Does FSD work on dirt roads?
No lane lines, soft edges, and drop-offs. Rural Michigan gave this archive an unusual amount of unmarked-road footage.
Coverage by software era
How much footage exists for this scenario in each build. Eras with fewer than 3 matching videos are marked — they are anecdotes, not evidence of a trend.
| Version | Moments | Failures | Highlights | Videos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v14 Lite | 1 | – | 1 | 1 / 1 | thin sample |
| v8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 / 12 | |
| v9 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 5 / 11 | |
| v10 | 27 | 9 | 18 | 17 / 55 | |
| v10.69 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 12 / 38 | |
| v11 | 23 | 13 | 10 | 1 / 2 | thin sample |
| v11.3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 / 15 | |
| v11.4 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 9 / 35 | |
| v12.3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 10 | |
| v12.4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 / 7 | thin sample |
| v12.5 | 17 | 4 | 13 | 8 / 24 | |
| v13.2 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 / 27 | |
| v14.1 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 4 / 14 | |
| v14.3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 / 22 |
Watch it happen
Worst first, newest builds first within each severity. Every card opens YouTube at the moment.
Car hit a crazy pothole on rough Michigan roads; Chris notes pothole avoidance is a regular critical-intervention issue especially on dirt roads.
Final attempt with mannequin falling over into the road: car did not stop for the falling object.
Box in the road was destroyed with no alarm; any slowing was attributed to a bend, not the low, road-colored debris—box called a fail.
Moving dog pulled late across the road at ~30 mph: emergency alarm and braking started, but the car still hit the dog object.
Moving squirrel simulation pulled across the road: a little braking but the car ran over/killed it—squirrel tests overall a fail.
On nighttime dirt/unmarked roads, FSD degrades and repeatedly tries to pull over or turn off rather than continue, a bug Chris says is blatant and ruins this part of the drive.
After drop-off at Home Slice with cars parked on both sides, the Model Y turned left toward a parked car; its tire touched the parked vehicle at low speed before hazard lights came on, and the safety passenger later drove away manually.
Leaving home on dirt roads with no nearby cars and clean cameras, FSD threw take-over-immediately, slowed to a stop, and sat alerting until he took over.
She took over for a car on the other side of the dirt road because FSD moves right for oncoming traffic later than she prefers.
While intentionally testing eye tracking, Autosteer became unavailable for the rest of the drive and he got a strike after looking at the display ~5 seconds.
Near the end he takes over immediately, saying he does not know what the problem was.
With no lane lines the car stayed on the wrong side of the street; the visualization froze, and he disengaged then re-engaged to recover.
On slow unmarked neighborhood streets, Chris’s 10.12.1 car consistently gives up and tells him to take over; he hits the brake as predicted.
With lane lines not visible, the car drove in the middle of the road and the driver took over to follow tire tracks.
Hit the brake because the car was putting its nose out too far toward fast oncoming traffic and he did not want to freak the other driver out.
Creator turns Autopilot off, lets regen take over after ~30 highway miles, then does a hard takeoff and some dirt-road driving.
While holding the wheel to test how far Autopilot can go on the dirt segment, it turns itself off with no driver input.
Driver takes over to avoid a straight route that is really beat up, chooses another road, waits for reroute, then plans to re-enable FSD.
A familiar stretch always gets too close to the right edge where he feels he could fall off a cliff.
Driver took over to force a right turn FSD was not taking; FSD had been driving fine and re-engaged instantly mid-maneuver.
FSD reported object in path and would not proceed from a dirt parking lot until Chris gave an accelerator tap, which he counted as one intervention.
After re-engaging FSD from the parking spot the truck rocks but will not start, so after waiting he taps the accelerator once and it finally proceeds.
On a road the creator treated as ~55 mph, Max was only 46 so he expected another speed intervention as FSD stayed too slow.
On a 55 mph unposted rural road FSD treats as 25 mph and capped at 40 max, Chris raises max speed to 60 as an intervention, but the car still will not go faster.
Driver hit the accelerator again because FSD was going too slowly on the way to the airport.
Earlier that morning on a dirt road, FSD stopped for a fallen tree then sat there until he took over and turned around.
Car nearly missed a left turn and barely went off the road; driver intervened to avoid getting stuck.
On a snowy dirt road FSD drifted too far right toward the road edge and the driver corrected quickly.
On a dirt-road hill, HW4 drifts left; Chris intervenes because cars come flying over the crest and side positioning is unsafe.
Stephanie takes over or refuses to rely on beta past a person walking a dog on a curve she cannot see around.
While routing was still loading on spotty dirt-road internet, the car took a different path than intended, so Chris manually turned around.
Leaving the dirt lot toward a light, the car repeatedly refused to creep up to the stop line, so the driver tapped the accelerator multiple times and finally pushed it up to the light.
On an unmarked Michigan road (55 mph), the car drives too slow; driver raises speed and notes this as the second intervention.
He reports 10.69.3 is worse on dirt roads than 10.69.2 / the 10.69 branch, being too hesitant around bends.
On finishing dirt roads he tells it not to move left; it corrects and finishes more smoothly.
On a simple dirt-road right turn that always trips the car, it crept into the intersection before being confident; he stopped it then used the accelerator when prompted.
After setting home as destination it goes rogue into a dirt parking lot; he re-engages FSD and it aggressively takes the exit.
Tight oncoming traffic; he lowers speed but car still does not move over far enough—worse than prior builds on this behavior.
Despite speed set to 30 and car already slower for uncertainty, it does not move over for an oncoming vehicle; driver corrects.
Leaving a dirt parking lot, FSD started moving but not fast enough for oncoming cars, so he pressed the accelerator.
On unplowed snow-covered dirt roads, FSD keeps going too far right and the driver corrects it multiple times.
FSD waits for a pedestrian, is not upset by flashing lights, and somewhat avoids dirt in the road.
On a dirt road near him, FSD started a right turn, then stopped, reversed, and turned around after detecting a small road-closed sign on a stick that was hard to see until the turn.
Car again refused a road marked closed to through traffic (dirt/pavement torn up) and kept trying alternate routes home.
FSD slowed and stopped correctly for a large exercise ball, including a tight gravel-road stop, contrasting older versions that failed this object.
Near the end of the drive, FSD pulls past someone getting a parking ticket and parks directly at the door in a very precise park job.
Entered the parking lot and pulled into a handicap spot, which the creator notes is technically illegal but acceptable as a temporary robotaxi drop-off style stop.
The Robotaxi app received its first update, adding adjustable pickup/drop-off pins, remaining wait time at pickup (including Live Activity), design changes, and bug fixes.