AutoPilot Test

For a year or longer, I've been testing AP on poorly marked county roads that lead to my house.

AP will not engage on roads without center lines.  To keep AP engaged on my route, I run a stop sign, going straight where the well marked Farm to Market road turns right.

In the past, AP would go several blocks past the first stop sign, make a slight left following the road but then attempt to go into a gravel drive way.  With updates, it learned to get past that hazard.  Then, a block later, there is a slight right turn at the second stop sign.  For a while, it was unable to negotiate that turn.  Then, about 1/4 mile farther, the main paved road turns slightly left and a gravel road makes a 90 deg turn to the right.  That also confused it for a period.  In all previous tests, I would have to abort with oncoming traffic; it tended to stay in the middle of the road.

A few days ago, I tested and found it would take that route all the way to my house.   If you watch the videos, you will see it even allowing oncoming traffic to pass.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V2mvRZzsZJHMBKEf7

In the first clip, I have to go out from town and turn around in order to approach the first stop sign from the correct direction.  As I approached that stop sign, I engaged AP and the car drove with no input from me to my driveway where I disengaged AP in order to turn into the driveway.

The second clip begins with running the stop sign.  The formerly troublesome driveway passes on the right at about 50 seconds.

The third clip begins with running the second stop sign and negotiating the right turn.

The 4th clip has some oncoming traffic at about 25 seconds followed by the formerly troublesome gravel road intersection.

The 5th clip has me taking over from AP and turning into my driveway.

Throughout, the speed was 18 mph, the slowest allowed by AP.  Next time, perhaps I'll bump it up a little faster.

For those that need additional illumination: The Tesla AutoPilot software has improved tremendously over the past year or two.  The software updates magically appear on the car with no pain to the owner.  On well marked roads, the car very nearly drives with no operator intervention needed.  The exception is that it does not recognize stop signs or signal lights; so the operator must remain alert.  It will not yet follow a predetermined route; the operator drives down the road and then enables AP.  The exception is that the car will follow a predetermined route on freeways; negotiating interchanges.  The car follows the road, slows for leading slower traffic, performs emergency braking and avoidance when some unexpected obstruction appears.

OH! The video was provided by DashCam, a new feature that appeard a few months ago via a software update.  No additional hardware was required.  No visit to a dealer.  As part of the sensor suite that allows the car to drive itself are a number of video cameras.  The Tesla software developers decided to allow recording of three of those cameras.  My earlier tests were from the time before DashCam was enabled.

A few days later: I tested the route again at slightly higher speeds.  I continued to run the stop signs at 18 mph but used 20-25 mph elsewhere.  Success.