Autopilot Day and Night - 2016 Tesla Model X Long-Term Road Test

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Autopilot Day and Night - 2016 Tesla Model X Long-Term Road Test

Our long-term 2016 Tesla Model X has an extremely advanced adaptive cruise control system and even an Autopilot setting that allows for (nearly) hands-free driving. But how does it perform?

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kirkhilles1

Certainly, we aren't to the finish line yet and Tesla has much more room to grow. I'm hoping that over the next couple of years, the tech evolves and grows and gains polish. I wish the system was available as an option on major manufacturers. I'd spend up to $2500 (even on a $20,000 car) to get that option if it were the true Tesla system with OTA updates and such. Nobody else (except MAYBE Mercedes, but haven't seen it in action) seems to be close right now.

schen72

I guess it makes sense that at night the cameras cannot see the lane markings well. Maybe they need to add night vision capability to better see the markings.

handbrake

I'm a HUGE fan of Autopilot on my P85D, but only on one type of road. I drive I5 from SF to LA fairly often and on this trip, it really helps to keep me fresh during hours of monotonous, nearly straight roads at roughly the same speed.

For all other purposes, it's a gimmick. But for long highway trips on roads like I5, it's amazing.

miata52

I'm curious how Autopilot works in rain or snow.

allthingshonda

Autopilot seems to work best with other cars around it. Tesla doesn't use any new groundbreaking technology to make autopilot work. It uses the same forward based camera, radar and ultrasonic sensors that's on numerous other cars. Tesla just has the guts to use them all together for self driving without fearing lawsuits.

craigo7

I've recently seen google research vehicles here in Texas driving at night and in the rain. They appear to be much more cautious.

stever

Austin?

Mr_Shiftright

I don't think the tech will ever be "finished". The fully autonomous car of the future is going to remain in the future for quite some time. But I bet the adaptive cruise control will get better.

desmolicious

"Clearly, I wanted to test it out for myself. So, with four passengers ..."

Nice, if it fails I'm not gonna go out alone, screaming. I'm gonna make sure I'm taking others down with me..

;P

Mr_Shiftright

That Tesla will blow right through a red light on autopilot if there's no car stopping in front of you. Bear that in mind.

k5ing

Since when was the Tesla supposed to be spotting pedestrians or curbs except in summon or autopark mode? How about a picture of how the lines on that road at night so we can see what kind of markings it has. Also, the following distance numbers don't refer to car lengths. It's a variable number based on speed more than anything else. From every Tesla owner I've talk to, however, never recommend anything lower than a 3 for highway use. 2 is usually too close and 1 is waaay to close.