Auto Pilot Assist 2 thread (experience, problems)

Ivos · Jul 22, 2016

Since Auto Pilot Assist 2 is one of the most discussed new features , maybe we could dedicate a special thread to it ...

As generally known, PA2 is an extended form of PA1, works up to 135 km/h and does not need a lead car. It is a highly celebrated feature with many big expectations, there is even a signed petition to include retrofit it in MY2016 etc.

I was also very much looking forward to it, since it sounded great when described.

Now I have it in my XC90 2017 and was very curious about it. It tested thoroughly, today again on 300 km journey, including one hour in the capital city ...

The impressions ? Sincerely ... I expected a bit more from it, not really deeply impressed ...

It is basically the same ACC as we know with some imperfect auto steering attempts added ...

The principal problem is that for some reasons it is not able to keep the car steadily in the middle of lanes at all times. And it completely fails to follow any curve that is steeper than almost straight ... it goes then out of lanes ... unless you fight with it (either against a car in the opposite lane or out of the road) that may be a bit surprising and scary.

So in the end , it actually does not help much, but scares a bit and it is often more relaxed to drive without it

I really wonder what problem it makes to simply programme the car to keep in the middle of lanes all the time. It often manages to go through mild curves like a driver beginner or someone who forgot to drive (and is writing sms etc.

(touching the lanes or being too close to them), that may quite surprise other drivers

That it is easily possible, we can see for example in Audi Q7, there is no Pilot Assist, just a "mere" Lane Assistant, but it keeps the car perfectly in the middle of the road and manages curves very well (I tried it personally).

Some people here said it needs to be calibrated. I talked to my dealer today, he said they have few new XC90s here, all freshly calibrated, all of them behaving in the same way as far as PA2 is concerned

I hope it can be still improved by some software update. My personal impression is that it is nothing really worth big petitions and being nervous about not having it and MY2016 owners will not miss much. It is 90% regular ACC and the rest is some often unreliable steering mess ...

What is your experience with PA2 ?

Lars997 · Jul 22, 2016

Congrats to your new car and thank you for this thread.

My car is still on order (T8 - delivery end of year), but I'm interested to learn about PA2.

This looks actually not that bad:

Ivos · Jul 22, 2016

No, it is not bad, it is very good - until slightly steeper curve comes ... I will also make a video

Zaxxon · Jul 22, 2016

I've been largely impressed with PA2 on mine. I think it's a matter of setting proper expectations. It's pilot assist. Not auto pilot assist, and not autonomous driving. Its intention is to assist the pilot (driver), not to actually drive for them. When I calibrate my expectations properly, I realize it's doing a pretty good job. When on highways and well-marked roads that are not too curvy/hilly/etc, the car keeps me in my lane, at the speed I've set, at a safe distance from the car in front of me.

Does it miss sharper curves? Yes. Does it occasionally take the wrong path when lanes get funky? (eg one lane turns to two, lanes shift, etc) Yes. But my hands are on the wheel and it's an easy correction.

It doesn't drive for me, but it does greatly reduce the strain of driving in typical situations.

itscustomer · Jul 22, 2016

Ivos said:
Since Auto Pilot Assist 2 is one of the most discussed new features , maybe we could dedicate a special thread to it ...

As generally known, PA2 is an extended form of PA1, works up to 135 km/h and does not need a lead car. It is a highly celebrated feature with many big expectations, there is even a signed petition to include retrofit it in MY2016 etc.

I was also very much looking forward to it, since it sounded great when described.

Now I have it in my XC90 2017 and was very curious about it. It tested thoroughly, today again on 300 km journey, including one hour in the capital city ...

The impressions ? Sincerely ... I expected a bit more from it, not really deeply impressed ...

It is basically the same ACC as we know with some imperfect auto steering attempts added ...

The principal problem is that for some reasons it is not able to keep the car steadily in the middle of lanes at all times. And it completely fails to follow any curve that is steeper than almost straight ... it goes then out of lanes ... unless you fight with it (either against a car in the opposite lane or out of the road) that may be a bit surprising and scary.

So in the end , it actually does not help much, but scares a bit and it is often more relaxed to drive without it

I really wonder what problem it makes to simply programme the car to keep in the middle of lanes all the time. It often manages to go through mild curves like a driver beginner or someone who forgot to drive (and is writing sms etc. (touching the lanes or being too close to them), that may quite surprise other drivers

That it is easily possible, we can see for example in Audi Q7, there is no Pilot Assist, just a "mere" Lane Assistant, but it keeps the car perfectly in the middle of the road and manages curves very well (I tried it personally).

Some people here said it needs to be calibrated. I talked to my dealer today, he said they have few new XC90s here, all freshly calibrated, all of them behaving in the same way as far as PA2 is concerned

I hope it can be still improved by some software update. My personal impression is that it is nothing really worth big petitions and being nervous about not having it and MY2016 owners will not miss much. It is 90% regular ACC and the rest is some often unreliable steering mess ...

What is your experience with PA2 ?

I drive over 400 miles so far. I have the same experience as you described. Pa2 is not ready for primetime. I would rather stick with access and not use pa2 unless the fix all the issues you have described here.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

Ivos · Jul 22, 2016

Zaxxon said:
Its intention is to assist the pilot (driver), not to actually drive for them. When I calibrate my expectations properly, I realize it's doing a pretty good job.
It doesn't drive for me, but it does greatly reduce the strain of driving in typical situations.

Yes, it surely helps .... You are right that one should not probably expect it to be an "auto" pilot, just an assistant. It is however difficult not to try to leave it driving alone

Still, it could be kept slightly better within the lanes I think ...

Tibits · Jul 22, 2016

Is it more reliable the PA1? If not, I would never use it at high speeds.

XC90-Will · Jul 22, 2016

Zaxxon said:
I think it's a matter of setting proper expectations. It's pilot assist. Not auto pilot assist, and not autonomous driving.

Exactly! :thumbup:

djsaad1 · Jul 22, 2016

We have a pilot assist equivalent on a 7 series BMW, and it pretty much acts the same as your are describing. It isn't as great as the marketing makes it seem. I am yet to use PA1 on our XC90, because I figured it is about the same.

itscustomer · Jul 22, 2016

Ivos said:
Yes, it surely helps .... You are right that one should not probably expect it to be an "auto" pilot, just an assistant. It is however difficult not to try to leave it driving alone Still, it could be kept slightly better within the lanes I think ...

I don't use pa2 unless I'm driving on a straight road

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

msc · Jul 22, 2016

I used it on a 500+ mile drive all in one day from Boston to Pittsburgh. If you've driven that route before, you know the roads are not that straight. I was impressed by how well it did. I would say that it performs optimally on interstates, fully divided, with decent (but by no means perfect) lane markings. It seems to handle curves OK that are built to interstate standards. I found it to really lower the physical effort of driving the long distance. Probably 70% of my drive that day was using PA2. It would go for long stretches (5-10 miles) without disengaging at all, and it was usually because I wanted to change lanes or pass.

DanInMN · Jul 22, 2016

msc said:
I used it on a 500+ mile drive all in one day from Boston to Pittsburgh. If you've driven that route before, you know the roads are not that straight. I was impressed by how well it did. I would say that it performs optimally on interstates, fully divided, with decent (but by no means perfect) lane markings. It seems to handle curves OK that are built to interstate standards. I found it to really lower the physical effort of driving the long distance. Probably 70% of my drive that day was using PA2. It would go for long stretches (5-10 miles) without disengaging at all, and it was usually because I wanted to change lanes or pass.

I bet it would be great for drives like I90 from Minnesota to the Black Hills or I70 from St. Louis to Denver. Those are mind numbing stretches of flat straight highway.

goldenfooler · Jul 22, 2016

I find the same results with my S90 test drive car. The tight curves are where it won't work. I do prefer a car with a HUD when using the pilot assist. Easier to see the green steering wheel turn off.

LowlyOilBurner · Jul 22, 2016

How sharp are these curves you are going through?

Ivos · Jul 22, 2016

goldenfooler said:
I find the same results with my S90 test drive car. The tight curves are where it won't work. I do prefer a car with a HUD when using the pilot assist. Easier to see the green steering wheel turn off.

The confusing thing is that the green steering wheel is perfectly on but the car goes out of road ...

tpchristian · Jul 22, 2016

I too think that people need to remember the "assist" part. I heard a couple interesting things on a podcast I listen to the other day. I am not a pilot, but even auto-pilot on planes doesn't mean that the pilot(s) go to the back of the plane and have a couple drinks. It was originally intended so that they it could could use some of their focus on other aspects of instruments and flying. I guess it is more sophisticated these days. So it is a bit of what people think auto-pilot is to mean. Even then Volvo doesn't call it auto-pilot -- I think rightly so because of misunderstanding. The other interesting thing I heard, (I didn't know this), was that some early versions of cruise control were called auto-pilot. Maybe it wasn't as critical then because it was more obvious that the driver couldn't "check-out".

EDIT: Although I don't haven't experienced the curve problem, (because I don't think I used it on any really dramatic curves), I will hope that Volvo will continue to evolve the software -- maybe it will get better. Maybe also, there is some of this calibration that needs to happen. One would hope that the car would came calibrated. Maybe as time and model years progress, we will be able to get software upgrades and maybe other hardware will need to be added to make advances. (As MY16 owners are wondering)

badcyclist · Jul 22, 2016

I like driving, so I guess I don't really understand the obsession with: (a) not wanting to drive your own car; and (b) a willingness to trust a primitive computer program to do it for you. As for the latter, I wouldn't trust a computer to drive my car if it were the most advanced computer we could possibly produce (looking at you, HAL), let alone one that is not much more than a glorified cell-phone.

If nothing else, I hope that the excuse we can all see coming a mile away, "Don't blame me, my computer was driving," never becomes a legal defense.

Ivos · Jul 22, 2016

Driving in the usual congested traffic and traffic jams (means almost everywhere) is extremely boring and tiring for me. To let the machine to do all that is the best solution

The only truly enjoyable driving I experienced was on the endless deserted roads in the central Australia ... where you meet maybe 2 cars per day (if the traffic is heavy) ... There I definitely would not need Pilot Assist and would be happy driving all day long

tpchristian · Jul 22, 2016

badcyclist said:
I like driving, so I guess I don't really understand the obsession with: (a) not wanting to drive your own car; and (b) a willingness to trust a primitive computer program to do it for you. As for the latter, I wouldn't trust a computer to drive my car if it were the most advanced computer we could possibly produce (looking at you, HAL), let alone one that is not much more than a glorified cell-phone.

If nothing else, I hope that the excuse we can all see coming a mile away, "Don't blame me, my computer was driving," never becomes a legal defense.

Yes I guess I am the opposite. One of the things that brought me to the car was the tech and especially PAII. I think I would enjoy driving if roads were open and could accelerate, make wild turns and generally drive like a crazy person. However, normal driving (commute to work, errands, etc.) not fun at all.

Also, this is probably not the car I would have bought if I were to be able to do all of those things.

newbss · Jul 22, 2016

I wish the max speed for PAI was a little higher than the 30mph it is today. I mainly use it in stop and go traffic, which can get pretty monotonous for me, but I have generally found that 30mph isn't quite enough - traffic will sometimes get up to ~40mph. I don't need 80mph, but something in the 40-45 range would be welcome. Call it PA1.5.

Auto Pilot Assist 2 thread (experience, problems)

Ivos

Lars997

Ivos

Zaxxon

itscustomer

Ivos

Tibits

XC90-Will

djsaad1

itscustomer

msc

DanInMN

goldenfooler

LowlyOilBurner

Ivos

tpchristian

badcyclist

Ivos

tpchristian

newbss

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