While driving recently I’ve noticed a small steering wheel icon appear and disappear on the upper left side of the interface. Cars in drive and moving, not in auto pilot, anyone know why/what this indicates? And hands are on the wheel.
Yes, usually but sometimes it still fails to engage, but normally yes, this is how you know when it's possible to engage
What the heck is a "steaming" steering wheel? Also, why would it matter if you are on AP1, AP2, or AP2.5? Grey steering wheels just means you can engage autopilot (blue indicates that's it actually engaged). Yes, sometimes it fails, but I think that's just because of changing conditions (e.g. all of a sudden there is turn or some faded lines on the road).
Yup, when steering wheel shows up, you could start AP if you want. You will notice that when you press on the brake, it will disappear every time. Also when you go across an intersection, it will be gone and come back after you cross it. It won't let you start AutoSteer when it cannot see lines. Another interesting thing is that after you engaged AutoSteer, when the wheel turned blue, you could actually see the little blue wheel turning mirroring the actual steering wheel's turn. It took me a while to notice it. Totally unnecessary, but pretty cool.