Autonomous Driving in the Real World: Experiences with Tesla Autopilot and Summon

Abstract

As autonomous driving emerges, it is important to understand drivers' experiences with autonomous cars. We report the results of an online survey with Tesla owners using two autonomous driving features, Autopilot and Summon. We found that current users of these features have significant driving experience, high self-rated computer expertise and care about how automation works. Surprisingly, although automation failures are extremely common they were not perceived as risky. The most commonly occurring failures included the failure to detect lanes and uncomfortable speed changes of the vehicle. Additionally, a majority of the drivers emphasized the importance of being alert while driving with autonomous features and aware of the limitations of the current technology. Our main contribution is to provide a picture of attitudes and experiences towards semi-autonomous driving, revealing that some drivers adopting these features may not perceive autonomous driving as risky, even in an environment with regular automation failures.