No, I am not forgetting that at all. Let's start with GPS...everyone talks about GPS like it's synonymous with navigation. It's not. GPS is simply one input into a blended position solution. The inertial navigation unit is generally weighted much more heavily moment-to-moment when tracking position. Remember, the car keeps track of its position and direction while in tunnels and in garages; it's not doing that with GPS. GPS is simply providing occasional corrections to deal with inertial drift.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but both the AP1 and AP2 gps units have WAAS augmentation, so I find it hard to believe there is much of a difference between the two units. Certainly not big enough to allow one to establish a fix within a given lane and another that won't. Remember the early high-fidelity mapping images created from feedback from AP1 cars (there were no AP2 cars at the time). It showed mapping down to the lane.
Also, early versions of 8.1 (never released to the public; just to EAP users) DID have automatic exit functionality. To do that, it needed to know what lane it was in.
If you would have read my post, I referred specifically to the foward facing camera. Of course AP1 will not be able to do completely autonomous lane changes because it can't detect fast-approaching cars in adjacent lanes from the rear. But there is no reason it can't suggest lane changes. (Of course, the usefulness of this feature is somewhat questionable, but it still could be done).
So, yes, this should be technically possible. The question is will Tesla invest the resources to implement these features? I remain skeptical.
