Tesla CEO Elon Musk is convinced that anyone who tries his EV maker's highest-level driver assistance product, Full Self-Driving, won't be able to live without it.
He isn't wrong.
Barron's took the latest version, number 14, of Tesla's FSD for several spins, as we have with prior versions, to help investors not exposed to the technology understand the current state of play. It's getting better.
Our first review was in September 2023, when I described the drive as a "mash of a teenager with a learner's permit and an octogenarian." It was fine, but I was, arguably, a better driver. Reviews in 2024 and early in 2025 showed improvement.
Version 14 is another step up in capability and drive quality. The best compliment I can pay the latest version of FSD is that my passengers prefer FSD to me. Now, Tesla's system is smoother and less jerky. It just might be the better driver.
(One notable improvement is that the car will park at a Tesla supercharger, ready to plug in for power.)
Of course, Barron's product review isn't comprehensive or scientific. But the car has been on the same roads in the same situations. It's also handled snow and trips to and from LaGuardia Airport without any significant problem.
There is other evidence of improvement. The crowdsourced website teslafsdtracker.com, referenced by Wall Street from time to time, reports that FSD version 14.1.7 has traveled more than 9,000 miles between "critical disengagements," which investors interpret as the car doing something a driver would consider dangerous.
Despite the advancements, it is hard to say whether Tesla is on the cusp of achieving general autonomous driving. Alphabet's Waymo robo-taxis appear to be about twice as good. FSD still requires human supervision 100% of the time. What's more, I can select drive modes, such as "hurry, " that let me skirt speed laws. (That, however, is my choice.)
Ultimately, when FSD is good enough to let human drivers take their eyes off the road is up to federal and state regulators. The FSD system is under constant regulatory scrutiny and has been recently criticized for violations involving lane markings, traffic signs, and traffic signals. It isn't perfect.
Today, I prefer to let FSD do most of the driving most of the time. It makes life a little easier and, when under supervision, adds a layer of safety that passengers have come to appreciate.
To some extent, it justifies Musk's view of the product. "The sales team and service team will actually sit with customers and say, 'Look, let us show you how it works and how easy it is,'" said Musk at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in November. "Then once they've tried it for even just a few days, they can't live without it."
Of course, that's hyperbole. I can live without it. Our household has more than one car, and I'm fine driving the other vehicle, which isn't a Tesla. But I don't like to do that.
What FSD improvements mean for Tesla stock is easy to estimate: They are everything. Tesla is valued at roughly $1.5 trillion and 200 times estimated 2026 earnings because investors expect AI-trained self-driving Teslas to unlock a new era of earnings growth.
Currently, about 12% of the U.S. Tesla fleet pays for FSD. That amounts to hundreds of thousands of people paying for the driver assistance product. That doesn't justify Tesla's stock market valuation, though. Instead, investors expect autonomous driving improvements to enable Tesla's robo-taxi platform, launched in June in Austin, Texas, to expand rapidly in 2026.
What FSD version 14 represents is a step on that path.