A8 Parts Forum - Audi Adaptive Cruise / Lane assist vs Tesla Autopilot

What a title....

Well, i've spent 6 weeks and 3000 miles forming an honest opinion, and here we go.....

Coming from Audi, to Tesla was quite different. Having spent a decade getting used to all the quirks of Audi's Adaptive cruise, through a number of revisions, it has taken me right back to the beginning to get me to trust Teslas ways of doing things.

And it is different. Very different.

First of all, lets position the Audi tech:

Adaptive Cruise Control (V1 as I call it) from 2003 -> 2006/2007
Went from 20mph to 120mph
Followed the object in front
Didn't work below 20 mph
Didn't handle stationary objects
Used a single radar in the lower front bumper

and actually, for motorway driving, worked really well.
It was predictable and consistent. A few annoying things, like it would happily undertake slower cars in rightmost lanes, and if a car pulled in in front of you it would slam on the brakes quite suddenly. It also left a fairly large gap to the car it was following which some found frustrating.

V2 went from around 2007 to 2010 and had a setting for comfort/normal/dynamic that allowed it to vary the sharpness that it responded to events in front. It was a welcomed addition. On the Q7 only, the ACC would go all the way down to 0 mph, presumably as it was mounted higher up and could see better. ?

V3 was A8 D4, A6 C7 etc onwards. Big improvements. Moved from a single radar to dual radars each side plus a rear view mirror level camera that it used to stitch together a picture of what was happening. It no longer undertook cars in the faster lanes, and went from 0 mph to 155 mph (if you dared!). It had a limited amount of time that it would wait at a standstill though before it would turn ACC off, and start rolling forward on the auto box. Quite annoying I found.

This version also comes with the first real lane assist where the car will steer for you. It works well on motorways but insists on you holding the wheel and making inputs so it doesn't switch off after about 20 seconds. Traffic Jam assist is basically ACC + Lane assist below 37 mph and it far more tolerant of you not really wiggling the steering wheel much. In my experience traffic jam assist is nothing more, nothing less.

I cant comment on the D5 ACC as I've never used it. I assume and hope, it is better still.

So, to Tesla.

I found their mix of terminology confusing to start with, but I think I have it sussed now. 'Autopilot' is standard on the Model 3, free, comes with it, for no extra cost. Something Audi could learn a lesson from. Autopilot includes all the hardware for Adaptive Cruise and Lane assist equivalents. It can speed up, slow down and steer the car a lot like Audi. Did I mention it was free, and included on every car ?

'Full Self Driving' however, is a £5800 software add on (can be purchased later) that adds self parking, more advanced self driving and summon to the bag of tricks. I can't rabbit on about how awesome it is though as I can't see the value in it, so didn't buy it, so still can't see the value in it..... Bit of a catch 22 there Tesla.. I do hope one day they do some sort of over the air 30 day trial, or see sense and drop the price to something vaguely sensible.

Anyway, To the point.

Teslas Autopilot works quite differently to Audi V1, 2 and 3. Where Audi was using simple radar to follow the lump of whatever in front, Tesla uses many cameras and radar to build up a quite accurate picture of its surroundings. It knows not only what cars are where, but what are cars, vans, trucks, bicycles, buses and even people. It also knows when a car moves between lanes, for example pulling in front of you - so doesn't slam on like a major accident waiting to happen, but backs off and remakes the distance gap gently. Its 'white line' awareness of the edge of the road is light years ahead of Audi. What it sees is constantly drawn on the screen in front of you, and its ability to see the edge of the road, be it grass verge, white line or pavement, in daylight or dark is really quite impressive. Audi worked well on the motorway, but A roads had limited success.

When engaged, Autosteer is quite firm. Almost worryingly firm at first. Where Audi gently nudges you when you step out of line, Tesla literally takes over. It is a concious effort to wrestle the steering wheel away if you feel you need to. But, I rarely do.

Winding country roads it deals with mostly without issue, sometimes working with ACC to slow the car down a little if its a very tight bend. I had an instance the other night where a bus had stepped over the white line coming towards me, and my car made a definite side shift about 2 feet to the left to make extra room. This is part of the extra accident avoidance vavavoom that you get with a Tesla, you always have a copilot watching out for you...

On this - I do find the Tesla tends to sit bang smack in the middle of the lane, where Audi would let you drift where you liked. I prefer in busy traffic to hang left a little, further away from the white line for example. I'm getting used to it now though, but it takes some getting used to - every time I engage autosteer it quickly veers into the dead centre of the lane, takes you by surprise at first.

Last night, i got a new software update, where it can now recognise traffic cones - Tesla are actively working on how to automatically drive through roadworks and exception areas where simply following white lines won't work.

Overall, its impressive stuff. I'm a tech guy and an Audi guy, and stepping into the Tesla still feels like its a decade ahead of everything else..... and the fact that I keep getting s/w updates for it FOC means I get some new feature to play with every month or so. It really is very impressive......

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