AP1 vs AP2 from someone who owns both

[EdisonR]

I took delivery of an inventory model X P100DL on Monday, what a car! I’ll do another post about the FWD and the X in general, right now I want to focus on AP.

The X comes with AP2 and I have a 2016 S 90D with AP1 that has been my main driver, commute and road trips for a little bit than 1 year now.

With the S, I am mostly always either running autosteer on the highway or TACC in trafic jams in the city and it just works. Now with the X and AP2, sadly I am disappointed, TAAC is fine but tends to want to brake hard for no good reason and and autosteer is not as smooth as with my AP1 car, let me give some examples:

• TAAC in San Francisco: while crossing intersections with no lane markers, AP2 basically steers randomly with big swings of the wheel when AP1 would just continue straight and follow the car in front until the lane markers return
• Autosteer on the bay bridge: I always drive on the left lane on the bridge, going from SF to Oakland, at the beginning of this drive, the lanes are narrow and AP2 moves way too much from left to right as opposed to staying still like AP1.
• Vehicles entering my lane on highways: AP2 doesn’t see the car in the other lanes like AP1 and detects trucks and motorcycles as cars. I thought this was just cosmetic but it’s not sadly. In two occasion, the AP2 car failed to slow down appropriately with a motorcycle entering my line tight in front of me. This one is very dangerous.
• Random braking on highway: this sometimes happens with my AP1 car but not as hard. Twice in my commute over the last 3 days, the AP2 X suddenly started braking hard. I think it was for a good reason because a car ahead has slowed down but the response from AP2 is too hard and actually dangerous as I definitely could have been rear ended in these 2 occasions.
• Big turns on the highway: I take the carpool lane and from Berkeley to the bridge, there’s this big overpass with a large right turn, AP2 overturns, corrects, overturns, corrects as opposed to smoothly following the curve. This is not dangerous but not really inspiring confidence either...

Today I’ll be driving from Berkeley to Fremont so I’ll be trying AP2 on I-880 and will update this thread.

I’ve seen many threads that compare AP1 and AP2 and seen comments of almost parity. Well clearly in my experience AP1 is superior and I am a bit afraid of using AP2, maybe it will get better when I have more experience with it.
Anybody has both AP1 and AP2 and share the same experience?

 

[Haxster]

I don't have AP1, but, sadly, my experience with AP2 is about the same as yours. And, over the last several months, it doesn't seem to be getting better; and is some respects worse. My wife gets upset when I use it anywhere but on uncongested open highways.

Maybe that's what can happen when Tesla decides to re-invent someone else's wheel. Still, I remain optimistic that it will get better.

 

[Rockster]

I have AP1 on my P85 and did a 24-hour test drive not too long ago on an X with AP2 and my experience largely matches yours, too. Even if I were inclined to upgrade to a newer S or X, I wouldn't do so until I felt that my AP2 experience would parallel my AP1 experience and I'm still not convinced we're there yet.

 

[ebjohnso]

That sucks so bad. I recently totaled by X with AP1. I actually got mine right before they announced the shift to AP2. I had no idea it was still that bad. My new X with AP2 is supposed to arrive first week of Dec. Sorta wishing i would have gotten one of the inventory ones with AP1 my guy showed me a few weeks ago.

 

[d21mike]

I hope the OP will review the FW 2017.42. It seems to be a big improvement.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Sometimes being an early adopter has its advantages. My 2013 S had no autopilot, but I had fun driving it before most people did. I got one of the first Xs, with AP1, and its been great.

 

[calisnow]

That sucks so bad. I recently totaled by X with AP1. I actually got mine right before they announced the shift to AP2. I had no idea it was still that bad. My new X with AP2 is supposed to arrive first week of Dec. Sorta wishing i would have gotten one of the inventory ones with AP1 my guy showed me a few weeks ago.

It's much much better than when the OP posted - within the last couple weeks.

 

[OilSucks]

Interested to hear OP if your AP2 car has gotten better with more updates. I know that my experience with AP2 during the summer was absolutely horrible. It almost made me question my entire faith and love of Tesla. But after a couple of months of learning what it can and can't do, establishing a little more trust with my car, and getting updated to the latest and greatest I actually love and trust my car more than I trust my driving at times. It's not quite AP1 parity, but getting pretty damn close.

 

[MDMGSO47]

We have both, and I find very little difference. My AP2 is entirely dependable and I love driving it. I don't understand all the complaining about AP2.

 

[bak_phy]

We have both, and I find very little difference. My AP2 is entirely dependable and I love driving it. I don't understand all the complaining about AP2.

Did you have AP2 long?

 

[EdisonR]

An update as requested: AP2 has been getting better or maybe I got used to it but in my daily commute I still see a lot of differences that have me wanting to drive my AP1 S more for long trips:

• No phantom breaking on AP1. The AP2 car will randomly brake for no reason on the highway, it happens at least once per week.
• Smooth turning in curves. AP2 is jerky compared to AP1
• Hugging the lanes. For some reason I don't fully understand because it appears to be random, my AP2 car will drive too much to the left or to the right and not centered in the lane. It's not dangerous, just odd and if I take control and engage AP back a few minutes later and it's usually OK again.

Hope this helps,

 

[MarcusMaximus]

An update as requested: AP2 has been getting better or maybe I got used to it but in my daily commute I still see a lot of differences that have me wanting to drive my AP1 S more for long trips:

• No phantom breaking on AP1. The AP2 car will randomly brake for no reason on the highway, it happens at least once per week.
• Smooth turning in curves. AP2 is jerky compared to AP1
• Hugging the lanes. For some reason I don't fully understand because it appears to be random, my AP2 car will drive too much to the left or to the right and not centered in the lane. It's not dangerous, just odd and if I take control and engage AP back a few minutes later and it's usually OK again.

Hope this helps,

FW version?

 

[Shock-On-T]

Just to throw in my 2c.
I have an AP1 Model S and recently on vacation hired an AP2 Model X and drove it UK to Switzerland and back.
Version was 2017.28 even though it was about 6 weeks ago.
I found AP2 to be totally fine! Mostly freeway driving but I didn’t see any major difference, and I hired the car specifically to get a feel for AP2.

 

[dragoljub]

With the latest .42 update on AP2 it seems to be more locked in like AP1, but where AP2 really shines is going through intersections seems to be much smoother now. I need to do another back to back comparison but I remember AP1 has more issues going through intersections where lane markings disappear for a few seconds.

 

[MDMGSO47]

Did you have AP2 long?

I waited until July, 2017 to take delivery of the S 100D with AP2 to give Tesla time to get some of the kinks out.

 

[d21mike]

With the latest .42 update on AP2 it seems to be more locked in like AP1, but where AP2 really shines is going through intersections seems to be much smoother now. I need to do another back to back comparison but I remember AP1 has more issues going through intersections where lane markings disappear for a few seconds.

I have never driven AP1.... I agree with you about .42. Major difference. I would loose the lines on most large intersections where I would then see the BLUE CAR to track. I now pretty much never loose the lines and therefore have not seen the BLUE CAR since. Could be I need an even bigger intersection but prior to .42 it did not seem that hard to see the BLUE CAR. I am just assuming it must be looking further out to get the lane markers. It even worked going thru a relatively small intersection with no lane markers while at the same time curving to the left. I was in shock that it held it. However, the same intersection coming back was not able to make the curve thru the interaction and no lane markers. Definitely progress.

 

[EV-lutioin]

I have AP2 in my Model 3 and on my commute it is limited to 45 mph on a 55 mph road, but my Model X with API is limited to 60. Anyone else experience this discrepancy?

 

[Snowstorm]

Ap1 read sp the d limit sign he camera sees, ap2 relies on a database which can be incomplete or wrong. What is likely happening here is that the database had no speed limit on this stretch of road so it defaulted to 45mph max. Where in ap1, the camera picked up the actual 5mph max sign and used that instead.

This happens to me everyday on the way to and from work, a stretch that is 60kmph and Tesla ap2 thinks it is 50kmph. It actually was 50kmph but the limit was increased 2 years ago. I had an AP1 loaner and that saw it as 60kmph when I drove by the sign.

 

[EV-lutioin]

Ap1 read sp the d limit sign he camera sees, ap2 relies on a database which can be incomplete or wrong. What is likely happening here is that the database had no speed limit on this stretch of road so it defaulted to 45mph max. Where in ap1, the camera picked up the actual 5mph max sign and used that instead.

This happens to me everyday on the way to and from work, a stretch that is 60kmph and Tesla ap2 thinks it is 50kmph. It actually was 50kmph but the limit was increased 2 years ago. I had an AP1 loaner and that saw it as 60kmph when I drove by the sign.

argh... why is AP2 blind?