So, just returned from a 350 mile trip and had the opportunity to test out the new FW update. My 2 cents:
Traffic Lights:
1. For majority of traffic lights it worked perfectly and as others have described.
2. For more complicated intersections, with multiple traffic lights in close proximity to another intersection with traffic control, the car seemed to balk a bit. But I think this was mainly due to having to confirm for each traffic control. Once the confirmations are no longer needed I think this shouldn’t be an issue.
3. Turning from a traffic light-this was not so smooth in my opinion. So, I was stopped at the light and when it turned green, I lightly tapped on the accelerator and rather than turning at a safe pace it immediately began to increase speed to match the speed (40MPH) of the road I turned into.
4. This was all using TACC. I didn’t test the FW feature using auto steer. For all traffic lights, I used a light tap on the accelerator rather than the stalk to confirm.
Stop Signs:
In my opinion, this is not quite ready for prime time at the current level of the FW (yes I’m aware it’s BETA) and requires more attention to detail than driving through traffic lights. There were a few issues with this that I experienced.
1. It’s stopping way too early at stop signs. I experienced at least 10-15 feet before. Because of that I wasn’t able to see oncoming traffic (due to not being able to see past blind spots since it stopped so far behind the sign). So the only way to fix that was to move forward. However, if you move forward via tapping the accelerator to confirm, the car continues past the stop instead of actually stopping again once you can see past the blind spots. This really needs to be fixed sooner than later. Here’s a pic I took referencing this:
View attachment 538256
It was late at night so I experimented with it a little since there was no one else on the road. Immediately after this screenshot, and while on TACC set to about 10MPH, I tapped the accelerator and I turned left. The car turned left and then came to an immediate stop right in the middle of the turn. Very strange.
In summary, this is an exciting FW to test because it’s a prelude to more refined features that I’m sure will be forthcoming. I for one will NOT continue to use/test it at stop signs at the current version of the FW. Perhaps if there’s some improvement later on, I’ll try it. I will however continue to use it on major roads where there are only traffic lights.