Quoted from goatdan:I disagree with this slightly. I think that anyone who drives a long distance on auto pilot who understands the limitations of the system quickly sees it's advantages.
I have avoided minimally two accidents because I had auto pilot on, and it allowed me to check my surroundings without feeling like I might have something pop up in front of me and cause a big issue. In one case, I was on two lane road that merged to one, and I saw a car coming up in the lane beside me in my rear view mirror. Since I was on autopilot and I knew that it was going to pay attention to where the wheel should be going forward, I was able to turn and look directly at the car which then decided to try merging directly into my left side (they were almost parallel with me). Autopilot allowed me to visually look at something that I wouldn't have otherwise done, and take corrective action to get out of the situation.
But, if you are someone who puts it on and then reads a book or watches a video or something, you're not using it right. Right now, it definitely has certain limits, including some that I think should be easier to fix than they apparently are like my car phantom brakes under an interchange when the geo-fencing worries the car is on the road above what I'm on where the speed has to be reduced for the curve, so I'll drop from 63 to 40 and then a few seconds later get back to 63 thanks to that. If you're aware of the limits and where / why it has issues, it is easy to correct them. For me, I just now drive with my foot on the "go" pedal there, and it works. It has gotten significantly better, I think.
As much as I like autopilot, and as much as I agree with the company that they needed to redefine what it was to make the entry level cheaper for new car buyers, I agree they did this terribly stupidly.
I think they should have made three levels, AP, EAP, FSD.
AutoPilot would be just what it was it is, and could be tacked on for either $2k or $3k.
Enhanced AutoPilot would have Navigate on Autopilot, basic summon, etc - AKA the stuff that people who bought EAP have as part of that package. This would cost enough after regular AutoPilot to make it $5k to get to this level.
FSD should have additional things. Enhanced Summon, the Stop Light thing for autopilot (which sounds fascinating, awesome, and terrifying all at once), and more stuff like that. This could have been $3k then.
If they reduced the costs to make it so that no one was paying "less" than what they had before when they hadn't delivered ANYTHING for FSD yet, I would have no issue with it. If they delivered FSD features and then reduced the price, no issues. And I don't feel like anyone who got FSD was expecting full autonomy before they reduced it, but they were fairly expecting *something*.
Do that pricing for a year and then lower it perhaps, but it was stupid. AND, I didn't have FSD, and I still felt it was dumb as could be.