I agree, after using a few variations of lane keeping and active cruise I found that I have no interest in the autopilot stuff, granted I also don’t do a lot of highway or bumper to bumper traffic.
More interested in the electric performance and handling
How? You still have to pay attention and you still have to put your hands on the wheel. How does taking your hand off the steering wheel every so often make it easier?
It’s less work. I don’t speed up, I don’t slow down. All I do is guide keep one hand on the wheel and just make sure the person in front of me doesn’t e-stop.
Bumper to Bumper, stop & go driving is very demanding cognitively and stresses your brain.
The cognitive load is much less with autopilot and ACC.
You are (almost) guaranteed to not rear-end anyone. You do not have to worry about someone cutting in front of you, just at the moment your eyes wandered to the billboard on the side; it will break for you.
As a result you can pay more attention to the audio book you are listening too, the meetings you want to plan ahead for. You can even use Siri et. al to send messages etc using voice commands.
I second what bayarebmwfan said. Even less advanced bmw active cruise control prevented two small accidents for me. Knowing there is second set of eyes which can take action on behalf of you is priceless .
Just like rear cameras, I think collision prevention will be made mandatory in near future.
No, driving was a necessary part of getting from point A to B only because automated drivers didn’t exist when cars were invented. From the beginning and continuing to today, the very rich hire others to drive them, partly so they can do these other things (attend meetings, relax, etc). Self driving just brings the chauffeur to the masses.
You don’t have an obvious choice in deciding who drives behind you. But if you want to actively manage it, I would rather have a computer enhanced vehicle behind me than purely human.
As long as you have a tax liability over $7500 you will get all that money back. I own a Model 3 and also have had i3s and 435i and find the Model 3 a game changer. It is a fun driving car, moreso than my 4 series, it’s efficient, lots of cool tech and autopilot has reduced headache levels in traffic. For those with state incentives and get the federal rebate I find it to be an excellent value compared to an A4, C/E, 3/5 series. New model gets 260 miles and starts at 45k, with premium package included. If in CA it’s 45k - $7500 - $2500 (state credit for those under 300k salary) - $500 for those with PGE which can bring price to right under $35k. I have the LR RWD which epa reported a 334 mile range and Tesla sandbagged the number to 310 to keep it the same as AWD and performance trims. Reviews have been positive and those that knock on it I’d encourage extended time with the car before making conclusions.
Yeah I did a test drive this weekend on a model 3 and was definitely impressed by it. The killer for me is the lack of leasing on it, otherwise I’d snatch it up.