I love the concept of it and truly appreciate what Tesla is doing and love doing my small part to assist in its improvements.
My consistent experiences with Nav on AP so far have been......(And I share this in a positive light, not a complaining manner, again, because I understand that it's not FSD nor a driver replacement system and it is exactly what Tesla says it is, a "beta" version.
1. When exiting the freeway, it always lets off the accelerator while still in the flow of traffic, which with regenerative braking, is like hitting the brakes. Most off ramps are plenty long enough to slow down. Car needs to wait to slow down until it is in the off ramp. Not sure if it's a setting, but each time has slowed down to 53 MPH before merging on to the off ramp.
2. As others have stated, it gets on the freeway like grandma. Again, the on ramp is there to alter your speed. Needs to accelerate so that it is up to the flow of traffic by the time it reaches the freeway itself. One of the reasons we have traffic is people merging onto a 65 MPH freeway at 35 MPH.
3. So far, it always chooses to slow down and go behind the car beside me in the next lane. Again, lifting off the accelerator and effectively slamming on the brakes. This happens when going well under the set speed and when there's a wide open space just ahead of the car in the next lane. Needs to learn that, a lane change doesn't also mandate slowing down. Clearly the car can see ahead, so it needs to learn how to merge into the next lane without having to alter speed, whenever possible of course.
4. When travelling the right line, passing on-ramps, it moves over to the right, thinking it's centering itself in the lane as the right painted line is disappears for the on-ramp opening. Thinking this is an EAP thing rather than Nav on AP, but the car never did that before. It stayed focused on the left painted line if the right line disappeared, or the car in front.
5. When taking curves, it slows down to speeds slower than the yellow suggested speed signs. Tesla needs to adjust the programming in this area to at a minimum, maintain at least the suggested speed. However, those signs are intended for the worst possible scenario. Hence, a large top heavy vehicle that rolls over easily, to make it through safely. They are suggestions, not required speed limits. Tesla's are cars, not top heavy trucks. Probably should be based on G-forces. Something it will have to learn. But I think most of us take curves based on what we feel. If we are being pulled/pushed to one side unnaturally hard, we naturally slow down. How many people actually look at their speedometer when taking every curve? A g-force rating would allow it to operate in a more real world, natural manner that's common of most common drivers. Naturally, the car can sense rain and temperature, so it can adjust these limits downward in bad weather or cold weather situations.
6. Car certainly ping pongs a lot more than it did. Again, only when using Nav on AP. Similar issue to #4, when merging from two lanes into one lane, once the left line disappears, car jerks left to center itself in the new left lane that it sees from the merging lane. Hence, the opening between right and left painted lines is now much wider just after the lane line you were in ends. Again, doesn't do this when just using EAP.
I took a test trip the other day, light traffic. Was basically a 15 mile loop that included 4 freeway changes. Whoa boy was that an adventure. Had a cop been behind me, he/she would have thought I was a drunk ass fool!!! I took the same trip again the next day and same results.
Basically, this car, in moderate traffic, wants to cause more traffic by constantly slowing down when it doesn't have to. I understand that it's beta and it's choosing the safe approach. But the natural driving options in these cases are not remotely unsafe. Hitting the brakes all of sudden with cars behind, when drivers wouldn't expect you to suddenly slow down, is unsafe.
I've read several posts where people say it works great. Sure, there are many situations where it does very well. Don't get me wrong, it's still an incredible feature. So far advanced over anything offered by any other manufacturer. But yes, it's still in its infancy. Moderate to heavy traffic situations, it struggles quite a bit. Light traffic, it does OK.
After experiencing it, it's certainly a cool feature, but the fact that you still have to answer to nags every 10-15 seconds and still have to "approve" each and every lane change, it doesn't really have a lot of practical benefits yet. Clearly Tesla released it to get miles on the system from customers. AP is constantly collecting data and transmitting it to Tesla so it can learn and improve. That part is great.
I very much loved my AP1 car before all the nags came into play. It was a true pleasure to drive and really provided a huge benefit. Naturally, because I value my life, I always paid very close attention to it, realizing its capabilities are still extremely limited. But on a wide open road with little to no traffic, or in bumper to bumper traffic, it was great to sit with your hands relaxed just below the wheel and enjoy the ride. Now, unfortunately the car doesn't recognize my natural driving position, so even with my hands on the wheel, i still get the constant nag. What was the greatest system ever, thanks to a select few people who abused the system, we all paid the price. So I personally find it more stressful answering all the nags than just driving the car myself in my natural driving position.
For me, Nav on AP is more stressful too, for the above noted reasons. When I don't want to be stressed, I just drive the car myself. However, I LOVE Tesla's innovation and the fact that they're doing something no other manufacturer is willing to do. I feel like it's a privilege to be a part of it. Therefore, I'm still doing my part and using the system whenever I can. Not because I see a benefit in it right now, (meaning it makes my individual trips better or easier), but because I know that Tesla is tracking its use and learning from it, which will lead to it eventually, becoming an incredible, usable feature that does make driving easier and safer all around. In my effort to help it learn, when the car wants to slow down when it shouldn't, it just put my foot on the accelerator and keep it at the speed it should be at. Hopefully so it learns there is a better way to handle these situations, that's actually safer and more in line with how a real driver would handle them.
Hopefully everyone else does the same. Many people will just let the car do what it wants to do. But since Tesla tracks every movement and is learning, I hope people do the same so it learns the correct way. If all drivers force it to do things the right way, the system will learn. It's obviously still not FSD and not intended to be. Many people want it to be so badly. We all do. Clearly, some wanted it so badly that they put way too much faith in AP1 and ended up in accidents as a result of not following instructions. I appreciate it for what it is and fully understand its limitations and want to continue doing my part to help the system learn rather than trying to rely on it to be something it's not, yet. The faster it learns, the sooner we get toward actual FSD features that we can rely on.
