I got the chance to drive on a trip from Dallas, Tx to Conway, AR ( North of Little Rock, AR) in my wife’s M3 LR (2018.36.2.ac4a215) last weekend.
Some comments:
Autopilot: My first opportunity to use the autopilot on a trip. Generally, it worked well and lowered my workload while driving.
When changing lanes using the turn signal:
A couple of cool things during autopilot that I wasn’t expecting:
Great charge rate at the Texarkana supercharger (484 miles/hr., at one point). The 310 miles of rated range really made a difference on a trip that was about 360 miles in each direction. I only charged at the midpoint and there was never any thought of running low on charge.
Some comments:
Autopilot: My first opportunity to use the autopilot on a trip. Generally, it worked well and lowered my workload while driving.
- I wanted to comment on an interesting phenomenon. Have you ever seen children sitting in a booster seat in a car that offers a toy steering wheel? Children can imagine they are steering the car when they are really following the car’s motion. That is the effect I noticed when driving the Model 3 on autopilot.
- The steering wheel has measured amount of “resistance” that has to be overcome before the driver takes control. Also, the car periodically asks the driver to apply gentle turning force on the wheel to demonstrate that he is still overseeing the system.
- The combination of these two factors can “train” the driver: I found that there is a tendency to apply the slight turning force when a turn is needed and, the car then moves by itself the desired direction. All is good until there is a situation when the auto pilot is stumped.
- I encountered a stretch of nighttime freeway where the right side of the road had a row of barrels demarcating the useable traffic lane (several miles long). The autopilot drifted a little too close to the barrels (no collision or near Collison, but a bit uncomfortable). I found myself applying a slight force to move the car to the left, but the car didn’t move. Apparently, this went on longer than my passenger liked, and she said move over. Then, I applied enough force to the wheel to end the autopilot session and all was well, but I did notice this odd effect. Afterwards, I decided that it might be best to practice disabling the autopilot with the brake (as with a classic cruise control) to avoid any unfamiliar control input situations.
- Anyone else ever notice this?
When changing lanes using the turn signal:
- The lever had to be held down until the car was fully in the desired lane or the car would go back into the original lane. This was no big deal, but, again, the passenger suffered a bit during the learning curve.
A couple of cool things during autopilot that I wasn’t expecting:
- The high/low beam selector worked automatically and quite well. This worked for oncoming cars as well as cars passing from behind.
- The windshield wipers changed speed as the rain changed intensity. Worked generally well, but there were some times when it seemed to clear the windshield slower than I would have liked during light rain/mist. Is there an adjustment for this? There is probably a software update in the works to fine tune this.
Great charge rate at the Texarkana supercharger (484 miles/hr., at one point). The 310 miles of rated range really made a difference on a trip that was about 360 miles in each direction. I only charged at the midpoint and there was never any thought of running low on charge.