

Now we know Tesla is prioritizing FSD training for the locations of influential RU-vidrs, perrhaps you would consider doing your future tests away from your home area? I realize that this might remove your early update priviliges and lower your channel revenue but it's the right thing to do now you know you (and us) are being played. P.S. Glad to se you're heading this way. FYI, I live in Tesla Central (The S.F. Bay Area) and the 4 month free trial (12.3.x) we have on our MY has been abyssmal. Violently stopping for tree shaddows, stopping 10 feet before stop lines, unacceptable hesitations at junctions. It's unuseable for us, in an area that should be trained beyond imagination)

Just installed 12.5 onto Perl last night. This morning she took me on a short trip to Chic Fil-A for breakfast. Essentially flawless, after I got out of my (badly maintained and long gravel) driveway and until I returned to it, anyway. Notes: 1) (=--) FSD still can't find it's way off my parking pad and onto my driveway -- acts like it is going to cut across the yard to a nearby road -- I suspect it may be a navigator brain fart, not an FSD error, per se. 2) (+++) By far the smoothest little foray I've had in FSD, all the way into the Chic-Fil-A parking lot and most of the way around the store. 3) (+++) Accelerating from stop at three way into a left turn was perfect, just thinking about it makes my eyes water up -- back in 12.3 the car accelerated there like it was in a race or trying to dodge bumper cars. 4) (=-+) FSD still seems unable to read the yellow "speed limit" signs for blind curves, tight curves, bus stops and hidden driveways, all of which were at one spot on my drive, BUT it actually responded nigh immediately to me scrolling down the speed from 45 to 25 and a good thing because I met a patrol car in the turn coming around the other way... Imagine his surprise that someone was actually doing the speed limit there! After the "dangerous" stuff, I scrolled the speed back up to 45 and the car climbed immediately back up to about 40 (the actual speed limit). 5) (=--)A left turn at the top of a hill was taken too early (all V12 has done this). Yes it made the turn smoother to cut left sooner, but it also drove over lane markings in the road I was turning into. Better to turn left a bit harder but better aligned with the road. 6) (=-+) Roundabout was smooth, but no signaling... 7) (??+) Leaf blower guy in the road given plenty of space, but not too much, very smoothly. 8) (+++) All turns and stops, except for a single left turn at a traffic light onto a narrow rough lane were very smooth, and that left less-smooth turn wasn't bad. 9) (+++) Amazing results for a right turn at a difficult 3-way stop onto a narrow unmarked road on which the middle of the road seemed to have been claimed by an approaching pickup truck and the turn itself designed to drop a turning car's (mine, in this case) right back wheel off the pavement and into the ditch (think curb rash but with a deep ditch instead of a curb). I watched the right repeater camera as the turn was made and there was a tiny strip of asphalt still visible through even through the sketchiest part of the turn -- I could not have made the turn any better, or tighter, without hanging the tire over the ditch. As for the oncoming road-hog pickup, it did move over a little, but still somewhat in the middle of the road as Perl moved over to within few inches of the edge of the pavement, leaving a very close space between the vehicles as both continued.... I would have simply pulled over and stopped until the truck blundered by, but FSD seemed to think it had it all accounted for and it was right. 10) (=+-) Finally the car set up to turn into my driveway on a good angle, but got spooked and froze. Maybe have been the empty garbage cans that partially blocked the driveway, or maybe FSD was nervous about the dropoff on either side of the driveway entrance, but after 20 seconds or so, I took over, turned a little harder and pulled into the driveway. I needed to stop there anyway (remember the cans?) to put my caddy in Perl's hitch and take a can up the driveway, and I drove that myself.

Do you think FSD will be able to drive without interventions and disengagements everywhere in the world? Specially in countries where "rules" are more like guidelines.

Could have explained the do not enter more. Was it an entry to a parking lot? There was no sign on the road like mo right turn just on the entry after turning? That is a very unusual situation if so.

So…WHEN FSD for the Cybertruck? I really miss it…sometimes drive the MY over the CBeast!

Point to point can give mixed results. Nice to see point to point taxi examples, but nav will likely pick minimal turns and straight roads. If the point to points are interesting, go for it!

Mine just updated. One thing I hope is fixed is reading speed limit signs. Its really bad at it on our rural roads. Also it sees the all streets limited to X speed as the speed limit. I have yet to drive with 12.5 but fingers crossed.

I’m shocked that it goes that far over the speed limit on default settings. I understand 5 over as that’s kinda what the “normal” driver would do, but 10 over is really pushing it, ticket territory for sure. Personally, on main roads and highways at speed limits of 45+ I do about 10-15 over and 0-10 over in residential areas depending on busyness, so it wouldn’t be a problem for me specifically. However, for the average driver, I think that’s too much. Another great video, as always!

Brighton, that’s were I live. Run far and run fast from Brighton. Don’t get stuck in Brighton for 42 years like I did 😢

How do the stop signs feel? 12.3.6 comes in SO HOT before stopping it gives everyone in the car a bit of whiplash.

10 over in a 25 is nuts, you right Chris

at 4:57 , that is a map error. And we can have a philosophical discussion on what FSD should do when the given directions are incorrect. In general from my own experience, the maps aren't at the level they need to be.

Re: 25 mph. Downtown Pinckney in another location I have to disengage because the car wants to drive 35+ in that area, which is a really bad idea. Safety is an issue for sure, but getting a ticket is likely as well.

It's definitely rolling out, got it on my 24' MX last night.

You’re in my backyard. I’ve made that drive to the post office with FSD many times. I always end it before I get there because of the mapping issue that caused your disengagement. I suspect Google needs to update their map? I’ve reported it in the past. You were definitely driving in areas that I use FSD in frequently.

I'd rather it not get any smoother and instead solve more obvious, long-standing issues. If take a test over and over, and each time I get 40%, but I finish it quicker and quicker, I still fail every time. FSD needs to get 99.9999% to pass and it's been stuck at 95%. Reading and following all the road signs correctly 99.9999% of the time should be an absolute given. And that's including the obscure signs and scrolling traffic signs and stuff. Not being able to read and follow a sign you see every day like "do not enter" is highly dissapointing. It doesn't matter how smoothly it makes a turn, that's still a fail. Not being able to reverse yet is also a glaringly obvious and major problem. IMHO they shouldn't release another version without these super obvious issues are being largely solved.

Have you seen any improvements with lane dancing (i.e., hesitating in the middle of a lane change)? That's still the #1 issue for me.

11:00 dude, I've had LENGTHY discussions in my comments recently about the 25MPH speed zones. Some people just wanna drive fast everywhere. 25 is for house, people, kids, dogs, etc... not just cause they want to slow you down for no reason. FSD handles some 25 zones perfectly, but others it treats it like a 40 zone.

Great video, I wish they improve the EZ Pass locations here in the NE. They always show blinking lights and nothing resembling an EZ Pass or Toll station which at this point Tesla should have implemented a GPS location to most Toll locations. Thx again

@DirtyTesla - Why does it appear that when it stops at a stop sign, it's a bit back from the stop line. I was always under the impression you should stop with the front of your vehicle just (maybe not more than a foot) before the stop line or cross walk marking.

Investors have reached peak fatique, waiting for FSD. October 10 will be the single most important announcement Tesla has had. If it doesn't deliver something real, beyond more future promises at unknown dates, Wall street and many retail investors are at the point of losing patience. It's put up or shut up time.

They cut-over to HW4 optimisation now! HW3 will run a heavily quantised model of the HW4 model. Hopefully we start to see some major improvements now on HW4 cars. :)

I’m in Australia and just have autopilot. It’s pretty clunky and following cars from the lights it’s very slow to get moving. I also get lots of phantom braking. I guess the autopilot is running a different software?

So based on History, those of us still on 12.3.6 get nothing till sometime after October. They abandoned 12.4 all together. Then after 4 iterations they will determine they need 12.6, and it will start all over again. With all these pushing to get users off hardware 3 vehicles, I wonder if they are finding v3 hardware can’t hack it and they need hardware v4 or possibly Hardware v5

@DirtyTesla - at 15:12 as you exited the roundabout, I noticed the car did not signal it was turning right (leaving the roundabout). When I'm driving my non-Tesla, most of the time I use my turn signal to let a driver approaching the roundabout that I'm turning right and leaving the roundabout. Not sure if that's required - to signal - or not.

I really like the loss of the hesitation on turns, but I am not a fan of not having speed control when using FSD. They really need to add speed control back into the options.

Hey Chris. Another nice video for fsd! I also live in Michigan. I am wondering have you tested the two lane Michigan J turn followed by a immediate right turn on MI-5 or similar road? I tested 12.3.6 previously but it did not perform well as major issue is it always went to the inner side of the J turn lane which will be awkward if we want to turn right after the J turn

I think I'm going to try the none satellite view and do just maps basic like you've shown. I'll see if I can select pin drops easier now. Using 12.3.6 right now...I think thats the version.

10:55 What's hilarious is my Auto speed was consistently below the speed limit. It got to the point where I had to turn it off because it was so bad. Turning off Auto speed actually made 12.4.3 better for me.

I have had issues on 12.5 when speed limit changes and it switches then goes under the limit. Ive also still noticed harsh breaking and accelerating and not detecting traffic arrows

I’m still at 12.3.6, so I am jealous of all of you who have 12.5. BTW, have they fixed the windshield wiper coming on randomly?

A brief video where you do throttle the over the speed limit settings would be interesting to see for contrast to the auto offset love of over speeding from the limits you set

It's really good that you keep pointing out the fast speed and report it. Americans are always speeding for no reason. FSD might just become 10x more relax and safe to the average passenger. I don't want a Europe release getting delayed because of "+10mph! Musk's speeding FSD caused fatal crash" headlines. Tire noise is also insanely different at 35 mph vs 25 mph. for video editing: the stats in the end could be a little higher up, so they are not hidden by the playback bar when paused in some screen sizes. I really like the screen magnification and how it's cut together now. What camera setup are you using currently in the Model Y? Just the GoPro? I see the list for Filming eqipment is very long ☺

4:56 I wonder if that situation with "Do not enter" is possible to generalize in the sense that it is a route / path that the car selected from the map, where the "do not enter" wasn't available (so pre-planning was correct on available info), but then finding the error was possible only at the very last moment and car wasn't able to react to it? And there should be a clear protocol of what to do because us humans get into the same situations and resolving it just like you (Chris) did it. What reaction would we expect from the car in that moment? I bet that if this happens in the future (even with the best FSD future version), that it should do exactly what you did. So, what if it realized the error at the very moment like you already this time, and had the correction scenario ready, but you overrode it before it could have done so itself? I think these nasty blunders will still keep happening, but in a way they are specific and possible to categorize as "sudden need to change path due to unforseen traffic limitation". This would look like blunder every time, even if it is able to fix it, because it involves pre-planned turn that needs to be immediately changed and that is probably very difficult to do smoothly.

My update yesterday was to 12.3.6. Why do they do that? I paid for FSD and use it very often and it's no longer beta. So, I can't help wondering why my new version isn't the latest. Maybe someone has a reasonable explanation?

Please let us know your drive settings before you begin so we have some sort of idea why the car may be acting the way it does. Thanks!

On 12.4.3 with settings at Chill, the speeds are often a bit below the Max setting which is great on the residential streets near schools and parks.

I totally agree with you that 34mph in a 25mph is not appropriate... or safe! I think the solution though is there for the taking; set overspeed to a proportional amount of the speed limit. Mine is currently set at 10% more, so a 25mph speed limit would result in tesla going up to 27 (or 27.5) mph, 70mph would allow 77mph top FSD speed, etc. By setting to 10%, I easily can predict the top speed, and, so can my wife, is usually very unwilling to speed at all.

Change navigation with edit trip seems good. No need to let it get all the way to destination.

I really wish we had an OG tester in NYC. California, Florida, Michegan, etc. driving conditions all look so simple to me. The level of road complexity and volume of "traffic" whether it be vehicular or pedestrian in these cities is a joke to me. Too easy.

YES! Speed control is a mess and does not adapt to changes…70 in a 45 or 35 in a 55! How do you report this?

Did you say bad Ash where it would go park itself? as in an evil dead reference? :)

I bought FSD when I bought my car. I may try it again when the update also fixes dry windshield wipes, blinking yellow lights, emergency vehicles and enough stuff to get it up to the level of a 16 y/o human on their 3rd driving lesson.

Very good update video. Still obviously has plenty of kinks but it’s definitely getting better!! I’ve been watching FSD videos for about 3 years now and this is exciting compared to the semi disappointing 12.4 (even though that was getting better too). If this version is already this solid, imagine where it’ll be in a month or so if it continues to improve like the 12.3.x points did. 12.5.4 could be a massive improvement. AND all of this is BEFORE the super massive super cluster in Austin is up and running. Imagine what the AI model will be able to do with 10X its current compute. Also as for speed limits, I have no problem with it going 10 over. I think 9 over is right around where cops PROBABLY won’t pull you over in a 25 zone, and 5 over is totally cool as long as they aren’t behind you. It’s all preference. If you WANT it to go the speed limit then use that setting. MOST people would prefer it go over. Almost no one in Nashville ever drives the speed limit, and that seems to be the case pretty much anywhere I drive too.

Thanks for the review

If this version was to merge the Highway stack, we need to see the improvements (hopefully it has adopted) on your next drive please and thanks!

Thanks for the honest feedback

10:55 Perfect example of why we need FSD solved ASAP to get those people out of the drivers seat.

I'm getting alot of problems from it making bad navigational decisions, like pulling into residential area's 500 feet before actual turn, or when it's suppose to be driving straight it turns into a lowe's parking lot, drives around for a bit then get's stuck in a parking spot.

How did you get that screen recording clip ???

Yes! 12.4.3 without sunglasses is killing my eyes! 😂

Shouldn't you use the setting to make the car work in your State? In Texas, we can speed, so I don't need to stop the car from driving over the speed limit, but others might. I don't like the stop and creep/stop again, but it seems to be getting better at it. Overall, it was a nice drive.

FSD is drastically improving with every single update.

A little backstory - it's always bothered me that the graphs that you use show the same whether there are 0 disengagements (or interventions) and 1. I think if you were doing disengagements per mile instead of miles per disengagement that would fix that. I'm not sure that you'll want to change it at this point, but it is just wrong that a 0 disengagement drive shows 9 on a 9 mile drive and a 1 disengagement drive shows exactly the same. Those are NOT the same and SHOULD not be shown the same.

Can someone explain to me how can you have a robotaxi if Tesla FSD cannot drive in the rain? The technology depends on cameras. I own a Y and have used FSD for months. I truly don't understand how this will be solved and to me is annoying that rain stops everything.

Downtown Brighton??? I didn't know you lived inside Police Simulator!

It's always the best version ever then the car tries to drive down a do not enter! Then disengagement can't be reported Too funny!

How would you characterize the ability of FSD now vs a year ago? Different but at a similar level? Much improved? Would love a video comparing the performance at different stages of beta you’ve had access to.