Hi All
I've had my Model S for 2 months now and love it. What an awesome car. I do a lot of miles (4000 so far!) and use AP for maybe 80% of that, on motorways here in the UK.
So far, autopilot has been very good, but I wanted to run a couple of experience past other owners to see if what I'm experiencing is common. Here we go.
1. Refusal to change lane
Sometimes, when changing lane, the car will just point blank refuse. Even on an absolutely empty road, no vehicles around. You check your blind spot, signal, hold the wheel and give it a gentle nudge in the direction you want to go.
I've even tried this when driving late at night, on an empty road, and had the indicator on 1+ minutes, trying to get it to change lane. Nope. Won't do it.
This drives me mad - and has caused a few drivers to flash me and then I have to force the car over, cancelling AP in the process. Can't pinpoint any conditions under which this occurs, other than seemingly a little more on a curve but that might be wrong. Happens maybe 1 in 10 times, perhaps a little less.
2. Slowing down when changing lane
This I feel is quite dangerous (in the UK anyway). You change lane, and when 50% of the way into the next lane, the car will slow down, as if it had seen something oncoming or had a reason to do so - again this has happened when nothing is around other than the car in front which I am overtaking. Once in the other lane, it speeds up correctly.
Most of the time, the last thing you want is for the car to slow down when doing this - you have traffic behind and need to overtake, then move back over to allow other cars past. You don't want a speeding car up your proverbial.......
3. Phantom red warnings
Sometimes the car will show a red car warning in front for no good reason. Again, can't figure this one out but happens quite rarely.
4. Not seeing cars alongside
I imagine the car would show other vehicles alongside to the left or right, as it comes from behind and overtakes on either side (e.g. in traffic). I swear it used to do this pre v8.0.
5. Cars aren't trucks and vice-versa
Sometimes the car will see a truck (HGV/"big rig") as a car and vice-versa. Again this seems to have change in v8.0 or it could be me imagining it................
Otherwise AP has been fantastic, great on long trips, I just wish it let ME decide when to change lane rather than it taking all day about it (or not at all). The fact that it can take a few seconds to think about it is worrying - a lot can happen in 2 seconds at 70mph. I have been known to scream GO NOW!!! when it fails to move out in a timely manner.
I wish there were a debug/report issue button that you can hit when it does stuff like this, to capture the logs and discover why it decided to do whatever it did (or didn't) do.
I've had my Model S for 2 months now and love it. What an awesome car. I do a lot of miles (4000 so far!) and use AP for maybe 80% of that, on motorways here in the UK.
So far, autopilot has been very good, but I wanted to run a couple of experience past other owners to see if what I'm experiencing is common. Here we go.
1. Refusal to change lane
Sometimes, when changing lane, the car will just point blank refuse. Even on an absolutely empty road, no vehicles around. You check your blind spot, signal, hold the wheel and give it a gentle nudge in the direction you want to go.
I've even tried this when driving late at night, on an empty road, and had the indicator on 1+ minutes, trying to get it to change lane. Nope. Won't do it.
This drives me mad - and has caused a few drivers to flash me and then I have to force the car over, cancelling AP in the process. Can't pinpoint any conditions under which this occurs, other than seemingly a little more on a curve but that might be wrong. Happens maybe 1 in 10 times, perhaps a little less.
2. Slowing down when changing lane
This I feel is quite dangerous (in the UK anyway). You change lane, and when 50% of the way into the next lane, the car will slow down, as if it had seen something oncoming or had a reason to do so - again this has happened when nothing is around other than the car in front which I am overtaking. Once in the other lane, it speeds up correctly.
Most of the time, the last thing you want is for the car to slow down when doing this - you have traffic behind and need to overtake, then move back over to allow other cars past. You don't want a speeding car up your proverbial.......
3. Phantom red warnings
Sometimes the car will show a red car warning in front for no good reason. Again, can't figure this one out but happens quite rarely.
4. Not seeing cars alongside
I imagine the car would show other vehicles alongside to the left or right, as it comes from behind and overtakes on either side (e.g. in traffic). I swear it used to do this pre v8.0.
5. Cars aren't trucks and vice-versa
Sometimes the car will see a truck (HGV/"big rig") as a car and vice-versa. Again this seems to have change in v8.0 or it could be me imagining it................
Otherwise AP has been fantastic, great on long trips, I just wish it let ME decide when to change lane rather than it taking all day about it (or not at all). The fact that it can take a few seconds to think about it is worrying - a lot can happen in 2 seconds at 70mph. I have been known to scream GO NOW!!! when it fails to move out in a timely manner.
I wish there were a debug/report issue button that you can hit when it does stuff like this, to capture the logs and discover why it decided to do whatever it did (or didn't) do.