My first week with Tesla AutoPilot

First of all, let me say right up front - this is definitely still BETA. Keeping your hands on the wheel while driving 75 mph is definitely a requirement.  My first impression is that AutoPilot is currently driving like a teenager--over correcting most of the time and correcting too often (not to mention occasionally scaring the crap out of me). However, automatic cruise control started this way last April and got better and better over a few months and I would honestly say now it is amazing. 

In its current state, these are the use cases I think make sense:

- "the reach". How many times without auto pilot are you trying to grab something, trying to open something, etc, and doing insane things like holding the wheel with your knee? A no-brainer. 

- LA traffic. Rush hour often means stop and go traffic between 0 and 40 miles an hour. This is a perfect use case for auto pilot - relax, listen to an audio blog, make a blue tooth call. 

- "the long drive". Even with your hands on the wheel, there is comfort in the car looking out for changes. I will say that there are times you feel like you are fighting it (i.e. It wants to be in the middle of the lane but as a motorcycle passes in between traffic you want to move to the left), and ironically it drives more accurately in the nighttime than the day (I think that has to do with the reflective lines being easier to distinguish vs. the washed out daytime view). 

I think we are 18 months or more from being able to comfortably drive at 75 mph on a highway without fear of the autopilot misreading the lines on the road and sounding the very alarming collision alert signal so ou can quickly take control. 

How a flat tire made me love #Tesla more

I had a slow leak in one of my tires over the weekend. Filled it up, but two days later it was back down to half of the right pressure. I was anticipating a nightmare challenge to get this fixed the day before a long trip to Europe because there is NO SPARE for the Tesla Model S. 

So I called Tesla Service. 

What an awesome experience. A tow truck came to my house and put a loaner tire on my car. Took 8 minutes of my time.  I never even heard of this concept. 

The next day I got a call from Tesla Roadside assistance. They are coming by the house again to swap the original rim and new tire for me at my house. All for $395. I never - and I mean NEVER - got out of my BMW Service Center that cheap. Ever. That price included the service on both ends and the amazing tires they use. My BMW tire were at least 50% more per tire, etc. 

Wow. If I wasn't already a fan...

Tesla 6.2 Update arrives

I was all excited this morning when I saw the update notification. I was hoping for autopilot as a delivered feature. 

Not nearly so exciting. Primarily an update around charging planning (ie to reduce range anxiety) and minor updates to improve blind spot warnings and automatic cruise control (and collision avoidance). 

Rebooting your Tesla

A few days ago I noticed a few anomalies with the music system. At first I thought it was an encode error on some of the TED talks I was listening to, but it started happening on other news and music as well. Then when I put something in the Nav system, it would say "navigation system initializing" but stay on that indefinitely. I had assumed when I turned off at night it would "reboot" when I started the next day - but that is apparently not the case. 

So today I had Will Google how to "reboot" the main screen and the driver screen. Holding the top right and left buttons on the steering wheel reboots the drivers console. Holding the right and left scroll buttons on the steering wheel reboots the main center screen. I of course pulled over to do this but am pretty sure it does not affect the main systems (have seen both reboot on their own while driving before). 

It seems to have solved the problems with the audio system and with the Nav system.  Problem solved!

How low can the Tesla battery go?

While not really on purpose, I had the opportunity tonight to run the Tesla down to 3% tonight (9 miles of range). The alerts in both the Nav system and the energy console were helpful. Was very happy to see the battery drain at the predicted rate in the Nav screen (taking your destination into account along with your average driving and the coming terrain / elevation). I did notice that it was very accurate on the last drive back from Las Vegas - much more so than before the v6.1 update. 

Now if I could just get the battery in my iPhone and Mac to behave the same at single digit percentages of remaining life....

Tesla Software Update 6.1

I still can't get over the concept that a car gets regular updates to improve features. Like Preston Tucker from 67 years ago, Elon Musk is definitely changing the industry for the better by delivering monumental changes. 

I got notified Friday evening that my Tesla P85 was ready for an update. It auto-scheduled it for 2.30am on my home wifi, but gave me the option to change. The update was estimated to be 100 mins long and the car would be inoperable during the update. 

The next morning I read the release notes. Took the car out for a spin to test the active cruise control and lane passing. The changes to park assist are helpful, but not yet as Elon described last November (ie parking for you). Active driving in a lane is also not yet ready. However, there were lots of improvements to the apps, media system, auto high beams, automatic climate preparation, etc. The "charging planner" is an intersting feature that would have been nice on my last trip to Vegas (CES in January, 2015). While I wouldn't say I had range anxiety with 3 super chargers along the 250-mile journey and a station in Vegas, it is nice to know that future trips have a charging planner butyl in to the Nav. 

Looking forward to full autopilot and real auto valet parking. 

The Culver City, CA SuperCharger and my first "real" commute in LA traffic

Much different than the Hawthorne SuperCharger experience. 12 bays in a mall parking lot just off the 405 near Culver City. Easy access. A short walk to the mall yielded lots of opportunities for coffee, food, etc. 

However, the best part of today was my first full traffic commute in LA traffic using the HOV lane. Probably saved me 30 minutes x2 today and the experience between the smooth ride and the seamless phone and Internet podcast integration made everything almost enjoyable.  And very productive. 

Loving this Tesla. Wednesday I am planning to drive it to CES.