so I got a little treat in the mail a couple days ago it was from a friend of
mine you might know him his name is Carl Reese and he is also known as the
endurance driver he's broken a number of World Records he's in the Guinness Book
well he has a little invention it is called the autopilot buddy
now when autopilot was first released on the Tesla cars and actually functional
and I'm I'm talking about traffic we're cruise control dynamo actual autopilot
you could go about a half hour without the car nagging you to fold the wheel
then came along firmware eight and with firmware eight Tesla increased the negs
to the point where it is a pain in that butt and they also change the
notifications so instead of going ding-ding-ding to alert you you know
give the wheel a little tug even if I have my hand resting on the wheel in
case if something happens it just flat slowly pulses the dash screen and it
doesn't always you know if you're paying attention to what's going on around you
you might not see or notice that flashing before it's too late
and then the final warning went from just disabling autopilot
- now disabling it permanently for the rest of your drive and it doesn't always
give you an audible notification - well if it's a bright day out I'm driving
around I'm keeping an eye on what's going on around me
cars maintaining my speed I have no reason to really look at the dash it
just gets to be a pain in the butt well enter autopilot buddy let me take
it off my steering wheel here the autopilot buddy fits on to the steering
wheel and it simulates a hand always slightly tugging at the wheel now we're
gonna give this a try today and see how well it does and I will note that
I do keep a hand on the wheel at all times when I'm driving him even though I
do that the car still notifies me that I still get the warning saying oh please
hold the wheel and especially if it's a long road trip drive and that autopilot
disables me you don't even get traffic to your do you get traffic you know I
think they give you let you have traffic alert cruise control but the only way to
get your autopilot back has to pull off the freeway completely park the car and
then start back up again now occasionally that doesn't even work in
you got to actually get out close the door then they'll come back in it varies
back and forth so we got it on here let's that's it
sits on the steering wheel there no that is not an oil change take that is for my
tire rotations but that's it it's held on by two neodymium magnets very strong
neodymium magnets I'm not sure what the actual build material is and then it's
got lead shot inside for for the weight and you never come into contact with the
lead no no no no real risk of lead poisoning or getting it on your hands
it's all sealed inside although of course the box does have the lead
warning is careful those of you in the state of California might get cancer
thank God I'm in Wisconsin and not California so I'm gonna turn on a little
mini dashcam there I got to record the center's the driver screen and we got my
dash cam up here so we're gonna take a look on how well auto pilot bunny does
I'll give a little verbal commentary and I will also do a demonstration of why
you need to be very careful if you decide to go for an auto pilot buddy and
if you do want to purchase links in the description box below no I don't get any
kickbacks I'm just testing Tesla related product alright we're
going to pull out onto the main straight here lot of snow is finally melted not
the best line
all right it is on
and I'm
just for the purposes of this demonstration I'm actually not gonna
touch the wheel but my hands are literally just okay take that back I am
touching the wheel I'm just grazing the wheel just in case let's have a troll
see your lines
just uh steering-wheel wondering quincy the street
let's do a worst-case scenario road one that autopilot already known as general
trouble so the point where it usually makes me once again I repeat even with
using a default by the defeat device for the autopilot this isn't something that
gives you more safety this takes it away I'm gonna have to disengage autopilot on
this curve here so you need to be very vigilant now making sure autopilot stays
on personally I think it does add a little bit of safety which is having the
autopilot on rather than you know off completely but the amount of negs
you know it's just crazy lately all right
auto pilots back on bring her up to speed
and despite the very visible yellow lines that you guys are probably seeing
autopilot there we go see autopilot has a lot of trouble on this road never
quite figured out why I've been on worse roads that it lets work flawlessly still
not doing any control of the car as you can see autopilot is active
no necks at all yet
terms a little shaky thinner just wandering in just a little bit
here's the worst spot coming up break lines disappear a little bit
I'm Cassie
it's still so far no eggs now one thing that can trigger an egg is
by having autopilot on and then manually increasing the speed the Pope this is
weird never had it go all the way to the right
so I mainly press the accelerator I may do so now the warning auto auto steers
will not break and is pumped up now I'm doing like 15 over the speed one slow
down but usually if you're not touching the
wheel and you manually override the speed above autopilot by pressing a pill
it will pop up a warning so at the moment at least it appears that the
defeat device the autopilot buddy is working I have to disable autopilot
right here
that was the occlusion warning I have it set to early detection I'd rather it
warned me and I not need it that not warn me and I did need it now we're
gonna go over to a spot where autopilot cannot handle and disengages in every
time
disengages to the point where we you know the sirens of warnings now the
reason I want to show you this and this is the reason why that this is to show
you why you still need to have a hand on the wheel especially using a defeat
device
because you have a defeat device on the wheel and you get to a point where the
car wants the driver to take over now without a defeat device the car will
even if it wants you to take over and you're not touching the wheel the car
will still do its best to maintain control of the vehicle and then bring it
to a complete stop but if you haven't defeat the buddies the qartheen thinks
you have your hand on the wheel and you're ready to take over and instead of
doing its best to maintain it will automatically just completely release
steering controls directly to you which can be very very dangerous
Wow
it's still nothing he usually does pretty good here on this road stakeouts
good restaurant and of course a red light
follow that Pizza truck
and the problem at this spot it's gonna be of course another red light because
there is a hump in the road a slight loss of lines and a curvature all at the
same time even though it's a low-speed road I think I've only got it to
successfully go through that line that line maybe a handful of times in the
last two years and fifty four thousand miles
really really out of all days it actually works it's funny out of all
days the car actually successfully goes through all right let's turn around and
try again one more time to think of I've lived over here for two years it's the
first time I've ever driven through this parking lot
no testicle the other way
twice go on eat once going each way my gosh
trying to make a liar out of me of course when you want autopilot to fail
it doesn't you know when you do want bottle pilot the film and said that
wrong when you don't want autopilot the fail it does 20 to 1 to fail it won't
know really all right one more try let's try the right lane this
yep
they immediately released control straight to the hands you did not even
give me a chance to touch the wheel that right there shows you why you need to
have their hands on the wheel at all times especially using a defeat device
the device autopilot is not meant to let you read a bar check your email its
allow allows for an assistance stress relief so if you do go for an auto pilot
buddy make sure you know limitations and it's
actually gonna reduce safety slightly and you need to be vigilant although now
back to the stress relief portion of keeping the negs and allowing you to pay
better attention to what's going on around you it is a great device but it's
not for everyone so if you are gonna be someone who will pay attention and hold
your wheel then maybe maybe something that would be worthwhile especially you
have a long commute
and that is all link in description box below
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