Does my new Tesla drive itself?
No, not yet. Bluebot (the name I picked for her) is equipped with all the hardware for complete self driving but the software for this is not ready yet, probably a year or so out.
It does have lots of useful driver aids already.
Standard equipment includes Auto Pilot which does the following, when engaged:
Traffic aware cruise control. This maintains a set speed and in traffic changes the speed to that of the vehicle above. This is very useful in stop and go rush hour traffic as it will just follow the car ahead at the distance you have set into the control section and even stop and start as required.
Blind spot warning. The cameras and sound sensors look to the sides and behind and warn you if you attempt a lane change unsafely.
Lane departure warning. If you drift to the edge of your traffic lane it will warn you and also steer back to the center of your traffic lane. You can override this simple by using the turn signals telling the car you want to change lanes.
Emergency braking. Will do a hard brake if obstacle is detected ahead of you.
If you paid for the (expensive) self driving option now (I did not), then Navigate on Auto Pilot is also available. This allows the car to basically self navigate from where you are to your destination, handling freeway interchanges, picking and manuvering to the appropriate traffic lane, and even recognizing traffic signal lights (but not yet stopping for them). It also self parallel parks and has a summon feature that allows the car to maneuver from its parking place to where you are at the curb all by itself.
These functions are all Beta functions and all the functions require the driver to keep hands on the steering wheel and always be able to quickly override the automatic functions.
If the car detects you don't have hands on steering wheel for a few seconds, it slows done and stops and turns on hazard flashers.
Note that all of the car's functions are continuously updated by free over the air software upgrades. They provide new functions and take care of bugs. Full self driving will be available as an over the air software upgrade too, but that will not be free.
Tesla says full self driving won't be available until the are certain that it safer to use that a good real driver. Right now the Model 3 has the best safety ratings of any vehicle on the road with a fatality rate of about one fourth of that of ICE vehicles. (ICE = internal combustion engine).
I will try to answer any other questions you have about the Tesla.
Frank
