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When did AP gain your trust?
- Thread starter Goodbyegas
- Start date
ℬête Noire
Active Member
Someone had you at gunpoint and wouldn't let you pull over to sleep? =(
Listen to your body, be ahead of it coming to that. Any time, any where if you are in a car there is a place within a mile or two. I've slept on approaches in -30C, you can find a place wherever you are.** Enough to safely refresh to get to an easier place for a longer rest.
Otherwise yes, you're putting yourself and everyone in front of you in an extremely dangerous situation. EAP doesn't actually fix that....and shouldn't be used as a crutch to try fix that. You'll end up like that yoyo You You Xue, wrecked on a Greek offramp railing, or far worse.
chronopc
Active Member
This situation is why I don't mind the nag at all. It helps me stay awake during long road trips.
Garlan Garner
Banned
2cool4school
Member
It hasn't. For autopilot to work, it needs to "see" both lines. Once, I was driving down a county road that was curved, and the right line was covered in snow. So at the very curve, AP turned off, and I started drifting into the oncoming traffic. Of course I corrected the steering wheel, but you have to always be prepared for such surprises. Bottom line is, you can never get relaxed while on AP (or rather should never get relaxed), because it is waiting for the right moment to kill you.
Garlan Garner
Banned
It hasn't. For autopilot to work, it needs to "see" both lines. Once, I was driving down a county road that was curved, and the light line was covered in snow. So at the very curve, AP turned off, and I started drifting into the oncoming traffic. Of course I corrected the steering wheel, but you have to always be prepared for such surprises. Bottom line is, you can never get relaxed while on AP (or rather should never get relaxed), because it is waiting for the right moment to kill you.
My P3D+ does not need to see both lines for AP to work.
2cool4school
Member
ℬête Noire
Active Member
I've found that the danger zone is probably before the nag kicks in, at least for me now that's I've dialed EAP handling. I when got to the point where I felt I wasn't alert enough to be driving, and pulled over for a lengthy nap, I had yet to have problems satisfying the EAP wheel contact requirements at 70-75mph Interstate speeds, where it requires the higher frequency "touches". Maybe some blue flash occasionally on straight bits but never to audible.
chronopc
Active Member
I've been in situations where the lines have disappeared and EAP was still working.It hasn't. For autopilot to work, it needs to "see" both lines. Once, I was driving down a county road that was curved, and the right line was covered in snow. So at the very curve, AP turned off, and I started drifting into the oncoming traffic. Of course I corrected the steering wheel, but you have to always be prepared for such surprises. Bottom line is, you can never get relaxed while on AP (or rather should never get relaxed), because it is waiting for the right moment to kill you.
2cool4school
Member
I am not saying that the lines are the only factor. Maybe if you are going straight and your car can see one line, it would go for a while. But when it's experiencing a combination of a turn and an absent line, it would turn off with no advance warning. It's just a theory. Regardless, it did happen to me, so it could in theory happen to any of you, so be prepared. I decided not to use AP unless on lenghty highway trips.
Garlan Garner
Banned
Stop it.
I only meant what I said.
My P3D+ EAP does not need both lines for it to keep working. That's all I am saying.
2cool4school
Member
chronopc
Active Member
Definitely.
I do have to say that EAP drives in the rain and thick fog better than I do. I looked at the dash cam footage from when I drove through some really dense fog and the dash cam was picking up much more details than my eyes were.
Jonathantuba
Member
Depends on the road. On a good well marked highway EAP seems 100% reliable except for stupid actions of other road users requiring avoiding action - that is why some attention is still required, although I have driven long distances with just the car driving using EAP.
On two-lane roads, I always have to be ready to take over, although EAP is rapidly getting better. I have noticed it being able to drive roads now which just 6-months ago I had to regularly take over. No longer is it wanting to dive into side roads!
On two-lane roads, I always have to be ready to take over, although EAP is rapidly getting better. I have noticed it being able to drive roads now which just 6-months ago I had to regularly take over. No longer is it wanting to dive into side roads!
volkerbradley
Member
Agree wholeheartedly that one has to be careful. I have driven about 30,000 miles with Autosteer. During that time I have had 2 near misses. Once when I driving in the passing lane and it was raining, the car suddenly veered left toward the barrier at the edge of the lane. On another occasion it nearly hit a cement barrier at a construction site. Remember also that the system may not sense a vehicle that is stopped some distance ahead of you and only a small part of that vehicle is protruding into your lane.
I'm at the Reagan level of trust with EAP. "Trust, but verify." I would never take my eyes off the road or the car for more than a few seconds. That said it is much more relaxing to do long drives with it because I don't need full physical contact with the controls for the most part and you don't have to concentrate on vehicle control at all times. I only use it on multi-lane freeways and sometimes on two lane highways with no stops. My drives around town are all done on full manual control.
I've had a couple of unexplained deceleration instances and the car is fairly clueless when the lane markings are light, odd, or the lane suddenly gets wider. It also still has problems with not knowing the correct speed limit in places and tends to slow down too late when the limit drops. That could earn you a ticket in some small towns where the police hang out right by speed change to catch people that don't slow down quick enough aka a speed trap.
On the plus side, I'm pretty sure EAP would save your ass if you fell asleep at the wheel and the emergency collision alarm in the car may have saved me from rear ending someone once. At a minimum, it turned a possible panic stop into just a hard braking incident. The car in front came to very sudden and complete stop and I didn't realize it until the alarm went off. I thought he was just slowing normally, but that was not the case.
I've had a couple of unexplained deceleration instances and the car is fairly clueless when the lane markings are light, odd, or the lane suddenly gets wider. It also still has problems with not knowing the correct speed limit in places and tends to slow down too late when the limit drops. That could earn you a ticket in some small towns where the police hang out right by speed change to catch people that don't slow down quick enough aka a speed trap.
On the plus side, I'm pretty sure EAP would save your ass if you fell asleep at the wheel and the emergency collision alarm in the car may have saved me from rear ending someone once. At a minimum, it turned a possible panic stop into just a hard braking incident. The car in front came to very sudden and complete stop and I didn't realize it until the alarm went off. I thought he was just slowing normally, but that was not the case.
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chronopc
Active Member
I have eyes in my head but they don't work as well as the cameras on the Model 3.
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