When did AP gain your trust?

[Goodbyegas]

Curious how many miles of AP driving you think you did before it gained your trust. I'm still not there quite yet personally (1st time tesla owner with a week under my belt). I see brakes lights in front of me and think "ok car.... anytime now."

I love it so far btw!

 

[ngogas]

50 ish miles. Had it at 8 miles.

 

[Johnny Mac]

Day 1

 

[Gavyne]

I didn't trust autopilot until I tried TACC while driving on a few long trips. To people not sure, I recommend using TACC first so you are still in control of steering. But once you see how good the car is at keeping a safe distance, and how smart it really is at speeding up and slowing down, you'll feel better about autopilot.

Also keep in mind sometimes it feels like your car is slowing down a lot and too fast, it's actually just how regen brakes feel at high speeds. With typical ICE cars, you let off the gas pedal and you coast. With the Model 3 you let off the accelerator, you feel regen brakes right away.

 

[cbutters]

I use it constantly; but I never trust it... It is an extra set of eyes and lane keeping assist; I let it do its thing, but not without keeping my hand on the wheel ready to compensate for any sensor or camera misreads; they RARELY happen, and behavior is getting better and better over the past several months. but you need to stay alert, all it takes is once.

 

[chronopc]

Curious how many miles of AP driving you think you did before it gained your trust. I'm still not there quite yet personally (1st time tesla owner with a week under my belt). I see brakes lights in front of me and think "ok car.... anytime now."

I love it so far btw!

I use it every chance I get, but I wouldn't say I trust it. I would say I'm comfortable using it which I was as soon as I tried it during my test drive in the Model S. However, I'm always ready to take over in situations where it does something odd.

 

[RayK]

By "trust" do you mean 100%? If so, I do not trust AP at that figure. Maybe 75%. TACC is wonderful. I use it most days on my commute to work. Never thought it was that useful until I accepted the AP free trial (did not initially purchase it). Use it both on freeways and city streets, even though it's not recommended there. Auto-steer (AS), on the other hand, is not totally baked yet. While AS works well even in inclement weather, by that I mean the recent rains we've had here in NorCal, it totally depends on (seeing) the lane markings to do its job. I've used it on long stretches of highway driving in the #1 lane in good weather but beyond that, I'm not trusting it. One minor complaint I have about it is that it always tries to maintain the car in the center of the lane. While that's certainly a basic and important feature to have, I like to hug the left side of the lane when commute traffic goes below about 50MPH as that gives motorcycles more room to pass safely. Above 50MPH or so, if they are crazy enough to want to lane-split with minimal spacing between rows of traffic, that's on their head. If there was an AS option to prefer the left side of the lane when the speed goes below a certain threshold, my "trust" of AP would increase slightly (albeit after a long amount of time testing it).

Note that my impressions are coming from software 28.1. Recent updates may have changed the performance of AP but I'm not there yet.

 

[jdcollins5]

As soon as the calibration was completed on my way home!. I used it before during my previous test drive. It took me a few attempts to start trusting it along with the sales guy encouraging me.

 

[chronopc]

By "trust" do you mean 100%? If so, I do not trust AP at that figure. Maybe 75%. TACC is wonderful. I use it most days on my commute to work. Never thought it was that useful until I accepted the AP free trial (did not initially purchase it). Use it both on freeways and city streets, even though it's not recommended there. Auto-steer (AS), on the other hand, is not totally baked yet. While AS works well even in inclement weather, by that I mean the recent rains we've had here in NorCal, it totally depends on (seeing) the lane markings to do its job. I've used it on long stretches of highway driving in the #1 lane in good weather but beyond that, I'm not trusting it. One minor complaint I have about it is that it always tries to maintain the car in the center of the lane. While that's certainly a basic and important feature to have, I like to hug the left side of the lane when commute traffic goes below about 50MPH as that gives motorcycles more room to pass safely. Above 50MPH or so, if they are crazy enough to want to lane-split with minimal spacing between rows of traffic, that's on their head. If there was an AS option to prefer the left side of the lane when the speed goes below a certain threshold, my "trust" of AP would increase slightly (albeit after a long amount of time testing it).

Note that my impressions are coming from software 28.1. Recent updates may have changed the performance of AP but I'm not there yet.

EAP has come a long way since 28.1.

 

[ewoodrick]

If you trust the Autopilot today, you should have your license revoked and car impounded. That's because it is not completely trustworthy today. It can do many things, but not everything.

Now, for what I think that you want, you really need to break down the features.

TACC - In it's normal operation, is quite good. In stop and go traffic, I trust it much more than myself. But, TACC has issues, especially with curves with stops on the other end. While it is significantly better than 6 months ago, the car is just now getting to the point that it can accurately detect a car that is not directly in front of it.

Lane Guidance - Staying between the lanes is something that I think that Tesla does leaps and bound beyond the competition. (There are a large number of vehicles with this feature now) It still has a number of burps and problems, even on straight roads.
It's curved roads that have when of its biggest problems. 6 months ago, there were very few turns in the road (something more than a slight bend) that it was able to do. It started getting better, but then it would still freak out if going into a curve a little faster than it could process. But then they finally started adding the ability for the car to slow down for curves, that's helped significantly. Near my house, there's a 2 lane road with a descending light to moderate curve in it. It's been doing that fairly well for awhile. But immediately following this curve is another sharper and descending curve that the car can't see until it gets there. Up until recently, it just couldn't do it. But now it seems to do it fine at about 40 mph ( at 45 it screams).

On-ramp to off-ramp - Seems to be working fairly well. Lane changing seems to be safe (although it aborts too often). It now stays out of the left lane, although it keeps trying to take me out of the toll lane.

As to lane changes, it now does it on a lot of surface streets, as opposed to the original essentially Interstate only.


As to "getting used to it" I remember that we had a loaner Subaru once, I turned the TACC with lane guidance on with my wife driving and she freaked out. I drove it a few times with it enabled and she started to understand. My 2018 Leaf (now hers) has TACC with lane guidance and she now uses it a lot.

How to learn it?

Start with TACC on Interstates, especially with slow traffic, then add lane guidance with light traffic (TACC one up click, Lane guidance two up clicks)
Move to lane guidance on major urban surface streets.

After you become comfortable in a few weeks, the software will change and the rules will change and you have to start over with the trust issues. Luckily, they tend to get better, so you start to try the areas in which you know had problems.

 

[JetFalcon]

It makes me wish all cars on the road were on autopilot. I think it's much safer than irrational thinking human drivers who get accelerate immediately just because they saw a turn signal.

When people complain about autopilot thinking it's not safe, I would rather have all cars be autopilot than deal with irrational road raged drivers.

Is there any kind of Tesla wave like waving both hands out a window to another Tesla to prove you're on autopilot.

 

[DriveMe]

When did AP gain your trust?

After that major update last Spring!

 

[Pkmmte]

I trusted it the day I got a Model S loaner without AutoPilot and remembered what it was like to commute home without AP.

Yes, it's not perfect, but it's basically already there 95% of the time for me. The only times I disengage it are when I see a car that wants to merge in front or I need to make a turn (non-highway driving).

Even though it has tried to turn into a train track during my first road trip with my wife and smash onto a semi truck next to me on the highway another day when I took my wife to work, it's still a major overall improvement.

... now that I think of it, maybe my Model 3 is jealous of my wife.

 

[chronopc]

It makes me wish all cars on the road were on autopilot. I think it's much safer than irrational thinking human drivers who get accelerate immediately just because they saw a turn signal.

When people complain about autopilot thinking it's not safe, I would rather have all cars be autopilot than deal with irrational road raged drivers.

Is there any kind of Tesla wave like waving both hands out a window to another Tesla to prove you're on autopilot.

I still don't trust human drivers. Still a lot of kinks to work out before they are ready for the road.

 

[Electroman]

The trick is to know when to trust AP and when you should be extra watchful and when you should absolutely not use AP at all. Once you know that you really can enjoy AP and relax. It take a few days and some common sense to understand the strengths and weakness of AP.

Simple rule of thumb:

- When there are lines clearly visible on both sides, AP is fantastic. So I use middle lane wherever possible.
- At the speed limit, AP is close to flawless. it is also pretty good +5 over the speed limit. Anything more requires more attention.
- be watchful on mergers, and on exits or splits when the lane widens.

- I would never use on a two lane road with no divider and opposing traffic just inches away.
- will not use in construction zones.

 

[e-FTW]

My analogy is this one: you and a student driver are at the controls at the same time. So you keep a light touch on the wheel, and let it steer, accelerate and brake. You can also hover over the brake pedal ready to react if anything comes up.
Also that virtual student driver has the strength of a toddler, to the minute you counter the wheel's rotation with a touch of force, you'Ve taken over.

I've used it from the day it became available, and the student driver is getting better with every single over-the-air software update. It might soon get its license. ;-)
I mean, it will now ask you about lane changes (Navigate on Autopilot) and if approved, will execute the lane change. Meanwhile, you are checking the blind spot and mirrors fo any people it might cut off.
It will also properly navigate highway interchanges too. And highway exits. Oh, almost forgot: it is now aware of merging cars when driving in the far-right lane, and does a reasonable job of adjusting speed to let them in.

So I say use it, but as stated before, do not give up trust and awareness: you are the driver 100% of the time. You just have less work to do, as the constant micro adjustments are taken care of for you (staying x car lengths from the car in front, staying in the middle of the lane). You can focus on situational awareness, defensive driving and sometimes, enjoying an extra second of scenery.

 

[suwaneedad]

The trick is to know when to trust AP and when you should be extra watchful and when you should absolutely not use AP at all. Once you know that you really can enjoy AP and relax. It take a few days and some common sense to understand the strengths and weakness of AP.

Simple rule of thumb:

- When there are lines clearly visible on both sides, AP is fantastic. So I use middle lane wherever possible.
- At the speed limit, AP is close to flawless. it is also pretty good +5 over the speed limit. Anything more requires more attention.
- be watchful on mergers, and on exits or splits when the lane widens.

- I would never use on a two land road with no divider and opposing traffic just inches away.
- will not use in construction zones.

I'll add that Nav on AP freaks out currently (sometimes) on exit ramps, to the point where the car brakes suddenly (and needlessly) which drastically increases the risk of being rear-ended and having your Tesla in the body shop for perhaps something approaching forever. So for now I am restricting my use of NoA to less crowded interstates, so that I don't get rammed by someone who is reasonably not expecting a car to brake suddenly where it shouldn't.

At other times, I've had NoA zip onto the exit ramp still at full highway speed, which is another problem altogether of course.

It's getting better. But for now I limit my use of NoA to when I am solo in the car, and when the interstates are not dense, and when I am not being tailgated.

 

[Goodbyegas]

If you trust the Autopilot today, you should have your license revoked and car impounded. That's because it is not completely trustworthy today. It can do many things, but not everything.

Now, for what I think that you want, you really need to break down the features.

I suppose I use the word "trust" loosely here. Am I planning to nap at the wheel? Not intentionally... (3 kids all under age 6 is rough) hah! I just meant feel "generally good" about it. I have used it as soon as calibration was complete and been very alert. Was feeling great about it until this morning's annoyance. I was cruising along the 15N without many people around. I initiated lane changes and the car got halfway through a change and swerved back into the original lane. Happened twice this morning and I didn't notice any car really close... I won't stop using or anything because of it, but still.

The trick is to know when to trust AP and when you should be extra watchful and when you should absolutely not use AP at all. Once you know that you really can enjoy AP and relax. It take a few days and some common sense to understand the strengths and weakness of AP.

Simple rule of thumb:

- When there are lines clearly visible on both sides, AP is fantastic. So I use middle lane wherever possible.
- At the speed limit, AP is close to flawless. it is also pretty good +5 over the speed limit. Anything more requires more attention.
- be watchful on mergers, and on exits or splits when the lane widens.

- I would never use on a two land road with no divider and opposing traffic just inches away.
- will not use in construction zones.

Good to know!

 

[OPRCE]

I remind myself everyday to *not* trust EAP ... cautionary tale in signature.

 

[lolder]

EAP needs only one line to engage and sometimes will steer a long time after the line disappears. A YouTube video of a hacked computer shows it identifies driving surfaces, lanes and routes as well as dozens of items of interest. I think it will continue to improve rapidly. Try to use it all the time so you become familiar with it's stengths and some remaining weaknesses. I've found very bold or reflective lines can confuse it more than missing or poorly marked ones. I have not much concern about using it on two lane roads. Keep alert.