Driving Habits

[smilepak]

Question: With the Tesla and the adaptive cruise control, how does that change your driving habit? Do you use cruise control more in the Tesla vs ICE?

Typical driving to and from work, like in traffic condition?

Travel long distance like from LA to San Jose?
-- If use cruise control, what is your typical cruising speed? 75mph?

Trying to figure out the best way to maximize battery range.

 

[rickgt]

I use the TACC all the time. It is very convenient on two lane road, keeps me from getting impatient with the slow folks ahead of me. Also on freeway in commute time, I se the distance to "1" and let it handle the constant start stop of commute traffic. On the open road, I'm set for 72 or 75 based on charge level and charger stops planned. Looking forward to next version of the software to have the real autopilot capabilities.

 

[Barry]

I hardly ever use TACC. Using it in a non-highway situation is just asking for trouble. Heed the warnings in the manual.

 

[Majerus]

I hardly ever use TACC. Using it in a non-highway situation is just asking for trouble. Heed the warnings in the manual.

I use it in stop in go all the time without a problem. As long as you pay attention , and realize if the car in front of you moves the Model S will likely not pick up the next stopped car in time without sudden braking.

 

[Cyclone]

I hardly ever use TACC. Using it in a non-highway situation is just asking for trouble. Heed the warnings in the manual.

I use it in stop in go all the time without a problem. As long as you pay attention , and realize if the car in front of you moves the Model S will likely not pick up the next stopped car in time without sudden braking.

I have to go with Barry on this one. I've tried it out in city traffic and it's too jerky for my tastes. But then I tried it on some of our bigger city streets (we have a as a four-lane divided street with a 55 mph limit and U.S. Hwy 74 as a 6-lane divided highway with a 50 mph limit) and TACC doesn't particularly like the dynamics of this road and I get too harsh of a drive. TACC would gun and then slam the brakes and wouldn't react well to the few traffic lights (each over a mile apart) and traffic turning into the road without an on/off ramp.

However, put it on the Interstate and it worked great, even with traffic. In Charlotte at least, TACC is more Interstate-oriented than US Highway-oriented. That said, I have to disclose that this is with two loaners that I had for 2-4 days each, so I didn't have much time to live with TACC and adjust my driving style too much.

To smilepak's question, I did find it made me a less aggressive driver on the interstate as I just let it slow me down and I didn't care what speed I was traveling.

 

[steph280]

I've recently had the first extensive use of TACC in So Cal rush hour traffic and it worked perfectly. Even then I had my foot above the brake at all times in anticipation of the unexpected.

I guess if it can handle the horrible LA traffic, it will do fine in most situations.

 

[mmccord]

I've had my S since early May. When i first got it, the TACC scared me a bit and i always had my foot hovering over the brake, worried it was going to put me into the car in front of me. Last week i had a loaner p85+ and it felt like the non-tacc was trying to put me in the car in front of me. I guess I've gotten used to it.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Driving on the roads would be so much more pleasant if everyone had TACC. That way people wouldn't be switching lanes constantly under some false impression that they were actually going to go any faster.

Instead they'd be relaxed, and they'd just let the car do what it does. It's made me a bit mellow, and I'm hardly what you'd call a mellow person. The other thing that has happened is I feel sharper because I'm not as tired after a long journey. After a 200 mile plus journey I used to feel a bit frazzled. Now of course this isn't just TACC, but also supercharging. Both of these together has made me a more alert driver. I've also been using Waze so I'm also a lot more ready for when I know the situation is going to suddenly change. Lastly I believe it's made me safer in switching lanes when a situation quickly changes. It allows me to look behind me quickly without worrying about hitting the person in front of me. Now I recognize that I'm probably just OCD'ish since this is a split second thing, but it feels safer.

There are some negative elements as well.

1.) I have found that it's made me more likely to speed faster than what the right hand lanes are meant for. This happens because I have the TACC set for 10 over the speed limit (10 over where I live is the buffer the cops give, and what the enforced speed limit is), but then at some point I need to get over for my exit. What I should be doing is lowering the TACC speed by 5 when I switch into those lanes, but I don't. Instead I'm lazy and I just let it go. So I'm one of those people passing in the right lane despite the fact that those people annoy me. So I've become a hypocrite.

2.) More likely to use cell phones, and to be distracted. Now I haven't let it pull me in, but I can feel the additional pull. The "Hey, I'm looking out for you so go ahead". It's going to be significantly worse with the auto steering.

3.) I find myself wanting to test the limits. How much braking power can it really do? I keep taking over when I know the situation is something the TACC might not react fast enough to. Things like traffic suddenly slowing down, or when someone merges into my lane or out of my lane suddenly. Or when the the thing thinks the coast is clear, but it's totally mistaken because it has no idea that things are stopped 300+ ft away. In some ways it's like a child and part of you wonders whether you should let it continue doing what it's doing, or if you should intervene. Am I being a good parent to TACC or a bad parent?

Hopefully #3 is just the Engineer in me.

 

[Cyclone]

Or when the the thing thinks the coast is clear, but it's totally mistaken because it has no idea that things are stopped 300+ ft away. In some ways it's like a child and part of you wonders whether you should let it continue doing what it's doing, or if you should intervene. Am I being a good parent to TACC or a bad parent?

Hopefully #3 is just the Engineer in me.

This last point is probably what gives me the harsh acceleration/braking rides around town. A car changes lanes or turns and traffic ahead of me is slowing down/stopping, but the car accelerates to then hit the friction brakes when I would just let regen start and slow me down as I "catch up" to the slower/stopped traffic.

 

[Andyw2100]

If you want TACC to drive smoothly and efficiently, even on the highway, you need to be ready to intervene to help it.

For example, I usually have mine set to 70 on a 65 MPH highway, which often has me travelling in the right lane, so faster traffic can pass in the left lane. But if I'm passed, and the car immediately cuts in front of me, even though it is travelling faster, TACC will briefly attempt to increase the distance between the cars, and will start regenerative braking. Since I know the other car is travelling faster, if I anticipate this, and get on the go pedal before TACC tries to slow the car down, I can maintain my speed and not waste energy. I only need to be on the go pedal pretty lightly, and just for a couple of seconds, until the car that passed and immediately cut into my lane has put a little distance between our cars, at which point I can let TACC take over again.

Another example would be going down hill. Rather than let TACC regeneratively brake, I try to be on the go pedal just enough so that there is the tiniest sliver of orange being displayed. I'm basically attempting to coast, and perhaps pick up speed by one or two MPH, as opposed to letting TACC maintain my speed perfectly by braking to do it.

 

[NorCalSJ]

I use TACC every chance I get, commute traffic to trips down I5. Long distance (San Jose to LA) I set it at 88 mph on local freeways 75

 

[Khatsalano]

I love driving such an awesome vehicle, but on my commute and on longer distance drives, I use TACC a lot more than in my former ICE. The TACC takes driving stress down by like 25% easily over a normal trip (this is an empirical metric based on my feelings and has a 95% confidence interval FYI). It frees up my attention to do more important things, like scan my mirrors, look farther ahead, check my blind spots, and be more situationally aware. Instead of focusing most of my attention on following distance and speed, I can be much more attentive to other things to keep me and others on the road safer.

- K

 

[jjsmith24]

^ I agree completely. I rarely used cruise control in my ICE but I use TACC almost daily. Even though I am always ready to intervene, I feel much safer with it on when there is traffic on highways. It keeps me in line when I get a little distracted.

 

[slevit1md]

I've had TACC on my X5 for the last 4 years, which is where almost all of my experience is coming from. Having gotten used to it, I almost think it's dangerous for me to go back to a vehicle without it since I am used to depending on the vehicle to keep pace for me. It has made highway driving significantly less stressful for me. I can be a bit of an agressive driver and when cars slow down in the fast lane, I get a little annoyed, particularly if I have to fiddle with the cruise control becuase of it. However, when I've got the TACC engaged, I just let the car do its thing and don't worry about it. It also makes doing unsafe things that I shouldn't be doing while driving slightly safer since I'm not going to accidentally ram into the car in front of me if they decide to slow down / stop. When I drive my wife's car (no TACC), I almost never engage cruise control because I have to override it to frequently based on cars in front of me. However, I almost never drive on the highways without it in my X5.

That being said, I've found the Tesla's implementation to be even better. Both the X5 and the Tesla can handle stop and go traffic, but the Tesla does it much smoother than the BMW. Neither is as smooth as driving yourself in traffic, but the Tesla is at least tolerable. I've found that when I slow car finally gets out of my way or when a stopped car starts moving again, the BMW wants to get back up to the set speed as quickly as possible. The Tesla still gets there relatively quickly, but much smoother and much closer to the way I'd do it if I were driving. I also like that the Tesla's selector for distance is mechanical and stays where you left it whereas my current car requires you to reset from the furthest following distance every time you turn it on. Minor annoyance, but annoyance nonetheless. As others have mentioned, I don't find it very useful unless I'm on the highway, so how useful you find it will vary depending on how much highway driving you do.

I can only imagine how nice it will be to not have to touch the wheel either once they enable it in the next software update!

 

[Max*]

I never used cruise control, but I use TACC occasionally now. I don't know if it's the novelty of it, or that it makes life easier. It's a little more aggressive than I'd like, but I'm hoping they fix that in future releases.

 

[jbcarioca]

I've had TACC on my X5 for the last 4 years, which is where almost all of my experience is coming from...

My experience came from a BMW 5-series in Europe, where I used ACC always on highways and frequently in suburban traffic. I grew to like it very much, especially in places such as Northern Italy with industrial traffic mixing with poorly equipped vehicles, many of them tourists (based on plates). The ACC was often abrupt to did allow me to focus more easily on driving and feel less stressed.

Now with the latest updates to TACC I find myself using it in South Florida US-1 stop and go traffic and on nearly all highway driving. TACC makes my life much less stressful although I truthfully do not think is is materially better than the European BMW ACC I used. I too am eagerly waiting for the autopilot.

Frankly I strongly doubt we'll really have true autonomous driving available anytime soon. There are too many regulatory and administrative hassles for that to happen on public roads even if the technical hurdles are all met. I hope I am wrong about that.

 

[polything]

i use cruise control as much as i can, great technology, why not max it out especially in rush hours

 

[davidc18]

Use TACC all the time now. This morning I was following another tesla on a road with a posted 45 speed limit. I have TACC set for 6 car lengths. The Tesla in front slowed to a stop (for a red light) and we slowed right down to a full stop as well, about 3 car lengths behind. When the light turned green, TACC popped up a message to touch the accelerator pedal to resume. I did not know it would do this. I fully expected to have to intervene to stop the car at the light. Anyway, it was an interesting to watch it work this way.

The TACC has worked so well for me that I would really be unhappy driving without now.

 

[pmoa]

I want to call the SC and plunk down my 3K for this right now

 

[digitaltim]

I don't have it in my Sig, but loved it in a recent loaner. I used it for 40 miles of a 50 mile commute in stop-and-go traffic on 495 (DC), 95 and 695 (Baltimore) - flawless.