Driver+ / Highway Assist vs. Tesla Autopilot: An Extensive Owner's Review

[BillArnett]

I agree with most of the gripes above. And I'll add one more: I hate that it slows down for corners, and that it does so in the worst possible way. EG: Cruising down the freeway at 75mph; approaching a curve with a radius of 1/2 mile or so; driving manually I would not even think for a moment about slowing down, the corner would be easy at 100+. The R1T enters the corner at 75 but starts braking *in the middle of the curve*, not before the curve as would be appropriate (for a much tighter curve). This is very uncomfortable and annoying.

The bottom line is I can use cruise control only on straight freeways. Fortunately, that's a lot of the time. But it would be so much more useful without this "feature".

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[BillArnett]

I think I've found a workaround for the jerkiness induced when kicking it off of lane keeping by just forcing the wheel: if I turn the wheel in the opposite direction not quite enough to kick off the lane keeping then quickly back the way I really intend that seems to fool it into letting go without a jerk. Usually I have to go back and forth twice: ie if I want to change lanes to the left then I turn the wheel just a little right, left, right, then make the full turn left. It's awkward, counter-intuitive and possibly a little dangerous but if done cautiously it's better than the unavoidable jerk of doing it the normal way.

 

[Blakeney]

It is sad that other other manufacturers are further ahead with their comparable solutions than the “more advanced” EV manufacturers. You’d kind of expect them to be ahead. My telluride gas it’s version of driver plus and it is much better than my R1S in every way. I’ve heard fords blue cruise is decent as well

 

[Greg614]

My very Teslaphilic friend (who follows all things Tesla) says that sometime in 2023 Tesla is going to "remove the nag" feature that requires periodic pressure on the steering wheel to maintain AP/FSD.

Has anyone else heard this?

 

[brancky3]

My very Teslaphilic friend (who follows all things Tesla) says that sometime in 2023 Tesla is going to "remove the nag" feature that requires periodic pressure on the steering wheel to maintain AP/FSD.

Has anyone else heard this?

Haha, I heard they were going to do that “before the year ends” all throughout 2022. Tesla dates are always years away from being accurate

 

[mabowden]

How is my hyundai palisade lane centering and auto cruise vastly superior to rivians when it comes to availability. I can literally use it anywhere on any road even with barely any lines. There is no improving AI or geo based functionality, it just works. This tech has been the same since 2019 and it's great! Anyone have an idea why hyundai and kia are so much better and work on any road if it can see lines?

I'll be honest. After attempting to use Driver+ now for at least 100 miles, my wife's kia seltos highway driving assist (HDA) is far superior to Driver+.

Driver+ sure loves to disengage and bounce in the lane. I'm hoping that it will be improved via software updates. I've found myself not using it more recently.

 

[mabowden]

It is sad that other other manufacturers are further ahead with their comparable solutions than the “more advanced” EV manufacturers. You’d kind of expect them to be ahead. My telluride gas it’s version of driver plus and it is much better than my R1S in every way. I’ve heard fords blue cruise is decent as well

Yep. My wife's kia seltos has the same HDA, and it is better than the current version of driver+. Keep in mind the MSRP of that kia was 31k.

 

[bd5400]

I think I've found a workaround for the jerkiness induced when kicking it off of lane keeping by just forcing the wheel: if I turn the wheel in the opposite direction not quite enough to kick off the lane keeping then quickly back the way I really intend that seems to fool it into letting go without a jerk. Usually I have to go back and forth twice: ie if I want to change lanes to the left then I turn the wheel just a little right, left, right, then make the full turn left. It's awkward, counter-intuitive and possibly a little dangerous but if done cautiously it's better than the unavoidable jerk of doing it the normal way.

Are you using your turn signal? My R1T requires very little effort to disengage HA with steering wheel torque when the turn signal is activated. No jerkiness at all.

 

[johnking]

Highway assist was superb today on a rainly Seattle day. The visibility was low and for the 20 minutes of my drive, there was no interruption. This is the first time, it has worked without asking me to take over when it rains.

 

[dekeen]

I’ve been on a road trip through the NE for the last 10 days that put 2,800 miles on my R1S over 55 hours driving. Having spent time using Autopilot in my M3, I couldn’t help but compare Highway Assist (HA) and Autopilot (AP). I thought this comparison might me helpful to others and I’m curious if others’ experience with HA aligns with mine.

Let’s start by defining some terms. I don’t have full self driving (FSD) but use AP regularly. There are 2 modes. One click down is essentially adaptive cruise (AC) whereas 2 clicks adds lane centering. This aligns with Rivian’s functionality as well. One click down on the drive stalk for AC to enable what Rivian broadly calls Driver+. A 2nd click down will enable lane centering. I’m comparing Tesla’s 2 clicks (AP) to Rivian’s 2 clicks (HA).

Now that we’re aligned on terms and how to enable them, let’s compare the 2. The first thing to compare is availability and Tesla wins handily. AP works, in my experience, virtually everywhere whereas HA has worked on 98% of interstates and almost nowhere else. The 98% may sound like a lot but it’s misleading. HA starts and stops. A lot. It stops at most highway splits. It cut off multiple times telling me a tollbooth was ahead when it wasn’t. It cut off telling me the lanes weren’t marked, the road was narrowing, and the camera was blurred. Every time it cuts off, alerts you to take over you either have to click the drive stalk up turning off both HA and AC or wrest control away (more on this in a moment). Or in some cases, like when it determines that the camera is blurred, it just stops. With the cruise set at 77, by the time it cuts out, alerts you, and you look down, your speed has already dropped to 72 and you have to go back to the accelerator to regain speed. There’s no traditional cruise control, it’s AC only so when the camera decides it’s done, you’re completely without cruise control at all. And once it kicks off, it’s at least 30-60 seconds minimum before it’s available again. The availability and consistency of AP are big wins for Tesla over Rivian’s HA.

In order to initially engage AP/HA, you have to be centered in the lane. With AP, if you’re not EXACTLY centered in the lane, Tesla will sometimes pretty abruptly center you in the lane. It can be a little jarring. I found HA to have the initial jerk much less frequently. In fact, if Rivian doesn’t think you’re sufficiently centered in the lane, it just declines to engage HA. So generally, in my experience, HA was smoother after the initial engagement at taking over. A win for Rivian.

Taking control/disengaging works very similarly in both AP/HA. When, for example, HA tells you there’s a tollbooth ahead, it flashes a warning for you to take control. There’s an animation on the screen for you to click the drive stalk up. Doing so disables HA AND AC both. There’s no reasonable way to disable HA and leave AC working. Unfortunately, Tesla’s AP works similarly. It’s kind of an all-or-nothing proposition. I said no reasonable way because there is a way – you wrest the wheel away. There’s a fair bit of tension on the wheel so to take control and somehow stay the current course, to not change lanes or something, isn’t the easiest. It’s easier (and safer, imo) to do this in a Rivian than a Tesla but there should be an alternative. I think they should allow you to click down again to disable HA but leave AC working. A minor point here about audio cues as well. Rivian audibly notifies you of every on and off of HA. And Tesla does the same. Tesla has a setting to disable this but it doesn’t always silence the notification. It seems to be traffic dependent. If there’s no traffic there’s no notification but if traffic is present the audible notification happens regardless of the setting. Rivian has no such setting so you always get the audible notification. If I click down twice and I have a visual confirmation on the screen that HA is enabled, I don’t feel like I need the audible notification. I’d like to turn this off entirely on both but since they work roughly the same way, this is a push on the AP/HA debate. I just hate that changing lanes disables HA, quiets my music for a half second, produces an audible chime, then turns my music back up. It’s annoying. The only minor difference here, if you turn your signal on, Tesla automatically disables AP whereas Rivian doesn’t. I think it makes sense to disable HA here but it’s not a huge deal were it not for some of the other concerns I raised.

Now that AP/HA are engaged and you know how to disengage, we get to perhaps the most important thing is how do they perform. The win here is to Tesla again. Rivian’s HA is ok on straight aways. I would occasionally get a little of the ping pong effect but not often. I did experience a pretty dramatic ping pong a couple of times when there were onramps onto the highway. It’s like HA would pick up the wide line, start steering to the right, then see the left line and jerk you back. It didn’t happen a lot but definitely a handful of times on our trips that passengers looked up to see what was going on. Additionally, going through turns, HA seems to want to over steer and then center to let the road catch up. AP is MUCH smoother and seemingly more like a human driver would be. Tesla wins this category handily as well.

Another important factor with AP/HA is keeping it engaged. With Tesla, at least with my M3LR, you have to tug gently on the wheel every 20-30 seconds or so. I also learned that thumbing the dials on the wheel will remind Tesla that you’re there and engaged. Rivian has a touch sensitive wheel that Tesla doesn’t and this was SUPER nice. I typically kind of have my right wrist resting on my leg with my hand loosely on the wheel and it just worked. This is a big win for Rivian.

Rivian also places fewer limitations on HA vs. Tesla with AP. While AP works almost everywhere, you’re typically limited to 5-10 miles over the speed limit. While that’s not generally a problem for me, it was nice that when Rivian didn’t always know or sometimes didn’t pick up the speed limit change, I wasn’t restricted by HA. I also like Rivian’s blind spot notifications. Tesla has them just on the screen whereas Rivian has them on the screen and on the mirrors which is much more natural to me. Both are minor things, but nice.

In summary, big wins for Tesla in the availability and performance of AP. A big win for Rivian in the continuance of HA with the touch-sensitive wheel and a few other minor niceties as well. How has your driving with the two been? Which of these points do you agree or disagree with?

Great writeup. Very informative. Thanks for taking the time.

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