Has anyone actually observed any AP learning?

[Matias]

When AP came there was much talk about how it would constantly learn and come better.

I have used AP all the time where it is possible and haven't observed any learning whatsoever. AP still makes exatly the same mistakes in the same places as before.

Has anyone actually observed any AP learning?

 

[GoTslaGo]

Yes. We use a highway with some pretty substantial turns (long 90 degree turn at one point) w 65 mph speed limit and crappy lane markings.

When we first used ap (tacc and auto steer) the s would swerve like crazy, requiring us to take manual control at several points. It would lose lane markings and drift as a result.

Over the course of driving the same route for 4-5 months, it now has no problems.

 

[Matias]

Nice to hear.

But that maybe AP's algorithm general improvement, not spesifically learning from that road?

 

[roblab]

There is a place a couple miles from my home where the main road curves left. The oncoming traffic has a left turn. My lane has a right turn lane, and the lane markings all disappear for a number of feet. Directly in front is a curb, lawn, and a large oak tree.

For the first several months the car would start dancing, wandering, searching. I began by grabbing the wheel, later just turned PA off. Last week I was showing a girl how Tesla would try to find its way around and through the maze, told her what would happen, -- and it didn't. Made the turn just fine, ignored the left and right turn lanes, did not go for the tree. Obviously it has figured it out.

This is, by the way, a two lane road going into a rural village. I would think not high priority. It has to be just plain usage over and over, and learning.

 

[DrComputer]

AP probably has no direct learning ability. It just records what people are doing and sends the data back to Tesla. If that data gets added to the database and corrective programming happens then one might notice an improvement after a future update.

 

[David29]

I have used it from its first release (last October or November, maybe?) and I think it has improved, both in general, as well as at specific places on the roads I drive. In particular, there is a section of I-95 under construction near me that has temporary lane shifts that are a bit sharp. (the lane direction changes fairly abruptly.) The first time I went through that section, the car had trouble following the lanes. But after a period of time, it got considerably better. Now I have no concern about traveling that section. Now, objectively, it is not possible for me to know how much of that was "learning" of the road by the Tesla system, how much was improved functionality, and how much was my own increase in comfort. But as I recall at the time, my sense was that the car -- or the "hive" of all our cars -- had learned the path to take through that section.

 

[AWDtsla]

The only thing I have ever seen it learn is where many drivers take control to swerve towards an exit from the left/middle lanes. When driving with no other cars on the road through the same place, Model S will swerve towards the exit, then swerve back when the lane markings obviously don't agree. It's a very high traffic area during rush hour so I'm sure there are a lot of samples.

 

[kirkbauer]

It's got noticeably better since I first got it. I thought it was just better logic until I used it on a road that likely AP hadn't seen before and it did much worse. So I think the learning is a key aspect of this.

 

[chillaban]

I don't doubt AP has learned (aka improved) over the course of several months, but as a software engineer I have a hard time believing that the system is literally live-learning and retraining itself on your car alone.

Most likely what is happening is fleet telemetry collected from you and everyone else is being used by Tesla's engineers to train the system or add new Autopilot behavior, and that is being pushed back down to everyone, in the form of those more frequent mysterious updates that we all seem to be getting with little to no user visible changes.

 

[GoTslaGo]

I'm fine with that, ultimately if the AP web/brain/Borg (whatever you want to call it) learns and improves my Tesla's performance, I will consider it a price well paid.