For well over a year, the Tesla Autopilot system has been the controversial standard-bearer of autonomous driving technology. Using a combination of RADAR and software that is all but bulletproof, its capabilities have won over skeptics and fanboys alike and kept Level 1 to 3 heavyweights like Mercedes and BMW on their toes.
Which is why YouTube videos like this one, in which the "Scott S." takes his Model S with HW2/AP2 and updated with the software build 17.5.36 out for a drive at night, in dry weather on a windy road. According to his description, he has autosteer and traffic-aware cruise control (TACC) engaged on his local loop road. And yet the car seems to be struggling to maintain the lane, despite a clearly marked double yellow and consistent curbing on the right side of the road.
The Autopilot is so inept at maintaining the road you would think the car was suffering from a serious failure. But the driver, Scott S., claims it's not a hardware issue. "I would say it's the software because I have two AP2.0 Teslas," he says in the comments section.
Tesla still leads the field in ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), and the cloud-based AI that Tesla is developing will eventually mitigate the dangers demonstrated so clearly in this video. Until then, Tesla folks: hands on the wheel please.
