Autopilot - What’s the real deal?

[elecTED]

I’m hearing some quite conflicting verdicts on autopilot in this forum. Some say it’s the best implementation of adaptive cruise control and auto steering within the lane of any manufacturer. Others are saying it’s poor, especially auto steer.

My own initial limited experience is that auto steer does not appear to work well at all although I’m willing to test it further before delivering a final verdict.

What’s your experience of autopilot, especially auto steer?

If Tesla aren’t doing basic autopilot really well, then what hope is there for FSD?

 

[NoMoGas]

IF used as intended it is very good. There's lots of people who complain when trying to get the car to do something it isn't currently programmed to do. When it comes to other cars, there isn't much competition. Super Cruise doesn't work on half the roads but when it does, it is also very good.

The Nav on AP can be jerky but what most people don't get is the car doesn't drive like they do. It has its own tolerances that may or may not be less then their own that said it does drive like a 15 year old on a learners permit but that should get better with time.

 

[ewoodrick]

Simply put, it's better than it used to be, it will be better in the future.

Today is just a snap in time.

Worry about it all you want today, for tomorrow it will be different.

 

[NovemberXray]

As others said above, I think Tesla has pretty clearly stated the very limited conditions for which Autopilot is currently designed. For these use cases, primarily highway driving, it works really well. I've driven about 70k miles in 2016 Model X, 2018 Model 3, and 2019 Model X, and on long road trips, it's fantastic. Autopilot greatly reduces fatigue and easily handles highway driving for 90% of the trip. It has improved significantly since 2016, and I expect it to continue to steadily improve and add more capabilities. I'm very happy with it.

 

[Roy W.]

Autopilot isn’t perfect, but in my view it is a lot better than the TACC/LFA on the Kona Electric. That car, in common with several others (the Leaf, Kia Soul & eNiro) uses a MobilEye system, like the original Tesla AP.

Certainly the auto steer is much better. There were roads where the Kona wouldn’t engage LFA because it couldn’t work out the lanes. The M3 steers faultlessly on these roads.

Two things have disappointed me with Tesla AP - the phantom braking, which they really need to sort out. It happens almost every time I use AP, and mostly seems to be caused by something big in the inside lane. The other problem is on the odd occasion auto steer will give up, just as you’re going round the bend, and you have to take control urgently to keep the car in lane. This is quite unnerving too.

I’m getting used to the bing/bongs when you need to overtake, but here the process was more seamless on the Kona - it disengaged LKA on signalling to overtake, but as soon as you were settled in the new lane, LKA automatically re-engaged. None of this having to manually engage AP every time.

Hopefully AP will gradually get better with time, which wasn't going to happen with the Kona. But I’m still happy with my decision to not bother with FSD.

 

[davidmc]

Two things have disappointed me with Tesla AP - the phantom braking, which they really need to sort out. It happens almost every time I use AP, and mostly seems to be caused by something big in the inside lane. The other problem is on the odd occasion auto steer will give up, just as you’re going round the bend, and you have to take control urgently to keep the car in lane. This is quite unnerving too.

Agree with you on both those points

Also does anyone else notice this? - If say your on a Motorway (Interstate for the USA Cousins) cruising in AP, the car slightly bounces down the white lines (its like a slight side to side motion - you can feel it in the steering wheel and sometime in the car itself), it can make you feel motion sick, if you suffered from that? It seems to be worse if windy.

 

[Roy W.]

Agree with you on both those points

Also does anyone else notice this? - If say your on a Motorway (Interstate for the USA Cousins) cruising in AP, the car slightly bounces down the white lines (its like a slight side to side motion - you can feel it in the steering wheel and sometime in the car itself), it can make you feel motion sick, if you suffered from that? It seems to be worse if windy.

I’ve not noticed this behaviour. I’ll keep an eye out.

 

[LukeT]

It could be argued that all of those options are right. It is limited and is hopefully poor in comparison with how it will be in the future. However it also arguably beats the competition.

Right now, after only a month's use I admit, I sit somewhere in the middle. It works exactly as I expected, and is a function I value. There's a lot it can't do which I didn't expect it to do. As above, it's a little jerky and uncomfortable like a competent and safe but inexperienced driver.

My feelings on it are shifting though, in terms of where I think the benefits come:

Empty motorway - it's very good, as expected. Only real issue I get is it's conservative when changing lanes alongside a lorry.
Moderately busy motorway - lane changes just aren't quick enough, do most of those yourself, but it still has benefits and especially for long journeys. Because lane changes are ponderous and prone to abort it incentivises just sitting in one lane, which I think is poor form for everyone else and traffic flow unless that's the left. So it's useful but not amazing here.
Chocker motorways and 50mph sections - its great.
Dual carriageways - maybe a little less good than motorways because sometimes it won't even recognise a lane change is an option (no dotted blue line) and because of roundabouts. There's just not much point if the section is short.

What surprised me the other day though was using it on 20 odd miles of single carriageway A road at a busy time. A road where there's enough width, decent markings and not that many junctions. Plenty of bends, traffic generally at 40-50. Where it's simply boring enough that I'd perceive a slightly increased risk of small accident over a longer period of time. This is not its recommended use yet it did the job well enough to be genuinely labour saving.

 

[djgillett]

I've lost count of the number of "collision warnings" that have flashed up as I go to drive round a corner with a car parked on it, or because of a shadow, or because of a bridge.

I've lost count of the amount of phantom braking that has happened, seemingly completely randomly.

I've lost count of the number of times that autosteer/lane departure avoidance has steered me back into a lane incorrectly (e.g. driving on the "wrong" side of the road past some roadworks, through a set of temporary traffic lights. I got to the end, steered back into the correct lane, and the car steered me back and put me head on with a car waiting at the lights. It has also so far tried to kill 3 cyclists under similar circumstances.)

Of course, I'm currently driving a 2018 Kia Ceed that I'm hiring while waiting for my Model 3 to arrive, and I've only had it 10 days. Now, I grant you, we should expect better from Tesla but honestly, the others are really rubbish. It also sings to me when I get in/out of the car, and I hate that.

 

[LukeT]

Personally, I find tesla collision warnings irritating too. I've had a number of them and never a genuine potential collision situation. It seems pretty dumb based on momentary proximity alone - hopefully can be refined to shut up if it's a momentary passing and the two cars are not on a collision trajectory.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

The lane departure warnings has a couple of times times tried to 'correct' my steering by driving into a roadworks to avoid crossing a white line,. Luckily it's easy to override it but the panicked beeping it does is really annoying.

AP though.. sure it's a bit hesitant and its lane change is somewhat slow (tip: Hold the indicator until it starts the lane change, the 5 second timeout doesn't seem to start until you let go, so you almost never get aborts that way) but probably 90% of the Motorway/A road travel I do now is using it.

 

[zayn]

are you Tesladriver on YT

The lane departure warnings has a couple of times times tried to 'correct' my steering by driving into a roadworks to avoid crossing a white line,. Luckily it's easy to override it but the panicked beeping it does is really annoying.

AP though.. sure it's a bit hesitant and its lane change is somewhat slow (tip: Hold the indicator until it starts the lane change, the 5 second timeout doesn't seem to start until you let go, so you almost never get aborts that way) but probably 90% of the Motorway/A road travel I do now is using it.