First day on the AutoPilot trial.

[RayK]

Or tapping the brakes if it's safe to do so.

I tested out autosteer (AS) today on a slightly twisty part of road near my house (Coleman Road). Speed was set to 45MPH which I think is a little bit over the posted limit; I tend to drive about 5MPH over. The car handled the 5 turns fairly well except the last one where the left tires came pretty close to the concrete island separating the lanes. I didn't want to wait for AS to turn harder to the right so I yanked on the steering wheel. EAP performed quite well on SR 87 yesterday but those turns weren't as tight or sudden as on Coleman. Yes, I may have been going over the limit, and yes I may have chickened out too early, so I can't consider this test as a failure but it was impressive to see the car turning by itself.

 

[insaneoctane]

Interesting how many folks are not impressed with EAP even for free, yet I am thrilled to have it even after paying $5K. To each his own

 

[PoitNarf]

Regarding lane positioning on curves, I really hope Tesla tweaks this. I find that AP takes turns too wide a lot of the time. I will usually hug the inside of a curve but AP tends to drift too far to the outside for my liking. It’s probably my biggest complaint about AP after using it for nearly 5 months.

 

[daniel]

On another note, the EAP trial started for me today. I found it quite impressive but different than a lot of the rest of you. I don't think it drives like an a$$hole at all, which probably says something about my normal driving :-x

I think most people who have EAP love it. I think the negative comments are coming from people after their first time using it. It definitely takes getting used to.

I was also way more nervous with it activated than I thought I would be.

Me, too. I think I drove the car for a week after EAP was calibrated and ready to use before I got up the courage to try it.

The biggest thing for me is lane positioning. The car in EAP will sit right in the middle of the lane no matter what else is around me (another car, semi truck, etc.). Since I ride a motorcycle this is a little unnerving to me; I tend to naturally hug one side of my own lane when another vehicle is close to me.

Totally agree. I often disengage it in conditions like these. An FSD car will have to be able to react to the cars around it. Especially since other drivers might not be fully awake or alert. I'll be on a two-lane highway and I see a car or truck coming that's too close to the line, I'll disengage autosteer and do my own steering, keeping more distance. This is not an FSD car! You do have to be ready to take over when conditions are outside what the car can handle!

Finally, the "wiggle" when disengaging the EAP by turning the steering wheel was also weird, but I got used to it after forcing to do it a few times. Pulling up on the drive selector is a much smoother way to disable it.

Disengaging autosteer by turning the wheel is only for situations when you need to sharply and immediately change the car's direction from where it's going. Pulling up on the selector is the correct way to disengage if you are aware of a situation approaching, and tapping on the brake pedal is for when you need to disengage TACC and slow down (which also disengages autosteer).

Regarding lane positioning on curves, I really hope Tesla tweaks this. I find that AP takes turns too wide a lot of the time. I will usually hug the inside of a curve but AP tends to drift too far to the outside for my liking. It’s probably my biggest complaint about AP after using it for nearly 5 months.

Same experience here. It does not manage lane positioning as well on curves as on straight roads. The faster it's going, the more trouble it has. I found that most of the time obeying the posted speed limit on curves allows the car to handle them adequately. But on very tight curves, I take over the driving. My philosophy is that this car can drive itself most of the time, but that I'm there to take over proactively, not to wait for it to go outside of acceptable behavior. This seems to me a very acceptable compromise and greatly reduces stress. I'm the driver. EAP is an aid. It's going to keep getting better, but at level 2 this car is just taking the first steps toward autonomy.

Some day EAP will be standard on cars, like air bags are now. And eventually all will be FSD. And one happy day it will become illegal to have a car on the road if it has a steering wheel. Baby steps.

 

[Yuri_G]

Interesting how many folks are not impressed with EAP even for free, yet I am thrilled to have it even after paying $5K. To each his own

Justifying their (non) purchase.

 

[MXWing]

Interesting how many folks are not impressed with EAP even for free, yet I am thrilled to have it even after paying $5K. To each his own

You won’t be impressed with EAP unless you give it scenarios where it shines.

Going one mile to the neighborhood grocery store where you run into 4 stop signs and make multiple turns... not worth it.

Road trip from LA to Vegas where my driving fatigue is cut to where I’m refreshed when I get there? - priceless

 

[gtmotor]

Justifying their (non) purchase.

You won’t be impressed with EAP unless you give it scenarios where it shines.

Going one mile to the neighborhood grocery store where you run into 4 stop signs and make multiple turns... not worth it.

Road trip from LA to Vegas where my driving fatigue is cut to where I’m refreshed when I get there? - priceless

My commute to work is low traffic and 26 miles of freeway. That should be enough to run it through it's paces with the 13 days I have left

 

[kmcdds]

While true, there is no way anyone would buy AP 2 on a free trial if it acted the way it did when I got the car (which was much improved from the first AP2 release!). That system regularly made passengers yell and would scare the crap out of me. I basically stopped using autosteer until the big 10.4 update.

Even today, it has issues with the phantom braking, lane merges, etc. I had a coworker ask me why he often sees Teslas on his commute suddenly swerve at freeway speeds, and I told him it was probably folks using AP and that he shouldn’t ever tailgate one as the system might brake check him. The freeway he travels has several spots where AP loses the lane lines due to some unusual painting with alternating black and white stripes for lane lines. Perfectly visible to humans, but AP can’t see it and it will catch you off guard if you haven’t used AP in that area before.

So I am kind of surprised they feel the system is stable enough for the free trial now.

LOL. Just got back from a week long road trip and had a few phantom braking incidents, especially driving over stretches of pavement that are black compared to the surrounding pavement. I’ve also had it brake suddenly when driving over a large shadow when in bright sunlight. Having said that, I used auto steer on about 90% of the trip and loved it. Takes the stress out of driving.

 

[Quickstart88]

After my updates last week on Friday, I got a notice for auto pilot 14 days trail. I accepted the trail but was only able to test for one day. what's up with that?

 

[Sneakerhead]

So im sold on ap but i accidentally paid for it now...i didnt mean to click the pay now button just wanted to see the price with tax...anyways if I request to cancel it will I have the demo for 12 more days? An extra paycheck will help me pay off the autopilot cost. Its a necessary cost for me since my daily commute is 90 plus miles and it works so well on 10 and 210. I just hope i dont lose the free trial if i cancel this payment.

 

[Gavyne]

After my updates last week on Friday, I got a notice for auto pilot 14 days trail. I accepted the trail but was only able to test for one day. what's up with that?

It's a bug they're aware of. You'll get the trial again once they fix the issue.

 

[lolder]

I use the EAP all the time on my 30 mph small town local roads which are rough and have poor markings due to several years of roads being torn up for a new sewer system installation. I am very impressed with it's performance. It drives more to the left in the lane than I'm used to but it is in the center so I probably drove to the right. It occasionally has a little jerk to the left when in the left lane of a 4 lane road divided by a median when it comes to crossovers in the median that have no dashed lines. Other times it needs only one line to operate smoothly. You learn when it might have a problem. It will try to avoid accidents which has been demonstrated with YouTube clips. It drives a little like a student driver which it is. When the road or markings are not smooth it follows them more aggressively than a human would. That's also a fault in the markings. I give it an A even at this stage after one month of use.

 

[Crispix]

Be aware of biases. Those of us that didn't pay the $5k are going to tend to find fault with autopilot during the trial and and say it's not worth the money. Those of us that paid for it will want to justify the sunk cost despite any faults.

And both sides are right. AP is very cool. It also isn't perfect. It's a choice to buy it or not.

If Tesla Motors succeeds in just a fraction of people deciding to buy after the free trial, it's a win for them, helps get them to profitability, and that's good for all of us.

 

[brobinson]

I have been really impressed with the trial in the first few days. It works perfectly for my daily commute of 60 miles (round trip, mostly highway), and I find that its a far less stressful time in general.

However, it's hard to swallow $6k (or $5k for that matter) for the added convenience. I really think that Tesla is going to adjust their pricing on AP after the base model starts production. If conversion rate for AP is low, they will need to either realign where the features live (i.e. split TACC from the rest and offer it as a separate paid option) or get more creative with how people can pay for it (subscription, interest free financing, etc..).

I think that having EAP and FSD as separate features is just confusing for people, especially those that aren't tesla savy. Toss auto-steer, summon, and lane change into an $8k or $9k FSD package, and make TACC an option for $2k (or less, ideally).

 

[timk225]

Today, I went out and got in some rush hour traffic on purpose, to see how AP worked. It did well going slowly, and the nag wasn't popping up every 20 seconds like it does at high speed.

I went to a supermarket parking lot, and backed into a space at the far end of the lot from the building. I walked about 100 feet down the aisle, and used my phone app to hit Summon, thinking the car would come out of the spot, turn, and roll down to me.

No turning, it just rolled straight ahead until it was half blocking the aisle and half in the space in front of it, made me look like an ass, even more than usual. Disappointed in Summon. They should call it "Summon, but only if you're straight in front of the car or straight behind it".

 

[daniel]

I went to a supermarket parking lot, and backed into a space at the far end of the lot from the building. I walked about 100 feet down the aisle, and used my phone app to hit Summon, thinking the car would come out of the spot, turn, and roll down to me.

No turning, it just rolled straight ahead until it was half blocking the aisle and half in the space in front of it, made me look like an ass, even more than usual. Disappointed in Summon. They should call it "Summon, but only if you're straight in front of the car or straight behind it".

Nowhere in the owner's manual does it say that summing will bring the car to you. It just allows you to move the car forward or backward from outside the car. And it will attempt to maneuver to avoid obstacles, as long as they're high enough for it to see. But you have to monitor it constantly because it will only work under ideal conditions.

 

[Darscot]

The thing I found with EAP is you need to give it about a week before you give it any kind of review. The first time your super skeptical and paranoid and think its going to kill you. You need to relax and get over that. Once you have a little trust in it and understand how it works best, its amazing. I can't imagine my daily drive with out it.

 

[StellarRat]

Nowhere in the owner's manual does it say that summing will bring the car to you.

They only guarantee that it will add up a list of numbers.

 

[StellarRat]

Today, I went out and got in some rush hour traffic on purpose, to see how AP worked. It did well going slowly, and the nag wasn't popping up every 20 seconds like it does at high speed.

I went to a supermarket parking lot, and backed into a space at the far end of the lot from the building. I walked about 100 feet down the aisle, and used my phone app to hit Summon, thinking the car would come out of the spot, turn, and roll down to me.

No turning, it just rolled straight ahead until it was half blocking the aisle and half in the space in front of it, made me look like an ass, even more than usual. Disappointed in Summon. They should call it "Summon, but only if you're straight in front of the car or straight behind it".

Clearly you did not read the manual. All it does is roll the car forward or back into a parking space or garage. It's mostly for people that have their hands full or have small garages/tight parking spaces. For most people the extra time it take to use it isn't worth the trouble.

 

[Twiglett]

Regarding lane positioning on curves, I really hope Tesla tweaks this. I find that AP takes turns too wide a lot of the time. I will usually hug the inside of a curve but AP tends to drift too far to the outside for my liking. It’s probably my biggest complaint about AP after using it for nearly 5 months.

its there for a reason. It isn't taking the "racing line" and hugging the inside, its taking the side with the greatest visibility which is an advanced driving technique.
The so called "racing line" is great when driving a closed circuit etc, but pretty useless for avoiding hidden obstacles