Kyle and Logan from Out of Spec Reviews recently acquired a brand-new Tesla Model 3 Premium equipped with FSD v14.2.2.3, and decided to answer humanity’s most pressing question: what happens when you let a robot drive through a winter hellscape on all-season tires?
The test took place in North Carolina, where temperatures dropped so low the electric vehicle froze solid overnight, requiring an hour of defrosting before it could even pretend to be roadworthy. Undeterred, the duo dragged their thawed Tesla onto an ice track to see if Full Self-Driving could handle what most human drivers would describe as “a legitimate reason to stay home”.
The results has been unsettlingly impressive. The Tesla navigated the frozen track without hesitation, correcting oversteer and understeer smoothly while the humans sat back like passengers on a particularly well-choreographed amusement ride. Even at higher speeds, the vehicle’s steering remained fluid, braking precise, almost mocking the fragility of flesh-and-blood reflexes.
But ice tracks are controlled environments. Public roads, covered in snow, ice, and mud, offered a more authentic stress test. The Tesla Model 3 handled exits and intersections with surgical precision, parked itself in a frozen lot, maintained acceptable highway speeds, and even passed a dummy pedestrian test without flinching. All of this while the humans nervously monitored a machine that seemed bizarrely comfortable in chaos.
Kyle’s assessment was blunt: “I’ve never experienced a better system on the market”. High praise from someone who’s tested nearly every autonomous feature available. Logan echoed the sentiment, adding that FSD handles low-traction conditions better than “99 percent” of human drivers.
This wasn’t just a tech demo. It was a quiet reminder that the gap between human confidence and human competence behind the wheel might be wider than we’d like to admit. If a frozen Tesla on budget tires can outperform most drivers, maybe the question isn’t whether Full Self-Driving is ready for winter. Maybe it’s whether we ever were.
