What Tesla drivers really think about Autopilot?
This summer more than 2000 Tesla drivers around the world responded on my first unofficial edition of the Tesla Autopilot Global Quickscan 2019. The final extended report is now available with all results, conclusions, rich graphics and photos including an overview of levels and waves of autonomous driving plus all versions of autopilot (directly to report on Apple Books: click here).
Photo: cover of the final report of the 2019 edition with a photo of my Model 3 in Krakow during a roadtrip through Holland, Germany and Poland.
Key questions of the survey: are Tesla drivers really satisfied with the current autopilot knowing that it is far from perfect yet and attention by the driver is still needed? How satisfied are Tesla-drivers? And why? What are the strengths and weaknesses? What do Tesla-drivers find most irritating? What are the best autopilot tips & tricks? What new autopilot feature is the most desirable one?
Main results
- The huge majority of Tesla drivers is very satisfied with their current autopilot because they find driving less tiresome while keeping the car in lane and driving during rush hours.
- Most irritating issue for Tesla drivers is sudden braking while mandatory hands-on-the-wheel and changing lanes are important weaknesses.
- Most wanted new features are recognizing and anticipating on traffic lights and signs. Many drivers also mentioned that improving the current features is the number one priority for Tesla.
- A total of 2010 respondents: 1577 Tesla drivers from around the world and 433 Dutch Tesla drivers responded on the Tesla global quick scan 2019. Extra: 693 relevant, critical and sometimes cynical and funny comments (see Appendices) resulted in a rich and lively end-report with a wealth of valuable information to the Tesla community, engineers and developers at Tesla and Elon Musk to develop and push autopilot further on the path towards full autonomous driving.
Satisfaction
More than three quarters of Tesla drivers globally are very satisfied with autopilot grading it from good to exceptional (76% of respondents), with Dutch Tesla drivers significantly lower (58%). This may be caused by frequently heavy traffic on Dutch highways causing less satisfied autopilot users (see their remarks in Appendix B of the final extended report, in Dutch language) who cannot overtake smoothly while using the autopilot lane changing option. Lane changing works perfectly with autopilot when traffic is normal or quiet.
Strengths & weaknesses
Autopilot it’s strongest point by far is that driving is less tiresome (43%) and more relaxed during rush hours (26%). Other strong points are more time to look at surrounding or put your sunglasses on (7%) and lanekeeping (6%) which makes driving even more relaxed and less tiresome. Weak points of autopilot mentioned by many are sudden braking (23% of all respondents), hands on wheel is mandatory (18%) and overtaking during busy traffic (15%).
Most irritating
Sudden braking - also called ghost braking or phantom braking - is the dominant most irritating aspect of autopilot experienced by the respondents (66% of global respondents, 74% of Dutch respondents). Problems with lane keeping and changing lanes are the no2 & 3 irritating aspect. Up to 98 respondents gave extra comments on what exactly they find irritating about autopilot.
Best tips & tricks
Many respondents voted as their best autopilot tips & tricks: “see autopilot as an extra tool, don’t trust on it too much as if it can do anything” (38% of global respondents, 41% of Dutch respondents). Second best vote: “autopilot always on and share data with Tesla, so they can improve autopilot” (23% of global respondents, 11% of Dutch respondents). All tips & tricks including 31 comments by respondents can be found in the final report.
Most wanted new features
Recognizing and anticipating on traffic lights (33%) and traffic signs (22%) are among the most wanted new features by global respondents. A significant answer about their most wanted new feature by 31% of global respondents was: “Nothing, first improve strongly all current features”. Respondents added 66 comments to their votes on most wanted new features.
Closing remarks
Tesla Autopilot Global Quickscan 2019 was held from end of June till beginning of August 2019 initiated via my LinkedIn article about Tesla's dominant market position in the growing autonomous vehicle (AV) market.
A report has also been provided to Elon Musk. Participants of the quick scan who requested the report have received a link via e-mail to download the pdf (password: tolipotua). Directly to final report on Apple Books: click here.
Owner @SeJo IT
4yI like the SWOT analysis ;)
Project Vice President FF Expansion STJ, China
4yGreat report and great work! Thanks Harold 👍👍
Strategy & Market Management Leader Chassis Structure at ZF Group
4yThank you for the survey and sharing the result. I am one of the Dutch repliers ;) A point of improvement; lower rate of satisfaction at Dutch drivers is maybe not only due to the dense traffic only as there are other parts of the world in which similar traffic situations appear. I think there are 2 other points that can attribute to lower satisfaction levels by Dutch and maybe even whole of Europe (that is something to look into). (1) The roads in the Netherlands and in the whole of Europe are more narrow than in the majority of North America, which means that Autopilot needs to navigate through traffic with smaller distances on the sides. (2) European legislation is way more restrictive for driver assistance and autonomous driving systems, which cripples the system and its capabilities.
Data Quality / Data Governance Analyst
4yBut all in all, I love my Red Zeppelin! And Tesla is doing a fantastic job. Keep the updates coming.
Data Quality / Data Governance Analyst
4yAnother request to Tesla: display elapsed and remaining time on the song that’s playing, e.g., Apple Music.