When did AP gain your trust?

[Cravey]

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!

At highway speeds, I trust EAP on open roads with light to moderate traffic. When in bumper to bumper traffic at slow speeds, it is fine also.

I don't trust it in the rain and I was disappointed this past weekend how or handles in high cross winds. It was far less stable than manual driving.

It'll get there and I'm glad I made the purchase.

 

[chronopc]

At highway speeds, I trust EAP on open roads with light to moderate traffic. When in bumper to bumper traffic at slow speeds, it is fine also.

I don't trust it in the rain and I was disappointed this past weekend how or handles in high cross winds. It was far less stable than manual driving.

It'll get there and I'm glad I made the purchase.

I love using EAP in the rain. It makes me feel more comfortable having the radar and sensors help me detect what's around me.

 

[chokai]

My wife did. She had an accident recently on AP (M3) and now obviously doesn’t. My conclusion has been it is very usable in stop and go traffic. At highway speeds the driver needs to pay such close attention given how quickly things can change that the complacency that it can encourage is to dangerous.

 

[chronopc]

My wife did. She had an accident recently on AP (M3) and now obviously doesn’t. My conclusion has been it is very usable in stop and go traffic. At highway speeds the driver needs to pay such close attention given how quickly things can change that the complacency that it can encourage is to dangerous.

What was the detail of the accident? I am always interested in getting information on what situations EAP has problems with.

 

[chokai]

What was the detail of the accident? I am always interested in getting information on what situations EAP has problems with.

She hit a stalled vehicle partially (about 2.5ft) in the travel lane on left side of the road, no shoulder. Our car came over a pretty sharp rise on an interstate, my experience has been that AP can struggle to acquire downhill objects. AP clipped the other car, that part is a pretty standard stationary object problem we know about (e.g the fire truck thing). You cannot trust AP to drive past any point you yourself have not visually seen and normally we were attentive to this. In our case though wife had driven this route many time on AP. She looked down to adjust AP to slow due to traffic looked at an idiot driver on her right and in that time crested rise and when she looked back was so close to other car she could really do nothing.

Impact was an about 6 inch overlap, our car physically performed great! Especially when compared to other vehicle. Airbags deployed, our left front wheel was destroyed and failed completely and car dropped onto chassis and slid. AP held the lane on three wheels which was impressive instead of her spinning out and did not disengage until the car stopped. However no collision avoidance alarm.

 

[brkaus]

I has never earned my trust. I use it every day and almost every mile of driving. But I watch it like crazy and keep my hands on the wheel.

 

[shrspeedblade]

I has never earned my trust. I use it every day and almost every mile of driving. But I watch it like crazy and keep my hands on the wheel.

As I've said to people riding with me- it's almost at its most dangerous stage of development: good enough to earn your confidence but not good enough to really deserve it.

That having been said, there isn't a line where I distrusted/trusted it. It's more a matter of with lots of use you get a feel for what it can handle and where it will struggle. There are times when I will use it but ride herd on it constantly like brkaus, times I won't use it at all, and times I'll use it with a fairly high degree of confidence (frequently traveled roadway it handles easily with little traffic).

In a lot of ways it is like riding with someone with a learner's permit- they are driving but technically you are still responsible- only with it being much easier to take over!

 

[AwlBidnz]

Trust? naw. that ain't hap'n. It's helpful & relieves driving fatigue. Don't get me wrong, It's a great thing & I use it all the time. Many times I have to take back control but, if you don't use it you will never know what is can &/or can't do YET.

I have heard that submitting bug reports when the EAP flips out is helpful. Eastern OK hills and the new railroad bridge on Broadway, into Downtown OKC (acts like a construction beacon but, I'm not sure OK uses those??) are two places I have had slam down issues.

 

[chronopc]

She hit a stalled vehicle partially (about 2.5ft) in the travel lane on left side of the road, no shoulder. Our car came over a pretty sharp rise on an interstate, my experience has been that AP can struggle to acquire downhill objects. AP clipped the other car, that part is a pretty standard stationary object problem we know about (e.g the fire truck thing). You cannot trust AP to drive past any point you yourself have not visually seen and normally we were attentive to this. In our case though wife had driven this route many time on AP. She looked down to adjust AP to slow due to traffic looked at an idiot driver on her right and in that time crested rise and when she looked back was so close to other car she could really do nothing.

Impact was an about 6 inch overlap, our car physically performed great! Especially when compared to other vehicle. Airbags deployed, our left front wheel was destroyed and failed completely and car dropped onto chassis and slid. AP held the lane on three wheels which was impressive instead of her spinning out and did not disengage until the car stopped. However no collision avoidance alarm.

I can see why EAP failed in this situation. It was unfortunate for your wife, wrong place, at the wrong time. Hopefully you get your car fixed soon.

 

[Garlan Garner]

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!

It gained my trust on March 31'st 2016 when I put down my deposit.

 

[SO16]

She hit a stalled vehicle partially (about 2.5ft) in the travel lane on left side of the road, no shoulder. Our car came over a pretty sharp rise on an interstate, my experience has been that AP can struggle to acquire downhill objects. AP clipped the other car, that part is a pretty standard stationary object problem we know about (e.g the fire truck thing). You cannot trust AP to drive past any point you yourself have not visually seen and normally we were attentive to this. In our case though wife had driven this route many time on AP. She looked down to adjust AP to slow due to traffic looked at an idiot driver on her right and in that time crested rise and when she looked back was so close to other car she could really do nothing.

Impact was an about 6 inch overlap, our car physically performed great! Especially when compared to other vehicle. Airbags deployed, our left front wheel was destroyed and failed completely and car dropped onto chassis and slid. AP held the lane on three wheels which was impressive instead of her spinning out and did not disengage until the car stopped. However no collision avoidance alarm.

AP does not see stopped vehicles very well.

 

[MikeInTX]

I tried AP a few times but to me it's a little scary. It's just not ready for prime time yet. I have always used cruise control in previous cars, probably 95% of the time. So I use TACC now with my Model 3, but I have some issues with it. I use Chill mode because the acceleration of this car is a bit too much for me. So in Chill mode I want TACC to be chill also, but its not. It accelerates way too fast when getting up to the speed limit (no cars in front of me and I activate TACC well below the speed limit). Same thing for braking, way too hard (I need to try mild regen option to see if that's more to my liking). Also, when at a stoplight and behind a car in front of me, when the light turns green TACC waits way too long to start moving (follow distance set to 3).

 

[Kant.Ing]

Trust AP like another human driver? Never. However I trust the ways that I can always disengage it every time I have to.

 

[Jimbo435]

I trust TACC to keep the car from hitting the one in front of me. Although it still does strange emergency breaking when there is nothing around. It must be glare or shadow or something like that. It also seems recently to jam on the breaks when I drive past an onramp and it senses a car coming on.

As for AP, to me, holding the wheel and feeling the corrections, it seems like my 15 year old just learning how to drive, ping ponging in the lane. It seems to work a little better when the acceleration is turned to "Chill" mode.

Now to answer your question, it took me about a month to trust TACC, and 3 months before trusting AP even a little.

I'll just leave these here:
The AP needs these improvements:
When passing an onramp, it needs to maintain distance to the left lane marker instead of diving to the right to try to stay centered. It can be dangerous, and it makes me look like a jerk trying to keep cars from going around me.
We also need a mode for states that allow motorcycle lane splitting, so that when driving in the left lane, it hugs the left lane marker a little closer to allow room for them to pass.

 

[Electroman]

It's just not ready for prime time yet.

Absolute AP is ready for prime time as it is intended to be used.

What is probably closer to truth is, you are not ready for AP. When the first few times I put on skis or ice skates and fell down my instinct was to think the skiis are bad and not of the right size or weight etc..

 

[chokai]

Absolute AP is ready for prime time as it is intended to be used.

What is probably closer to truth is, you are not ready for AP. When the first few times I put on skis or ice skates and fell down my instinct was to think the skiis are bad and not of the right size or weight etc..

We had an accident on AP as noted above, and wife and I read the manual so we knew and aren't hugely up in arms on it as it was mostly a bad luck sit for us and could have happened in a regular old car. We are still in on Tesla and are fixing the car and maybe getting a 2nd one. But my wife was furious when she thought about the risk it would pose to someone who is perhaps even less attentive.

Fact is Tesla isn't really instructing people on it's usage and the name is a huge misnomer. They have this big beautiful touch screen in the car. They could easily show you a video on the car overall and specifically AP before you leave the lot, similar to the welcome guides on many cell phones. When new features are released in the car that impact it's capabilities it should do the same thing before you can use them. So there's some pretty basic low cost stuff they could do that's easy that they are not.

Plus a welcome video while you sit in the car could be part of the delivery experience and would free up the delivery folks from answering "standard" things to focus on stuff that matters, such as an actual problem with the vehicle. Could solve so many problems.

 

[Electroman]

Fact is Tesla isn't really instructing people on it's usage and the name is a huge misnomer.

Agreed. Education on AP usage is sorely lacking..

 

[JeffnReno]

Still watch it pretty close but has improved dramatically since getting my Model 3 in June. Use it 98% of the time when freeway driving and maybe 30% on surface streets when it seems safe to do so. Since it doesn't respond to lights or signs yet, it is pretty limited when not on the freeway unless paying close attention and especially if not following a car in traffic. My biggest concern when driving at highway speeds, is road debris suddenly appearing from under, around, or falling off the vehicles in front of me. Because of that concern, I increase my following distance when it seems wise to do so and decrease it at slow to stop n go conditions. I'm always ready to disengage if weather becomes iffy for visibility or traction. If I can't see whether AP might make a mistake, then why risk my own life or that of others to test it? That still leaves about 98% of all freeway driving comfortably in the control of EAP and I love having it. Just keeps getting better and what other car does that?

 

[YaliAtTasila]

It gained my trust gradually and after a month, it got my 100% trust on highway and 80% on local road.
On highway, it is very reliable no matter how heavy the traffic is. The heavier, the traffic, the more reliable it is compared to human drivers. I realized this after I saw multiple rear end collisions on my way home on high way during rush hours.

 

[YaliAtTasila]

A lot of my friends says you should not trust it that much. Well, I have no choice. I would put my trust on AP rather than myself. I said this because I had several prior experiences on long distance road trips and I fell asleep for a few seconds driving which almost got me into accidents. Falling asleep while driving is actually beyond your control no matter what you do. I realized this after I had tried several times trying to stay awake. When I need the sleep for a few seconds the most and most often the closest rest area is usually 20 minutes or more away. And I can not sustain myself that long.