Hi guys,
I wanted to start up a thread for owners in Australia to post their experiences with Autopilot. There is a 7.0 in Australia thread but I think there should be something more specific to experiences with AP. Here is my first one.
Last weekend, I was able to take a P85D for a drive from Brisbane to Burleigh Heads. Was pretty much the M1 all the way down for 70kms and about a 40 minute drive. After getting past the merging highways and was on straight road, I engaged the AP. For the first 5 minutes I was very cautious with it. But upon realising that the Pacific Hwy was clearly marked, it was a beautiful sunny day and the traffic flow was quite nice, everything changed.
While still never loosing concentration of the car and being ready to take over at any time, I was very relaxed. Here is a car driving me 110kmh down the freeway without me touching the wheel or pedals. And the car was able to drive for 40 minutes straight without me having the interfere once. It sped up and slowed down with the traffic. Handled other cars cutting in front very very well. It was just able to cruise very smoothly. Flicking the indicator and holding the wheel slightly allowed it to change lanes on its own. It was just incredible. Only thing was on the way back home, the car was driving directly into the sun. While it was able to hold and track the lane very well, I couldn't do an automatic lane change.
I felt so relaxed once arriving at the destination and arriving home than what I ever have before normally driving. AP is designed for the open highways. While it still can kind of do urban to an extent, that's not what it was designed for and most people have had issues with it while driving on those roads. But this just worked perfectly there and back again. For a beta it was really really good. But yeah it does freak a few people out having a car driving on its own down the freeway. I can see how valuable it will be for long distance. Not just for comfort but for safety.
And I know the system will get better and better. But that was just my first proper experience with it. Feel free to post about yours and also do post about any limitations you have found and improvements if you notice them.
Thanks guys,
I wanted to start up a thread for owners in Australia to post their experiences with Autopilot. There is a 7.0 in Australia thread but I think there should be something more specific to experiences with AP. Here is my first one.
Last weekend, I was able to take a P85D for a drive from Brisbane to Burleigh Heads. Was pretty much the M1 all the way down for 70kms and about a 40 minute drive. After getting past the merging highways and was on straight road, I engaged the AP. For the first 5 minutes I was very cautious with it. But upon realising that the Pacific Hwy was clearly marked, it was a beautiful sunny day and the traffic flow was quite nice, everything changed.
While still never loosing concentration of the car and being ready to take over at any time, I was very relaxed. Here is a car driving me 110kmh down the freeway without me touching the wheel or pedals. And the car was able to drive for 40 minutes straight without me having the interfere once. It sped up and slowed down with the traffic. Handled other cars cutting in front very very well. It was just able to cruise very smoothly. Flicking the indicator and holding the wheel slightly allowed it to change lanes on its own. It was just incredible. Only thing was on the way back home, the car was driving directly into the sun. While it was able to hold and track the lane very well, I couldn't do an automatic lane change.
I felt so relaxed once arriving at the destination and arriving home than what I ever have before normally driving. AP is designed for the open highways. While it still can kind of do urban to an extent, that's not what it was designed for and most people have had issues with it while driving on those roads. But this just worked perfectly there and back again. For a beta it was really really good. But yeah it does freak a few people out having a car driving on its own down the freeway. I can see how valuable it will be for long distance. Not just for comfort but for safety.
And I know the system will get better and better. But that was just my first proper experience with it. Feel free to post about yours and also do post about any limitations you have found and improvements if you notice them.
Thanks guys,
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