Autopilot free trial review

[rachelhikes]

So, I just completed my autopilot free trial. It arrived at the perfect time: I was going on a 1300 mile drive split between two days (650 miles from SF Bay to Portland, 650 miles back) and it activated the very morning I was leaving. Cool.

So what did I think in my 30 day trial? I'll break it down.

1. Adaptive Cruise Control. Now this is, in general, a great feature for highway driving, and I really liked Tesla's implementation of it. It definitely reduced the amount of driving effort on the trip, and subjectively I felt significantly safer with it engaged than not. The biggest weak spot was when I neared an entry ramp and cars were coming up the ramp. It didn't see them until they were quite close and the result could be some hard braking. I learned that the drive was much more pleasant if I took care of those situations on manual rather than enduring autopilot turning routine merges into emergency braking situations. Still, a solid "A" grade from me. To get an "A+", I want to see better merging traffic behavior.

2. Lane Keeping. It sorta worked. Weather wasn't great on the trip and that made it cut out sometimes, and the twists and turns of I-5 in northern California and southern Oregon were not its friend, likewise causing it to cut out sometimes. Also, one time there was a car pulling a low trailer in a lane next to me, and the trailer was swinging back and forth across the lane divider, and the lane keeping didn't seem to see that this was happening. If I hadn't overridden it, I believe the result would have been an accident. On the long drive up the central valley, where traffic was light and the road straight, I used it. Otherwise, it was easier to just leave it off than to manage switching back and forth all the time. I'd give it a "C". Good enough to be useful in the right conditions, but nothing more than that.

3. Lane Changing. Hard to properly judge since it is still requiring manual approval of every lane change, which kind of defeats the purpose. Still, I don't think it ever made a lane change I thought was dangerous. Leaving aside the incomplete implementation, the main problem was the opposite of being too aggressive: it was really cautious regarding spacing. Turning up the aggressiveness made it change lanes more often than served any real point, but didn't adequately address the real problem of needing an excessive cushion. I only tried to let it exit the highway for me a few times, and mostly I had to override it to keep it from missing the exit because it wouldn't change lanes in traffic conditions where a lane change was fine. I'm giving it an "I" for incomplete.

Overall: Not paying $7,000 for it as it currently exists. If I commuted every day in heavy traffic I might very well feel differently - that adaptive cruise control is really nice. But since I don't, the price is too high. Offer me that adaptive cruise control unbundled for $3,000 and I'd be tempted; $2,000 and I'm in. As is, I'm watching Tesla's progression with autopilot with interest. For me, for $7,000 it has to do some next-level stuff beyond anything it does now. And that might happen. So, count me as a potential buyer, but no checkbook yet.

 

[Electroman]

2. Lane Keeping. It sorta worked

I can never understand why some people say this. It works flawlessly on every road as long as I keep the speed limit or even 5mph over. It just maintains its position rock solid even on sweeping curves. It only struggles when lanes are missing or in construction areas or confusing lines.

 

[scottf200]

Thanks. I'm really curious how bad the weather was. I've driven a lot of AP miles (25K AP1; 15K AP2) and in some pretty bad rain (holding on tighter).
Also quite confused about the trailer next to you swinging. I would think most peoples reaction is simply to speed up or slow down and avoid that trailer puller all together!! I've pulled campers for a while (pre-Tesla). If a trailer gets out of hand swaying it will get your heart going (luckily I had manual trailer brakes to enable and I pressed on the gas pedal to straighten out).

 

[rachelhikes]

Thanks. I'm really curious how bad the weather was. I've driven a lot of AP miles (25K AP1; 15K AP2) and in some pretty bad rain (holding on tighter).
Also quite confused about the trailer next to you swinging. I would think most peoples reaction is simply to speed up or slow down and avoid that trailer puller all together!! I've pulled campers for a while (pre-Tesla). If a trailer gets out of hand swaying it will get your heart going (luckily I had manual trailer brakes to enable and I pressed on the gas pedal to straighten out).

The weather was never so bad I couldn't drive. But it was also getting dark and there were lots of reflections from the water that obscured the lane markers. I think that had something to do with it, but it was hard to say. In anything other than very basic conditions, I found the lane keeping a nuisance and preferred driving without it.

Regarding the trailer, I DID get out of the way. But I don't think Autopilot was aware of it. It was trying to stay in the lane, oblivious to the danger. AP loses points from me if there is a dangerous situation which it neither warns me about nor handles itself and I have to disengage it to stay safe.

---

In general, this is all my personal experience and personal opinion. Other people will of course see things differently. And that's fine.

 

[rachelhikes]

I can never understand why some people say this. It works flawlessly on every road as long as I keep the speed limit or even 5mph over. It just maintains its position rock solid even on sweeping curves. It only struggles when lanes are missing or in construction areas or confusing lines.

The conditions I named were where I had problems. In mountainous roads (which I was in for hundreds of miles), turns have a vertical as well as horizontal component, which may have made it flakier than it would otherwise have been. Driving up the flat and nearly straight I5 in the California Central Valley, it worked fine.

 

[rachelhikes]

I would also say that autopilot's nagging about proving my hands on the wheel by tugging at it (my hands were never off the wheel, but it didn't know that) when lane keeping was engaged was annoying. For me, this was another reason for leaving it off, even when it was actually doing a perfectly fine job of keeping the car in the lane.

 

[Kuhz]

I agree with OP. EAP shines in heavy bumper to bumper traffic and near empty freeways. Everything in between I prefer to drive myself. Especially with the 30sec nags

 

[Uncle Paul]

A little trick to make Autopilot much more comfortable is to not turn it on until you get up to cruising speed and into a middle lane. There it works absolutely the best.

When you use the far left lane, you often run uncomfortably close to barriers and bridge abutments causing stress.

If you run in the far right land there are lots of merging traffic, as well as confusing arrays of on and off ramp merging lanes, which can cause autopilot to be indecisive.

As time goes on, and you get used to your system, you learn where it works at your comfort level and where you might prefer to maintain manual control.

Remember, the day you get your autopilot it is the worst it ever will be. As time goes by, each update tends to make further improvement.

 

[JGard]

I can never understand why some people say this. It works flawlessly on every road as long as I keep the speed limit or even 5mph over. It just maintains its position rock solid even on sweeping curves. It only struggles when lanes are missing or in construction areas or confusing lines.

You must be in rare company, this has not been my experience at all. It's horrible at keeping lanes on the highways here in Austin. It drifts to the outside of the curve almost on to the line just about every time.

 

[devilmountain]

I never use auto pilot in fast-moving heavy traffic; it seems more cumbersome and slow when changing lanes. It is easier if I do it myself. Typically these are shorter trips for me. My last trip to L.A. I used auto Pilot almost the entire time and liked it. I did not like when I was in the right lane, and it tried to center the car when there were freeway on-ramps. Absolutely loved autopilot in L.A. stop and go traffic, it was raining heavily and I had no complaints.

 

[rachelhikes]

Absolutely loved autopilot in L.A. stop and go traffic, it was raining heavily and I had no complaints.

Where do you find most of the value in that situation? The automatic cruise control, the lane keeping, or both?

 

[jcal0820]

My trial 30 day Autopilot feature just came back online, so I opted in. So far on Day 1. Anyone know if the discounted $5,500 activation special is still available?

 

[devilmountain]

Where do you find most of the value in that situation? The automatic cruise control, the lane keeping, or both?

I liked the lane keeping and the ability for the car to stop and go without my interaction. Of course one must pay attention, but it took a lot of the stress out of commuting. I am one who paid for EAP but rarely uses it; there are times I regret buying it since my commute is all back roads. However, I am happy when I am in a situation like that and can use it.

 

[iaflyer]

I purchased EAP when I bought the car, it was delivered in November. I pretty much agree with the OP, with a few comments:

1) Adaptive Cruise does pretty well, but it slows too late when approaching slower traffic, I can already see the car in front of me (maybe 3 car lengths ahead) slowing and the Adaptive Cruise won't slow until it's much closer then it slows down very fast - uncomfortably so. I have my follow distance on 1 (any more and cars will jump in front of me on the highway it seems).

2) EAP - "Lane Keeping" works, but does not work very well except in the middle lane. When lanes merge in or merge out (at exits) it "loses" the side of the lane as it widens and moves over to keep in the middle of the now wide lane then once the exit is passing it swerves back in to the now regularly sized lane. Every exit. It's bad enough that I won't turn on EAP unless I'm in the middle (of 3 lanes).

3) Lane changing - works reasonable well, but boy is it slow. Often it takes 5-7 seconds to start the lane change, after I put on the signal. In a metropolitan city, in 5-7 seconds that opening is already gone. Other times it won't make the lane change at all (even if there is no car) so I have to turn off EAP to make the lane change. I've had good experiences exiting automatically, as long as I'm in the lane closest to the exit but it slows down WAY too fast. I was almost rear-ended because it decided to slow to 45 from a 70 mph highway, way before it needed to.

4) Speed limits. On a highway there are generally correct, but on secondary roads the speed limits are wrong probably 30% of the time. I use EAP on secondary roads, but only in daytime and good weather. I understand that it's not recommended. But because it only lets you drive 5 over the 'known" speed limit, that keeps the car slow when the speed limit has gone up, but the car doesn't know that. Make people behind you a little frustrated I imagine. Also, there are some stretched of a speed limit but the car doesn't know, so it goes way too fast. If FSD is going to work, they need to fix the speed limits.

 

[APotatoGod]

My trial 30 day Autopilot feature just came back online, so I opted in. So far on Day 1. Anyone know if the discounted $5,500 activation special is still available?

I'm interested in knowing this too, as well as if there's anything special you guys did to activate or request the trial?

 

[Terthen]

I find lane keeping works really well in SoCal. I use it daily in fast flowing traffic on the 5. I think it really shines after using and learning it a bit. It is an extension of me when driving now so I know in what situations I like to take over. We have EAP I’m both our X and 3, and when I drive on highway I’d say AP does >90% of my driving now. It has revolutionized my driving.

I go in and out of AP as situations dictate, and never use regular cruise control, so I do wish there was the option to just do one pull of autopilot stalk/down pull on the 3 instead of 2 to activate it.

I didn’t buy AP with our 3 at first and added at $5500. All that being said, I do wish there was an option as OP said for just adaptive cruise control at $2k. I would have bought that immediately with initial purchase (and probably added lane keeping later).