Reliance of Autopilot on network access after today's outage

[2virgule5]

For the record this anecdotal evidence was not shared to feed Shorts ; I would have posted it on the Short Term TSLA forum if that was my intention (and probably would have sold my shares before, but hey, I'm long). The thoroughly unscientific poll so far seems to indicate that was not a widespread 'feeling'.
For those who are adamant that network access does absolutely never anything for AP would you mind share a piece of data or writing - just legitimate personal curiosity here - in particular, apart from giving nice powerpoints and buzzwords, what is high precision GPS map supposed to be used for? If it is used to enable the precision location of key landmarks on the road and plot a course what is the point if not to steer the car properly?

 

[Xenius]

I noticed the map not loading in, but had no problems driving the car otherwise. Wasn't until checking the forums that I realized it wasn't just me.

 

[Galve2000]

I drove 190 miles from Baltimore home to NYC yesterday morning and will say I had AP engaged the entire way. I did not notice any issues with AP. my Slacker on the other hand kept cutting out (very annoying) and there was a roughly 10 minute stretch that the GPS map would not load more than a few tiles, but the navigation was already set, and, it's not exactly hard to drive North on 95 for 175 miles and not get lost.

but again AP was unaffected. actually now that I think of it there was a heavy traffic spot that I manually cancelled AP and took over for a few minutes. at some point I wanted to reengage AP but it would complain that it is not available. But this lasted all of 30 seconds so I cannot say that it was due to lack of a cellular data connection.

 

[thimel]

I drove for three hours on AP with maps not updating. Rebooted several times. AP worked beautifully.
I thought fine tuning of AP depended on data loaded with map tiles. They are supposed to have local hints to adjust weights between the various inputs to steering: GPS, left lane line, right lane line, Holistiv path projection...

 

[HankLloydRight]

I drove 190 miles from Baltimore home to NYC yesterday morning

Funny. I drove 270 miles yesterday morning from Tyson's Corner to Connecticut. I wonder if we crossed paths at any superchargers?

I did notice a short period of no maps loading, but I had no problems at all with AP yesterday.

Oh, right, I don't have AP.

But like you said, who needs maps on that route.

 

[NikeWings]

Funny. I drove 270 miles yesterday morning from Tyson's Corner to Connecticut. I wonder if we crossed paths at any superchargers?

Having a Waze like feature on our nav would be great for seeing 'who' is in our immediate location. With such a tight TMC community, many drivers would virtually-know each other....and spontaneously making it reality would be cool! "Approaching on your right, in 2.6 miles is @HankLloydRight .

 

[Galve2000]

Funny. I drove 270 miles yesterday morning from Tyson's Corner to Connecticut. I wonder if we crossed paths at any superchargers?

On the way up I stopped at Newark, DE SC -- I didn't need to, but I was hungry and needed some coffee. I was surprised that I pulled into the last available A stall, 2A (this was around 12:15 PM yesterday) -- the SC was 50% occupied after i plugged in and anyone coming in after me would get a slower than optimal charge rate.

When I left 20 minutes later the nice lady who smiled at me when I arrived who was occupying Stall 1A was already gone.

I had considered stopping at E Brunswick SC for a top-up, and to stretch my legs, but I was making such good time on the highway I figured I'd be home in no time at all. Mercifully there was no traffic approaching the Lincoln tunnel.

 

[Mr So Chill]

I had an understanding that AP used GPS data as well. Is this GPS data reliant on map tiles?

 

[HankLloydRight]

I was a Newark between 12:45 and 1:15 PM yesterday.

 

[NikeWings]

I was a Newark between 12:45 and 1:15 PM yesterday.

"
And on your left in point-zero-one miles is HankLloydRight. He is sitting at the bar. You have reached your final destination."

 

[mikeash]

You're imagining things. Autopilot doesn't rely in any way on the network connection. There are indications that it may get periodic data updates separate from firmware updates, but these updates are daily at most and their absence wouldn't really be noticeable.

I did two hundred miles on autopilot yesterday with no connection and it worked as well as it always does.

 

[2virgule5]

With today's announcement of 8.0 with AP improvement some of the scenario highlighted before are becoming real: high precision GPS mapping will be the base for 8.0 (exit ramp with turn signal) and 8.1 (presumably auto-exit following nav entry). The the detection of false positive for the radar will also rely heavily on pre-existing data on Tesla servers. Both will more than likely require a working connection as local storage space is way too limited.