My wife just asked me how the car will handle in stop and go. I've been so focused on so many other features, I haven't given this a thought.
Any owners with experience want comment?
Any owners with experience want comment?
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My wife just asked me how the car will handle in stop and go. I've been so focused on so many other features, I haven't given this a thought.
Any owners with experience want comment?
In a word: beautifully.
I've driven my S in rush hour, stop-and-go traffic on the freeway a few times. It's a serene experience: the car is supremely quiet and comfortable, and standard regen braking means you end up moving your foot from throttle to brakes and back much less frequently than in any ICE car. Overall, I prefer driving in traffic with creep off: it reduces the throttle/brakes dance even further.
If you see an opening you want to exploit, changing lanes with a squirt of the throttle is comfortable and natural; you can fit into small gaps with ease and match speeds in the new lane almost instantly. No muss, no fuss, just go. The other side of that coin is that it's nearly effortless to maintain the gap you want between you and the car you're trailing as speeds vary.
How does regen make a difference? Aren't you just braking, easing off to creep then braking again? Not much accelerating going in in traffic.
True. With enough distance in front, even with my current automatic car on creep, most of the time I don't have to use the brakes. Of course if you are bumper to bumper (to block others from cutting in front of you) then it's a different story.You seem to be thinking about slower traffic than I was. I think of such traffic as "stopped". For "stop-start" your foot doesn't touch the brake until you're actually needing to hold the car stopped. Regeneration slows you down to about 2 MPH. Most stop-start traffic isn't actually "stop", it is just "go very slow", especially if you're thinking ahead and don't just stay on the guy in front's bumper.
Much better than my manual transmission R8? :wink:My wife just asked me how the car will handle in stop and go. I've been so focused on so many other features, I haven't given this a thought.
Any owners with experience want comment?
Does autopilot close up the distance and follow the car ahead in stop and go traffic? Or does it try to maintain too much distance and allow other cars to cut you off all the time?
I'd describe it as "ideal as traffic can be."
I have a 2016 with AutoPilot 1. I drive in heavy stop-and-go traffic on a daily basis. Sometimes for hours at a time.
I used to dread driving, because I had to be super focused, always on the gas and brake, and would get home with a headache.
With the S, I can basically do one-foot driving, which saves a lot of fatigue wthin itself....but with AutoPilot, I'm totally relaxed. There's nothing like being able to confidently turn the system on in traffic, and just let it do the work. No pedal work, no steering, just sit there and go home.
So, yeah - driving the S in traffic is as ideal as driving can be in traffic.
Wow, that's some serious thread necro.
I wouldn't say perfect, but getting better all the time.
AP still waits too long to start accelerating, and then accelerates too much to keep up with the car in front. If it had start sooner, it wouldn't need to accelerate so much.
Also, when approaching stopped or very slow traffic it waits too long to brake, then brakes too hard, and then stops with too large of a gap to the next car (this is not adjusted by the "following distance" setting, as far as I can tell).
Tesla needs to hire some professional drivers to help teach Autopilot what really good smooth driving is like. AP is still too much like a Redbull-fueled teenager and needs to get some chill going.