Model 3 EAP Experience

[Mika]

LIDAR blah blah blah. I'll give a crap when it's used in a production car. Back to what actually exists today... (edit: apparently there's a 2018 audi that uses it, my bad, guess we can keep complaining about it)

I made another observation while driving through my trouble area again: I didn’t have auto steer active, but was keeping tabs on the screen to see when the icon would disappear (signaling it had lost the lines). It would disappear occasionally during curves and slopes as expected, but interestingly it would also disappear briefly on straight roads when the pavement would suddenly change color (such as an area that had been paved differently or more recently than the surrounding area). It wouldn't take long to recognize the new visual pattern, but clearly that's another weakness of current optical recognition of lane markings.

 

[Stoneymonster]

LIDAR blah blah blah. I'll give a crap when it's used in a production car. Back to what actually exists today... (edit: apparently there's a 2018 audi that uses it, my bad, guess we can keep complaining about it)

I made another observation while driving through my trouble area again: I didn’t have auto steer active, but was keeping tabs on the screen to see when the icon would disappear (signaling it had lost the lines). It would disappear occasionally during curves and slopes as expected, but interestingly it would also disappear briefly on straight roads when the pavement would suddenly change color (such as an area that had been paved differently or more recently than the surrounding area). It wouldn't take long to recognize the new visual pattern, but clearly that's another weakness of current optical recognition of lane markings.

It’s very particular about where it will engage AP, but much less particular about where it will disengage it, if that makes sense. So those spots where it disappears would just be smoothly drive past once engaged.

 

[david_42]

That's me, and that's why I'm buying a Tesla.

Ditto - My wife's commute justifies EAP, even though she'll only use TACC. Lame assist will be worthless, too much of the time the rain prevents the system from seeing road markings. Parking assist? Can it back into a spot? Doesn't sound like it and we will have to back down our driveway to connect to the charger. With Emergency Braking, why bother with Collision Slowdown? Did I miss anything?

 

[alexdav]

I posted this in another thread, but I still feel this is true after driving over 2,000 miles in the 3.

Also, this car is my first experience with AP2.0. Seems to me the biggest improvement (at this point) is TACC. I hardly ever drive on a 1 or 2 on AP1.0 because it's scary but AP2.0 handles slowing down so much better.

Only thing that I've really noticed that isn't on par with AP1.0 is curves on hills. The car seems to take those very wide and seemed a tad bouncy. I think AP1.0 tends to be wide as well, but tracks it slightly better.

I'm still trying to get a feel for the best distance setting for comfort. A 1 seemed to smooth out with the driver in front of me in the carpool lane this morning who was not driving smoothly (accelerating then braking harder than necessary). I tried a 3 and it seemed to brake way too early.

I typically drive on a 4 or 5 in the carpool lane in my S.

(For reference, this is on the 405 between Long Beach and Santa Monica.)

 

[jbadger]

There are some places on 280 South where it's really difficult for me to tell where the lane is while it raining but my Model 3 with autopilot handled it like a champ.

 

[Mika]

Since this thread got revived I’d like to add that I’ve had better luck with autopilot since my intitial findings, and I’ve gotten used to what it can/can’t seem to handle at freeway speed. Really seems to only struggle with combinations of curves and elevation changes at high speed. Anything under 60 it seems perfect, and even where auto steer struggles I love having TACC.

 

[CuriousG]

Ditto - My wife's commute justifies EAP, even though she'll only use TACC. Lame assist will be worthless, too much of the time the rain prevents the system from seeing road markings. Parking assist? Can it back into a spot? Doesn't sound like it and we will have to back down our driveway to connect to the charger. With Emergency Braking, why bother with Collision Slowdown? Did I miss anything?

Once you do get the AP icons to show it works pretty much flawlessly even in the rain like today on the freeway. This is in CA so I don't know if your roads are better or worse.

If you consider 3pt turns backing into a spot, then yes it can back into a spot. If you're talking about automatically backing into your garage, it's not available at this time but I wouldn't take that chance. Plus AP1 complains a lot when you're somewhat close and it stops so you'll have start it up again which is a PITA.