Can Tesla FSD Handle Roundabouts?

• A Tesla with FSD enabled nailed Swindon’s tricky Magic Roundabout.
• It’s the latest in a series of FSD videos from Europe, in which Tesla flaunts the automated driving system’s capability.
• FSD in Europe is still pending regulatory approval for public use and it’s unclear when it will be available.

If there is such a thing as a roundabout final boss, it’s the so-called Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, which is comprised of five smaller roundabouts arranged in a circle. In theory, it’s great because it allows traffic to travel both clockwise and anticlockwise in the same intersection, but it’s also confusing to navigate. So, how do you think a self-driving Tesla with Full Self-Driving enabled would go through this notorious junction?

Pretty well, actually. Considering the fact that it had to give way and then assertively power from one small roundabout to the next, it doesn’t look like it had any trouble. It drives through the Magic Roundabout several times, each time doing something slightly different, but it never looks sketchy, and it just seems to flow with the rest of the traffic pretty well. (Note, however, that Tesla would naturally not include clips of it doing poorly.)

This roundabout segment is an excerpt from a longer FSD drive through London as Tesla waits for regulatory approval to officially launch the automated driving service in Europe. The manufacturer is purposefully releasing videos of FSD navigating some of Europe’s trickiest driving environments, including the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Rome’s narrow side streets with the eat-or-be-eaten driving style of the locals.

FSD always seems to do just fine, as if to tell European regulators that it’s ready to go public on the continent. However, the regulators are taking their time, and it’s not clear when Europeans will finally be able to try FSD out on public roads.

We can’t even speculate since there’s no precedent for this. The only other manufacturer whose cars are allowed hands-free driving is Mercedes-Benz, and in that case, it’s strictly limited to German autobahns under certain conditions. So letting FSD have free rein in Europe could happen next month, next year or never, we just don’t know.

Elon Musk is annoyed by the still-pending regulatory approval in Europe. He’s taken to X several times to voice his disapproval. Earlier this week, he spoke during Tesla’s Q2 earnings call and said he was confident that FSD would go from Supervised to Unsupervised “by the end of the year,” although his predictions have been known to not come true. The company is in the process of pivoting away from its image as a maker of electric cars and rebrand as self-driving, robotics and artificial intelligence company, making FSD crucial to the mission. But first, Tesla needs to get it to market, and that’s taken quite a long time.