The biggest surprise I have after two weeks of Model 3

[rdskill]

....have a potentially fatal defect that they can not detect stationary objects on the road when cars are moving above around 50mph.

Actually TTAC designed to work way. Stationary objects are IGNORED. Otherwise it can't work at all.

There are some write ups on this subject. As you stated, Tesla isn't the only car with this limitation.

I think Tesla sales and orientation do a poor job of explaining/warning owners about this.

 

[Yang_H]

Definitely. If I didn't dig into more info about AEB, collision warning etc by myself when reading those Tesla AP accidents, I wouldn't know that the system won't work as intended under higher speeds.

 

[Ivan Abundance]

I didn't read all five pages, but I wanted to chime in that I too have never driven a car so slowly as I do the Model 3. I've been a speed demon forever (although with good luck, knock wood), but I'm content with loping along in the 3. Maybe part of it's in knowing I'm probably in the fastest car for twenty miles around, but it's seldom that I hammer it.
Probably just getting old. er.

 

[tvad]

I agree, but how to do you get all the Yangs off the road? There so many of them! Most accidents happen when 2 Yangs meet, but 1 Yang can still bring on a lot of death and destruction on his own.

Here is the good news.

For every Yang there's a Yin.

Kumba-ya.

 

[Bruinfan]

I'm with OP, aside from the multiple rear ends:

I speed less with AP. I hate long boring drives, and driving 80-85 so I can be done earlier is a huge motivator.

With AP, I don't feel like I'm driving... so I don't care how long it takes.

Now, if I'm late, and I need to hurry, I drive 80-85 and no AP. Doesn't happen too often.


on a side note, i'm of the opinion, if you have that many rear end, at-fault collisions, you just aren't a good driver. We should all be thanking whoever you pray to for AP. Autopilot will decrease his number of accidents.

 

[googlepeakoil]

Don't think of the Tesla doing the driving - think of it assisting driving and making it easier. You still need to be alert.

People have ran red lights on autopilot. Recent youtube vids have shown the model 3 running red lights and stop signs despite talk of this being "feature ready".
People have ran their car under truck-trailers and been killed - all while on autopilot. A white truck was ignored by the cameras (seen as white sky) and the cameras overruled the radar which could see the truck.
Do not trust the model 3 with your, your family, and other road users lives!
Please be safe. Road deaths in the US are about 10,000 a year. Driving accidents are the biggest cause of young adult fatalities, more than disease, cancers, suicide.

 

[holmgang]

People have ran red lights on autopilot. Recent youtube vids have shown the model 3 running red lights and stop signs despite talk of this being "feature ready".
People have ran their car under truck-trailers and been killed - all while on autopilot. A white truck was ignored by the cameras (seen as white sky) and the cameras overruled the radar which could see the truck.
Do not trust the model 3 with your, your family, and other road users lives!
Please be safe. Road deaths in the US are about 10,000 a year. Driving accidents are the biggest cause of young adult fatalities, more than disease, cancers, suicide.

*around 40k a year

 

[CrayZ1]

It's not just a Tesla phenomena, all cars with ACC will normally 'detune' the Apex Predator instinct.

Some detune more than others. I noticed the MS TACC does not have the radar range that some brands do. ie - The maximum following distance setting is not that high. Many cars have over 3 seconds at 80 mph. I didn't time the Tesla, but it is much less.

Dad Mode - If you hit an object with the front of your car, you aren't doing the task correctly. Your job is to not kill your neighbors more often than necessary. (your results may vary, offer not valid in Alaska or Hawaii, if you experience an erection that lasts more than four hours, you are probably driving a P Series Tesla).

 

[Fernand]

All the naysayers with their past "tried it and turned it off" stories have had their say. Most people who learn to use AP these days, like the OP, love it and use it.

Where I live the frequent freeway merges and lane changes make Navigate on Autopilot a God-send. The current freeway full auto version is pretty excellent. It zeroed in gradually over the last 2 years. Well worth the money for Freeway driving alone, no point in waiting - there never will be a "final" FSD version. Street level NOA will develop gradually too.
.

 

[StealthP3D]

Now I'm just patiently waiting for the FSD to be fully implemented before forking over $7k...

Correction: FSD is now $8,000 and slated to continue increasing in price as it gets closer to being fully functional.

 

[StealthP3D]

Some detune more than others. I noticed the MS TACC does not have the radar range that some brands do. ie - The maximum following distance setting is not that high. Many cars have over 3 seconds at 80 mph. I didn't time the Tesla, but it is much less.

It's not that Tesla has less radar range - it's that they prioritize safety. Even on the longest following distance the radar can read the speed changes of the car in front of the car you are following. This not only allows for a quicker response to a pile-up situation (even if the driver in front of you doesn't brake in time) but it also smooths out the following speed when following someone who is not keeping a consistent distance from the car in front.

 

[Kevy Baby]

Correction: FSD is now $8,000...

You quoted a post from JANUARY when it was still $7,000.

 

[SageBrush]

In the end, I realized that I didn't just buy a car made by Tesla, I actually got a chauffeur from Tesla too doing 70% of my driving.

Perfect description

Cheers !

 

[Michelle_eriw]

Correction: FSD is now $8,000 and slated to continue increasing in price as it gets closer to being fully functional.

It was $7K in January, when he wrote that.

 

[shinoo]

LOL, I was daily driving a Volt previous to getting my 3. The 3 is so much faster that I tend to drive faster now around town. The Volt kept me chillin' around town. I gave up driving my Lotus in town for this reason so now I'm back to having to scan for cops!

 

[Kamban]

I am curious about 70% driving with AP and then also saying they live in a city like Pittsburgh. I know Pittsburgh has many freeways within it but does freeway driving making up the 70% AP or does one also use basic AP for non freeway driving. Also some merges on the freeway in Pittsburgh occur from the right side rather than the usual driver's side and merging with a short merging lane on to fast left lane high speed traffic is positively nerve wracking. I would hate for an autopilot to do that maneuver.

Does one also use basic AP for "2 lane on either side" stretches of non freeway. non local roads with infrequent traffic lights.

 

[Kevy Baby]

I am curious about 70% driving with AP and then also saying they live in a city like Pittsburgh. I know Pittsburgh has many freeways within it but does freeway driving making up the 70% AP or does one also use basic AP for non freeway driving. Also some merges on the freeway in Pittsburgh occur from the right side rather than the usual driver's side and merging with a short merging lane on to fast left lane high speed traffic is positively nerve wracking. I would hate for an autopilot to do that maneuver.

Does one also use basic AP for "2 lane on either side" stretches of non freeway. non local roads with infrequent traffic lights.

Speaking for myself, I would put my number closer to 90%+ of my 18,769 miles have been while on AP. On my daily commute, once I am on the freeway and in the carpool lane, I only require two manual interventions over four freeways (in the carpool lane, not counting courtesy lane changes to get out of others' way, etc.) until I need to get off the freeway.

I use AP as often as I can, including on surface streets. Helps minimize tickets.

 

[Michelle_eriw]

Speaking for myself, I would put my number closer to 90%+ of my 18,769 miles have been while on AP. On my daily commute, once I am on the freeway and in the carpool lane, I only require two manual interventions over four freeways (in the carpool lane, not counting courtesy lane changes to get out of others' way, etc.) until I need to get off the freeway.

I use AP as often as I can, including on surface streets. Helps minimize tickets.

My car has lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control; Tesla's autopilot is merely a name for these two features, bundled together.. I use the cruise control all the time except when driving slower than 20 MPH. The lane keep assist doesn't work below 35 MPH, but it keep it turned on all the time as well.

Freeways, highways, and city streets.

 

[Emcp422]

My daily commute is 40 miles round trip and in the past five years I had been driving a Infiniti G37x over 50k miles. I'm a bit impatient on the highway and most time I'm over 80mph on the left lane. Not surprisingly I got one speeding ticket every year or two and frankly I deserve it. Even worse, I'm also easily distracted when driving on local roads so my G37 rear-ended people five times. Three with no scratches so all were good, but the other two were $5k and $7.5k each. The last one ($7.5k) happened month ago and the insurance company decided to total the car.

Of course I had been eyeing at Tesla for quite a while and the last accident helped me to pull the trigger. I placed an order for a basic SR+ right the next day. The top reason I decided to buy M3 is that joy of instant torque and fast acceleration - I knew I'd love to drive it fast (but not too fast given my driving habits). The second is the anti collision feature that hopefully will stop me from eventually rear-ending half of the cars around the city. Autopilot? I heard enough bad stories on internet I didn't give it a serious thought.

Now two weeks later after driving the SR+ over 700 miles, it's amazing to see how the car completely changed me. Totally unexpected, my driving mentality/personality flipped 180 degree after getting used to autopilot. I become perfectly happy to stay behind other cars, letting autopilot do as much driving as possible and keeping the distance. I even have no problem to "crawl" under 60mph on the right lane because, heck, I'm not the one with foot on pedal driving the car so I just don't care. Traffic jam changes from hell to nothing, b/c I can totally relax with autopilot on as long as I don't have to rush. I do keep my left hand on steering wheel and my eyes on road, but still like many people said, it's so much less taxing with autopilot. To me it's like 70% less tiring on everyday commute.

In the end, I realized that I didn't just buy a car made by Tesla, I actually got a chauffeur from Tesla too doing 70% of my driving. Or, it's like I'm riding the free Uber everyday. More importantly, I believe that autopilot helped me to become a so much safer driver to everyone else on the road and to myself. It's just fantastic!

Of course, I still enjoy tremendously to sprint the car time to time, but for my daily commute M3's autopilot is godsend and the biggest surprise to me in terms of owning a Tesla.

Now I'm just patiently waiting for the FSD to be fully implemented before forking over $7k...

I feel the exact same way, and the only thing that annoyed me a little was jiggling the steering wheel a bit to hard when the car asked for imput and the system turning off, but one day I got the best advise ever, you can use the scroll wheels for that too, so when the car asks to put hand on steering i just scroll the volume up once when asked, and the next time it asks i just scroll the volume down once. I also do feel it me me a safer driver except when I'm in a rush cuz the extra power has me a times catching myself doing 90