FSD, school-zone chaos and a Ford Ranger that changed its mind

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Yesterday I had to take my 89-year-old mum to her regular podiatrist appointment.

Normally I deliberately book these things outside peak traffic, but circumstances meant we ended up right in the middle of the afternoon school rush around Penrith.

Mum absolutely loves FSD. At 89, she is completely fascinated by the technology and gets a genuine kick out of sitting there watching the car drive itself.

So I thought, feck it, let's see how FSD handles this.

We ended up around Penrith High at pretty much the worst possible time.

Kids everywhere. Prams. Parents pulling in and out. Cars parked everywhere. Mums and dads rushing around. Your typical 3pm school-zone traffic clusterfeck.

And the Tesla just flowed through it.

It was actually quite something to watch. No drama, no hesitation, no stupid manoeuvres. It just seemed to skate through the chaos like a ballerina.

Then came the interesting bit.

We approached one of those ridiculously tight little Penrith roundabouts that feels like somebody looked at an intersection that had absolutely no business being a roundabout and said, "Yeah, chuck one in there."

We're turning right.

Coming the opposite direction is a bloke in a Ford Raptor, going straight through.

FSD is being very cautious and starts proceeding into the roundabout.

The Ranger is already most of the way through when suddenly the driver puts his indicator on and decides he's turning across in front of us.

The Tesla absolutely HIT THE ANCHORS.

Instantly.

That's the bit that genuinely surprised me.

I was watching the Ranger. I knew exactly where he was. But I honestly don't think I would have reacted and stopped as quickly as the car did.

There was no second-guessing what the Ranger driver was doing. The moment he created the conflict, the Tesla stopped.

The Ranger driver obviously realised what he'd done, stopped himself and gave us the apologetic wave to continue.

FSD, however, had apparently decided it no longer trusted this bloke as far as it could throw him. 😂

It wouldn't budge.

So I pressed the accelerator, completed the turn and carried on.

For all the criticism I've given FSD over some of its highway behaviour, particularly speed-limit recognition, this was one of those moments where you sit there and think, okay, this technology is getting seriously impressive.

Driving through that part of Penrith at school pickup time would normally require your full attention and a decent amount of patience.

Instead, with kids, prams, parked cars, impatient drivers and the obligatory Ranger thrown into the mix, the car just glided through it like hot butter.

And when somebody did something unpredictable, it saw it and reacted bloody quickly.

I'd actually love to see Tesla eventually take this one step further and have navigation understand these sorts of hotspots. If it's 3:05pm and your route takes you directly past a major school, perhaps FSD could recognise that and route around it where there's a sensible alternative.

But yesterday?

Credit where credit's due.

That was bloody impressive.