Autopilot Tips & Best Practices (Post Yours)

[d21mike]

deflect? My answer is a deflection? I don't think so, I think you are deflecting from doing your due diligence regarding a purchase of a very expensive and sophisticated toy. I gave you a starting point so learn grasshopper, learn.

Deflect.... Below was by question to you. Instead of responding to my question you decided to attack me (in a nice condescending way). Still not sure what problem you had with the Video. Maybe you do not think people should discuss how best to use autopilot? Or maybe you feel that no one should even use autopilot?

Did you guys watch the video? @kort677 - Pretty sure he was clear that it is driver assist.

 

[calisnow]

Can you at least post the link to purchase the Velcro strips online please?

These are some strips of the exact length and width for the Tesla wheel - not sure if the seller made a second batch but you can email him: La Tlmes

 

[dhcp]

Be careful using autopilot when cresting hills, sometimes it loses sight of where you are going and the steering gets squirrely.

 

[jimmy_d]

Keep a hand on the wheel. Seriously, don't be an idiot.

There seems to be some kind of obsession with being 'hands free' but seriously, what are people doing with their hands while the car drives? I mean, what innocuous activity requires the use of *both* of your hands for an extended period of time?

(end of rant) Anyway...

At some point I noticed that having a hand on the wheel provided me with high quality, subconscious feedback on how AP was doing. The movement of the wheel feels different depending on how 'confident' AP is. It didn't take me long to notice that the wheel movement tended to give me plenty of warning before AP did something nutty, and having that extra feedback makes using the system much more pleasant and relaxing.

Cadillac going to so much effort to allow a driver to keep their hands in their 'lap' seems ridiculous and counter-productive to me.

Now that I'm used to using AP, taking both hands off the wheel feels like driving with my eyes closed. Like, in what world do you need to do that in a Level 2 car?

 

[ThosEM]

Not tips, but reactions to limited experience with AP:

I’ve had three exposures to Tesla Autopilot, one in a friend's car (likely AP1), and two in loaner vehicles while my 2013 Model S was being serviced (possibly AP2). I’m a skeptic about autonomous vehicle technologies, and I prefer to drive the car myself in any conditions except perhaps a bumper to bumper traffic jam.

My first exposure was brief, just a quick turn from a secondary onto limited access highway, exit, reverse direction and return. This wasn’t much of a test, and I didn’t give up much control.

The second time, I had the loaner in a traffic jam departing the service center and found it was very useful and reliable in bumper to bumper traffic. When I got out on the DC beltway, I got a message that “autosteer is temporarily unavailable” and never overcame that. Perhaps it was raining? Again, this was a pretty limited test.

The third time, I got autopilot working on the DC beltway at full speed and found it to be pretty “exciting”. Initially it was set for just two car lengths separation and was quite assiduous about catching up to the next car and tailgating it. I wasn’t impressed, but eventually figured out how to turn the separation up to 5-6 car lengths more appropriate at highway speeds. Why isn’t that automatic? I also had a chance to try a programmed turn off the beltway and some time in a traffic jam. Some observations:

At full speed on the DC beltway, one often encounters sudden slow downs, which a human driver spots as a “sea of brake lights” appearing ahead. A human driver like me will slow down more or less immediately, but a Tesla will keep charging until it encounters a car ahead of it that slows down. It clearly is not imaging and processing the large number of brakes being activated ahead, despite its significance to future conditions. How in the world does it negotiate a traffic light?

When my loaner came to a programmed exit from the beltway (per the navigation route currently in play), in busy conditions, I found it seemed incompetent to merge with the traffic entering the beltway from the leading side of the cloverleaf. This is admittedly a challenge even for a human driver exerting full attention to the situation. When it appeared to me that autopilot could not find an opening into which to merge for the exit and might continue on without making the turn, I took control myself, and felt let down by the technology.

I did not have a chance to try AP in downtown DC where the street patterns can be complex and variable with lanes appearing and disappearing and one way streets all over the place. I wonder how it would do there? The DC beltway in rush hour conditions must be one of the most challenging situations for autopilot, given high speeds and short response times. Still, it is not that much different from busy situations on many limited access highways. It seems to me that autopilot needs more work to be a convincingly competent driver in tough situations like this. Which is of course the reason one is required to monitor and take control when necessary. One wonders how a conservative autopilot system will make out in driving competition with aggressive human drivers who will take advantage of every hesitation?

 

[Carl]

When I let someone else drive my car then apart from the evident things (it'a drive assist, so keep a hand on the wheel and your eyes on the road, it doesn't read stop signs or red lights, it's not meant for secondary roads etc.), I mention (in descending order of dangerousness):

- stopped vehicles: if a vehicle/obstacle in your lane is not moving at all (traffic jam, red light, road works etc.), AP may not recognise it timely as a vehicle/obstacle. I think that's the first and foremost cause of severe AP accidents.
- roundabouts: AP would really often like to fly straight over those, sometimes;
- hill crests: AP can't easily see a possible curve behind (as mentioned above - thanks to @dhcp);
- sharp turns: even on e.g. highway ramps with perfect lane markings etc., sharp turns are still an issue (though this is getting better each month);
- lane change: don't trust AP to help you in any way to look behind or even sideways when you do a lane change with AP engaged. AP will do the lane change quite perfectly, but you're the only one responsible for the looking.

In general I think the most surprising thing, when you are new to AP, is that AP is a cowboy: when it knows or should know it cannot manage a situation, you would imagine it would err on the safe side and freak out early enough for you to take over in time, but instead it often still wants to try to manage more or less any situation by itself That, too, has improved recently, but AP remains surprisingly full of hubris. Of course that's fun (because you can take AP to its limits, and really try out how it gets better every month) but it's a bit of a culture shock when you're new to this driving assist feature.

(that being said: Tesla's AP is, to me, the best invention in the automobile world ever since I've been driving cars!).

My experience is only on AP1, BTW.

EDIT: I also posted this advice a year ago. Please don't take it seriously!