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I do like using Tesla's Traffic Aware Cruise Control, but autopilot takes over enough of the driving I know I can't pay meaningful attention for more than 10 or

I do like using Tesla's Traffic Aware Cruise Control, but autopilot takes over enough of the driving I know I can't pay meaningful attention for more than 10 or 15 minutes. I just did a 1600 km round trip with traffic aware cruise control on the vast majority of the time, but I didn't turn on autopilot once. Autopilot bothers me for a number of reasons. Fundamentally it's a poor driver, spending time in people's blind spots unnecessarily, braking and accelerating in rather abrupt ways, and just generally acting like a teenage driver who just got their license. It simply doesn't practice defensive driving. I also spend a lot of time driving on undivided rural highways. These are highly dangerous roads, with closing speeds in excess of 200 km/hr at times. In those situations autopilot drives far too much according to the strict rules of the road and can't adjust to the situation. It doesn't use the lane space to leave additional room and it doesn't give a wide berth to cyclists. It also bothers me deeply that one of the ways to override autopilot is to make steering input and that's also the indicator Tesla uses to determine the user participating. I haven't used autopilot much for the reasons above, but the few times I did active it the steering input required to tell the car I'm there is also enough steering input to move the car several feet in the lane due to very direct steering. It feels like I'm just fighting the car. That is deeply unnerving since the force required to override autopilot feels like enough to jump nearly half a lane and cause a collision.

jedberg 5y ago
I don't drive a Tesla, I use a different autopilot system. The one I use isn't as aggressive as Tesla, so it doesn't exhibit these behaviors but also requires more manual takeovers. Also it uses facial recognition so you don't have to touch the wheel (but you can touch the wheel and steering manually doesn't disengage it, only the brake and gas do).
- theluketaylor 5y ago
  Since autopilot is a specifically Tesla term for their L2 driver assistance features, you may be better served in this thread referring specifically to the system you have. Most other L2 systems require so much more driver input and attention that many of the incredulous replies are likely assuming you're talking about Tesla specifically. I'm guessing GM Supercruise since it's the only one I'm aware of that uses eye tracking in production (though Tesla claims to have enabled that in the US just recently. Personally I'm not sure their camera placement can really do proper eye tracking). Supercruise's disengagement rate is low though, generally much lower than Tesla's. I do like supercruise from what I've seen of it (haven't had a chance to actually use it since GM seems determined to waste their advantage by not rushing it into every car they make).
  - jedberg 5y ago
    I don't mention the one I use because every time I do I get immediate downvotes. But I use the system from Comma.ai which is based on Openpilot, which refers to itself as open source autopilot.

jedberg 5y ago

I don't drive a Tesla, I use a different autopilot system. The one I use isn't as aggressive as Tesla, so it doesn't exhibit these behaviors but also requires more manual takeovers. Also it uses facial recognition so you don't have to touch the wheel (but you can touch the wheel and steering manually doesn't disengage it, only the brake and gas do).

theluketaylor 5y ago
Since autopilot is a specifically Tesla term for their L2 driver assistance features, you may be better served in this thread referring specifically to the system you have. Most other L2 systems require so much more driver input and attention that many of the incredulous replies are likely assuming you're talking about Tesla specifically. I'm guessing GM Supercruise since it's the only one I'm aware of that uses eye tracking in production (though Tesla claims to have enabled that in the US just recently. Personally I'm not sure their camera placement can really do proper eye tracking). Supercruise's disengagement rate is low though, generally much lower than Tesla's. I do like supercruise from what I've seen of it (haven't had a chance to actually use it since GM seems determined to waste their advantage by not rushing it into every car they make).
- jedberg 5y ago
  I don't mention the one I use because every time I do I get immediate downvotes. But I use the system from Comma.ai which is based on Openpilot, which refers to itself as open source autopilot.