When I first got my Model 3, I was scared to use autopilot for about the first week. When I did try it I went onto the freeway (ideal case use) and engaged it briefly. I actually did not like it at all at first, but over time I got more confident, and of course it helped my confidence a lot as its ability to remain centered in the lane improved with updates. I began to use it more on the freeway.
I was still scared to use it in town, but eventually I tried it, and it worked very well although braking at stop lights where there was a car stopped was quite abrupt, and it took longer than I liked to resume moving. I pretty much quit using it on city streets.
As I got more comfortable with it, and discovered that a light touch on the go pedal would nudge it to resume moving after a stop, I began to use it more.
Then an odd thing happened in my attitude: I became so confident with it that although I would never allow myself to become distracted, and I monitored it carefully and continuously, I found that I didn't want to disengage it. I wanted the car to drive. I took over when I absolutely had to, but felt disappointed when I had to. During at least the first half of my long road trip to and through British Columbia, Canada, for hiking, it almost became a game: How long can I leave AP engaged?
But the more I drive the car, and the more I get use to it, the newness has worn off. It's no longer a novelty, or a game. It's a tool. As long as I remain alert and ready, a momentary distraction is less hazardous than if I were driving the car, but at the same time, there are situations it can handle and others it cannot. Now I find myself judging well ahead of time, Is this a good time to be using AP or is this a better time for me to be driving? I no longer engage it for very brief stretches just because I can. If I'm going to turn in a block I don't engage it. If there's a car coming from the other direction that seems to be close to the line, I disengage AP and keep to the other side of my lane.
AP is a tool that when used properly makes the car safer. It's not a toy or a game. You learn when to use it and when not to use it, and when conditions are right, it is just amazing. But it's only level 2, and for the time being there are still plenty of times when it cannot handle the conditions, or maybe it could handle them but is not yet really ready or able to do so as well as you can do yourself. Tesla tells us this, of course, and makes it abundantly clear in the manual, but it's taken me some time to really internalize it and to begin to learn to use it to best effect.
And the longer I have the car the more I like AP. Driving any other car after this is going to seem like a real chore.
