• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • The Rearview Mirror: All That the Name Implies
  • Top Tips for Improving EV Range in Cold Weather
  • Mercedes is First Automaker to Offer True Level 3 Hands-Free Driving System in the U.S.
  • Audi Introduces Fourth “Sphere” Concept: Activesphere
  • Jaguar Land Rover Posts First Profitable Quarter in Two Years
  • Musk Confirms Cybertruck Production Tracking for End of 2023
  • Polestar Raises its Game with the 2024 Polestar 2
  • Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda Steps Down, Hands Reins to Lexus Chief Koji Sato
  • Environmental Groups Chide GM for ICE Investments
  • Tesla Sets New Financial Benchmarks, But Misses Analysts Targets
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R 4x4 Super Crew
    • A Week With: 2023 Genesis Electrified G80 AWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Land Rover Defender 110 V-8
    • First Drive: 2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport
    • A Week With: 2023 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe
    • A Week With: 2023 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate
    • A Week With: 2023 Genesis GV60 Performance
    • A Week With: 2023 Chevrolet Suburban Z71
    • A Week With: 2023 Lexus UX 250h F Sport
    • A Week With: 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB 300 4Matic
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Technology > More Proof Elon Musk is Running Tesla on Autopilot

        More Proof Elon Musk is Running Tesla on Autopilot

        Newest test of Tesla’s self-driving software sees it fall as competitors improve.

        Larry Printz
        Larry Printz , Assistant Managing Editor
        Jan. 25, 2023
        Ford BlueCruise in F-150 driving
        Ford’s BlueCruise, its Level 2 autonomous driving technology, ranked tops among ADAS software in a new Consumer Reports test.

        If you need proof that Tesla is running on autopilot as CEO Elon Musk obsesses over ruining Twitter, it comes in the form a new test from Consumer Reports, which ranked Autopilot seventh out of 12 widely used advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS. Tesla’s Autopilot fell significantly behind those from larger automakers.

        Ford Motor Co. took the top spot in the study. ADAS are available on more than 50% of 2023 model-year vehicles. Tesla ranked second in 2020.

        The consumer magazine, a non-profit group that assesses goods and services, ranked Ford’s BlueCruise and Lincoln’s ActiveGlide as best with a rating of 84 out of 100, rating better than average.

        It was followed by General Motors’ Super Cruise at 75, Mercedes-Benz’s Driver Assistance at 72, BMW’s Driving Assistance Professional at 69, Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 and Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 at 65, Volkswagen Travel Assist and Audi Adaptive cruise assist at 62, and Tesla Autopilot at 61, all rating average.

        Rivian’s Highway Assist scored a 59, with Nissan/Infiniti ProPilot Assist and Honda Sensing/Acura AcuraWatch tying at 58, followed by Volvo/Polestar Pilot Assist at 53 and Hyundai/Kia/Genesis Highway Driving Assist at 47, all rating worse than average.

        What the tests covered

        Driver Using Super Cruise v2 - REL
        GM’s Super Cruise ranked nearly as good as Ford, according to the magazine.

        The test covered how well each system’s lane centering assistance, adaptive cruise control, driver monitoring systems functioned. The organization also tested its ease of use, how well the systems judge when it’s safe to use or when the driver is unresponsive. And all systems are not created equal.

        Although ADAS technology can make driving more enjoyable, the magazine claims that fully autonomous vehicles are still a long way off. 

        “Systems like BlueCruise are an important advancement that can help make driving easier and less stressful,” said Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of auto testing. “But they don’t make a car self-driving at all.”

        Fisher also noted that since its introduction, Tesla has mostly kept the core functioning of Autopilot the same while merely adding new capabilities.

        “While other automakers have evolved their Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Centering Assist systems, Tesla has simply fallen behind,” Fisher said.

        What matters most

        Mercedes Drive Pilot - Interior v1
        Mercedes-Benz’s Drive Pilot is already delivering Level 3 autonomy in Germany.

        Given that these systems are so new and still developing, it’s vital that drivers don’t get lulled into a sense of overconfidence in them. 

        “We observe frequent situations where the level of attention placed on the road is below what one would traditionally expect a driver to have, especially with the known limitations of these systems, which require drivers to be ready to regain control in a safe and timely manner,” said Pnina Gershon, a research scientist at the MIT AgeLab and the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. 

        Not surprisingly, users of ADAS are more apt to be distracted drivers.

        “Automation aims to free resources and, not surprisingly, drivers use these ‘freed-up’ resources to do other things than driving,” Gershon said in the magazine’s report.

        To help prevent this, Ford’s BlueCruise, Lincoln’s ActiveGlide and General Motors’ Super Cruise use driver monitoring that will slow down the vehicle if the driver isn’t paying attention for more than a few seconds. But the magazine also found that most ADAS software does not adequately monitor drivers.

        Tesla Autopilot - illustration
        While Tesla’s Autopilot offers hands-free capabilities, it has frequently been faulted because drivers aren’t required to constantly monitor the vehicle’s performance.

        The magazine was also concerned that Tesla’s and Mercedes-Benz’s systems allow true hands-free driving for 30 seconds or more, allowing their vehicles to travel at least a half a mile on a highway with no hands on the wheel and the driver not paying attention. 

        The rankings

        Ford’s system came out far ahead of most others, ranking 9 out of 10 in capability and performance, driver engagement and signaling when it’s safe to use. Mercedes-Benz’s Driver Assistance was the only system to rank 10 out of 10 in capability and performance. Hyundai/Kia/Genesis Highway Driving Assist rated tops for ease of use, garnering a 7 out of 10. Ford/Lincoln ranked tops in driver engagement and when the vehicle is safe to use with a 9 out of 10 score, while GM’s Super Cruise ranked tops in responding to an unresponsive driver, at 7 out of 10.

        A difference of opinion

        The test comes following a string of collisions by Teslas into parked emergency vehicles, causing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate 830,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot. NHTSA is also examining whether Tesla sufficiently guarantees that drivers are paying attention.

        Nissan ProPilot Assist - hands on wheel
        Nissan’s ProPilot Assist still requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel.

        Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, consumer magazine What Car? tested vehicle ADAS software, putting the cars through a different set of tests. They also evaluated ease of use and driver engagement, but also tested how well the systems avoided a pothole, came to an emergency stop at 30 and 42 mph, and navigated an s-curve in the road at 50, 62 and 75 mph. 

        In their testing, only the Tesla could handle an emergency stop at 42 mph, a test all other vehicles failed. In fact, it rated the Tesla tops, followed by Audi, BMW, Nissan, Kia, Ford, Volkswagen, Range Rover, Volvo and Toyota.

        “The Model Y was the only car to score points in all of the tests,” the magazine noted, disagreeing with Consumer Reports’ verdict. However, in one sense, the two publciations agree. 

        “Looking at the results demonstrates that the most expensive or newest cars won’t necessarily possess the most advanced or best performing systems,” What Car? states.

        But there’s another caveat as well, this one from Consumer Reports.

        “It’s important that consumers understand the systems’ limitations. No matter what the automakers might imply in their marketing, none of the systems we tested here are capable of doing the driving for you.”

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published

        The Rearview Mirror: All That the Name Implies

        Yesterday
        GMC Hummer SUT winter testing

        Top Tips for Improving EV Range in Cold Weather

        Jan. 27, 2023
        Mercedes Drive Pilot Nevada driving

        Mercedes is First Automaker to Offer True Level 3 Hands-Free Driving System in the U.S.

        Jan. 27, 2023

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: