First road trip with AP2 - wow!

[gr2020]

I just got back from a ~850 mile trip in my new Model S 75D, from Denver, CO to Custer, SD, and around Mt Rushmore and the nearby sights. The vast majority of these miles were done with Autopilot (aside from the iron mountain road and needles highway, which are narrow twisty local roads).

To read this forum, one would think AP2 is terrible, tries to kill you at every turn, and isn't at all ready for public use. My experience is completely different.

It was remarkable. It behaved as advertised - ranging from interstates, to 2-lane roads, to stop and go traffic on both interstates and multi-lane local roads. It worked quite well.

I'm not saying it was perfect - I did have to take over now and then. It sometimes has trouble with two lanes merging into one, one lane splitting into two, and times when the lines go missing for a longer distance than an intersection. It doesn't seem to like a car stopped in your lane, when it wasn't previously detected as moving. And it tends to sort of saw through turns of a certain radius, which is annoying, but doesn't seem to happen that often.

But I learned the times when it might have trouble, and you know, actually drove the car myself for a few seconds here and there. And on roads I knew it wouldn't work well on (think super narrow, twisty roads), I just didn't activate it. Never was there real danger from AP - it was very solid.

All in all, I was quite pleased with it. To me, the EAP is worth every penny they charge for it. Can't wait to see what the updates bring!

 

[ab26]

Yes. AP2 is good by itself. But if you drive an AP1 car, you will understand why some people are complaining about AP2. AP1 is far more superior at the moment. Hopefully, the silky update next month brings AP2 to true AP1 parity. Let's see.

 

[Gibson]

I just got back from a ~850 mile trip in my new Model S 75D, from Denver, CO to Custer, SD, and around Mt Rushmore and the nearby sights. The vast majority of these miles were done with Autopilot (aside from the iron mountain road and needles highway, which are narrow twisty local roads).

To read this forum, one would think AP2 is terrible, tries to kill you at every turn, and isn't at all ready for public use. My experience is completely different.

It was remarkable. It behaved as advertised - ranging from interstates, to 2-lane roads, to stop and go traffic on both interstates and multi-lane local roads. It worked quite well.

I'm not saying it was perfect - I did have to take over now and then. It sometimes has trouble with two lanes merging into one, one lane splitting into two, and times when the lines go missing for a longer distance than an intersection. It doesn't seem to like a car stopped in your lane, when it wasn't previously detected as moving. And it tends to sort of saw through turns of a certain radius, which is annoying, but doesn't seem to happen that often.

But I learned the times when it might have trouble, and you know, actually drove the car myself for a few seconds here and there. And on roads I knew it wouldn't work well on (think super narrow, twisty roads), I just didn't activate it. Never was there real danger from AP - it was very solid.

All in all, I was quite pleased with it. To me, the EAP is worth every penny they charge for it. Can't wait to see what the updates bring!

Could not agree more. But them's fightin' words around these parts. Hope you brought backup.

 

[gr2020]

Could not agree more. But them's fightin' words around these parts. Hope you brought backup.

You're my backup! Haha.

 

[croman]

AP2 is good on road trips. It sucks locally. But you took your trip on the 17.17 variants. It was bad and useless before 17.9.3 even on road trips.

 

[gr2020]

AP2 is good on road trips. It sucks locally.

My personal experience differs. Even in stop and go traffic, like driving through the middle of Denver on the freeway, and similarly for 4-lane local roads near my house with very heavy traffic, it has performed flawlessly. Although these are all limited-access roads, to some extent - AP2 feels less confident when one side of your lane is just a curb, and has no painted line, like a city street, but I don't really even try to use it on such streets.

But you took your trip on the 17.17 variants. It was bad and useless before 17.9.3 even on road trips.

I'm on 17.17.17, and never used anything earlier than 17.17.4. I'll take your word for it on the earlier versions.

 

[Gibson]

You're my backup! Haha.

Then you are in more trouble than I thought.

 

[xyeahtony]

You'll find OP that your experience mirrors 90% of the tesla drivers population.

So much for "autopilot being a gimmick" though right? lolololol

 

[_jal_]

I love autopilot. I almost always rest a hand on the wheel just for safety, but I once ate a burger while driving down the highway in my car - with both hands! Like a civilized member of society! Any schlep can do the steer with knees thing or one handed burger and fries balancing act circus show, but we're not circus folk. We're Teslarati!

I wish Elon hadn't teased us with that tweet. Every day now is just roughing it until that silky smooth day of glory

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

If you think your AP2 was great, imagine how good AP1 is.
AP2 will get there in a couple of months, and then get even better.

And then think of the fools stuck behind their manual steering wheels burning gas, with their pithy excuse of "I like the sound of the engine" or some other inane comment like that.

 

[Saghost]

If you think your AP2 was great, imagine how good AP1 is.
AP2 will get there in a couple of months, and then get even better.

And then think of the fools stuck behind their manual steering wheels burning gas, with their pithy excuse of "I like the sound of the engine" or some other inane comment like that.

I've been hearing a lot of "I like to drive myself" lately...

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

I've been hearing a lot of "I like to drive myself" lately...

I tell them, my car has a feature that lets me do that. It's called "Don't turn Autopilot on".

 

[cmd_keen]

Yes. AP2 is good by itself. But if you drive an AP1 car, you will understand why some people are complaining about AP2. AP1 is far more superior at the moment. Hopefully, the silky update next month brings AP2 to true AP1 parity. Let's see.

I wouldn't say that AP1 is far superior, I have both AP1 and AP2 vehicles, both from 2016 and my experience is that they are on par at this point, starting with 17.17.4 (I'm on 17.17.17 now but only because I had the car in for service).

I agree with gr2020, after a while, you learn to "take control" at certain points because you know the AP system (1 or 2) at least for now is not capable. For example, on my daily commute home, there is a stretch of highway where the lane markers are worn thin on a curve, I always have to take over that that point.

 

[Patrick W]

All in all, I was quite pleased with it. To me, the EAP is worth every penny they charge for it. Can't wait to see what the updates bring!

Thanks for posting. Always nice to hear from the (usually) silent majority.

 

[oktane]

IMO if you're driving with AP2 you're putting yourself and others at risk unless you keep your hand on the wheel at all times. It's nowhere near as useful as AP1.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Yes. AP2 is good by itself. But if you drive an AP1 car, you will understand why some people are complaining about AP2. AP1 is far more superior at the moment. Hopefully, the silky update next month brings AP2 to true AP1 parity. Let's see.

My car is AP1 and I've had it since the 6.2 firmware versions (early 2015), which was before the initial release of autosteer.

I'm pleased to hear that the 17.17.x versions of AP2 have made great progress forward and I'm consistently seeing these types of reports on the forum now, that AP2 is becoming useful and no longer has major problems.

But I wouldn't go so far as to say that AP1 is "far more superior". I have about 47,000 miles on my car, of which I've driven probably 20,000 with autosteer engaged. This is over a 19 month period and 25 (yes, I counted) different firmware versions. Until firmware (8.0) 2.52.22, released in January of 2017, AP1 had intermittent idiosyncrasies that are eerily similar to what people with AP2 are reporting, especially pre-17.17.x versions. That's a 14-month period where AP1 needed pretty close supervision. Only in the last 5 months since then have I felt that AP1 is trustworthy enough to rely on in nearly all conditions, including edge cases that use to throw it for a loop like cresting hills on turns or extended periods where only one side of the lane markers are visible.

In a year's time from now when AP2 has exceeded AP1 functionality, we'll be able to look back and compare the elapsed time from initial release of the autosteer functionality to the point where it was trustworthy enough to rely on in nearly all conditions. I'll wager that AP2 reaches that point in several months shorter time than AP1 took.

 

[Blue Dragon]

I have AP2 and knew that I was loving it for the most part. Then, I dropped my car off to get wrapped and had to drive the husband's Subaru. I couldn't believe how painful the change was! Then I had a bad cold for most of the work week and was having to drive myself on my long commute. I'm just posting because my car has been gone almost four weeks, and I'm very sad about it. Empty spot in the garage, no power, no anything cool. I get gas smell on my hand every time I've put gas in it. I'm told the car will hopefully be done this weekend. Don't ask why it's taking so long; I don't have the energy to answer anymore.

 

[Saghost]

I have AP2 and knew that I was loving it for the most part. Then, I dropped my car off to get wrapped and had to drive the husband's Subaru. I couldn't believe how painful the change was! Then I had a bad cold for most of the work week and was having to drive myself on my long commute. I'm just posting because my car has been gone almost four weeks, and I'm very sad about it. Empty spot in the garage, no power, no anything cool. I get gas smell on my hand every time I've put gas in it. I'm told the car will hopefully be done this weekend. Don't ask why it's taking so long; I don't have the energy to answer anymore.

I've noticed that it takes a little time back in the stone age (well, okay, the unautomated ICE age?) to truly appreciate how far we've come.

 

[animorph]

Kind of like HDTV. My family said "big deal" when I got our first HD set. After watching it for a while they were wondering why some (standard definition) shows looked so crappy.

 

[sakimano]

I have AP1 and it's good but not incredible or anything.

For those who are bashing AP2, or warning that people are putting others in danger etc...can you clarify what you mean by that? AP1 gets a little funny or a little confused at times too. Wondering if AP2 is way worse etc or what. Was considering an AP2 90D