My Autopilot Trial

[psyrob]

Got Autopilot yesterday, some quick thoughts on my experience so far:

-It is cool.

-It has no finesse. Autopilot can't see more than the car ahead of it, so it can not make any anticipation of things to come. One of the drawbacks of not having a frontal lobe, to be fair.

-It is all digital, all of it's decisions are zero's and one's. It can't think holistically, or in a circle, it can only think in A+B=C. It can't make decisions like the sound of one hand clapping. For example, I can just tell when another car is going to be a D!ck and move into my blindspot just as I am changing lanes. Autopilot can't.

-It is herky jerky, and slams on the brakes in alarm when someone moves into my lane in the "follow distance" space. I will try "chill mode" to see if it can chillax in these situations.

-It is a sign of just how ahead Tesla is from everyone else, that they can offer this free trial over the air. I don't think my experience so far makes me want to pony up the 6K, but I am excited by Tesla offering this trial much more so than any complaints or nit picks I listed above.

 

[SpiceWare]

Autopilot can't see more than the car ahead of it, so it can not make any anticipation of things to come.

Are you sure?

 

[SpiceWare]

Just realized that could be older hardware, the photos in this article shows autopilot on current hardware detecting numerous cars ahead.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Auto pilot bounces radar underneath the car ahead and can "see" what is happening with the vehicle in front of it.

Does not drive like an aware human in difficult circumstances, but for normal cruising it is still the best autopilot system in the world.

A vigiliant human driver can pick up subtle clues of what a driver near them might do, but human can only look in one direction at a time, and also miss things. That is why there are thousands of accidents every day with human drivers.

 

[SgtTortuga]

Got Autopilot yesterday, some quick thoughts on my experience so far:

-It is cool.

-It has no finesse. Autopilot can't see more than the car ahead of it, so it can not make any anticipation of things to come. One of the drawbacks of not having a frontal lobe, to be fair.

-It is all digital, all of it's decisions are zero's and one's. It can't think holistically, or in a circle, it can only think in A+B=C. It can't make decisions like the sound of one hand clapping. For example, I can just tell when another car is going to be a D!ck and move into my blindspot just as I am changing lanes. Autopilot can't.

-It is herky jerky, and slams on the brakes in alarm when someone moves into my lane in the "follow distance" space. I will try "chill mode" to see if it can chillax in these situations.

-It is a sign of just how ahead Tesla is from everyone else, that they can offer this free trial over the air. I don't think my experience so far makes me want to pony up the 6K, but I am excited by Tesla offering this trial much more so than any complaints or nit picks I listed above.

A agree with your assessment so far. I too got the EAP free trial this week and think it is cool, but not $6,000 cool. I am going to keep trying it to see if it wins me over. I have been using it on my commute to work which is about 40 minutes with 20 of that on the freeway.. It definitely does a better job of staying centered in the lane than I do, but it cannot make predictions like an experienced driver. I am still also really enjoying driving my M3, so having the car drive itself is not that much of a novelty. Maybe on a long interstate drive I would appreciate it more.

 

[psyrob]

Spiceware: what I mean is it can't look ahead and see what is coming a quarter or half mile ahead, like we can see ahead and see conditions changing. And that is just a limit of the cyborgs right now, and really an obvious limitation. It is just I get a little impatient as I can spot trouble a bit before autopilot can and then I have to wait for it to catch up. And it can't make any "strategy decisions", like seeing getting around a bunch of traffic bunched up on one side of the freeway by going to other. And it is all nitpicking, not dissing the autopilot.

Oh, and it messes up my getting better mileage per kwh. It doesn't brake and accelerate and cruise with regen in mind.

I really think it would be better named as "enhanced cruise control" or something like that. And it is a great system for what it can do, and boy do I appreciate the free trial. But I will probably not buy it at this point.

 

[Matt L]

Auto pilot bounces radar underneath the car ahead and can "see" what is happening with the vehicle in front of it.

Does not drive like an aware human in difficult circumstances, but for normal cruising it is still the best autopilot system in the world.

A vigiliant human driver can pick up subtle clues of what a driver near them might do, but human can only look in one direction at a time, and also miss things. That is why there are thousands of accidents every day with human drivers.

A vigilant driver will be tough to beat...but most drivers aren’t as vigilant as they think. Drivers are often distracted or tired. EAP is an unblinking eye. I think if you are operating the system the way it is currently designed, with hand on the wheel ready to take over, it is a much safer car than without it.

 

[NickFie]

-It is herky jerky, and slams on the brakes in alarm when someone moves into my lane in the "follow distance" space. I will try "chill mode" to see if it can chillax in these situations.

Chill mode gives smoother ride and better highway range.

I’ve got 50 years experience driving I-95 in Bos-Wash corrifor and beyond with motorcycles, cars, trailers and full-size box trucks. EAP makes it safer and less stressful.

Updates fine-tune EAP paranoia. When there’s a curve in the highway and a large, slow-moving truck in the adjacent lane, EAP occasionally slows down until it resolves lane position.

Will also slow down on local roads when a vehicle enters or exits a driveway ahead of your car. Probably reads it as a “stopped” car or obstruction.

Lessons learned from spectacular AutoPilot mishaps in earlier years.