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My wife drives a Tesla and I drive newish rental cars on a reasonably frequent basis. So I have a basis for comparison. They are definitely not being beaten by

My wife drives a Tesla and I drive newish rental cars on a reasonably frequent basis. So I have a basis for comparison. They are definitely not being beaten by larger players. At least not at this stage. Their software is top notch compared to the mish-mash of home grown and Car Play on other vehicles. And the implementation of AutoSteer (free cut down version of self driving) is far superior to what I've seen in other cars. I can see other automakers catching up in 2-3 years, but that is not the case right now.

pkulak 3y ago
I’ve personally enjoyed auto steer on every car I’ve driven not a Tesla. Some let you keep your hands off the wheel, and none of them phantom break every couple hundred miles, which is the ultimate deal breaker.
- flutas 3y ago
  > I’ve personally enjoyed auto steer on every car I’ve driven not a Tesla. Some let you keep your hands off the wheel, and none of them phantom break every couple hundred miles, which is the ultimate deal breaker. I'm actually curious what systems you're using. I have very limited experience, I have a M3 and a 21 Corolla with Toyota's version. My M3 has never once just given up on the lanes and stopped steering, but it's a very common occurrence on the Toyota. It just gives up and suddenly you're back to controlling it with no real rhyme or reason to it that I can find.
  - pkulak 3y ago
    Oh, yeah, that doesn’t bother me either. When the lanes get really faint and I have to drive for a bit, that’s fine. I guess it comes down to preference. I see it as assistance. I want a helper who maybe can’t do it all, but never fucks up.
    - flutas 3y ago
      I don't mind it happening, after all they are just assistants like you said, it's just the zero warning "I give up" that it seems to have. At least with Tesla's version it attempts to keep going while screaming at you to take over. The Toyota version just gives a small beep and by the time you figure out what the beep was it's given up completely and if you were unprepared (having your hands off the wheel[bad thing to do anyways, but a lot of people do it], only slightly following the road) you may be sliding into an adjacent lane.
  - xeromal 3y ago
    When you say M3, do you mean the BMW M3 or Tesla Model 3?
  - vel0city 3y ago
    I've used Hyundai's adaptive cruse control on an older model. It doesn't do anything with the steering wheel, but it beeps when you leave the lane without using a turn signal. As far as tracking the speed of the cars in front of you and coming to a complete stop in traffic, it works great. I've never had a phantom braking incident with many thousands of miles driven on that mode. But that's not auto-steering at all. I've used Blue Cruise a good bit which supports hands-off modes. This system works very well on highways hands-free. It seems to want me to put my hands back on the wheel when approaching the toll gantries and goes back to hands-free a few seconds after the toll gantry, but otherwise I've been able to go well over 100 miles at a time without touching the wheel or brakes. I've never had any kind of phantom braking situation or slow downs, it works well in stop and go traffic, and has overall been a great experience.
HWR_14 3y ago
I've never seen "software" (by which I assume you mean the consumer facing stuff in the cabin) that made me want to buy a car. Yes, I've seen Tesla's. It looks fine. So does a radio with 6 buttons. If I want anything, I have a cellphone. It's impossible to compete with "put that UX through better speakers/mic/screen"
- MostlyStable 3y ago
  So much this. I was ecstatic to hear the articles a few months ago saying that car manufacturers are going back to buttons. I prefer my car to have essentially no software. It needs to have a modestly sized screen and then whatever is necessary to display my navigation app and media app from my phone. Climate control and media control should both be physical buttons. I recently bought an EV and a secondary concern (as in, not one of the primary concerns of size, range, charging speed, and price), was the control interface. I went with a model that has nearly all physical controls. Had the choice between otherwise equivalent vehicles been available, I'd have paid a non-trivial sum to get a button interface option. From my Tesla-owning friends, I hear that their software is the "best", which seems to be like being the tallest dwarf. I literally can't imagine a pure software/touch interface being better than a physical button interface for the most important driving controls.
kanbara 3y ago
i only ever want CarPlay. i want my own apps that i already have, my own settings, integration into my calendar without leaking data to some random third party. on my smart tv i use apple tv, and never their own ui. i trust apple for privacy and dont want to log in or configure 20 apps on my car. i want my iPhone and its features, period.
- starik36 3y ago
  CarPlay is fine. The disconnect is that for all car related functionality, you have to break out from it to go back to the car UI.

pkulak 3y ago

I’ve personally enjoyed auto steer on every car I’ve driven not a Tesla. Some let you keep your hands off the wheel, and none of them phantom break every couple hundred miles, which is the ultimate deal breaker.

flutas 3y ago
> I’ve personally enjoyed auto steer on every car I’ve driven not a Tesla. Some let you keep your hands off the wheel, and none of them phantom break every couple hundred miles, which is the ultimate deal breaker. I'm actually curious what systems you're using. I have very limited experience, I have a M3 and a 21 Corolla with Toyota's version. My M3 has never once just given up on the lanes and stopped steering, but it's a very common occurrence on the Toyota. It just gives up and suddenly you're back to controlling it with no real rhyme or reason to it that I can find.
- pkulak 3y ago
  Oh, yeah, that doesn’t bother me either. When the lanes get really faint and I have to drive for a bit, that’s fine. I guess it comes down to preference. I see it as assistance. I want a helper who maybe can’t do it all, but never fucks up.
  - flutas 3y ago
    I don't mind it happening, after all they are just assistants like you said, it's just the zero warning "I give up" that it seems to have. At least with Tesla's version it attempts to keep going while screaming at you to take over. The Toyota version just gives a small beep and by the time you figure out what the beep was it's given up completely and if you were unprepared (having your hands off the wheel[bad thing to do anyways, but a lot of people do it], only slightly following the road) you may be sliding into an adjacent lane.
- xeromal 3y ago
  When you say M3, do you mean the BMW M3 or Tesla Model 3?
- vel0city 3y ago
  I've used Hyundai's adaptive cruse control on an older model. It doesn't do anything with the steering wheel, but it beeps when you leave the lane without using a turn signal. As far as tracking the speed of the cars in front of you and coming to a complete stop in traffic, it works great. I've never had a phantom braking incident with many thousands of miles driven on that mode. But that's not auto-steering at all. I've used Blue Cruise a good bit which supports hands-off modes. This system works very well on highways hands-free. It seems to want me to put my hands back on the wheel when approaching the toll gantries and goes back to hands-free a few seconds after the toll gantry, but otherwise I've been able to go well over 100 miles at a time without touching the wheel or brakes. I've never had any kind of phantom braking situation or slow downs, it works well in stop and go traffic, and has overall been a great experience.

HWR_14 3y ago

I've never seen "software" (by which I assume you mean the consumer facing stuff in the cabin) that made me want to buy a car. Yes, I've seen Tesla's. It looks fine. So does a radio with 6 buttons. If I want anything, I have a cellphone. It's impossible to compete with "put that UX through better speakers/mic/screen"

MostlyStable 3y ago
So much this. I was ecstatic to hear the articles a few months ago saying that car manufacturers are going back to buttons. I prefer my car to have essentially no software. It needs to have a modestly sized screen and then whatever is necessary to display my navigation app and media app from my phone. Climate control and media control should both be physical buttons. I recently bought an EV and a secondary concern (as in, not one of the primary concerns of size, range, charging speed, and price), was the control interface. I went with a model that has nearly all physical controls. Had the choice between otherwise equivalent vehicles been available, I'd have paid a non-trivial sum to get a button interface option. From my Tesla-owning friends, I hear that their software is the "best", which seems to be like being the tallest dwarf. I literally can't imagine a pure software/touch interface being better than a physical button interface for the most important driving controls.

kanbara 3y ago

i only ever want CarPlay. i want my own apps that i already have, my own settings, integration into my calendar without leaking data to some random third party. on my smart tv i use apple tv, and never their own ui. i trust apple for privacy and dont want to log in or configure 20 apps on my car. i want my iPhone and its features, period.

starik36 3y ago
CarPlay is fine. The disconnect is that for all car related functionality, you have to break out from it to go back to the car UI.