Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Incredible Autopilot Performance on Curvy Mountain Roads

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
What really impresses me is that it didn't give you a warning for having your hands off the wheel! In mine (AP1) I get constant warnings even if my hands are firmly on the wheel. In fact, the other day I realized it was less work to have AP off, because with it off I can just have one hand lightly on the steering wheel whereas with AP on I have to have both hands firmly on the wheel. Sigh.... I miss the old (pre-Consumer's Reports) Autopilot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tomnook
What really impresses me is that it didn't give you a warning for having your hands off the wheel! In mine (AP1) I get constant warnings even if my hands are firmly on the wheel. In fact, the other day I realized it was less work to have AP off, because with it off I can just have one hand lightly on the steering wheel whereas with AP on I have to have both hands firmly on the wheel. Sigh.... I miss the old (pre-Consumer's Reports) Autopilot.

It barley pestered me to hold the wheel, perhaps once every 3 minutes (on the mountains) and on the highway it is like once every 5 min
 
Took my X up to Snow Valley (Running Springs, CA) from Irvine. I made a roundtrip with a 100% charge on my X90D with 50 miles to spare and I was driving aggressively, 85 mph on the freeway.

I decided to test autopilot on the curvy mountain roads and it surprisingly functioned insanely well.

Great post! For those not familiar with the area, that route is very curvy with a lot of close rock walls as well.
 
  • Love
Reactions: josher32
Took my X up to Snow Valley (Running Springs, CA) from Irvine. I made a roundtrip with a 100% charge on my X90D with 50 miles to spare and I was driving aggressively, 85 mph on the freeway.

I decided to test autopilot on the curvy mountain roads and it surprisingly functioned insanely well.

Nice! Had a similar experience on our Canada trip last summer on I5 around Mt Shasta/Grants Pass section. I drove 13hours straight from Multnomah Falls in Washington to our home in Folsom through the night and AP1 was a huge help. Everyone else slept through the entire drive. I took my naps while the car charged at SCs. Previously with our Lexus and Benz, I could barely do a six hour run.
 
AP1 is very dangerous on roads where the camera loses sight of the lane markers at the crest of a hill. Your road may have been in the mountains, but there were no hills with crests.

Using AP1 in those situations results in the car veering directly into the oncoming lane. If there is a car in that lane, you will have a head-on collision if you or the other driver does not react appropriately.
 
AP1 is very dangerous on roads where the camera loses sight of the lane markers at the crest of a hill. Your road may have been in the mountains, but there were no hills with crests.

Using AP1 in those situations results in the car veering directly into the oncoming lane. If there is a car in that lane, you will have a head-on collision if you or the other driver does not react appropriately.
@BerTX - yes you are absolutely correct ..that is a limitation that people should be aware of. And I am hoping that AP2 will resolve.
 
AP1 is very dangerous on roads where the camera loses sight of the lane markers at the crest of a hill. Your road may have been in the mountains, but there were no hills with crests.

Using AP1 in those situations results in the car veering directly into the oncoming lane. If there is a car in that lane, you will have a head-on collision if you or the other driver does not react appropriately.

It seemed to use GPS data and continued to function when lane markings weren't even visible. In fact it slowed down before the curve became visible
 
AP1 is very dangerous on roads where the camera loses sight of the lane markers at the crest of a hill. Your road may have been in the mountains, but there were no hills with crests.

Using AP1 in those situations results in the car veering directly into the oncoming lane. If there is a car in that lane, you will have a head-on collision if you or the other driver does not react appropriately.

Not from my experience, at least not in my Model S... It certainly ping pongs substantially in that scenario but I have yet to have it veer into another lane... In the interest of full disclosure, I have not had hill crests like this on anything but a 4 lane road so my example may not be applicable on two lane roads.

Jeff
 
One more reason not to use AP on undivided roads. The slightest issue and you are in the other lane facing oncoming traffic. Despite the temptation.... it is advised (by Tesla) to only use AP on divided highways.

I agree with this up to a point. There are undivided roads where the AP1 performs flawlessly.There are others where it is a very bad idea. Know the difference and don't take chances. Tesla has to caution against all use on undivided roads, because it is too hard to describe where the problems are. Better to just say "don't do it".

Personally, I don't want to be the one who has the wreck that the news media latches onto to crusade against autonomous driving. Especially if it involves somebody dying.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EV-lutioin
I experiment with AP1 on (empty) inappropriate roads a lot and am amazed how well it does but sometimes it will take a familiar curve badly and show the car well outside the blue lines so it knows it is doing a bad job but doesn't bail. That's a game of chicken I always lose.