OPINION: My Tesla now drives itself, sort of
Apr. 24—I have had a few nerve-racking moments with my Tesla in its new self-drive mode, and I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable shutting my eyes and letting it take over completely.
One of its more startling moves occurred recently, after a light turned green, when the Tesla quickly accelerated and made a left turn, scooting in front of an oncoming car ― one with the right of way ― that was proceeding into the intersection.
Phew, we made it. But I gripped the wheel a bit, even as the gutsy car kept driving home, steering itself.
Indeed, Tesla, as it now rolls out the newest, most competent version of its self-driving software, giving owners like me a 30-day free trial, emphasizes that it is not autonomous driving.
You have to keep at least a light hand on the wheel and pay attention to the road for the car to continue in self-drive mode. It certainly will not let you text on your phone while it drives.
And I believe that need for supervision is the undoing of this system, at least until it gets better.
Who wants to watch over someone else's bad driving habits all the time. After all, many of us have spouses for that.
I think I'd rather just drive myself and be in control, not supervising.
The Tesla did pretty well when I instructed it to take me to Home Depot, but it ended up leaving me at the front door, not at a parking space, and I took over and hit the brakes when someone walked in front of the car, pushing a shopping cart. I wasn't taking chances.
For its launch of the newest version of its software system, Tesla dropped prices, from $12,000 for permanent use, to $8,000. You can also simply lease the system monthly, and that price just dropped from $199 to $99.
I'm not ready to pay anything, once my free trial ends, because, well, I'd rather drive than be driven by a software system that I have to worry about and monitor.
Besides, I still remember when you could lease a new compact car for not much more than $99 a month.
Sometimes the self-driving system just gives up and turns itself off, like when it gets to a confusing intersection. It still hasn't figured out how to make the last turn on my drive home, getting confused by the narrow road I live on.
It also occasionally does what I've heard others call ghost braking, slowing way down in moving traffic because it sees something ― who know's what ― in its way.
When it messes up or stops driving, a warning message comes up and asks the driver to push the microphone button and report what went wrong. I have never filed a report because, heck, how do I know why it failed?
I am not ready to adopt or pay for Tesla self driving in its current form.
But I will say that it's remarkable that it's come this far this quickly. You can see a world of self-driving cars on the near horizon when you see how well a Tesla can already perform on its own.
It's especially startling when all of a sudden it puts on the blinker and changes to a faster lane on the highway. It's not so good at getting out of the fast lane, though, when a faster car is approaching from the rear.
In general I'd say the Tesla is probably a safer and more cautious driver than I. It doesn't even get up to the speed limit, for instance, if it sees there is a red light ahead and it's going to have to stop anyway.
Sometimes, when it's passing through a congested area with parked cars, it cautiously drives very slowly.
Even not in self-driving mode, the car is safer than most, alerting drivers when they stray out of the lane or get too close to another car or fixed object.
The data obtained from all the self-driving trials going on now is going to improve the system faster.
With Tesla stock prices roller-coasting this week, it appears a lot of the future of the most valuable car maker in the world hinges on self-driving plans by its founder, the unlikeable Elon Musk. Next up: self-driving robocabs.
The Tesla doubters never believed that the company could produce the biggest selling car in the world, without an engine.
They were wrong.
I think they are wrong now to suggest fully-autonomous self-driving cars aren't right around the corner. The turn signal is already on.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
