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We got the chance to drive the new 2024 ID.4 and found an impressive amount of changes from last model year – at least on the 82kWh version.

The 2024 ID.4 is just a new model year, but with the amount of changes that VW has made, it feels like a mid-cycle refresh. We don’t usually go to drive events for individual model year improvements, but after driving this one, it definitely had enough changes to make the drive worthwhile.

That said – all of these changes are ONLY on the bigger battery 82kWh version. The 62kWh base model ID.4 is exactly the same as last year’s model, though has received a price bump from last year, which started 2023 at a price of $37,495, then got a $1,500 price hike mid-year, and has been bumped further in 2024 up to $39,735 before destination fees.

The VW ID.4 does currently qualify for the full $7,500 US federal EV tax credit – the only car made by a foreign automaker to qualify, due to local production in Chattanooga, Tennessee – and the credit is now available upfront at the point of sale. This makes the 62kWh version quite attractive at a ~$32k base price after credit.

But since we’re talking about the 82kWh version, we should talk about that base price instead. The 2024 with the changes we saw starts at $44,875, which is still in line with the entry price of many of the other EVs out today (Ioniq 5 $42k, Model Y $44k, etc.). And again, the 82kWh ID.4 does also qualify for the full federal tax credit, bringing the price down to ~$38k.

So, what are all these big changes?

A better rear motor means more power and more efficiency

Among other things, the 82kWh ID.4 is more powerful and more efficient, due to an improved rear motor. The front motor remains the same, so RWD models will gain more improvement than AWD models.

The RWD is now 282hp with 402 lb-ft of torque, while the AWD is 335hp with 99lb-ft in the front and 402lb-ft in the rear.

This brings RWD 0-60 times to 5.9 seconds, down from 7.7, and AWD 0-60 is at 4.9 seconds, down from 5.7.

But not only does it have more power, it’s also more efficient – a rare feat. More efficiency means that the same size battery can go farther, so the 2024 RWD ID.4 now has 291 miles of EPA-estimated range, up from 275, and the AWD version has 263 miles, up from 255.

As for the drive experience of the ID.4, we drove the new RWD version on a foggy and cold day on the Angeles Crest Highway and it felt perfectly… acceptable. The ID.4 is focused on being more of an everyman’s car, not a sportscar. So it delivered a comfortable drive, with the power required for comfortable driving tasks.

It handled well on the twisty road we took it on, though the tires did seem to be working hard. Like most EVs, the ID.4 exhibited very little body roll around corners due to a low center of gravity from the battery located low in the vehicle.

Power was as much as a normal driver would need, and power delivery is smooth rather than punchy. I do tend to prefer a more punchy power delivery, and really dislike when automakers build a delay into throttle response, but the ID.4 doesn’t feel laggy (unlike the Blazer EV or Fisker Ocean that I’ve driven recently).

Like other VW Group EVs (including Audi, Porsche etc.), the ID.4 is not really capable of one-pedal driving, at least not to the degree of EVs with stronger regen like Tesla, Leaf and Bolt.

Putting the car in “B” mode does enable some amount of regenerative braking, which we were able to get to decelerate the car down to 5mph even while going down a hill. However, the regen was still quite light, and I found myself reaching for the brake pedal when entering flowing canyon corners, whereas in other EVs I would simply let off the accelerator to get the braking I wanted.

2024 VW ID.4 foggy angeles crest

I remain convinced that VW needs to increase regenerative braking strength on its EVs – and in talking to VW representatives at the event, it sounds like they’ve been hearing the same elsewhere and may finally be considering doing so.

I wouldn’t consider either of these issues particularly galling (well, maybe the regen one, because I’ve been one-pedal driving for 15 years now), but they are issues that could easily be fixed by allowing customers to select different drive modes based on their preferences.

And the ID.4 does have drive modes (ECO, comfort, sport, and “custom” where you can mix and match), but we felt very little difference between these modes. I would like to see them differentiate more between the modes – options for significantly heavier steering , punchier throttle, stronger regen, etc.

The biggest change I could find is that these different modes do change the color of the UI, so, I guess you can pick your drive mode based on whether you like red, blue, or a-slightly-different-blue as your UI accent color.

Now that we’re talking about the UI, the 2024 model has a significantly improved user interface, which we were quite impressed with.

Big UI changes vastly improve user experience

I’m a tough customer when it comes to any sort of digital user interface. I’ve said many times that most automotive UIs are terrible, with the exception of the EV startups. And most automakers seemed to have given up on making usable infotainment systems, instead ceding that work to Apple or Google with CarPlay and Android Auto. The ID.4 does come with both systems, and if you like those systems, you can go ahead and keep using them.

But VW made quite a few changes to its base user interface, and these are welcome. The screen is now 12.9 inches instead of 12 inches, though most of the new space is taken up by a persistent climate control display, giving access to fan speed controls and split temperature controls for driver and passenger. It also allows operation of the ventilated seats, which are new for the 2024 model.

Temperature and volume controls are also available with a physical touch bar below the display. This touch bar is now illuminated in the 2024 model, as in the previous model it was hard to see at night.

VW updated its EV route planner for the 2024 model, which can now include up to 10 charging stops on a route, and takes into account both Electrify America stations and others (though no NACS yet, but we expect that’s coming soon™).

To use it, you just input a destination and the car will plan your charge stops for you, telling you where to stop, for how long, will automatically precondition the battery to optimize charging times, and will update live to show you how many free chargers there are at the stop (though this is in tiny font, in dark grey on a light grey background – more visibility would be better on this UI feature).

While we didn’t get to test fast charging (which is up to 175kW on the 2024 model, up from 170kW before), the route planning function worked extremely quickly, planning out a long multi-stop route in only a couple seconds – even quicker than Tesla’s system does it.

And you can customize the settings, telling your car to ensure you don’t go under a certain percentage while driving or that you have at least a certain amount of range at your destination (e.g. if you’re traveling to a place you won’t have overnight charging at). One UI screen tells you an estimate of how fast you would charge if you charged right now, so while we don’t know the actual charge curve of the car just yet, you can get a sense of it by looking at this screen.

Another relevant charging-related change is that the ID.4 just recently (finally) got plug & charge. This was rolled out to 2023 models on Electrify America stations just last month, but the 2024 model will be able to use Plug & Charge on non-EA stations as well. Plug & Charge is the name of a feature that allows you to just plug into a DC charge station and walk away without having to open any apps or swipe any cards or anything – a similar experience to using a Tesla Supercharger.

UI controls were reasonably responsive in general, partially due to updated processing speed and memory for the infotainment system (though it’s still not buttery-smooth as you would expect from an iPad, which frankly is the bar that all automakers should aspire to), though the layout of sub-menus was sometimes confusing and hard to find things in. This would probably go away with some experience, but we did skip over a few of the sub menus we were looking for due to being named with generic-sounding headings like “basic functions.”

The software improvements on this car are notable, given that VW has had some difficulty with EV software timelines in the past. Its Cariad software unit, created in 2020 to improve EV software issues and deliver over-the-air updates to vehicles (basically, to make VW’s software more Tesla-like), has had problems getting up to speed, to the point where the unit’s difficulties reportedly were a large contributor to former CEO Herbert Diess’ departure. In October, the company tapped some EV startup veterans to try to fix these problems.

And some other small physical changes were made, like a slight relocation of the PRND level for better visibility, and moving the hazard button downward slightly, because previously it was easy to accidentally press it when reaching for the touchscreen (as pointed out by Electrek‘s very own Michelle Lewis, who owns an ID.4 herself).

A new LED strip has been added at the base of the windshield, which we’ve seen on several other vehicles lately. But rather than just being ambient lighting (which the car also has, and it’s adjustable), VW has made the windshield strip functional. It syncs with the nav system and swipes a blue streak across the strip to tell you which direction you need to turn, and it shows certain alerts, like flashing red when the car’s safety sensors want to tell you something. I really liked this feature.

A ChatGPT-enabled voice assistant in your ID.4

One feature that we found to be quite cool was the new ChatGPT-enabled voice assistant function. VW says it’s the “first volume manufacturer to make this innovative technology a standard feature in vehicles from the compact segment upwards,” though we have seen a beta of something similar from Mercedes.

This is an extension of VW’s “IDA” (get it? it looks like “ID.4”) voice assistant, who can be called up by pressing a steering wheel button or saying “hey IDA.” It allows control over an impressive set of vehicle functions, which you can see a partial list of by digging through the IDA menus. All of this is theoretically accessible through natural language search, so you don’t have to say specific catchphrases, but you can just talk to your car and she’ll figure out what you’re looking for.

In practice, though we didn’t use it extensively, it did reasonably well at understanding our meaning, though it wasn’t 100% accurate. There were definitely times that we had to restate or rephrase our questions to get a good answer out of the voice assistant, but that’s something we have all unfortunately come to expect out of these types of systems. In terms of voice recognition it was quick and reasonably accurate, and the wide range of things that it can do was better than other voice assistant systems we’ve seen in cars.

But maybe the neatest aspect of the IDA system is that you don’t have to call it IDA. You can in fact call it anything you want, by changing the “wake word” in software. Behold!

(to VW: I’m sorry, your voice assistant is actually quite nice and did not deserve the abusive name, I am just a child)

Honestly, this is a feature that I just love. It’s such a simple thing to be able to change the wake word, but it makes so much sense, especially in an automotive context.

On the one hand it enables dumb jokes like mine above, but on the other hand it’s a genuine improvement (e.g. if someone in your home is named Ciri, or if you ever talk “seriously” about anything, it can be confusing to have an Apple device around), and it dovetails quite well with the already-existing societal trend of people naming their cars. Now you can actually name your car something, and it will respond to that name!

If nothing else, it’s a great crowd pleaser, and it worked within moments the first time we tried it. Any VW dealer who wants to sell a car, just sit the customer down inside and show them a demo of this one feature and you’ll surely surprise and delight them.

Conclusion and availability

Despite the tendency of VW Group EVs to make some “safe” choices (like no one-pedal driving), in keeping with their somewhat traditional stance as far as automakers go, I found myself saying “oh, that’s cool” a lot of times during our quick couple hours with the car, mostly related to the various UI improvements made. They seem to have done a solid job here.

In fact, there’s so many changes that I even asked VW if it would be appropriate to call this a mid-cycle refresh, particularly given that the car is ~3 years old now. They said no, because usually those involve some sort of change to the exterior sheet metal of the vehicle (the only exterior changes are wheels – 20in on the AWD entry level, and 21in on the AWD/RWD S Plus trim), but that the 2024 is indeed a “strong” model year update.

And, once again, all of these changes are only on the more expensive 82kWh version, not the base model 62kWh version. This is a bit disappointing, because VW did tout the 62kWh’s attractive entry price in its presentation to us, though all of the new features are gated behind a $5,140 upgrade to a larger battery which many customers just don’t need.

But, maybe these changes will migrate down the model range when the real mid-cycle refresh comes, perhaps in another year or two. We can hope, anyway.

Regardless, big upgrades here. If you were considering getting an ID.4 already, you can be even happier at the value proposition once the 2024s hit dealerships, which happens in March.

If you’d like, you can use our links to contact your local dealers about the 2024 VW ID.4, and get yourself in line for when they’re delivered in this coming month.

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BYD previews new flagship EV SUV and sedan for the first time

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3 hours ago

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December 16, 2025

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BYD previews new flagship EV SUV and sedan for the first time

BYD-new-flagship-EV-sedan-SUV

BYD offered a first look at its new flagship electric SUV and sedan, claiming the new EVs redefine high-end standards.

BYD preps to launch new flagship EV sedan and SUV

With over 480,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) sold in November, BYD is coming off its best sales month of 2025. With new technology and vehicles launching across multiple segments, the company expects momentum to pick up in 2026.

That will include a pair of high-end flagship EVs, the Seal 08 sedan and Sealion 08 SUV. BYD confirmed the names for the first time on Monday alongside teaser images revealing the silhouette of each.

According to CarNewsChina, both models are set to debut in the first three months of 2026 and will feature BYD’s latest tech and software.

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Both models are based on the Ocean S concept BYD revealed in April at the Shanghai Auto Show, featuring its latest design theme, Ocean Aesthetic 2.0.

Although China’s MIIT released a sales license for a BYD vehicle named the Seal 08 earlier this year, it launched as the Seal 06 EV this summer.

BYD-new-flagship-EV-sedan-SUV
BYD previews new flagship Seal 08 sedan (Source: BYD)

At 4,720 mm long, 1,880 mm wide, and 1,495 mm tall, the electric sedan is about the size of the Tesla Model 3. It’s offered with 46.1 kWh or 56.6 kWh battery packs, delivering a CLTC range of 470 km and 545 km, respectively.

Although BYD has yet to reveal prices or any other details, the Seal 08 is expected to deliver a longer driving range with added power.

Local news outlet 163 claims the new Sealion 08 will be 5,040 mm long, or slightly bigger than the Tesla Model Y-sized Sealion 07 SUV.

BYD-new-flagship-EV-sedan-SUV
BYD previews new flagship Sealion 08 SUV (Source: BYD)

The new flagship SUV and sedan will join other BYD Ocean Series models, including the Seagull, Dolphin, Seal, and Song Plus.

Although November was BYD’s best sales month of the year, growth has slowed in 2025. BYD’s chairman and president, Wang Chuanfu, told investors (via CnEVPost) that the company’s biggest advantage lies in its advanced technologies, including next-gen batteries, smart driving features, charging, and other related EV tech.

“I say our technology isn’t sufficiently advanced now because we have major technological announcements coming, but I can’t disclose details at this time,” Wang said earlier this month.

BYD is also aggressively expanding overseas to drive growth. Last month, BYD’s exports surged 325% with a record nearly 132,000 vehicles shipped overseas.


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Velotric Christmas Sale drops Summit 1 e-bike bundle back at $1,799 low, Heybike dual-battery Hauler e-bike at new $999 low, more

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3 hours ago

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December 16, 2025

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Velotric Christmas Sale drops Summit 1 e-bike bundle back at ,799 low, Heybike dual-battery Hauler e-bike at new 9 low, more


Headlining our Tuesday Green Deals this week is Velotric’s Christmas Gift Season Sale that is not only taking up to $400 off a select number of its e-bikes, but is also offering a FREE $100 gift card with purchases of $2,500 or more. Among the lineup, we spotted the Velotric Summit 1 Versatile Multi-Terrain e-bike with a $160 FREE bundle of gear back at its $1,799 low. Right behind it is Heybike’s Hauler Dual-Battery Cargo e-bike that comes with $89+ in FREE gear/gifts at a new $999 low, as well as Bluetti’s Elite 30 V2 Power Station at $204, an Autel EV Charger at its second-best pricing, and many more Christmas deals waiting for you below. And don’t forget about the hangover deals that are collected together at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Hiboy Christmas EV Sale, the latest EcoFlow 48-hour flash sale that ends tonight, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

With its weekend flash sale now over, Velotric has switched gears and has launched its Christmas Gift Season Sale with select e-bike discounts of up to $400, free gifts, and even a free $100 gift card promotion when spending $2,500 or more. Among the small selection of deals, a standout is Velotric’s newer Summit 1 Versatile Multi-Terrain e-bike in a Royal Blue colorway with $160 in FREE gear at $1,799 shipped, matching its Black Friday pricing. This e-bike alone would normally cost $1,999 at full price (and $2,059 with the bundled gear), which we only saw 2025 discounts to $1,899 until Black Friday/Cyber Monday, when this same low price came around for the second time since 2024. Now, you’re getting another chance to score the best tracked price, with $200 cut from the tag and a total $360 savings in all. Head below to learn more about it and the other offers during this Christmas sale.

Coming in as a more affordable all-terrain trekker over Velotric’s premium Nomad 2X e-bike, the Summit 1 e-bike still provides plenty of support, regardless of the terrain you’re venturing across. It arrives equipped with a 750W rear hub motor (that peaks at 1,300W) and a 705.6Wh battery, giving you up to 20/28 MPH top speeds (depending on your laws) and up to 70 miles of PAS-supported travel. While the brand claims that throttle-only riding can continue for up to 60 miles, it’s best to expect less from using pure electric action.

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One notable standout among this e-bike’s features is the SensorSwap inclusion, which allows you to utilize both a cadence and torque sensor as you ride after simply switching between them, giving you more versatile support depending on what kind of terrain you’re passing over. Other features include Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and an 8-speed derailleur, Kenda puncture-resistant tires, a light-sensing LED headlight, a brake-activated taillight, Apple Find My security integration, a 2.8 full color display with a USB port, and more.

Velotric Christmas Gift Season Sale offers:

  • Fold 1 Step-Thru Folding e-bike w/ FREE $48 bundle: $1,099 (Reg. $1,547)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 55 miles
  • Velotric T1 ST Plus Lightweight Urban e-bike w/ FREE $162 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $2,059)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
  • Breeze 1 Cruiser e-bike w/ $150 FREE bundled gear: $1,799 (Reg. $1,949)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
  • Summit 1 Multi-Terrain e-bike w/ FREE $160 bundle: $1,799 (Reg. $2,059)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
father and son on trail with Heybike Hauler e-bikes

Carry packages, people, more on Heybike’s 85-mile dual-battery Hauler cargo e-bike with FREE gear/gifts at a new $999 low

As part of Heybike’s ongoing Christmas e-bike Sale, which has returned the ALPHA All-Terrain Mid-Drive model back to its lowest price, we also spotted a new cut on the Hauler Dual-Battery Cargo e-bike for $999 shipped and coming with FREE dual rear side baskets ($89 value) and a holiday gift pack. This long-range variant goes for $1,899 outside of sales, which we’ve only seen taken as low as $1,099 previously during the brand’s Black Friday sale. Now, for Christmas, you’re looking at even more savings – $989+ total – that lands it down at a new all-time low price at just $100 more than the single-battery model was before selling out of stock.

If you want to learn more about this long-range e-bike, be sure to check out our original coverage of this new low price here.

man and woman camping outdoors with Bluetti power station at table

Bluetti Elite 30 V2 288Wh LiFePO4 power station and its many colorways start from $204 and arrive before Xmas

Bluetti’s official Amazon storefront is undercutting the brand’s direct Christmas Sale pricing on its Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station at $204 shipped in a standard black colorway, while its sand grey and twilight purple colorways are priced higher at $209 shipped – the latter of these deals matching the price directly from Bluetti, where sadly, they are not eligible for the exclusive bonus savings. These stations all carry $304 MSRPs on the direct site, while Amazon starts them off a little lower at $299. Today’s rates are only beaten out by cuts further to $199 and $189 that we’ve sporadically seen, most recently during last month’s Black Friday events, with you still getting solid $95 and $90 markdowns.

If you want to learn more about this power station, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

man charging vehicle with Autel EV charger

Autel’s MaxiCharger Home 40A level 2 EV charging station arrives ahead of Christmas for $319

Through the official Autel Amazon storefront, you can pick up the brand’s MaxiCharger Home 40A Level 2 EV Charger at $319 shipped, which matches the price directly from the brand. It’s coming down from its $470 full price here with a $151 markdown, landing it at the second-lowest rate we have tracked – just $8 above the low we spotted during July’s Prime Day event. If you want an even more advanced model, you can also currently find the MaxiCharger AC Lite Home 40A Smart AI Level 2 EV Charger with voice controls at this same price – with either of these stations arriving ahead of Christmas for the time being.

If you want to learn more about this EV charging solution, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

Anker SOLIX power stations on sled in Christmas sale banner
Samsung smart appliances in the kitchen
Lectric e-bike Christmas banner

Best Winter EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.


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I tested Tesla’s latest ‘mind blowing’ Full Self-Driving v14

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3 hours ago

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December 16, 2025

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I tested Tesla's latest 'mind blowing' Full Self-Driving v14

Tesla Full Self-Driving

I’ve put over 200 km (125 miles) on Tesla’s latest ‘Full Self-Driving Supervised’ (FSD) v14 update, and I’ve gathered my thoughts in this article.

In short, Tesla FSD v14 is an incremental improvement to the automaker’s advanced driver-assist system (ADAS) and the most impressive Level 2 system available in a consumer vehicle today.

However, it is still far from what Tesla sold to car buyers: unsupervised self-driving.

I briefly tested FSD v14 in a friend’s car when it launched two months ago, but now that I’ve picked up a new Model 3 with HW4, I’ve spent much more time with it and can share more thoughts.

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First off, for context, I was already a somewhat heavy user of FSD on my Model 3 with HW3, which is stuck on FSD v12 because the computer has reached its limits. I’ve been using it for years.

With v12, FSD was involved in roughly 80% of my driving – mainly on the highway. I’m a responsible FSD user because I always pay attention to the road and am ready to take control at all times. I do appreciate FSD taking over most of the driving tasks so I can focus on scanning the road.

It tried to kill me a couple of times, but it is something you sign up for when you are basically a beta tester.

I haven’t had a significant update to FSD on my HW3 Model 3 for a year now, as Tesla has focused almost all its efforts on updates to vehicles equipped with the newer HW4 computer and its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas.

There’s now virtually no hope that Tesla vehicles with HW3 computers (most cars up to 2024) will ever deliver on Musk’s promise of unsupervised self-driving. He has been talking about a computer retrofit to help, but that was almost a year ago, and Tesla still hasn’t offered anything to HW3 owners beyond transferring FSD to a new car with HW4, which is what I reluctantly did.

The latest update, available only to cars with the HW4 (AI4) computer, is called FSD v14, and CEO Elon Musk has been hyping it as “sentient” and “mind-blowing.”

After driving more than 200 km (125 miles) with the FSD v14 update (v14.2.1.25 to be exact), here are my thoughts:

Tesla FSD V14 Pros

We already reported on the new point-to-point features of FSD v14, which now enable you to go from parking to parking only on FSD under the driver’s supervision.

That’s a noticeable improvement that removed a lot of disengagements.

However, that’s more a direct capability added to the system rather than an improvement in actual driving performance, which I’m focused on here.

Coming from v12, I can say with certitude that v14 feels more confident. It drives more like a human. It feels less robotic in its actions. Acceleration and deceleration are smoother.

Obviously, that’s going to depend heavily on the driving mode you choose. Much like v12, I find that the ‘Hurry’ mode is the best suited for me, as I generally like to drive above the speed limit, but not high enough to get a speeding ticket, which the new Mad Max mode would rack up quickly

FSD v14 finally tries to go back into the right lane after passing to the left – although emphasis on the word ‘tries’ as there’s a significant con to that in the next section.

Tesla FSD V14 Cons

The obvious one is: it’s not what Tesla sold to customers, unsupervised self-driving, and I don’t see it becoming that any time soon.

I had plenty of interventions and a couple of disengagements over those ~200 km. Fortunately, none of them were safety-related.

Two disengagements were due to FSD not entering the right lane at the right time. I gave it a chance until the last second, but it kept making me miss my exits or have a car cut me off at the last second, which is not acceptable to me.

From v12, I miss the ability to directly adjust the max speed live with the scroll depending on the situation. I hate it when automakers remove capabilities instead of just adding options.

As I mentioned in the ‘pros’ section, FSD v14 now tries to go back in the right lane after passing someone, something that it would do only half the time for me in v12. However, it only “tries” to do it. Half the time, it flashes its lights and moves to the right before returning to the middle of the left lane for seemingly no reason, even though it appears safe to return to the right lane.

It often does this little dance once or twice before either giving up or successfully moving to the right lane.

Electrek’s Take

My take on FSD has always been that if it were developed by Tesla in a vacuum, it would mostly be celebrated as a great driver-assistance system.

However, the fact that Tesla sold this to customers as something that “has all the hardware to support full autonomy” and will increase in price as the software will improve, until you can eventually go to sleep in the car and wake up at your destination, has changed everything.

Now, not only was Tesla wrong about the hardware and the price, but we also have to compare it to what was promised: unsupervised self-driving.

As long as it is not that, it is a failure. There’s no way around it.

I have a theory on people who are impressed by Tesla FSD v14. Putting aside biased people who are invested in Tesla’s stock, I think people who are impressed fall into one of two categories:

  1. People who, for whatever reason, are disconnected from Tesla selling FSD as a level 4, unsupervised self-driving system. And doing so since 2016.
  2. Bad drivers.

There are also people who have never experienced FSD before. For those, it is obviously impressive, but personally, I expected a bigger jump from v12 to v14.

Many people are bad drivers, and they are OK with FSD doing strange things that might confuse or upset other road users. Personally, I can’t accept that. As Tesla makes abundantly clear (in court, less so in its marketing), I’m the one responsible for the car. Therefore, its driving reflects me, and I refused to let it negatively affect other road users.

As for the claim that “no other consumer vehicle can do what Tesla FSD can” and that it is “the best level 2 ADAS,” to me, those points are moot compared to: Does it actually deliver what Tesla sold to customers?

The answer to that is undoubtedly a big fat no.

Can it get there? Of course. On HW4? I have serious doubts.

FSD v14 is “feature complete”. It can perform all the tasks related to driving, but it can’t reliably cover millions of miles without human supervision. It also lacks the redundancy that you need in a system that doesn’t require human supervision.

Maybe it can do it in a small geo-fenced environment with remote monitoring, but that’s not scalable to the customer fleet.


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