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Old 13th November 2019, 03:34 PM
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Default 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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The First 20 Audis:

2001 D2 4.2 QS Silver, 1997 D2 S8 Silver, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2002 D2 S8 Dolphin Grey,
2003 C5 RS6 Blue, 1998 D2 S8 Black, 2000 D2 4.2 QS/S8 Ming Blue, 2003 D3 4.2 Ming Blue,
2005 B7 S4 Blue, 2006 D3 3.0 Tdi Black, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2003 D3 4.2 LPG Crystal Blue,
2000 D2 S8 Silver, 2007 3.0 Tdi Q7 Black, 2009 B8 S4 Black, 1998 D2 S8 Agate Grey,
2006 D3 4.2 Tdi Blue, 2006 D3 S8, 2007 Q7 3.0 Tdi, 2006 C6 S6,

The Second 20 Audis:

2011 A7 Sline, 2001 A2 1.4 Tdi Black, 2002 A2 1.4 Tdi Silver, 2006 A8 4.2 Tdi Blue,
2007 4.2 Tdi Q7, 2006 S4 Cab Silver, 2010 RS6 Saloon Black , 2007 TT Roadster,
2010 A8 D4 4.2 Silver, 2006 C6 A6 2.7 Tdi Quattro, 2000 D2 4.2 QS/S8 Ming Blue (again), 2008 Q7 4.2 Black,
2009 C6 RS6 Saloon Daytona Grey, 2001 Fully Loaded A2 Tdi, 2006 Avant S6 Black, 2007 VW Caravelle Exec Black (almost an Audi)
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2001 A2 1.4 Tdi Black, 2007 4.2 FSi Q7 ABT Blue, 2016 S5 Coupe Launch model, 2004 S4 B6 Cabriolet, 2016 Q7 Sline White, 2006 Q7 4.2 FSi Black, 2012 Q7 Sline+ 4.2Tdi White, 2008 Blue Audi S8

Everything Else

1989 Subaru Justy, 1986 Vauxhall Cartlton 2.0 GL, 1985 Vauxhall Carlton 2.2 CDi, 1987 Ford Sierra XR4x4, 1983 Vauxhall Senator, 1985 Vauxhall Senator 3.0i, 1997 Polo Saloon, 1997 Peugeot 306 1.9 TDi, Ford Sierra Sapphire 2000E, 1990 Subaru Justy, 2000 Subaru Impreza, 2000 Subaru Impreza RB5, 1993 Range Rover LSE, 2005 VW Bora, 2003 Skoda Superb, 2003 VW Passat V6 4 Motion, 1996 Peugeot 106, 2000 Range Rover 4.0, 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance
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Old 13th November 2019, 04:50 PM
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homer simpson homer simpson is offline
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I have it on my D3 and have driven a D5 with it. The difference is immense, the D5 is much smoother and it seems more competent. I haven't driven the D4 but it seems an improvement to what is posted above.

EDIT: I should add that the cameras are spot on, picking up pedestrians on the pavement about to cross, road signs etc. I did have a false alert when the vehicle applied the brakes because a pedestrian was about to cross the road - well spotted I think. It also slowed down when the speed limit reduced although I thnk all/most of these 'driver aids' can be turned off
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Last edited by homer simpson; 13th November 2019 at 06:22 PM.
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Old 13th November 2019, 06:03 PM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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It's interesting to compare all that with my now almost-four-years-old Volvo (how time flies!).
That definitely has ACC that works seamlessly from 0 to maximum speed and it cuts out after a few seconds at rest but just keeps the brakes on so doesn't creep. I think if you just left it like that it would eventually shout at the driver to take some action. If a jam moves off after after a delay you can either tickle the accelerator pedal or push the resume button.

I think it's just a single radar but there's definitely some integration with the camera (reads road signs etc.) parking sensors and blind-spot sensors. It also senses pedestrians and cyclists (not sure how) but I think that's only at lower (non-motorway) speeds. It's not brilliant at working out what to do when a vehicle pulls into the gap between you and whatever you're following though.

The lane warning/control (can be switched off separately) is fairly gentle and isn't designed to keep you in lane, though it has a go and works on gentler curves. And if you try to pull sideways into a vehicle in your blind spot it gets pretty firm!

I suspect that it actually has a bunch of separate systems with some information-sharing from sensors.
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Old 13th November 2019, 08:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IT View Post
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've never been one for using cruise control, which is somewhat ironic considering I retrofitted ACC to the D3 S8, but this feature you mention on the Tesla is a brilliant idea.
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Old 13th November 2019, 11:42 PM
H-M3 H-M3 is offline
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Is this feature worth paying for if one drives mainly city?
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Old 13th November 2019, 11:51 PM
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Originally Posted by H-M3 View Post
Is this feature worth paying for if one drives mainly city?
Which one - "standard" or full self driving (FSD)? Teslas come with the former as standard (pretty much...), and the latter (the £5800 option) isn't active yet.

Standard AP is pretty amazing anyway if you do mostly motorway miles, but much less useful in and around town - but still handy for reading the paper whilst in traffic queues .

Who knows with FSD? - we'll have to wait and see But in the meantime, this will give you an idea of it in operation: https://youtu.be/tlThdr3O5Qo
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Old 14th November 2019, 12:06 AM
H-M3 H-M3 is offline
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Lol. I was talking of the Audi version as cannot afford Tesla’s
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