New York City doesn't forgive bad driving — and apparently, Tesla's Full Self-Driving system is starting to figure that out. Sawyer Merritt, a prominent Tesla commentator, spent Thursday navigating some of Manhattan's most chaotic streets in his Model Y without touching the controls once. The financial district, Lower Manhattan, Midtown, Greenwich Village, the East Village — all handled without a single intervention.
NYC is arguably the hardest proving ground for any autonomous system in the United States. Dense pedestrian traffic, aggressive cab drivers, delivery trucks blocking lanes, cyclists cutting across intersections, and construction zones that reroute traffic mid-block — it's the kind of environment that exposes every weakness in a perception stack. The fact that FSD is now completing full cross-borough runs without driver input is a meaningful signal, even if it's a single data point from a single driver on a single day.
According to background research, the version currently rolling out to Hardware 4 vehicles is FSD (Supervised) v14.3.4 — a release that has drawn attention for its improved handling of dense urban edge cases. Merritt's run appears consistent with what early testers have been reporting: smoother negotiation of unprotected turns, better anticipation of pedestrian intent at crosswalks, and more confident lane selection in congested corridors. FSD remains a supervised system, meaning a licensed driver must remain attentive and ready to take over at any moment — but days like this suggest the gap between supervision and genuine autonomy is narrowing faster than many expected.
Merritt noted he filmed portions of the drive and plans to share more footage. For owners curious about their own FSD experience in demanding urban settings, his account is worth following for the full video drop.
Marcus covers Tesla's software releases, FSD rollouts, and OTA changes. Background in automotive engineering. Based in Austin.
Sources verified at publish time. Spotted an inaccuracy? Email editorial@basenor.com.
