How Satisfied Are You With Autopilot?

[LetsGoFast]

- Slows down to hard for stopped traffic ahead

I think is an area that is improved 200% over 6.2 TACC. Previously it would maintain speed and race up behind stopped traffic and slam the brake. It was so abrupt that it took me some time to believe it would even brake at all and many times I still had to take over or I'm pretty sure it would have rear ended someone. The reaction to stopped traffic ahead is hugely improved IMO.

Possibly off-topic question from a non-AP owner: Is AP smart enough to slow down in curves that are too sharp for the current speed?

I drove for about an hour on a two lane road in rural New Jersey today and I saw no evidence of this. It was seeking a bit on fast corners roaming a bit wide or tight on sweeping curves and clearly operating on the edge of (and sometimes past) it's ability to accurately follow the road. I never saw it slow down once, until my wife strongly suggested that I either take control completely or slow it down. I can't say it never does it, but it didn't do it for me in a situation where it needed to do it. It struggled with dappled sunlight through the trees, sometimes losing the lines when I could see them just fine.

I wonder what % of the "very satisfied" live in California, where the majority of development and testing was done. In my area, the car has serious problems identifying some types of highway lane markings, which is why I voted neutral. I'm sure it will improve.

I drove from central Virgina through to southern New Jersey yesterday and I'm a very satisfied. Some of the roads in New Jersey not only are unlikely to have seen AP Teslas I'm not sure there have even been many automobiles on them.

 

[Max*]

Possibly off-topic question from a non-AP owner: Is AP smart enough to slow down in curves that are too sharp for the current speed?

I want to update my comment to yes.

I was on an on ramp to the highway. TACC set to 50mph, no cars in front of me, it had me doing 30mph. I was annoyed and hit the go pedal. After I merged, TACC took me to 50.

 

[JenniferQ]

I want to update my comment to yes.

I was on an on ramp to the highway. TACC set to 50mph, no cars in front of me, it had me doing 30mph. I was annoyed and hit the go pedal. After I merged, TACC took me to 50.

If that happens consistently, that is awesome! I have not had that experience before with TACC on the MBZ and even going around a corner tracking a vehicle can be scary if I don't keep the wheel exactly in line with leading vehicle and my car sees nothing ahead and surges forward.

 

[CanadaEV]

I feel strongly that new AP drivers should start in slowly and learn with the car. Don't push the envelope until you are confident, and you will have nothing but a great experience.

I agree with everything you said, but I wanted to double agree with the quote above.

It is likely that a lot of us have broken the intent and Tesla's guidance on how Autopilot should be used. Especially the 'divided road' requirement, and 'hands always must be on the wheel'. There are reasons for this - excitement about the new feature, a feeling of entitlement to test its abilities, over-confidence in our own ability to safely correct its errors, and many more. Hopefully, after the excitement wears off a little we'll get more responsible about it. I hope nobody gets hurt in the meantime.

This is a good thread on the topic. Maybe we need another thread, something like, 'These are the worst ways I have used Autopilot'. Of course, anyone owning up to not following the rules won't have much defense if they cause an accident and their post is still there saying that's how they use it. But Tesla will know that anyway. They can refer to the state of the car before an accident, and possibly how it was being handled by the driver. And certainly if the road of the accident met their required criteria.

 

[hobbes]

I was on an on ramp to the highway. TACC set to 50mph, no cars in front of me, it had me doing 30mph. I was annoyed and hit the go pedal. After I merged, TACC took me to 50.

As the experiences on this are pretty mixed - is it possible that this has to do with the learning of the cars from each other? No experience from other cars (likely in rural areas with few Model S), it just keeps the set speed - data from a some other cars that have used the highway ramp and gone slower, so it goes slower, too? Would be awesom yet a bit early I guess.

 

[sillydriver]

I want to change my vote from 'satisfied' to 'very satisfied'. My initial tries early yesterday were on roads AP really wasn't designed for. Late yesterday afternoon I tried the interstate and it did exactly what was originally promised: on-ramp to off-ramp with no intervention other than the turn signal.

 

[Max*]

TACC slowed me down on the on-ramp again (this time in PA, doing a small road trip). Steep ramp, 25mph. BUT there was a car in front of me, and he was pulling away so I'm sure he was doing more than 25mph. It seems to work, but not all the time. I'd say I'm 2 for maybe 6.

As a side note, 150 miles on the highway today, it asked me to hold the wheel a few times it needed moral support - once when I assumed a large truck was going to cut me off, but didn't. Once when the lane marks were very worn, and a few other random times.

I'm VERY pleased.

 

[ArcAngel]

I vote "very satisfied".

My experience is on a well marked four lane highway, which is frankly the only place I think I'd have confidence in it operating on AP. I would not risk a two lane road with curves, lights, etc. In my hour or so of total drive time, I thought it worked incredibly well at recognizing the lane markings and keeping the car right in the middle (much better than I often am able to do to). Lane changing also worked flawlessly. I could see how it might be sketchy on a poorly marked roadways or in bad weather, but I am not sure what more we could have asked for in this release: it makes highway driving easier and safer.

 

[dean1013]

It's too early to say. I was very excited about this technology and frankly, it frightens me. I have had a couple near misses already and I am keeping my hands on the steering wheel the entire time. Today I was driving to work and it confused the lane markings and started to turn into an adjacent lane with a car coming up behind me. Another time, it alarmed because it nearly collided with a car in the lane to the right of me.

It seems that sometimes it doesn't always center itself in the lane and veers somewhat towards the right or left side of the lane.

The other day, it was making a lane change and spent too long straddling the lane marking. There was a stopped car in the left lane (the lane I was changing from) which it didn't sense or slow down for. I made an evasive turn into the right lane to avoid a collision.
I have the distance setting at 3 car lengths which is a safe distance, but it's a perfect opportunity for other aggressive drivers to cut me off. What I've noticed is that it doesn't recognize a car merging into my lane in front of me until the car is almost completely in front of my car.

I can see using it on a long road trip where there is minimal traffic and clear lane markings. Other than that, I honestly don't think the technology is ready for prime-time in heavy traffic areas. There are too many unpredictable variables and I'm sure there are going to be accidents.

It has to be perfect and flawless which will never be the case unless ALL cars are autonomous on well-marked roads. Otherwise, drivers need to keep their hands on the wheel and take over which kind of defeats the purpose.

Understanding, of course, this technology is a beta version and is in it's infancy and it will continue to improve with newer models and software updates.

 

[tstafford]

I'd be very disappointed if Tesla turned off AP Lanekeeping on secondary roads and made it only for the highway. I suppose if they were to do that they should also speed govern the car on secondary roads and for that matter maybe the highway too.

Driving is dangerous. Doing stupid things makes it more dangerous. I think I can use my judgment as to when and how to use AP Lanekeeping w/o Tesla needing to programmatically limit it by the type of road. I use the same type of judgment as to the speed that I use the Tesla.

 

[Nigel16494]

Faith, hope and strong underwear is required. You go towards a bend in the road and wonder. It worked flawlessly . I hated cruise control but loved TACC, I think this autopilot will help a lot. I like the fact it shows me car activity, someone merges in front and the car icon shows it has been picked up and from which direction

 

[Max*]

Worked flawlessly on the first leg of our trip home. I even took a nap.

Relax, my wife was in the driver's seat watching over AP

 

[jdw]

Worked perfectly from on-ramp to off-ramp on my 20 mile commute to work and back through two interchanges . Going to work, traffic was flowing; coming home I encountered stop and go traffic all the way. It does tend to track a little to the right, closer to the vehicle in that lane than I would have driven and it does work better when following another car. The only input I gave it was signal lights for lane changes.

Also worth noting, the new hold function is great and TACC is much smoother in stop and go traffic now. I'm even happy with the new UI ... I had serious misgivings based on screen pictures, but in use, many of the decisions make sense.

Good job Tesla!

 

[jbcarioca]

...
I have the distance setting at 3 car lengths which is a safe distance, ...

I agre with most of your post, but this point is a misunderstanding. Those TACC distance intervals are in seconds of time which will pass before your car will be where the car in front of you is now. Thus it is speed-sensitive. To equate to the driver training adage of following distance, even 1 will suffice, but 2 is the level I use.

 

[Vitold]

I'd be very disappointed if Tesla turned off AP Lanekeeping on secondary roads and made it only for the highway. I suppose if they were to do that they should also speed govern the car on secondary roads and for that matter maybe the highway too.

Driving is dangerous. Doing stupid things makes it more dangerous. I think I can use my judgment as to when and how to use AP Lanekeeping w/o Tesla needing to programmatically limit it by the type of road. I use the same type of judgment as to the speed that I use the Tesla.

At this point even Tesla does not know how good or bad AP is (they call it public beta) so I'm not sure how anyone else can make such judgement.

From 'tesla tried to kill me' video it's obvious that current implementation did not disengage quickly enough or in a safe manner when driving on hilly, winding two lane road. Driver who took the video had no idea AP should not be on and I suppose many others would make the same mistake because we just don't know it's capabilities well enough.

 

[skyflash]

My first autopilot experience this w/e. I just happened to have planned a couple of days away at a resort 4 hours drive from home - so thanks Tesla for releasing the software just ahead of this! (In reality they may have considered the fact that releasing before a weekend would give people the chance for some immediate fun).

The experience was overall extremely positive. We know the technology is brand new and the auto steer is even marked as "beta", so clearly flagged as being still a little raw. Nevertheless, driving on multi-lane highways and even somewhat windy single-lane main roads was generally great. The oddities I experienced were:
1. Several incidents of abrupt and incorrect steering at lane widening ahead of the appearance of a left-turn lane. The car tended to move away from the right lane boundary and was suddenly confronted with the lane divider line where there left-turn lane was suddenly marked, at the point where the main lane had grown to the width of two. The car invariably decided to leap into the left-turn lane, rather than continuing to hug the right lane boundary and continue on the main road. The abruptness of this maneuver was very jarring and I had to quickly manually steer to the right. The drivers of the cars behind must have had a little cuss.
2. On my return journey on a multi-lane highway, I was in the right-hand lane and noticed that the vehicle had not detected the overtaking lane to the left. It continued not to see this lane and therefore automatic lane changing (for overtaking) was not available. I'm not sure why it failed to detect the other lane, as I had seen that working fine before. The lane dividers were fairly widely spaced white dashes (but seemed to be to be quite 'normal' for a fast highway). The light conditions were cloudy and perhaps not so bright, but all the other functions of auto-steer were working just fine.
3. At higher speeds cornering was a bit 'off'. I noticed that at a moderate bend to the left, at a highish but still normal speed at which I was take the corner, auto-steer would hug to the left lane divider/centerline, even touching a wheel on it. This is despite there seeming to be able room in the lane to the right. I can't remember whether the vehicle was detecting a barrier to the right of the road at the time, but it did this several times on a left bend.

I know we have other features coming.
I would love there to be a speed limit tracking option for the cruise speed. At least chime and set the proposed new speed, giving the driver a chance to veto or change this before executing the actual speed change in the cruise setting.

Definitely traffic light/intersection detection would be awesome. Though in practice at the moment, you would be slowing down from highway speeds (where you are most likely to be using autopilot) before you get to any traffic lights.

I wonder why the GPS route isn't used when possible to figure out appropriate limits on the speeds to take corners (comfortably - and/or in the envelope that auto-steer can handle). I believe there are vehicles that now use GPS route data to do gear selection for corners. AFAICT, the Tesla autopilot is not altering it's cornering behaviour at all based on anything (sometimes there are yellow speed signs posted ahead of corners, which might also be a clue, though these can be widely off the mark as to what is actually comfortably possible in a good vehicle).

 

[RAW84]

At this point even Tesla does not know how good or bad AP is (they call it public beta) so I'm not sure how anyone else can make such judgement.

From 'tesla tried to kill me' video it's obvious that current implementation did not disengage quickly enough or in a safe manner when driving on hilly, winding two lane road. Driver who took the video had no idea AP should not be on and I suppose many others would make the same mistake because we just don't know it's capabilities well enough.

This is actually a very easy judgement to make once you have some experience driving with autopilot for some time. When autopilot is engaged, it lets you know that it's reading lane markings with blue lines on the each side of the car on the screen. If either side fades or disappears completely, it's clear that autopilot is becoming less certain and I, the driver, should be on a heightened alert and consider disengaging autopilot all together, especially if the road is curvy.

It's really not as hard as people on the internet seem to be making it.

 

[LetsGoFast]

These poll results are really a home run for Tesla. You very rarely see this level of satisfaction with anything -- people will complain if you hand them free money.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

After doing a little over 400 miles with most of it with Autopilot I would rate is about a 2, or maybe a 3 out of 5.

It's not very usable in the right lane because it keeps wanting to follow the exit lanes (a known issue).
It's not as smooth as I'd like it. It tends to steer too much like someone looking too closely in front of them. It's constantly correcting and you can feel this if you have your thumb on the wheel.
It gets confused when the lane widens on the right (when in the right lane).

The above are all things it should handle well. I'm sure as with TACC all those areas will be corrected. I don't expect it to work flawlessly, but it doesn't deserve anything more than a C+ right now.

I don't count not tracking well in heavy rain, or losing tracking at every stop light or anything that isn't within it's design parameters.

The funniest thing about it is after 100+ miles with it on, and then turning it off it took me a few moment to learn how to steer again. The car probably thought I was an idiot.

 

[andydoty]

It's really not as hard as people on the internet seem to be making it.

Absolutely! Yes! Yep! You got it!

I just drove to Boston (actually Natick) and back today. Autopilot behaved flawlessly. There was one exception where the dashed lines disappeared and there was staggered white blocks in a zigzag. It felt like I was in a slalom for a moment until I disengaged.

Let me make this as simple as I can. Stop thinking like a person for a minute and think like a computer. I expected the car to misbehave during the zigzag squares. And... So it did. I have found the car (Sparky) to behave EXACTLY as I anticipated in each situation. The exception was trying to dart over into the right hand lane when it splits (or an offramp). However, this is also logical (now I sound like Spock) as the preference would be to remain in the right hand lane (I believe this is a law here in MA). It was pretty surprising however I'll give everyone that.

For those engaging it in a City environment. As you sow so shall you reap! Autopilot is PRIMARILY for use on highways. Not rural roads! At this time.
To that, I have engaged it on a 1/2 hour ride through the country and it did pretty well with the exception of a small clip with no lines or curbs. Now the human part of me says it just feels weird that 70 miles per hour on the highway works but 40 miles per hour on a back road can have issues. Weird, yes?

Personally I think it's the greatest think since cheese with holes in it! But.. That's just me!