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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

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).

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
Would you still be concerned in a situation where you were the only car on the road?
- tdees40 9y ago
  Yes, there are lots of complaints about it handling curves poorly, misreading overpasses as solid objects, etc. etc.
aerovistae 9y ago
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.
- kuschku 9y ago
  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.
  - eclipxe 9y ago
    This is not true at all. Tesla's do not use the car in front to switch lanes.
    - kuschku 9y ago
      It depends on what mode you set it to, but under some circumstances, it does.
      - eclipxe 9y ago
        No, it does not use the car in front of you to switch lanes.
      - pilif 9y ago
        What would these circumstances be? I have never seen my car do this.
        kuschku 9y ago
        When the Tesla can not reliably detect lanes (for example, due to too dense traffic), it starts to just follow whatever vehicle is in front, and determines the lane from that vehicles movement. This can lead to major issues, as mentioned.
        pilif 9y ago
        When it cannot reliably detect lanes, it disengages autosteering while making a very obvious warning sound that you cannot possibly miss.
mlindner 9y ago
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 9y ago

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

tdees40 9y ago
Yes, there are lots of complaints about it handling curves poorly, misreading overpasses as solid objects, etc. etc.

aerovistae 9y ago

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.

kuschku 9y ago
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.
- eclipxe 9y ago
  This is not true at all. Tesla's do not use the car in front to switch lanes.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    It depends on what mode you set it to, but under some circumstances, it does.
    - eclipxe 9y ago
      No, it does not use the car in front of you to switch lanes.
    - pilif 9y ago
      What would these circumstances be? I have never seen my car do this.
      - kuschku 9y ago
        When the Tesla can not reliably detect lanes (for example, due to too dense traffic), it starts to just follow whatever vehicle is in front, and determines the lane from that vehicles movement. This can lead to major issues, as mentioned.
        pilif 9y ago
        When it cannot reliably detect lanes, it disengages autosteering while making a very obvious warning sound that you cannot possibly miss.

mlindner 9y ago

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.