AP2 / 8.1 Test Drive Perspective from AP1 Owner

[Alan Sherman]

I agree 100% with Gibson's observations about the capabilities and behaviors of AP2, especially as it compares to AP1. And I am not angry with Tesla as Oktane is. I, in fact, love the company and am known as an evangelist among my friends. And I have a gain in the stock, which ain't too shabby. Elon's decision to dump MobileEye and write their own software for the 21 sensor cars could have been handled better, especially as it pertained to what their salesmen were told to promise for the new cars. Mine promised better AP because of the sensors and I haven't gotten that yet. I can tell you that auto parallel parking is awesome, incredibly accurate and highly reproducible. I am using auto summon when I want to impress visitors or my neighbors, and that works perfectly. The AP1 demo I got when I bought the AP2 car included auto perpendicular parking, in a parking lot, and the demo was very good...but AP2 has yet to bring us that, and the windshield wipers rain sensing isn't working...I think that's all we're missing now. I fundamentally think AP2 is in beta, but getting better....but I'm leasing the car, and don't think I should be paying for the $5000 package that enabled AP. Heck, they even had another package which I didn't buy that will allow some other aspect to autopilot, I think point to point navigation, which may not be available for years. Selling that - just ain't right.

 

[Snowstorm]

I think the auto high beams are absent in AP2, and the auto brightness adjustment for the touch screen is not working or not working as well compared to AP1. My AP1 loaner will go from day to night and also adjust brightness, the original AP2 doesn't seem to adjust brightness and seems to transition between day night mode not quiet as well.

 

[Electroman]

Alan - agree with everything you said.

 

[stevezzzz]

I agree with the OP on most everything. I have found one situation where AP2 is doing better than AP1: in my neighborhood where there are no pavement markings of any kind, AP1 almost never offered up the Autosteer Available (white steering wheel) icon; now with 8.1, AP2 gives me the opportunity to engage Autosteer something better than half the time. It appears to be finding the curb more reliably, and makes better use of the forward camera, recognizing the paving seam in the middle of the street as a 'lane line'. It steers kind of wonky, though, and I don't see any practical use for it as it stands.

 

[chillaban]

FWIW, I just passed 1200 miles on my AP2 car, and two weeks ago I got an AP1 service loaner running 17.14.10 for 100 miles or so. So far, I stick by my original review of the differences. The only thing I would add is that one additional AP2 TACC/AP issue is sudden braking due to misidentification of which lane nearby vehicles are in….

For example, if you are traveling at 70mph in a carpool lane, and the lane next to you is going 10mph / standstill, once in a while, AP2 will suddenly think a car in the next lane is in your lane, and then suddenly brakes, as if a 10mph car suddenly teleported into your lane. It only lasts a brief half second or so before speeding back up again, but nonetheless it's very jolting and unsettling.

It seems like the biggest MobileEye advantage over Tesla Vision at the moment is that EyeQ3 is much better able to understand which lane cars are in, no matter if there's curves, worn out lane lines, etc. But once Tesla addresses this issue, it should dramatically help with sudden braking events in heavy traffic or high-speed-differential traffic.

 

[Mark Z]

The one benefit of buying the full autonomous option is for Tesla to gain information from the extra cameras as part of their software development. Even though the all cameras are not being used for AP2 driving now, they could be gathering information for Tesla. While it costs extra, the life or damage that is saved in the future could be worth that additional investment today.

 

[Snowstorm]

The one benefit of buying the full autonomous option is for Tesla to gain information from the extra cameras as part of their software development. Even though the all cameras are not being used for AP2 driving now, they could be gathering information for Tesla. While it costs extra, the life or damage that is saved in the future could be worth that additional investment today.

I believe all cameras will be collecting information if Tesla has the capability whether you paid for FSD or not.