Footage of Tesla self-driving down busy streets in San Francisco is leaving people mind-blown

Tesla's self-driving options have been either entrancing or controversial, depending on your view of them - but there's still a pretty clear thrill to be found in watching them at work.

A new YouTube video from popular tech channel Whole Mars Catalog has shown off the latest version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta, which is currently on version 12.1.2.

Impressively, the car is being let loose in some of the densest and busiest streets you could hope to find in the US, right in the middle of San Francisco, around the Chestnut Street area.

There are plenty of moments in the short video that are really impressive from an automated driving standpoint, but perhaps the single most meaningful interaction comes in the first minute.

The Tesla comes across a narrow street with two fire trucks parked in it, lights blazing, and firefighters milling around as they deal with a situation - rather than freezing or doing anything dangerous, the car edges itself carefully through the gap, without any seeming danger to anyone.

That's really impressive because it's exactly the sort of real-world situation that previous versions of the Full Self-Driving Beta were thought to have struggled with, since it's so far from normal highway driving conditions.

Later in the video, the car navigates past pedestrian crossings and illegally parked cars with minimal fuss - and the comments are saying it's really impressive how human the approach is.

"Crazy how human like this drive is. You can tell the improvements right off the bat! Can’t wait for this to be a wide spread release!" one wrote.

Another commented: "Fire trucks, multiple double parked cars, car cutting it off from parking spot all handled flawlessly."

@WholeMars/YouTube

The video is framed nicely, too, to let you see the steering yoke move automatically and occasionally get touched to confirm the driver is paying attention, and you also get a clear view of the car's big display to follow the route as it comes.

Anyone who's driven in central San Francisco will know that these aren't roads to be taken for granted, either - they're seriously stressful and it looks like it's basically rush hour at the point when the Tesla is moseying through.

So, this might be the sort of material that could persuade you to give self-driving cars a little more faith, as the progress they've made in the last few years is clearly pretty significant.

That's without even turning to the many other benefits of electric vehicles, from cheaper bills to lower emissions - but if you're driving something like the Cybertruck, you might have to pay extra for costs like insurance.