How comfortable are you with AP2 on .42?

[RVD98072]

I recently got a MX (8/2017 build date). I only have around 1k miles on the car but took it for a road trip from the bay area to southern california to play with the car and get familiar with the features, etc.

I tried autopilot a lot and found that it's great on the freeway in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic and even some of the big local roads when there is a lot of traffic (e.g. in the bay area road like el camino real, guadalupe, lawrence expressway, etc.).

But when I tried it on the freeway in fast traffic, while it's ok going straight, it isn't steady enough on turns so I get nervous and usually end up overriding it. I found a few problems:

1) On a regular road that was kind of windy in the Pacific Palisades, I turned it on one night because there were no cars around. The road was pretty clear and the lanes were well detected but the car still turned over to the opposite direction lane a few times. If there was a car coming, would I have had a head on collision or would the car have detected that oncoming car and turned away?

2) On the freeway going 75 mph with a big rig on my right, sometimes my car seems to want to insist on staying in the middle or even the right part of my lane while the big rig is creeping to the left of his lane. As a human driver, I will naturally head over to the left part of my lane (even to the left edge) since there are no other cars (it's a 2 lane freeway) but it seems like autopilot tries to insist on staying in the middle. But again, am I overly conservative? My car does detect the big rig next to me via radar so will it keep it's distance?

3) Since I guess I can see further up than the car can see, it's a bit nerve racking to see a bunch of cars up front slam their brakes but my car keeps going fast (or even speeds up) only to brake a little later. Naturally I want to just override it by pressing my brakes.

As a result, I don't really use autopilot other than the bumper to bumper situation. I just don't feel like crashing my new car a few weeks into owning it. Am I being overly conservative or is this about the level of autopilot at this point?

RVD.

 

[Tam]

...overriding it...

The system is still in its infancy state so my practice has been to be ready to override it without waiting to see whether it's competent or not.

 

[chillaban]

There’s no such thing as overly conservative when it comes to a L2 ADAS. If you do not feel comfortable, disengage the system and take control yourself. Especially on winding roads and situations where there’s a lot of traffic near you, especially nobconpliant traffic line large trucks going over their lanes.... AP1/AP2 are both limited scope driver assist systems currently, and the only thing they are programmmed for presently is centering your car within a detected lane on modestly curvy roads.

As time goes on you develop a better gut feeling for what situations AP can behave well in, and what situations are more stressful to supervise than to drive yourself.

 

[cybergates]

best way to use it is this: be wary (hands tightly gripped) anytime you are driving on a new road. Then once you have memorized the quirks (for example my daily commute I know exactly where the few trouble spots are) you can let it drive with a little more ease and even hands off for brief periods.

Needless to say, it's not what I imagined when buying a tesla fully self driving (but then again its years ahead of anything else out there right now).

 

[Leopold Stotch]

Me too. Great car but not what I thought autopilot would be. I rarely use it lately cause it’s more work and a bit scary.

 

[RVD98072]

best way to use it is this: be wary (hands tightly gripped) anytime you are driving on a new road. Then once you have memorized the quirks (for example my daily commute I know exactly where the few trouble spots are) you can let it drive with a little more ease and even hands off for brief periods.

Needless to say, it's not what I imagined when buying a tesla fully self driving (but then again its years ahead of anything else out there right now).

How consistent is AP on the same roads over and over again at the same speed as well as at different speeds and environment (rain, fog, etc.)? My car is pretty new and I've been traveling with it so I haven't been going on a regular commute but I'm finally home now and started to be more regular.

I guess I can try this out on my own but if AP works well on one stretch of my commute, is it pretty safe to say that it will work again the next day or at other times when there is less traffic, etc.?

 

[cybergates]

How consistent is AP on the same roads over and over again at the same speed as well as at different speeds and environment (rain, fog, etc.)? My car is pretty new and I've been traveling with it so I haven't been going on a regular commute but I'm finally home now and started to be more regular.

I guess I can try this out on my own but if AP works well on one stretch of my commute, is it pretty safe to say that it will work again the next day or at other times when there is less traffic, etc.?

on my daily commute for over 8 months now - very predictable....in fact there's one only spot for some reason the car seems to swerve a tad bit trying to dodge some spilled can of paint or something that it detects in the carpool lane. Normally I'm ready for it but was given a rude awakening as I kinda forgot about holding on tightly for that usual little hitch - when the car suddenly swerved slightly and I realized its that usual spot. (215 Southbound in Colton,CA Carpool lane in case anyone drives that commute). I've reported it using the voice control as ppl have suggested and I get the "thanks for your feedback" on the dash but that spot still hasn't been corrected.

anytime you get a software update, be more wary during that first drive after update. (Just in case there's any suprises).

 

[WannabeOwner]

How consistent is AP on the same roads over and over again at the same speed as well as at different speeds and environment (rain, fog, etc.)?

Not sure how well it answers your question, but here's a video where AP is in the exit lane, which it takes, and then the lane splits, and the O/P has said [as I read it ...] that weather/time-of-day influences whether AP goes Right or Left

Cadillac Super Cruise owner reports

EDIT: Ignore the Title of that thread ... the linked post is about Tesla AP

 

[Pentium2004]

I recently got a MX (8/2017 build date). I only have around 1k miles on the car but took it for a road trip from the bay area to southern california to play with the car and get familiar with the features, etc.

I tried autopilot a lot and found that it's great on the freeway in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic and even some of the big local roads when there is a lot of traffic (e.g. in the bay area road like el camino real, guadalupe, lawrence expressway, etc.).

But when I tried it on the freeway in fast traffic, while it's ok going straight, it isn't steady enough on turns so I get nervous and usually end up overriding it. I found a few problems:

1) On a regular road that was kind of windy in the Pacific Palisades, I turned it on one night because there were no cars around. The road was pretty clear and the lanes were well detected but the car still turned over to the opposite direction lane a few times. If there was a car coming, would I have had a head on collision or would the car have detected that oncoming car and turned away?

2) On the freeway going 75 mph with a big rig on my right, sometimes my car seems to want to insist on staying in the middle or even the right part of my lane while the big rig is creeping to the left of his lane. As a human driver, I will naturally head over to the left part of my lane (even to the left edge) since there are no other cars (it's a 2 lane freeway) but it seems like autopilot tries to insist on staying in the middle. But again, am I overly conservative? My car does detect the big rig next to me via radar so will it keep it's distance?

3) Since I guess I can see further up than the car can see, it's a bit nerve racking to see a bunch of cars up front slam their brakes but my car keeps going fast (or even speeds up) only to brake a little later. Naturally I want to just override it by pressing my brakes.

As a result, I don't really use autopilot other than the bumper to bumper situation. I just don't feel like crashing my new car a few weeks into owning it. Am I being overly conservative or is this about the level of autopilot at this point?

RVD.

To me AP2.0 was a waste of $5k. It really doesn't do a good job. It has a tendency to always want to ride closer to the right side of the lane regardless if you're in the right or left lane. It's not so bad when you are on the right lane but any other lanes scare me to use it. I've also noticed I'm scaring the drivers around me since it always looks like I'm about to drift out of my lane. I understand it's still under development but I feel it's been long enough that it should at least drive good in a straight line and so far I haven't really seen it do that. I know these problems aren't particular to my car because I have had about 8 loaners. I really hate the feeling of it bouncing back and forth down the lane. The car causes most people that ride with me to become car sick if I use AP for an extended period of time.