# Autopilot questions



## Power Surge (Jan 6, 2022)

My 18 M3LR says it's autopilot equipped, but it is not active. I have been doing a bit a research on the topic, and there seems to be some confusing information. 

I know there's different versions of Autopilot, depending on year and packages. I know there's standard AP and enhanced AP. From what I was reading, it appears these used to be two different purchasable packages. But it seems that in recent years, Tesla stopped offering the enhanced AP package, and moved those features to the FSD package. Is this correct? So if I were to actually purchase the $3k autopilot option Tesla shows for my car, would I get standard AP? 

I've also seen conflicting info as to whether features like autosteer, autopark, and summon (not smart summon, I know that requires FSD) come with standard AP.


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## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

You would get standard AP, which would include Autosteer, but not Autopark or Summon.

That's what I did, and I think it's well worth it.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

The main useful part of enhanced autopilot that you would be missing would be lane changes. Without EAP, I believe you need to disengage autopilot in order to change lanes.

I also regularly use Navigate on Autopilot, which is part of EAP. This allows the car to correctly choose lanes at splits. It also allows the car to automatically change lanes (I don't allow this - I use the "driver confirmation" setting because it makes too many mistakes), and take exits. There are a couple of highway splits on my commute, so I find the split-taking capability to be useful too.

All of the other features (both kinds of summon, autoparking, etc) just seem like interesting party tricks to me. I've tried them out, but I don't make use of them.


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## Madmolecule (Oct 8, 2018)

Does auto parking even work anymore? It never really worked but at least I would get the auto park symbol in the past. I had to parallel park in downtown Charleston last night, never saw symbol, it took me multiple tries to do it myself. But when auto park has made zero progress in four years or is gone backward in capabilities how any of you think FSD will be released in our lifetime is amazing to me.

and Teslas navigate on auto pilot only got me honked at one time on this trip, so it is making progress. I just don’t know what the proper gesture to give the other driver, other than sorry it wasn’t me, but non-Tesla people don’t understand that one. Maybe my safety score isn’t good enough to use auto park


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## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

garsh said:


> The main useful part of enhanced autopilot that you would be missing would be lane changes. Without EAP, I believe you need to disengage autopilot in order to change lanes.


Autopilot (AP) = Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) + Autosteer.

Tapping the brake disengages both aspects.

Turning the wheel a bit disengages Autosteer only, leaving TACC engaged. It takes a modest amount of torque to turn the wheel, since a small amount of torque is needed to tell AP you're paying attention. (That sounds weird, but you get used to it.) But the result is that if you disengage Autosteer by turning the wheel you're likely to overcorrect and the car will swerve a little bit.

Changing lanes with AP on is actually pretty well implemented, even though it's not automatic. Once you turn your signal on, the torque needed to disengage Autosteer is much less than normal.

So to change lanes, I put my signal on. When I'm ready to change lanes, I use the wheel as I would in manual driving. Autosteer disengages, but since the torque requires is small, there's no swerve. And importantly, TACC stays on, so I don't have to worry about maintaining speed during the lane change. Once I'm in the new lane, I double tap the stalk and Autosteer is reengaged. At this point, that whole maneuver is second nature, and because TACC remains engaged, it's still a bit easier than a fully-manual lane change.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Thanks DocScott. That makes me feel better about forgoing FSD on my next Tesla purchase.


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## Power Surge (Jan 6, 2022)

I know you guys here know wayyyy more about the software aspect of these cars than I do, so my question is this....

What actually "activates" turning on the Autopilot option? I mean, if the car comes with it, what needs to be changed on the car to enable it? 

I would guess it's Tesla remote turning on the feature in the software. If so, I am surprised nobody has come up with a workaround for that.


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