M3 autosteer glitches, what fun (not!)

[phil4]

as a prospective owner does auto steer come as standard or is it one of the paid extras (which I have no intention of purchasing)

Tesla has 3 levels:
AutoPilot - Is basically Lane Keep Assist - and is free, and included.
EAP - Enhanced Auto Pilot - does a few things, such as Navigate on AutoPilot, supported on some roads (mostly major Motorways and DCs), and that's the most useful bit of it. Things like Summon are knobbled in the UK, and parking is a bit slow.
FSD - Full Self Drive - at the moment, it's just EAP but will stop at red traffic lights. Double the cost of EAP.

 

[kitenski]

Tesla has 3 levels:
AutoPilot - Is basically Lane Keep Assist - and is free, and included.
EAP - Enhanced Auto Pilot - does a few things, such as Navigate on AutoPilot, supported on some roads (mostly major Motorways and DCs), and that's the most useful bit of it. Things like Summon are knobbled in the UK, and parking is a bit slow.
FSD - Full Self Drive - at the moment, it's just EAP but will stop at red traffic lights. Double the cost of EAP.

Thanks, and do all 3 levels attempt to kill the driver with random swerves to exit and phantom braking?

 

[Peter 224]

Standard cruise control isn't bad, in that it keeps you a set distance from the car ahead, but otherwise it is unimpressive: I use it, but not often as it does tend to brake for no good reason. Based on my previous C63 Mercedes do a far better job, but without the distance stuff and phantom braking.

The lane Keep Assist (beta) frightens me, I've tried it on some dual carriageways and it puts the car in places I'd never put the car and I don't consider it fit for purpose. So I keep it disabled.

Where Tesla software scores is in battery and motor management, they are streets ahead of the rest. Perhaps one day their AP and FSD will achieve the same level of functionality, but in the meantime whilst Tesla can make whatever marketing statements they like, EAP and FSD are no more than expensive toys that in my opinion have no place on UK roads.

 

[Timcat]

Thanks, and do all 3 levels attempt to kill the driver with random swerves to exit and phantom braking?

The attempts to take the wrong exit are quite gentle and easily dealt with. My previous car (BMW 5 series) had a system similar to enhanced auto pilot and would sometimes do the same thing. The BMW system would also panic in difficult conditions and simply disengage, or just refuse to engage at all. It did phantom brake, but very rarely (once or twice a year). The BMW tended to hug the left hand side of its lane far too closely, to the extent that I would often have to nudge it to the right, whereas the Tesla stays mid lane all the time. The BMW's adaptive cruise control was very reliable, although I did have to override it manually sometimes to prevent it from braking too late and hard. The Tesla equivalent is less consistent, but it has not yet left the braking too late. Tesla's auto lane change is quite effective, whereas the BMW has no equivalent. What I am trying to say is that the Tesla's autopilot system is no worse overall than one of the best of the competing systems (BMW). If I had to call it, I would say that it is better than the BMW equivalent but, as with all automatic systems, you need to understand its limitations.