[tdees40]

I just ordered a Model S with Autopilot, and as I've been reading the comments on the various Tesla forums, I'm not sure I'm ever going to use it. Some of the stories are honestly terrifying (sudden deceleration on the highway, swerving into other lanes, etc).

[aerovistae]

Absolutely do not use it.

I am one of the biggest Tesla fans out there. I fucking love the company. But Autopilot in its current form is nothing short of dangerous.

I took a test drive in a Model S a couple months ago and enabled Autopilot at the Tesla rep's encouragement while on a straight stretch of route 90 near Boston. We were going 70mph, a safe speed.

The car came to a point where the highway curved, and a slight deceleration is required to navigate the curve correctly.

Little did I know, Autopilot stays at the speed you set and does not alter it as the environment requires, short of not hitting the car in front of you. So of course it tried to take the curve at 70mph and swung out of the lane almost instantly, prompting immediate corrective action from me to avoid a serious accident.

I couldn't believe the Tesla rep hadn't made this clear. I was required to have my hands on the wheel, but the position of my hands doesn't ensure that I'm mentally ready for egregious errors on the car's part and prepared to correct them at a split second's notice at all times.

Operational question mark aside, as an investor I was also astonished that the software was still in such a rudimentary state that it didn't know to slow down on curves. I found this troubling. It was scarcely more advanced than cruise control, to be honest.

It's the one place where I think Elon is really gambling with people's lives as well as his company's credibility, the former being an infinitely worse transgression than the latter.

[timdorr]

That's not true at all. AP (at least HW2 AP in my car) does definitely slow down for curves. This is more apparent on surface roads, which have more extreme curves. My car will slow down ~15MPH on one curve, whereas I would only slow myself ~5MPH. It's definitely a part of the system.

[Cshelton]

Yeah, this is 100% false. I've owned a Tesla for over a year. I take several curves on a daily basis with the speed set to around 82 mph. Going into the curve, the car slows down to about 65 mph, which is the speed every other car on the road takes that curve. It's even stated in the AP documentation and release notes. Go ask other Tesla owners as well. I've never heard of a Tesla being "swung" out of a lane on a curve.

Tesla uses a combination of the visual lanes, cars in front, and an accelerometer, to determine the curve and how much it needs to slow down.

Other than a freak situation last year (not on a curve, it was the hill crest with the white truck crossing the highway), every SINGLE accident has been shown to be the drivers fault with autopilot disengaged. Not a single accident of what you described has happened.

[kuschku]

It gets worse, if your Tesla is following a car in front of you, and they switch lanes, but you can’t switch lanes because another car is coming from behind in that lane, the Autopilot will switch nonetheless.

This almost killed a tester from the German federal motor vehicle approval agency. Their overall report is devastating, and shows the Tesla autopilot is little more than a glorified cruise control, marketed in a very deceptive way.

[rconti]

Sounds like the issue was the steering input, not the speed. I call BS on there being a single non-construction stretch of I-90 you can't take at 70mph in a Model S. Hell, the true speed is probably much closer to 110.

Normally I'd call the issue "the driver", but since the car was automated, it was an input failure, not a curve that couldn't be negotiated at that speed.

[johansch]

Elon's goal is to get humanity to another planet. The Tesla thing is just a way to get money to do that. I thought this stuff was commonly known?

I do agree with his goal. And maybe its worth some percentage of Tesla buyer's lives? Let's not talk too much about this, okay?

[mlindner]

You're getting a lot of naysayers here who take one experience and extrapolate it to mean everyone. There are a lot of Tesla drivers out there who use it every day to and from work. I suggest you try using and evaluating the system yourself.

[ghostbrainalpha]

Would you still be concerned in a situation where you were the only car on the road?

[tdees40]

Yes, there are lots of complaints about it handling curves poorly, misreading overpasses as solid objects, etc. etc.