Autopilot: Your view

[Leben]

I did not buy the Autopilot. I was offered one month trial and took up the offer.
1. As stated elsewhere, You need to be on your guard when using this, one the Lamtin flyover, on the bend, when the road became larger, the extra space was marked off with strip marking, the car caught this line and went off on a tangent, I needed to steer the car back to the road.
2. Auto drive only works in some places such as the highway.

But at the end of the trial, after pondering about this for a while, I loved the function.
I loved putting this on cruise mode and not worry about needing to use the accelerator, etc.

But does it need to be this expensive? It is a software and the premium does not make sense. I may have to slosh out the dosh and buy it.....

 

[philly]

I also tried out the Autopilot for a month but probably won't fork out the cash for it. Overall I'd say it's really cool to show friends, get a few wows here and there but not super super useful. I ran into one problem during the Autopilot trial, the system told me I can use it out the Cross Harbor tunnel, I was in the autotoll lane, and it was controlling to get through it, but bam, it scraped up my entire left tire links After that I only used it on open roads, which was fun but like I said, not super useful.

What I find more useful is the distance aware cruise control, I wish there's way to buy that only or if that feature was included in basic. The distance aware cruise control is extremely useful for stop and go traffic.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Autopilot (or lane keeping) is nice on freeways (only place it should be used), but you do still have to pay attention. That said, it makes long distance and stop and go driving a lot more relaxing.

 

[mattse]

whether it's useful for you depends on your daily commute, if you drive a lot on expressways, you will love the autosteer. Autopark is useful for those who don't use the expressways too much. For me, I found the TACC being most useful, especially in downhill roads with speed cameras. I felt less secure and have to keep an eye on the speedometer whenever the sensors were not working properly (as TACC is disabled by the car)

it certainly takes some time before you are getting used to autopilot, and remember it's just beta version, we won't know what Tesla has to offer in future

 

[SMSMD]

Out of the world experience as long as you are ready to take control ASAP if need be, very useful on long highway journeys and for slow daily commute.

 

[Vmax]

I love autopilot and would always buy it again. However it's not really necessary in HK, because usually we don't have long highway commutes.
It would very useful for stop and go travel in HK, e.g. going into tunnels, but this functionality has been disabled in most places thanks to our lovely Transport Department.

 

[nghktom]

this is a function i would not give up. as i need to do 50 km a day and most of this is on highway, this function is great.

 

[ediot]

i paid for autopilot when i ordered my car, and i love it. whilst its mostly used on highways, i disable it and take back full control if the road seems windy/ traffic are busy with cars cutting lanes around. but when traffic isn't as bad, it lets your mind relax so much.

i drove to/from the airport the other day, and keeping the car on autopilot at 95km/h was bliss. I was able to take in the view whilst keeping the car fully under control.

the autopilot is definitely a nice-to-have thing, but i'd put it in priority above things like leather trims/ sound systems/ bigger rims etc.

 

[Frogwheels]

I'm wondering whether it's worth it to purchase the Autopilot upgrade. I commute every day from Sai Kung to Chai Wan. It'd be great if Autopilot could take over the majority of that, as it's all straight apart from 5 roundabouts and 6 lane changes that I'd have to manually navigate.

What have your experiences been in Hong Kong?

I also came up with these questions, does anyone have Autopilot experiences in any of these situations?
1. Is the transport department still limiting Autopilot to Highways and tunnels only?
2. How does Autopilot cope with traffic jams?
3. How does Autopilot cope with driving through toll booths?
4. How about last-second lane changes by others, for example in front of tunnels where all lanes from the toll booths merge? Especially taxis love to fight to get in front of you in those areas and sometimes only miss you by inches.
5. How does Autopilot deal with traffic cones, for example late at night in front of tunnels where traffic is sometimes diverted into a single tube?

 

[sloopee]

I also came up with these questions, does anyone have Autopilot experiences in any of these situations?
1. Is the transport department still limiting Autopilot to Highways and tunnels only?

Mostly.

2. How does Autopilot cope with traffic jams?

Quite well actually, as long as the lanes don't merge.

3. How does Autopilot cope with driving through toll booths?

4/10 times smoothly, 4/10 times a little steering wheel jitter, 2/10 times u might get scared.

4. How about last-second lane changes by others, for example in front of tunnels where all lanes from the toll booths merge? Especially taxis love to fight to get in front of you in those areas and sometimes only miss you by inches.

You're fighting a losing battle here. Those idiots, i mean, taxi drivers know your car is worth a lot to you and even if they hit you and they are in the wrong, you will still end up suffering the 6 month tesla workshop wait, not them. This all means they are very daring and know you will move out of the way anyway since you have more to lose than them in any scenario!

5. How does Autopilot deal with traffic cones, for example late at night in front of tunnels where traffic is sometimes diverted into a single tube?

I nearly crashed into those things once. Invisible to the autopilot, be very careful.

Having said all this, I think it's definitely worth the upgrade.

 

[mattse]

3. How does Autopilot cope with driving through toll booths?

Better not do so, I have heard at least two crashes near toll booths under autopilot. It's not for toll booths currently.

 

[ediot]

it's one of those quality of life, nice-to-have things. but once you're tried it out, it's kinda hard to go back to non-autopilot.

there are a few things off the top of my head that it could improve on tho (some of which are addressed in the coming 8.0 update, according to the patch notes)

1. when on the high way and the car (lets say 20 metres ahead) slow down to a half, instead of starting to slow down early and gently, autopilot doesn't begin slowing down till it's quite close to the car in front. "is it going to slow down? is it going to slow down? is it going to... arr now its slowing down" was the exact thinking going on in my mind plenty of times. I've always had my foot resting on the brake pedal and hands on the wheel, but earlier response would help me notice earlier whenever the autopilot ISNT respond like its supposed to. in the current 7.0 version, you have barely any reaction time should the car acts funny.

2. the dashboard shows the car in front, and it shows two blue lines (which curve with the road) to let you know its intended action for the next couple seconds. can't they show a bit more? if the car up ahead has slowed down, and your own car hasn't, isn't some sign to show you your own car will begin slowing down a lot better? maybe, maybe not. tesla seems to like their minimalist design, but personally all i feel is the same lack of info and customisation one gets from an apple iphone.

3. rush to speed. i was travelling at about 45km/h in a straight line tunnel, no cars up ahead. i activated autopilot and the car pulled into 70km/h (the speed that i've set the limit to) rather too quickly. it's almost like putting your foot down in an ICE car. I'd think a more gentle acceleration up to the determined speed would be better, or maybe a customisable scale of say from 1 (very gentle) to 3 (current tesla 7.0 setting). then again this is against the minimalist design. maybe.
(funny how you get 5 speed settings for your windshield wipers isn't it?)

having said the above, tesla have already priced up the autopilot option, to better reflect the value they create, according to tesla. with machine learning and crowdsourcing being what they are, its not hard to see it's going to keep getting more betterer. there are limited areas where they can be used in HK, true; but as time goes by, we'll eventually see updates in our antiquated legislations and the cars will get smarter around places they can't currently handle.

since getting the autopilot is always a function of price, and your opportunity costs being other options, we can just look at it from a "which option should be prioritised" perspective. i'd put the autopilot above having the panaramic sun roof, and above the power liftgate now.

 

[Optic]

If you are on the fence, hopefully they still offer you the 1 month free trial. I had it for the month, but since I don't drive much in high way conditions, it was not very useful for me. The self parking takes a bit too much safety margin (when it goes red and beeps, you still have about 20cm), it's good for the wifie but not for me. Keep in mind you still need to be alert and ready to take over for any awkward AP occurrences.

 

[smtung]

so autopilot is just a software option?

 

[markwj]

so autopilot is just a software option?

Hardware is in the cars, and autopilot safety features are enabled for all owners.

Autopilot convenience features (autosteer, lane change, parking assist, etc) are an optional feature enabled for a price (either at purchase, or later). Tesla have in the past offered a 1 month trial for those cars that don't have it enabled.

 

[donkeyrider]

I drive on the highways during the weekend and it takes a lot of the frustration out of the stop and go traffic. I agree that you have to stay alert but I think your role changes from driving the car to monitoring the car. In some respects this makes your more alert and aware of what's going on. For example you no longer have to think about adjusting the speed or position of car. Instead you can focus on what the traffic is doing, or planning what lane to be in.

Autopilot is far from perfect, but a good glimpse into what is around the corner.