So…. I hesitated for almost a week deciding whether or not to post this. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but these are my honest and objective opinions and experiences.
As background, I have had an AP2 car ever since 17.17.4 (30k+ miles). Prior to that, I put 18,000 miles on an AP1 car. This last week I had some work done on my car and had an AP1 loaner, running 2018.21.9. The reason I mention this is: I've previously been told that AP1 has increased a lot recently and my earlier observations on AP1 are not necessarily valid, which was a good point.
So long story short, during my time with AP1, I really missed my AP2 car and found that AP2 was more capable. Now that I got my AP2 car back, I've validated most of these observations back-to-back. Some quick thoughts:
So overall, my experience so far is that without a doubt in my mind, AP2 is more capable than AP1 now in 2018.21.9 and beyond. Sure, I believe there might be counterexamples to this, but at least for my driving pattern, I am much happier with AP2 performance than AP1 performance, and this makes me optimistic about the future of AP2.
With that said, I still think AP1 is an excellent ADAS system, and I would not feel bad about having an AP1 car right now.
As background, I have had an AP2 car ever since 17.17.4 (30k+ miles). Prior to that, I put 18,000 miles on an AP1 car. This last week I had some work done on my car and had an AP1 loaner, running 2018.21.9. The reason I mention this is: I've previously been told that AP1 has increased a lot recently and my earlier observations on AP1 are not necessarily valid, which was a good point.
So long story short, during my time with AP1, I really missed my AP2 car and found that AP2 was more capable. Now that I got my AP2 car back, I've validated most of these observations back-to-back. Some quick thoughts:
- AP1 is suuuuuuuper smooth. Whether or not it's right. It has a plan and sticks with it. For example, if there's a sudden lane shift 2 feet over, AP1 will happily drive straddling the lane market for 200 feet, slowly nudging itself back into where the new lane is. Or if a curve suddenly sharpens or changes, AP1 will smoothly depart the lane, and then lazily work its way back into its own lane. AP2 on the other hand seems to be willing to make rapid adjustments to correctness, even if it's at the expense of smoothness. For those situations, AP2 often can follow sharp lane shifts without departing the lane, but it jolts the cabin. So if you really like smooth driving, it's understandable why many folks still feel AP1 is more confident compared to AP2. Personally, I'd rather my robotic car drive correctly rather than smoothly.
- AP1 is far more reluctant at allowing activation in borderline situations. I drive through subdivisions with wide lanes and mainly just a center divider. AP2 allows activation on these roads even with just one divider and an implicit curb / parked car boundary on the other side. AP1 simply won't allow activation in these conditions. Overall, many roads that I take for granted being able to use AP2 on a daily basis are simply not available for Autosteer on AP1.
- AP1's lane identification performance is relatively poor for nonstandard lane lines. It had trouble recognizing lane lines in construction areas where lane lines were just those little plastic flaps. It had trouble understanding a green-painted bike lane in the far right lanes, and guessed an incorrect and overly left-hugging implied lane line. It eventually threw a TAKE OVER IMMEDIATELY when my lead car turned away.
- Speaking of that: AP1 performed much poorer overall when there was no lead car, or the lead car was doing something stupid. Even on highways going 70mph around a gently curved hill, AP1 had trouble maintaining center with no cars ahead. In the city, when lead cars run over lane lines (such as when they're making super slow lane changes or trying to change lanes at a stoplight), AP1 would lose that side of the lane boundary and sometimes that results in a troubling drift into another lane.
- Stopped car approach performance was worse than AP2. Right now, AP2 for me reliably stops for stopped cars if I'm approaching below 55mph. On AP1, it failed both times at 50mph. At 35mph it still failed when approaching a landscaping truck carrying some trees. Even at 25mph it failed around a curve — it seems to require more than 2 seconds of unobstructed view of a stopped car before it's willing to trust it. I find AP2 is far quicker at identifying stopped cars and identifies more different types of stopped vehicles and at different angles.
- AP1 seems completely ignorant to cross traffic, oncoming turning traffic, etc. AP2 actually starting from 2018.21.9 is fairly reliably detecting and braking for that kind of traffic.
- Man I love love LOVE AP1 for allowing me to make lane changes on local roads!
So overall, my experience so far is that without a doubt in my mind, AP2 is more capable than AP1 now in 2018.21.9 and beyond. Sure, I believe there might be counterexamples to this, but at least for my driving pattern, I am much happier with AP2 performance than AP1 performance, and this makes me optimistic about the future of AP2.
With that said, I still think AP1 is an excellent ADAS system, and I would not feel bad about having an AP1 car right now.