A difficult experience with Autopilot in the mountains of Canada
driverlessratings.com
driverlessratings.com
I'd also add that these roads are scary in the best conditions.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_99
https://www.tranbc.ca/2015/09/10/bc-road-trip-time-machine-h...
(I was in Whistler at the time that rockslide happened.)
That, though, is due to intentionally deceitful branding.
So Tesla is not deceiving anyone.
Which is not at all how popular culture shows it, and thus not what people assume when they hear "autopilot".
> Autopilot does not fly the plane from JFK to LAX, it only maintains speed, altitude and heading.
There are autopilots which can do everything but taxiing and takeoff[0].
> So Tesla is not deceiving anyone.
Tesla is not deceiving actual pilots of airplanes large enough to have an autopilot old enough to only support stable flight maintenance. I'm sure that's great for all 10 of them.
Meanwhile, in the actual world there have been examples too numerous to count of people who pretty much expect the car to drive itself. Which I expect is exactly what the people who picked the term wanted: make it seem magic for the sales, but be technically correct enough that it covers your ass (and you can blame the driver) when it invariably fucks up.
Pilots must be trained to the capabilities and limits of autopilot in airplains before they can use it. They wouldn't be confused to the capability of flight instruments by their branding.
The regular person not only thinks autopilot is a magic make-the-plane-go computer, they also think the Tesla Autopilot is different in class than the same featureset with a boring moniker.
Enhanced Autopilot
Enhanced Autopilot adds these new capabilities to the Tesla Autopilot driving experience. Your Tesla will match speed to traffic conditions, keep within a lane, automatically change lanes without requiring driver input, transition from one freeway to another, exit the freeway when your destination is near, self-park when near a parking spot and be summoned to and from your garage.
Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot software has begun rolling out and features will continue to be introduced as validation is completed, subject to regulatory approval.
> To me, that says cruise control++
Here's an idea: call it "cruise control++", or call it "drive assistance", or call it anything which clearly spells out that it doesn't drive on its own.
AKA more or less every other car brand does.
I used to ride it several times a week on my vfr. The real rollercoaster starts north of whistler: the dirty dusty duffy lake road.
Small world! I've ridden that very same road on my VFR several times: http://www.jbarham.com/photo/lillooet (although last time I did that was probably 2004)
This is here already. E.g. pretty much every VW can be ordered with it.
Autopilot is fantastic for that trip between UW and turning onto CA1 where BC99 intersects it. From there up to Lions Bay and from the far side of Lions Bay[0] to Squamish I keep the car in self drive after a few too many attempted suicides by Eddie[1]. It's not that there aren't guard rails, it's just that it really winds about as it hugs the cliff face. For most of that trip Autopilot generally doesn't want to engage -- it knows better when it can't predict the lane boundary far enough into the future. Past Squamish it really depends on conditions. My trip up this Saturday morning was downright boring and autopilot handled the whole thing. On other trips at night the road has essentially been one solid white surface where even humans avoid each other by treating it as one very wide lane in each direction and maintaining lots of clearance.
[0]: Lions Bay has a 60kph speed limit; autopilot can generally handle it fine, regardless of conditions, although the wide variance in prevailing traffic speed makes this among the most dangerous parts of the trip. I often wonder how the accident and injury statistics for Lions Bay compare to the rest of Sea to Sky.
[1]: My Tesla is named Edison's Lament. Yes, you name your car. Yes, I enjoy this feature.
I find (like most people), that I don't get carsick when driving a car myself, but tend to get it as a passenger. With autopilot you're not really driving, but if you have your hands on the wheel, you sort of are driving.
As a driver you may be that bit more alert with a road to concentrate on, as a passenger you might just be not able to fence off the symptoms - feeling sick, failing vision etc.
The reason I say this is that a Tesla has the best air-con, the auto-pilot and no emissions, so 'sickness' could be nothing to do with 'motion sickness'.
My buddy tried it and said it worked just fine - on the winding road before you get to Squamish.
I guess my anecdote is just as invalid/valid as the author’s.