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Tesla Autopilot Hits Europe, Thankfully It Doesn’t Hit Anything Else

There is a race for autonomous driving going on, and Tesla has just made a very important move with the launch of its Autopilot feature. After a couple of weeks in the USA, the function has reached Europe as well and people were quick to test it.
Tesla Model S Autopilot in Europe 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
One of the first such videos to surface online belongs to the Swedish Tesla Model S owner that goes by the name Oedegaarde on YouTube. He took his electric saloon out for a ride this weekend, engaged the Autopilot function and recorded the proceedings.

Since he doesn’t live near a highway, the first experience involved driving on a wet country road with minimal marking and, to make matters worse, tons of fallen leaves covering the asphalt. It wasn’t long until the first bend, and just like anyone who has ever sat in a car and watched it turn by itself, our man wasn’t feeling very relaxed.

But his Tesla did the job and so he lived to see another turn. And there were plenty more to come.

We’re pretty sure it will take a while until people feel completely relaxed when letting the car deal with steering by itself, but that’s partly why the Tesla Autopilot doesn’t work unless the driver has both hands on the steering wheel. The other part refers to legal issues.

Oedegaarde also talks about the reported incidents that saw Teslas cross the line separating the two sides of the road in the path of oncoming traffic, but he says he hasn’t experienced anything similar.

He was a bit hasty, though

Only a few moments later, he comes across a sharper right-hand turn where the Model S gets a bit closer to the center line than he would have liked. On the other hand, he does admit that he would have normally slowed down for that bend had he been driving manually. Instead, he maintained the 70 km/h (44 mph) speed throughout his entire journey on the backroad.

He jumps to 90 km/h (56 mph) as he enters a larger two-lane road and the system feels a little more relaxed, more in its element. As Oedegaarde himself states, it wasn’t designed for small country roads use, but he’s just proved it can handle those situations just as well.

In the end, he even ventures into a small town where stop-and-go traffic doesn’t pose any problems, only roundabouts - there, he needs to switch to manual mode.

Oedegaarde’s short review ends with a brief demonstration of the Autopilot feature on the highway, where he casually overtakes a few trucks with the help of the turning indicator alone.

While we do expect Tesla owners to praise their cars no matter what, you can use the clip below as proof for everything Oedegaarde says during his little test. Of course, five minutes of footage doesn’t account for all the possible situations the Autopilot might encounter in the future, but it does offer a positive point of reference.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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