How often do you use autopilot?

[waltonmark]

Hello all

I’ve now had my model y for 10 days and absolutely love it. Driving to a meeting today I decide to brave trying autopilot on a quiet stretch of motorway. Worked nicely although I’m unsure I’m confident enough to use on busier stretches yet.

Question is, how often do you use it? Should I get in the habit of engaging when available?

 

[brkaus]

Non-stop. But I watch it like a hawk.

 

[Zilla91]

All the time on the motorway. Not because it's more comfortable, in fact I find it more mentally taxing to use it as I'm always on edge waiting for it to do something stupid, but because it's very easy to find yourself cruising above the speed limit and I really CBA with a speeding ticket and points having just had my first 3 and only points lapse at the start of the year.

 

[Chimpy McChimp]

Havent really used it yet. But then haven't done many hours eys where I would benefit. I did test it out with autosteer and based on that short experience I didn't like or trust it. But that was only a short test and I am sure I will get used to it.

 

[WannabeOwner]

how often do you use it?

99% of the time I'm on dual carriageway, or in stop-start queuing traffic. Off hand I can't think of cases when I wouldn't use it (in those situations) ...

I am totally vigilant though, just "differently" in that I am now able to scout further ahead, behind and around. I take the view that I don't care whether I, or AP, detect a problem - either of us is better than just me, and there are things that AP will react to faster than me - traffic intruding from left whilst I am looking in right wing mirror; car in front braking heavily but with broken brake lights (you'll get an alert for that which will wake the dead! but without AP you also have reaction time before you brake - or AEB cuts in, which may not happen until its time to "reduce the inevitable impact". Whereas AP would be on the brakes from the instant it detected that the closing distance was decreasing sharply.

Plenty of false alerts too - had one yesterday, person waking on a dog on the edge of the road. Dog was on a lead but piloting a course that weaved from side-to-side ... looked like a threat to AP (I presume it couldn't see the lead ) ... fair enough.

The risk of AP making a life-threatening decision may be as low as once-in-several-car-ownerships, which is so low as to create a complacency risk. I was a bit cavalier when I first got AP (2015) but a number of AP deaths (people watching movies / reading books / etc.) made headline news and I now assume that will happen at just the moment that I am doing something else - e.g. glancing at dashboard. There is no way I'm going to attempt a text-message assuming AP is not going to screw up at that moment. I've driven over 100,000 miles on AP and not had to disengage to avoid something totally unexpected, such as AP aiming for the concrete barrier where two lanes split, but I have intervened for situations like debris in the road and white-van-man has parked half-on-the-pavement.

From what I have read here some will say that AP tries to drive them off the road every time they used it. I (and others high mileage drivers here) have never had that ... despite a fair amount of discussion nothing has been raised that suggests why one persons experience can be so different.

Also some people have very frequent phantom braking. I (and others here) almost never have that. Also no idea why some-do and some-don't, but I can imagine that would be a PITA, particularly if there are any passengers in the car.

I find it more mentally taxing to use it as I'm always on edge waiting for it to do something stupid

In my case I find long journeys much less tiring on AP than before (which would have been just TACC in my case). No idea why removing the need to make small steering adjustments would be significantly less tiring, but that reduced driver workload definitely was for me. I had a number of regular long journeys thus easy to compare before/after getting my first Tesla/AP - one of them was a 9:30-11:00PM journey which, previously, I was always fighting tiredness the last few miles of dual carriageway - never had that subsequent to getting Tesla /AP.

I have AP set to max follow distance. On AP I never care if someone pushes in in front of me - that probably contributes to a reduction in stress / tiredness !

 

[Luvtoride]

I use it a lot, both on highways (especially when congested and traffic is slowing down frequently) and in Stop and Go Traffic on the Harlem River Drive in NYC. It does take some getting used to so you are confident that it works well.

 

[debrooker]

all the time on dual carriage ways and motorways. i do tend to have my foot over the throttle pedal ready for those pesky phantom brakes

 

[spdpsba]

Hello all

I’ve now had my model y for 10 days and absolutely love it. Driving to a meeting today I decide to brave trying autopilot on a quiet stretch of motorway. Worked nicely although I’m unsure I’m confident enough to use on busier stretches yet.

Question is, how often do you use it? Should I get in the habit of engaging when available?

For any long motorway journey I use it.

But of course, there are many things you need to know before using it. Go thro’ the manual and read what works and what doesn’t work with autopilot. Also read about phantom breaking and learn to predict how the car will react to bicycles, pedestrians or other vehicles. Read about auto HB and autowipers. Also if you do not like constant noises then keep the car on Joe mode etc., also TACC can be silenced.

The manual clearly says where to use AP. Also read the forum about others experience.

 

[Altes]

Hello all

I’ve now had my model y for 10 days and absolutely love it. Driving to a meeting today I decide to brave trying autopilot on a quiet stretch of motorway. Worked nicely although I’m unsure I’m confident enough to use on busier stretches yet.

Question is, how often do you use it? Should I get in the habit of engaging when available?

Daily, I use under two conditions:
Empty or sparsely occupied freeways
Stop and go traffic

I never use it when traffic is at the limit and crowded, too much phantom braking to risk a rear ender

 

[spdpsba]

I use it a lot, both on highways (especially when congested and traffic is slowing down frequently) and in Stop and Go Traffic on the Harlem River Drive in NYC. It does take some getting used to so you are confident that it works well.

Our motorway driving is different to what happens across the pond in free ways. It is not that frowned upon in UK when you overtake and then join the middle lane. We do not stick to just one lane as it happens over there. So without assisted lane changing it is not that easy to use AP in british motorways.

 

[Regulo]

I never use it when traffic is at the limit and crowded, too much phantom braking to risk a rear ender

This is my worry. There are too many tailgaters on our roads for me to feel happy about phantom braking. I did start to use it, but after a couple of quite violent pb's for no apparent reason, I now feel happier without it.

 

[Dilly]

I use it in a lot of places where I shouldn’t and a lot of places I should.
having a foot hovering above the accelerator is a good idea.
On long journeys, I use it wherever possible and I’ve always arrived physically and mentally fresh. Much more so than any previous car.

 

[yessuz]

Hello all

I’ve now had my model y for 10 days and absolutely love it. Driving to a meeting today I decide to brave trying autopilot on a quiet stretch of motorway. Worked nicely although I’m unsure I’m confident enough to use on busier stretches yet.

Question is, how often do you use it? Should I get in the habit of engaging when available?

Always once on motorway.

ding-dongs are annoying thou

 

[waltonmark]

Thanks all, appreciate the comments. Interesting to see a few mentioning always using in traffic. Will have to get used to it more on quieter motorways before I keep it engaged in traffic.

 

[MrBadger]

Thanks all, appreciate the comments. Interesting to see a few mentioning always using in traffic. Will have to get used to it more on quieter motorways before I keep it engaged in traffic.

If you use it in stop/go traffic you can save on a Merlin pass…

 

[Drew57]

Very similar to all the comments by @WannabeOwner - AP is used almost all the time on motorways and many Dual Carriageways with very few negative issues after three years ownership.

I always Keep my foot hovering over the Accelerator unless the road is clear, remain attentive & if there's a situation ahead where AP is likely to disengage then I temporarily disable.

 

[Whyone]

Used it once 5 years ago our of curiosity.

It confirmed my expectation that I am much happier driving the car myself.

 

[spon88]

I hardly use it all to be honest. Having had a few early, scary events back in 2019 and still hating its uncertainty on more recent attempts, I much prefer to just drive it. The driving experience is effortless anyway so I don't really want to engage a 'second sense' and hover my foot over the brake/accelerator just in case it phantom breaks (again!) or lurches left to the kerb when I engage it.

I'm travelling down through France over summer so I'm planning to give it another try on their bigger, quieter (nicer) motorways. Just be honest folks, it's hugely underwhelming given all the hype

 

[aq42]

I use NoA most of the time I am on motorways, which is a high proportion of my mileage. I sometimes use basic, with or without autosteer depending on the road and circumstances, when I am in heavy traffic. I had an occasion when I was stuck in motorway traffic for about 4 hours of stop-start under 5mph due to an accident much, much earlier in the day (thanks local police and national highways who took 10 hours to deal with a single vehicle accident) and it basically just drove itself (it was so slow that it didn't bother with the nag!). It's not always that smooth in heavy traffic - it acts a bit like it has a manual gearbox!

But after 3 months and 3,000 miles I'm just about getting the hang of it. I found there was a very steep learning curve as to what the car could do and how much I could trust it, plus some of the quirks - eg when leaving a motorway on a slip road that widens from one lane into two it wanders from side to side terribly until it decides which lane to take, and (in my book) chooses the right lane too often for its own good.

 

[Undecided_2]

I’ve fully stopped using AP since they’ve forced the useless autowipers when engaged.