Tesla 8.0 Autopilot experience Poll

[privater]

My Autopilot experience is about 200 miles with 8.0 and around 4000 miles with 7.1, so far I can say

Comfort level: 8.0 doing a lot better in bump to bump situation, no sudden deceleration when approaching red light traffic. speed control is smooth and in sync with frontal car, acceleration after a slow car change lane didn't go crazy. A truly marvelous improvement. Highway experience feels the same with 7.1.

Performance: Change lane is lot better, it's more decisive. A lot less jitter when running on one side painted lane,crossing intersection with a lot better lane prediction, wheel handling is smooth, especially in curves.

Safety: UI change is subtle but impact is prominent, 'handle the wheel' notification with blink screen is visually unignorable.
Blind side warning with less latency(need more confirmation) and with multiple cars shows up in panel, you do feel the improvement of environment awareness.

Plus, the UI and touch responsiveness feels like free hardware upgrade.

I have to say I'm really impressed by this software update, especially in this dare moment and Tesla's engineer still manage to squeeze last bit of 4 year old platform, what I admire most is they fight bias and slander with major improvements instead of self restriction, Bravo!

So how about your own experience?

 

[msnow]

Need more time with it.

 

[richardw0000]

Autosteer is significantly worse with my car now. I went from not having to override Autosteer at all on my morning commute to having to override it about 4 times, and it is losing the lane markings where it previously never did.

 

[Chopr147]

no sudden deceleration when approaching red light traffic.

I have heard many say this, yet my experience is the stopping has gotten later and harder.
Yesterday i did have a car veering into my lane a bit and my S easily slid over to the right some to avoid a tight space. Worked well. Holds the lane better but I need more time with long distance to get a really good feel of the changes.

 

[RogerHScott]

Too soon to say anything authoritative, but my initial subjective impression of the AP changes is positive ('cause placebo?).

'handle the wheel' notification with blink screen is visually unignorable

Not when you're driving into the sun. I found a never noticed it until it started beeping (I also tend to keep my eyes on the road).

Not returning to set speed upon leaving a reduced-speed zone is annoying (when using auto-steer on a non-divided road).

 

[privater]

Autosteer is significantly worse with my car now. I went from not having to override Autosteer at all on my morning commute to having to override it about 4 times, and it is losing the lane markings where it previously never did.

First time heard that, on highway or rural?

 

[Lightmatrix]

Used it for the first time this AM... mine decided to take a hard right swerve on the highway towards the traffic lane... it also decided that the brightly marked yellow left hand lane marker was a suggestion and drifted pretty far into it before correcting itself.

Maybe just hung over from the 7.xx party?

 

[akudrath]

My autosteer has also been performing poorly on V8.0. The TACC works much better now but my car does a terrible job at staying in the center of the lane. Even on long straight highway roads with perfect lane markers, it seems to drive like its drunk. Many times it will actually violate the lane and cross over slightly into the adjacent lane. It tends to favor the right side of the lane and almost scrapes other cars in the right lane. I have to constantly fight the wheel and sometimes it will deactivate autosteer as I hold lane position because of the force on the steering wheel required for me to prevent collision.
I looked on the forums but it doesn't seem to be a problem that everyone else is having..

 

[andyaycw]

Agreed that autosteer is somewhat less capable of staying centered in the lane. Tesla made up for it by allowing the car the track lanes below 18mph now.

The majority of my commute on the 405 freeway here in SoCal is in stop and go traffic, so it's a tremendous help to me for the car to be able to see both the left and right lane markers when stuck in stop and go traffic for as far as the eye can see under 18mph.

Previously, on 7.1, I had to apply quite a bit of torque to the steering wheel when traveling under 18mph to keep the car somewhat centered in the lane since it could not track the lane markers, and could only track the car in front which was not very accurate, particularly when lanes are not very wide.

 

[rcarpen22]

For me, my overall satisfaction with 8.0 is mostly positive when considering the UI upgrades, etc. AP performance is about the same, but the "experience" of it is a little worse because of the changes to the nag. I'm not getting audible warnings, so I really have to pay attention to the dash, which is not as safe as being able to watch the road. I've actually mostly quit using autosteer. TACC does seem a little bit smoother, but could just be confirmation bias. I understand why the nags and nannying are increasing, and I'm not complaining, but it still diminishes the experience. The best AP performance for my car was still earlier versions of 7.1 (prior to 2.28.19). I'm hoping it gets back to that level. As long as TACC works though, I'll be pretty happy. That's the part that really removes most of the stress for me, especially in stop and go.

 

[Larry Hutchinson]

I had never seen 7.1 steer over a line but 8.0 did yesterday on a freeway with well marked lanes. In was on a curve but not particularly severe. I will not be using auto-steer until this gets fixed.

I also saw, when rounding a fairly sharp freeway turn, the image of the car just ahead was shown fully in the emergency lane while in fact it was nicely centered.

 

[akudrath]

Larry, same here. With 7.1 it never crossed over a line but it seems to do it regularly with 8.0 on well marked straight highways. It seems to be worse on some highways more than others (all straight, well marked)

 

[ION eDRV]

Autopilot seems about the same. The UI for map and music features are far worse. So many things to complain about. Where do I start?

 

[Woland]

AP 8.0 is definitely smoother in terms of acceleration, deceleration and reaction times to changes in speed, but it is vastly worse, and more dangerous, than 7.1 in terms of lane-keeping and auto-steer. I have used it 6 times since it came out and every time I've had to take over to avoid a serious accident. The car tried to veer out of the lane several times, failed to brake as I rapidly approached a slow-moving car in the lane in front of me, and appears to treat the sidewalk as something to avoid more than the car beside me, as the car now drives right on the edge of the lane, next to traffic, away from the sidewalk.

 

[bmoore]

8.0 keeps shutting off. a slight hand on the wheel no longer keeps system engaged. Unfortunately I now have a very expensive cruise control. would love 7.1 back.

 

[EinSV]

Limited experience with 7.1 (new car) but AP 8.0 has been great so far. During commutes it navigates easily in both high speed freeway traffic and stop and go. Very relaxing and enjoyable -- typically able to use it from the time I merge until the exit or shortly before it.

I haven't had any issues with autosteer so far and overall the system seems much smoother, especially stops and steering around curves.

I have not had a single nag and usually just leave a hand resting on the bottom of the steering wheel.

The only glitch so far is that sometimes when traffic is too clogged for lane change it doesn't seem to notice when the traffic clears and just stays in the lane. I just turn the signal off and back on and it's fine.

 

[Lightmatrix]

I did notice that the system does allow AutoPilot to be engaged at MUCH lower speed (not sure exactly but at least as low as 8mph), this is a great plus.

 

[Lex]

I just installed 8 (2.40.21 Canada) and it seems better so far in my short drive.

It could very well be that some radars didn't like the new firmware (yes we upgraded the firmware in our Bosch radar units from what I understand) or some other actual problem might be in your car that is causing these "veer right" or other issues.

The bottom line is, most people are happy with the improvements, but a vocal minority have noted some dramatic issues. These should be reported as service issues. Perhaps it's something else, like road markings in a certain area, but even that is an issue and should become apparent if several owners report the same problems in the same area.

So if your AP is wonky now and wasn't before please report and let us know what transpires. I certainly would be calling or emailing service if my car didn't improve after installing 8. But so far it's great.

 

[msnow]

I just installed 8 (2.40.21 Canada) and it seems better so far in my short drive.

It could very well be that some radars didn't like the new firmware (yes we upgraded the firmware in our Bosch radar units from what I understand) or some other actual problem might be in your car that is causing these "veer right" or other issues.

The bottom line is, most people are happy with the improvements, but a vocal minority have noted some dramatic issues. These should be reported as service issues. Perhaps it's something else, like road markings in a certain area, but even that is an issue and should become apparent if several owners report the same problems in the same area.

So if your AP is wonky now and wasn't before please report and let us know what transpires. I certainly would be calling or emailing service if my car didn't improve after installing 8. But so far it's great.

My service people told me the phones are ringing off the hook on the AP issue. I think you are right that not everyone has it but a lot seem to.

 

[Lex]

I just changed my vote from "somewhat better" to "slightly worse" after a couple of days of driving... it's just seems a bit more wild and unpredictable now, when it goes off. Yes, AP in 7.1 still did wacky things and maybe it's just that we learned to predict them ???

Perhaps we still need to learn the new parameters... but right now I'd say that I feel a touch more, not less, in danger when AP is active now. Oh and I have to watch out for the AP chimes !! The dreaded AP chimes. I don't like anxiety, it is bad for my health.

I'm not regretting upgrading, as I love all the other stuff in 8.0 but if given the chance I'd sure like to compare AP 8.0 to AP in late 7.1 with just the new TACC routines from 8.0 added. I have a feeling I know which I'd prefer, at least today...