Good first post.
Yeah, it does that to me, too and it drives me nuts. It also will always preference the routes coming home that go by that same Supercharger even when I won't need it. I'm hoping that goes away as well.
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Firmware 7.0
- Thread starter MarcG
- Start date
Good first post.
Yeah, it does that to me, too and it drives me nuts. It also will always preference the routes coming home that go by that same Supercharger even when I won't need it. I'm hoping that goes away as well.
R²B
All Star
Tried AP this morning, overall it works really well. Got a little squirrelly on me once but other than that I was pleasantly surprised. Freeway is definitely the sweet spot.
Electric700
Active Member
It's for all Model S and X vehicles, including yours from what I understand. Those without the Autopilot hardware just won't be able to take advantage of the related features.
It is for all Model S. Cars built before late Sep 2014 without the Autopilot sensor hardware will not get the Autopilot part of the V7 software update but will get the new UI and a few new features/improvements.
Does anyone know what the following statement (from the 7.0 Release notes, in the TACC improvements section) means:
"Model S will approach stationary vehicles more smoothly ...."
Does this imply that it can recognize stationary vehicles now? Maybe even stop behind one? Has anyone with 7.0 observed what happens when they approach a stationary vehicle?
"Model S will approach stationary vehicles more smoothly ...."
Does this imply that it can recognize stationary vehicles now? Maybe even stop behind one? Has anyone with 7.0 observed what happens when they approach a stationary vehicle?
My car got the update some time around 7:30AM ET, I installed the update about a half-hour later, and the update was installed in about 1.5 hrs. The iPhone app notified me both that the update was available, and when it was finished. First thing I did was go for a drive to test out the autopilot. Here are my thoughts...
1. It will work on pretty much any road with half-decent lane markings, but it's clearly designed for highways (or at least long, straight roads without a bunch of intersections, lane changes, etc). Off highway, it often gets confused by intersections, turn lanes, and similar. Sometimes it veers off the wrong way, sometimes it asks you to take over, and it does actually get things right a surprising amount of the time. But, this is definitely a situation where you should have your hands on the wheel at all times, if you're going to use it, and be ready to take over. Personally, it's not yet to the point that I plan to use it for this type of driving. It obviously does not look for stop signs, traffic lights, or any traffic control devices aside from speed limit signs, and this greatly limits its value off the highway (which it was never intended for anyway).
2. On the highway, it works very well, better than I had actually hoped. The nagging is minimal, and really is probably just when it needs more information. I drove for about 20 miles on the highway as soon as the install completed. Over half of the stretch of highway I drove on is under construction, with the associated occasional veers in lanes, less-than perfect lane markings, changes from concrete to asphalt, closer than usual traffic, evidence of old lane markers, quick patch jobs, etc. I decided to see how good the system was and from the time I got on the highway to the time I got off, I did not touch the wheel (although my hands were close by, particularly earlier on). The system only made me grab the wheel twice, and both times were a location that I had always anticipated it would not be able to handle. It was the same spot in each direction, and it's an area where the highway veers rather abruptly from old highway to new highway - an area that I've always had to slow down and be careful to steer around correctly. Otherwise, it handled the long construction zone perfectly, including several areas that while relatively straight, didn't appear to be marked well, and I was pretty sure it'd make me take over. It also handled all of the curves without issue, aside from the one exception I mentioned that would never be seen outside of a construction zone. I stayed in the fast lane and avoided any issues with it trying to veer off an exit lane. In use, I'll probably just stick to the middle or left lane when using auto-pilot. By the time I got off the highway, I was very comfortable letting it do the driving.
3. The feel of auto-pilot may take some people a bit of getting used to. It's not exactly how you'd drive, but it's very good. It can't see as far ahead as you or anticipate as well, so it may take the outside of a turn instead of the inside, may move out of center slightly depending on road conditions, and other various quirks. But overall, it does a good job of staying centered, certainly is not bouncing back and forth between the lines. It was actually impressive how accurately it shows where you are in relation to the lines in the instrument cluster, and even shows where the car ahead of you is in relation to the lines! When I was looking down for a second, I thought it was off since it was showing the car in front of me slightly off to the side of the road. Sure enough, I looked up, and the guy was just coming back into the lane. I had been worried about it's ability to stay within the lanes, especially in anything other than perfect conditions, given how poorly the lane keeping assist had previously seemed to work. However, you should just forget about whatever you thought about lane keeping assist, because this is nothing close to similar. As mentioned above, it did a very good job, with almost no nag, on a less-than-ideal stretch of highway.
4. The TACC seems to be much better. It is a lot smoother to slow down or speed up when cars enter or exit your lane. In this situation, it drives much more similarly to how I'd drive. Again, not perfect, but very good and good enough that I never felt the need to take over.
5. The instrument cluster interface is actually not bad in practice. I would like the energy graph to be a little more detailed, but it's functional. I don't miss the time or temp as much as I had expected, given that they're still present on the top of the 17" screen. Yeah, the clock app is ugly, but I don't feel I'd ever need to use it. The one thing I do not like, however, is the loss of the little lines which were always present to show you your speed and the speed limit. It was always very clear to me if I was above or below the speed limit, and would trigger me to adjust accordingly. Now, although the speed limit is displayed at all times (looks like a speed limit sign) and you can see what speed the TACC is set to, there is no indication if you are set to over or under the speed limit. You have to look at 3 separate places - the speed limit indicator, your actual speed, and the speed the TACC is set to. This sounds minor, and maybe it's something I'll get used to eventually, but I don't like it. It's just not nearly as intuitive.
6. Related to above, it does not automatically adjust your speed when using autopilot, which is a shame. I see no reason it couldn't adjust your speed up or down as the speed limit changes. You can already do it just by pulling the control stick towards you for a second, but it should be automatic (or at least optionally so).
7. I do not particularly like the flat interface for the 17" screen. It's already been addressed elsewhere based on the beta builds, but you lose functionality in the climate control area and I just think it overall looks kind of cheap. The only thing I do like about it is how the controls for the navigation map are translucent, and you can see the map behind them. The media player app is also more functional when full-screen, although I do not like it's half-screen appearance. Didn't get to test out if album art issues have been fixed, but not holding my breath on that at least until 7.1.
8. Auto-parking seemed to be useless - I'm not even fully convinced that it was actually delivered in the update! See my full review further up, but I couldn't get it to work a single time. This is ignoring the fact that even if it did work well, it's only parallel parking at this point.
Overall, I think it was probably worth the wait. On highways, where it is intended to be used, it does a surprisingly great job with minimal to no nag. Even on roads where it's not intended, it does a decent job. I'd like to see a few changes made, but they're definitely on the right track, got most of the big things right, and it's probably the best implementation of auto-pilot available today. Can't wait to see where things go once the user data starts flowing back to Tesla HQ!
1. It will work on pretty much any road with half-decent lane markings, but it's clearly designed for highways (or at least long, straight roads without a bunch of intersections, lane changes, etc). Off highway, it often gets confused by intersections, turn lanes, and similar. Sometimes it veers off the wrong way, sometimes it asks you to take over, and it does actually get things right a surprising amount of the time. But, this is definitely a situation where you should have your hands on the wheel at all times, if you're going to use it, and be ready to take over. Personally, it's not yet to the point that I plan to use it for this type of driving. It obviously does not look for stop signs, traffic lights, or any traffic control devices aside from speed limit signs, and this greatly limits its value off the highway (which it was never intended for anyway).
2. On the highway, it works very well, better than I had actually hoped. The nagging is minimal, and really is probably just when it needs more information. I drove for about 20 miles on the highway as soon as the install completed. Over half of the stretch of highway I drove on is under construction, with the associated occasional veers in lanes, less-than perfect lane markings, changes from concrete to asphalt, closer than usual traffic, evidence of old lane markers, quick patch jobs, etc. I decided to see how good the system was and from the time I got on the highway to the time I got off, I did not touch the wheel (although my hands were close by, particularly earlier on). The system only made me grab the wheel twice, and both times were a location that I had always anticipated it would not be able to handle. It was the same spot in each direction, and it's an area where the highway veers rather abruptly from old highway to new highway - an area that I've always had to slow down and be careful to steer around correctly. Otherwise, it handled the long construction zone perfectly, including several areas that while relatively straight, didn't appear to be marked well, and I was pretty sure it'd make me take over. It also handled all of the curves without issue, aside from the one exception I mentioned that would never be seen outside of a construction zone. I stayed in the fast lane and avoided any issues with it trying to veer off an exit lane. In use, I'll probably just stick to the middle or left lane when using auto-pilot. By the time I got off the highway, I was very comfortable letting it do the driving.
3. The feel of auto-pilot may take some people a bit of getting used to. It's not exactly how you'd drive, but it's very good. It can't see as far ahead as you or anticipate as well, so it may take the outside of a turn instead of the inside, may move out of center slightly depending on road conditions, and other various quirks. But overall, it does a good job of staying centered, certainly is not bouncing back and forth between the lines. It was actually impressive how accurately it shows where you are in relation to the lines in the instrument cluster, and even shows where the car ahead of you is in relation to the lines! When I was looking down for a second, I thought it was off since it was showing the car in front of me slightly off to the side of the road. Sure enough, I looked up, and the guy was just coming back into the lane. I had been worried about it's ability to stay within the lanes, especially in anything other than perfect conditions, given how poorly the lane keeping assist had previously seemed to work. However, you should just forget about whatever you thought about lane keeping assist, because this is nothing close to similar. As mentioned above, it did a very good job, with almost no nag, on a less-than-ideal stretch of highway.
4. The TACC seems to be much better. It is a lot smoother to slow down or speed up when cars enter or exit your lane. In this situation, it drives much more similarly to how I'd drive. Again, not perfect, but very good and good enough that I never felt the need to take over.
5. The instrument cluster interface is actually not bad in practice. I would like the energy graph to be a little more detailed, but it's functional. I don't miss the time or temp as much as I had expected, given that they're still present on the top of the 17" screen. Yeah, the clock app is ugly, but I don't feel I'd ever need to use it. The one thing I do not like, however, is the loss of the little lines which were always present to show you your speed and the speed limit. It was always very clear to me if I was above or below the speed limit, and would trigger me to adjust accordingly. Now, although the speed limit is displayed at all times (looks like a speed limit sign) and you can see what speed the TACC is set to, there is no indication if you are set to over or under the speed limit. You have to look at 3 separate places - the speed limit indicator, your actual speed, and the speed the TACC is set to. This sounds minor, and maybe it's something I'll get used to eventually, but I don't like it. It's just not nearly as intuitive.
6. Related to above, it does not automatically adjust your speed when using autopilot, which is a shame. I see no reason it couldn't adjust your speed up or down as the speed limit changes. You can already do it just by pulling the control stick towards you for a second, but it should be automatic (or at least optionally so).
7. I do not particularly like the flat interface for the 17" screen. It's already been addressed elsewhere based on the beta builds, but you lose functionality in the climate control area and I just think it overall looks kind of cheap. The only thing I do like about it is how the controls for the navigation map are translucent, and you can see the map behind them. The media player app is also more functional when full-screen, although I do not like it's half-screen appearance. Didn't get to test out if album art issues have been fixed, but not holding my breath on that at least until 7.1.
8. Auto-parking seemed to be useless - I'm not even fully convinced that it was actually delivered in the update! See my full review further up, but I couldn't get it to work a single time. This is ignoring the fact that even if it did work well, it's only parallel parking at this point.
Overall, I think it was probably worth the wait. On highways, where it is intended to be used, it does a surprisingly great job with minimal to no nag. Even on roads where it's not intended, it does a decent job. I'd like to see a few changes made, but they're definitely on the right track, got most of the big things right, and it's probably the best implementation of auto-pilot available today. Can't wait to see where things go once the user data starts flowing back to Tesla HQ!
Just for the record: sitting here in Norway and reading through all joyful posts about this amazing upgrade is painful.
I urge you all to stop being so damn happy until we in Europe also get the update. We would definitely have done the same for you!
(maybe not)
I urge you all to stop being so damn happy until we in Europe also get the update. We would definitely have done the same for you!
(maybe not)
MichFin
Member
mobe
Member
Interesting that you referenced an aircraft autopilot. I am also a GA pilot and as I was driving to work on autopilot this morning that is the one thing that I kept thinking to myself, " this feels like flying an aircraft on autopilot".
The loaner I drove with TACC would certainly recognize stopped vehicles, if it locked onto them before they stopped. It would come to a complete stop rather more abruptly than I would brake. I assume they just smoothed out this braking to make it more comfortable.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
Hehe--oopsies! I thought for a brief moment about climbing into the back seat and taking a nap, but...there's always tomorrow! Hehe.
- - - Updated - - -
I came up to a stopped vehicle in my lane with Autopilot on and it saw it no problem. But always be wary of such a situation, for safety of course.
Marcus Adolfsson
Member
Except that we rarely have other planes pass us with in a few feet
In the flight levels a 1000 ft vertical separation seems close, and even in my Cub (doing 80kts) a similar slow plane within a few hundred feet is nerve wrecking. In the Tesla, the first time I passed a truck on the interstate - hands of the wheel - was a bit scary!I haven't tried coming up on a stopped vehicle with TACC engaged yet with 7.0, but it's definitely smoother when cars switch into and out of your lane. Previously, if you were moving at any reasonable speed and came up on a car stopped at a light, it would stop rather abruptly, much harder than I was ever comfortable letting it stop. I tried it a couple times just to see how it worked, but always wound up taking over pretty quickly. I'll give it a try with 7.0 later today and see how it does.
You can easily see now as soon as the car senses a vehicle ahead of you, even if it's not a vehicle that its actively tracking. Based on this, it does appear to be looking quite a good distance ahead and in theory should be able to come to a stop smoothly from that distance, no matter what speed you happen to be traveling.
I fly a Cirrus SR22 and I could not agree more. Feeling the steering wheel movement with auto steer engaged is very reminiscent of yolk / stick servo movement under airplane autopilot command.
MichFin
Member
R²B
All Star
Another pleasant addition is the removal of the TACC/AP "hold" functionality. Now, regardless of how long you wait at a stop the car will automatically resume when the car ahead of you starts to move.
Also a tip learned the hard way this morning.....when you're using the turn signal to automatically changes lanes make sure that you hold the signal until the turn is complete (dashed blue line turns solid). If you don't the car will attempt to get back into the original lane by veering aggressively.
Also a tip learned the hard way this morning.....when you're using the turn signal to automatically changes lanes make sure that you hold the signal until the turn is complete (dashed blue line turns solid). If you don't the car will attempt to get back into the original lane by veering aggressively.
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Vger
Active Member
Interesting thought: My TPMS in the Sig recently went completely flakey, and Tesla is about to replace it under (extended) warranty. I wonder if they can fit the "new" system that will give the tire pressures?
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