I am becoming a dangerous driver

[xsi123]

With AutoPilot, and especially with Navigate on AutoPilot, I find my self looking more and more on the dashboard and the center screen than on the road:

1) With Navigate on Autopilot, I find my self looking a lot on the dashboard screen and waiting for a signal to confirm lane change. As far as I know, there is no audible notification. This is true especially when following a slower car and other lanes are open. Or, when I know an exit is approaching and waiting for the car to suggest a lane change.

2) While on AutoPilot, I find my self looking and changing settings on the center screen a lot (changing music stations etc). This shows the confidence I have on the car and the software but I am not paying the attention I should on the road.

3) I am also looking a lot on the dashboard waiting for the steering wheel nag message. I am afraid that if I miss it I will have to stop and park the car before I can use Autopilot again. I know this one has an audible notification if you ignore it a few seconds. Still, for some reason I am just waiting for it.

Obviously this is all my fault. I know exactly what I should do. I am just wondering if other people here experience something similar....

 

[thecloud]

I've also noticed a tendency to keep glancing down at the instrument cluster while on AP, because the penalty for missing the nag warnings is complete loss of the feature, and there may not be a place to pull over to reset. Even though I keep one hand on the wheel at all times, I don't naturally put a lot of rotational pressure away from the wheel's current direction, so nags will usually occur on straight sections of highway where the wheel doesn't need to be turned.

That said, I also think Autopilot (by definition) is not really the biggest concern when it comes to attention span away from the road. It's all the other controls which one needs to use while driving, often buried one or two levels down from what's currently on the screen. Case in point: have you ever tried to turn on climate control, toggle A/C off, adjust fan speed, and enable fresh (not recirculated) air, while driving?

 

[mburnet6]

As far as I know, there is no audible notification. This is true especially when following a slower car and other lanes are open. Or, when I know an exit is approaching and waiting for the car to suggest a lane change.

If you ignore the "confirm with stalk" message, it will chime at you after a distance/time.

 

[Ande]

Instead of looking for the nag, just tug the wheel a little now and then.

 

[rdrcrmatt]

Welcome to a major problem with general aviation pilots. We look at our systems more than out the window for other traffic. We get away with it because of the big sky theory.

 

[appleguru]

I
That said, I also think Autopilot (by definition) is not really the biggest concern when it comes to attention span away from the road. It's all the other controls which one needs to use while driving, often buried one or two levels down from what's currently on the screen. Case in point: have you ever tried to turn on climate control, toggle A/C off, adjust fan speed, and enable fresh (not recirculated) air, while driving?

HVAC controls got significantly worse with v9. At least with v8 things were pretty easy to access/change. I find myself staring at the HVAC menu a lot more with v9 to do basic things (and I don't think its just muscle memory)

 

[McRatToo]

An HUD with autosteer and NAV info, a screensaver for the center stack, and knobs and 'learning' control of the cabin temp might help.
There is at least one EV with this.

 

[roadster2020]

I find the opposite ap gives me more free time to scan the horizon and look out for any hazards

 

[bishoppeak]

I felt I was a much more "aware" driver when using the autopilot prenag.

 

[f205v]

I have mixed feelings.
On one side AutoPilot has freed me from only concentrating on the road, the other drivers, the weather conditions, etc.etc. Driving is much less stressful now, and I've done up to 900 km in one day without feeling tired or de-concentrated or aching in the back, etc.etc. All of those things are a BIG improvement on road safety (and life quality), at least for me.
At the same time, it happens that I become overconfident in the car's ability to drive itself safely, and look around too much; I have found myself in more than one occasion staring out of the side window for minutes at a time, especially if I'm travelling on roads where I've never been before. It's usually the nag system that takes me back to the road in front of me.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

One of the things I really liked/appreciated about experiencing AP when it was first released back in Oct 2015 was discovering my own driving habits in relation to it.

At some point I stopped using AP because I felt like my situational awareness was diminished with it. So I went back to using TACC as my preferred driving mode.

I was pretty confident that with AP I wasn't reacting to things in the road as quickly as I did without AP.

I also had some other reasons like it diving for an exit while in the right lane, or doing lots of slight changes in steering which annoyed me.

It's too early to tell what my experience with EAP will be.

What I thought was funny is a coworker actually said he felt safer in the car as a passenger with it on then without it. This was my fault because while I was demonstrating something (on the screen) I started to drift over the line. I was in TACC only at the time, and when I demonstrated AP it drover perfectly.

So I gave the impression that I sucked, and AP was good. When the reality is AP sucks, and I'm okayish.

The worst story I heard was on the FB forum where someone claimed they always had their foot on the throttle while on AP. Where they wanted it hovering over the throttle to react to false braking events.

If you have to have your foot hovering over the throttle then AP/TACC might not be such a good idea.

 

[Richt]

I’m probably on the minority but when I’m a passenger now I actually get more nervous when the person is not on autopilot. To think that one second of inattention and you a piled into the car ahead or slammed by a car when you make a lane change.

Maybe I’m paranoid but I like it when there are two things between me and an accident. A person and a computer :/)

 

[Electroman]

know this one has an audible notification if you ignore it a few seconds. Still, for some reason I am just

Audible notification does not happen all the time. Sometime it will flash and directly put you in jail with no audible beeps. Very annoying and frustrating when that happens.

 

[xsi123]

An HUD with autosteer and NAV info, a screensaver for the center stack, and knobs and 'learning' control of the cabin temp might help.
There is at least one EV with this.

Personally I think a HUD would be ideal companion to AutoPilot, the way AutoPilot works today. My feeling is though it is against Tesla's long term vision. If their plan is Full Self Driving then I imagine they would want to discourage people from using AutoPilot "manually" and a HUD would be just waste. But I do agree that a HUD would be great today. it would solve that "paying attention to road" problem that some of us experience.

 

[75Shappyt]

your right, Right... I like having a person and a computer behind the wheel, I always use EAP, and I like NOP very much

 

[NHK X]

Agree some HVAC functions are buried but basic functions I just press down on the steering wheel scroll wheel (right side) to turn it on or off, and use temp controls with the scroll wheel.

 

[Richt]

your right, Right... I like having a person and a computer behind the wheel, I always use EAP, and I like NOP very much

There r two of us!