My first ride in a self-piloting car was . . . an education.
See the huge monitor on the right? My “driver” friend put in the destination address (to a rental I was showing him) and yup, it followed the route. By itself.
A few distractions of course. My friend apologized that his model did not have all the current software updates. For example, the car did not recognize the stop sign where Big Springs meets Highway 97.
He said the latest version understood red stop lights but not stop signs so if he had not tapped the brakes and taken manual control the car would have recognized the cross road but we would be halfway across it before it did.
In a sort of apologetic voice he said however that if an oncoming car crossed the line our car’s sensors would detect that and swerved. We passed a bicyclist though with less room than I would have made manually but he assured me the Tesla ‘saw’ him and would have taken evasive action if he had strayed into our lane. I’m sure he was right.
12 hour range on the battery which takes about 45 minutes to charge from dead empty (we’ll have to come up with another term for that for electrics). He has to pay for recharging but at home he plugs it in every night and that it takes about as much energy as a crock pot.
Still.