# new england/nh first road trip in rush hour



## Lgkahn (Nov 21, 2018)

Took my first trip on navigate on autopilot from nh to brookline via storrow drive..
most of the highway driving using nav on autopilot, pretty cool . some performance data below on range with heat/cold weather

this is awd long range..

Observations

Had to reduce following distance to number 1 in stop and go rush hour traffic or people would continually cut you off.
As other mentioned it is pretty cool and lets you relax a lot more once you learn to trust the car.
Even on 1 which usually was about 1-1.5 car lengths at slow speeds, you could see people thinking about cutting me off.
Had to take over a few times on merges like onto storrow drive etc.

Overall worked pretty well.

Even heard a loud chime and a red splash on the screen and started slow down. i believe it was emergency braking.
Getting back on 93 from storrow drive going north and down the hill, the car two cars in front of me stopped and the system saw it before myself or
the car in front of me did. It didn't totally slam the brakes on which was pretty cool but it definately freaked out.

overall dont expect full range with snow tires on and cold temps and heat on..
I have Michelin xice 3 18" snows on 22lb rims.. avg. 42-43 lbs while driving and 41 in garage
temp was about 34 degrees avg..
strange that the longer drive in stop and go was more efficient than the drive home. That shows higher speed definitely reduces performance
and just how good the regenerative braking is. I have it on average and plan to set to low if any snow or slippery roads.

edit: A couple of other observations I forgot:

1. storrow drive at least when not in stop and go is a no go with auto cruise it sets it to 45 on part and 35 on the other.. ie it thinks its any other back road
and will only go 5 over rated speed. While that may be the actual speed limit, no one obeys and and people will be up your ass end .

2. similarly when getting on 93 north out of boston it thinks the speed is only 55. Not as much as a bigee at least you can raise it up as it doesn't think its a back road
but again no one really goes that slow there.


----------



## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

Ahhh, Coolidge Corner... Great area to visit. 

Thanks for sharing those data points. The efficiency you got with that winter wheel/tire setup looked pretty good to me!



Lgkahn said:


> storrow drive at least when not in stop and go is a no go with auto cruise it sets it to 45 on part and 35 on the other.. ie it thinks its any other back road and will only go 5 over rated speed. While that may be the actual speed limit, no one obeys


I can't see myself ever using autopilot on Storrow unless it's a stop-and-go situation... For the reasons you stated, sure, but also because (to the best of my knowledge) the Autopilot computer has not been trained to enjoy twisty roads as much as a human driver.


----------



## Niki-and-I (Nov 18, 2018)

thanks for sharing. Stop and go benefits from regen more than driving at high speed. In my eGolf I used to see same effect, but not yet on my model3 (it doesn’t help that I went on vacation after one week of getting it...)


----------



## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Welcome to Boston. You won't be able to use Autopilot in all traffic until they implement a following distance of 0.1


----------



## Lgkahn (Nov 21, 2018)

Niki-and-I said:


> thanks for sharing. Stop and go benefits from regen more than driving at high speed. In my eGolf I used to see same effect, but not yet on my model3 (it doesn't help that I went on vacation after one week of getting it...)


ya but it still s surprised me since i would have thought the extra hour in traffic with heat on and seat heaters would have more than made up for it..


----------

