TurboScott

I have a "deposit" on the Taycan and could wait until next year for delivery, but am very interested in how/if Porsche will offer an "Autopilot" option. I have a 3 hour interstate drive to the beach and having a solid self driving option is very important to me. If it is close to Tesla's I will wait for the Taycan, but if it is not I am going to go ahead and order a Tesla.

I really enjoying hearing from Tesla owners and do want to see Tesla succeed in the long run. But - I love driving my Porsches (when not on I-40)!

Thanks,

Scott

daveo4porsche

I'm not aware of Porsche's auto pilot alternatives - I know they have adaptive cruise control as an option on most of their cars - and quite frankly that cover's 80% of the use case IMHO - the lane keeping is nice, but not nearly as critical as adaptive cruise control.

I use auto-pilot extensively and with in limits it's fine - I'd highly recommend you test drive a Tesla and make your own determination - don't trust Elon on Full self driving, that's a pipe dream, but auto-pilot is already useful and quite good.

TurboScott

Thanks Dave and that is a good idea. I will rent one for my trip next week to see how I like it. In the meantime, I will be waiting for the next bit of news from Porsche on the Taycan and hope they have some sort of roadmap for an auto-pilot like function.

Thanks again,

Scott

gstahl

I have a Tesla (first gen auto-pilot) and 95% use the adaptive cruise part of auto-pilot only, which is very good. I have not experienced the most recent Porsche adaptive cruise (only a few year old Cayenne GTS, which is not not as good). For highway adaptive cruise works very well and agree with Dave.

G

Chrigel

I am on my 5th Tesla and Autopilot is the best thing in the Tesla. I love my Tesla but I also put a deposit on the Taycan. I hope it won't look boring and it MUST have some sort of Autopilot in it, otherwise I am out.

SpeedyD

Out of curiosity, why would you be on your 5th Tesla? Did you just buy multiple versions (Couple of S, 3, X?)

Archimedes

So the thing that you love best about your car is when you don't have to drive it?

daveo4porsche

well for me the best part of the car is that I have the option to not drive it - i.e. I can drive when I want, and turn over some mundane driving duties when I don't feel like it (stop and go traffic on 85 north for a morning commute is hideous in a GT3 even with PDK).

the good news is you don't have to use autopilot, but you can.

jnolan

TurboScott

100% agree. I love driving but some situations I just want transportation. I hope Porsche agrees so I can be driven by the Taycan when going to the beach, but drive it when I go to the mountains. Otherwise, I may have to get a Tesla for the transportation part..

daveo4porsche

I get the whole "Porsche is driving" why would we stop doing that? but I also agree the German's haven't demonstrated leadership in software design - so this approach works well for Porsche given that unless the obtain the technology from someplace else they are at a disadvantage - so play to your strengths and say you never meant your car to be self driving because that's not what we're about....the market place will decide in the end - but I think Porsche will come around and then they will be all about how much better than self driving is that others because of 100's of years worth of "driving knowledge" that only Porsche could do....

in the mean time I'll continue to enjoy Autopilot (as I have since Dec. 2014) and use it where it's a benefit, and drive the car when I don't feel like being driven - at the end of the day I value the choice I have vs. being railroaded into a car that can't do because the company doesn't feel that's a benefit - but I"m happy to let Porsche continue to be successful until they aren't.

whiz944

Bosch has an autonomous driving research group in Palo Alto. I've seen one of their BMW test cars, LIDARs whizzing and all, driving on I-280. So yeah - at least some of their tech is coming from Silicon Valley.

I optioned my Model 3 with EAP (autopilot). The TACC (adaptive cruise) portion of Autopilot is great. It is the first car I've owned with it. Really amazing experience for both the daily commute and long distance driving. The Autosteer portion is a little less obvious. You still have to keep your hands on the wheel and _definitely_ need to continue to pay attention to the road. But it does do a lot of little lane corrections automatically - reducing stress. (Plus you can turn on "more cowbell/rainbow road" mode to annoy the wife. ) The lane changing feature is nice. I've not tried the auto parking or summon features yet. I do fine without them.

OTOH as a long-time software developer, I just don't think FSD (full self drive) is going to be truly ready for prime time any time soon. So I didn't order it. Nice thing is that if FSD is eventually compelling enough, supposedly the car can be upgraded.

Archimedes

ACC is great and pretty standard on a large number of cars already. What they currently call Autopilot, for me is useless, as I'd never use it. ACC already does all I need and I can get that in a $30,000 VW. And truly fully autonomous driving in our lifetimes is a pipe dream, a fact that it seems even the hype mongers are finally starting to own up to. I keep saying, once you get past the wealthy/early adopter/nerd crowd and you start selling to folks who doesn't really care about Autopilot or 40 year old video games hidden in the Nav, Teslas are going to have to sell to the masses on a price v. performance/utility basis. That is going to be interesting to watch unfold.

Archimedes

Because a Tesla can drive you to the beach all by itself...

Didn't Musk tell us five years ago that a Model S was going to be able to pick you up at the front of the restaurant after dinner? Where's that feature? Oh yeah, still all hype.

Needsdecaf

Given my current commute, it would be my favorite feature too.

Exactly. I wish my current vehicle had traffic jam assist type system, which is not relegated to EV's only. Although EV's and hybrids do them exceptionally well considering the lack of powertrain movement needed in slow / stop & go traffic.