Tesla autopilot and TSD rally

Can the GRM staff get ahold of a tesla with the autopilot option and see how it does in a TSD event? I'm thinking it could make for quite the entertaining article

Interesting question.

That is actually a really intriguing question... I'd read that article for sure!

This is WAY better than the cheat/hack I devised.

Using a time/distance chart book puts you out of the unprepared category, but nobody ever said anything about what you're listening to on the radio or CD player or MP3 player. Like, for instance, an MP3 that counts a number that would coincide with every tenth of a mile if you were traveling at 34mph. And track 23 on the disk would coincide with every tenth of a mile at 23mph. And so on.

"CAST 45 in three... two... one... HIT PLAY!"

I never actually tried it. Got tired of being tail-end Charlie in "Unprepared" running after the yahoos in the higher categories holding back and then treating the rest of the leg as a stage rally, dealing with yokels blockign the road and screaming at us to slow down (CAST 20, I am a robot driving exactly 20mph... how much slower can I drive?) or people shooting rifles at/over us and bullE36 M3 like that, so I stopped doing TSDs. But when I did TSDs, I did them with an equally nerdy engineer-type who would back-calculate all of the intersections and call out seconds before/after every turn. Got many 0s and 1s.

It would probably make for a GREAT article, in theory.

In practice, I'm unsure how well it would work. I spent 15+ hours with a friend of mine in a Model S P90D press car he was reviewing. He probably has more time behind the wheel of a Model S than most other autojournos, so the experience was very interesting.

Autopilot works wonderfully 95% of the time. The other 5% are where problems rear their ugly head. For example: it will stop at a red light if there is a car stopped ahead of you. If you're first to the light, the car will not stop. This actually makes sense after the fact, but it is something a new driver might not expect. I'd argue that the average Tesla driver is probably not the most attentive driver, let alone a "car guy."

If the road lines are not clearly designated, it will have a hard time staying in its lane. If there is an emergency pulloff, new lane opening up, etc. there is a chance that the Tesla will dart into that open lane. This, again, is dependent upon the type of lines or barriers that designate the lanes.

We allegedly cruised for extended periods of time at 90 MPH, the max for Autopilot. At these speeds, the processor seems to have a difficult time keeping up with the rest of the car. It will occasionally oscillate within the lane, definitely unnerving. Once, the sensor malfunctioned and it nearly T-Boned a stopped car in Manhattan.

The Supercharger systems and range computer seems to have quite a generous safety net. We rolled into Tesla of Brooklyn on something like 3% and the car functioned just fine. Initially, it was supposed to go into limp mode at 5%. The NYC-Detroit run is a perfect example of the safety net. If things work out in your favor, you can actually bypass the Hagerstown, MD Supercharger.

I'm disappointing that there wasn't more coverage of the autonomous track day at Thunderhill last weekend. IMO, Comma AI will be the one to watch in the future. Retrofitting "any" existing car for $1000? Brilliant.

What scares me most about Autopilot is that is it almost "too easy." Considering how easily people get distracted in traffic with today's vehicles, I am still quite leery of what the roads will look like when Level 2+ Autonomy becomes ubiquitous. The situations requiring human intervention are certainly ones that will result in an accident if left to the computer/car. That's not even touching on the security concerns with V2V communication and similar.

My key takeaway is this: after 24 hours spent in the Tesla, I was relieved to be dropped off at the airport in a vintage car. It made me realize that no matter what happens in the future, us auto enthusiasts will truly never die out.

I will say that Ludicrous Mode makes my Z06 feel like a slug in comparison. That alone is (almost) reason to buy one.