Volvo's Pilot Assist Coming From A Tesla Owner

I've been using Volvo's pilot Assist for a few months in my Polestar 2. I also have owned a Tesla Model 3 with Full Self Driving(FSD) for a few years. This past December, receiving access to FSD beta. To say that Volvo's Pilot Assist is anywhere close to what Tesla has to offer would be ridiculous. But the good news is that Volvo is not trying to achieve what Tesla is ambitiously reaching for.

Pilot Assist, as the name implies, is just that. It is an assistance device to reduce driving fatigue and improve safety. It does a pretty good job for the most part.

According to the manual...

The Pilot Assist function is primarily intended for use on motorways and similar major roads where it can contribute to more comfortable driving and a more relaxed driving experience.

Pilot Assist can help the driver keep the vehicle in the current traffic lane and maintain an even speed and a set time interval to the vehicle ahead.

I drive a lot for work, and it is mostly interstate highways. Per the notation above, is where Pilot Assist really succeeds. Cruising on the interstate for many miles is a piece of cake. Set the desired speed, following distance, and Pilot Assist maintains said speed, distance and will keep the car centered in the lane.

It works pretty well. It greatly reduces driving fatigue and makes the car drive like it is on rails. Most of the time. As stated before, it is an assistance device and the driver is always responsible for ensuring the car does what it needs to do. This comes into play when there are sharp curves, when the road splits, or when line markers are not visible.

Pilot Assist interacts with the driver, who should therefore not wait for the steering assistance from Pilot Assist but should always be prepared to increase his/her own steering input, especially in bends.

When the car approaches an exit or if the lane splits, the driver should steer towards the desired lane so that Pilot Assist must detect the desired direction.

Pilot Assist does a great job of centering the vehicle when it comes to small curves or variations of the road, however I have noticed it tends to give up and expect the driver to take over when there is too much lateral force in the vehicle. Almost as if Pilot Assist has a limit on how much it can turn when lateral force is applied to the vehicle, such as in a sharper curve.

On longer, less sharp curves, it keeps the car within the lines of the road, however it is a little choppy. Possibly, because it does not have a long enough view to see that the turn continues. It wants to straighten out, but you are still on a curve, so it doesn't feel smooth going back and forth. That being said, if you, as you are supposed to, increase steering input it tends to smooth out to an acceptable degree.

If you were to compare how Tesla's AutoPilot, via Navigate on AutoPilot, would handle said curve. AutoPilot would blow Pilot Assist out of the water. AutoPilot would stay "on the rails". It would automatically slow down to allow for a more smooth approach and handle the sharp curve as any other driver would. That being said, Tesla's system is nowhere near perfect. Depending on the degree of curvature, the slowing down feature comes at an unnatural point in the turn. Rather than occurring before, as an organic driver would, it slows down mid-turn. This comes off as a little "janky" and non-human feel.

Again, that is simply the nature of two different approaches that attempt to solve different problems. Pilot Assist is doing what it was designed to do. It was never meant to be a self-driving device.

I find that the distance keeping that Pilot Assist offers is adequate. The closest option leaves a little less than a car and a half of distance. In heavy traffic this is often enough space for someone to unnecessarily squeeze in front of you. In my experience, that is an issue with almost every automatic cruise control. The furthest option allows for plenty of space between the vehicle in front. I'll occasionally use this when there is a truck in front of me, in an attempt to avoid any rocks that will inevitably be kicked up.

In stop and go traffic Pilot Assist handles fantastically. It will keep you in the center of the lane and maintain a good following distance. When you come to a complete stop, for longer than a few seconds, you will need to nudge the accelerator to confirm the continuation of Pilot Assist. If you do not nudge the accelerator and the vehicle in front of you starts to pull away, you'll get a notification asking you if you are ready to continue. Nudging the accelerator will continue Pilot Assist assistance.

Ready to drive notification
The vehicle's systems can help alert the driver when the vehicle ahead starts driving again.

To help prevent the vehicle from remaining stationary too long and causing traffic disturbances, the Ready to Drive Notification function can provide an audible signal and display a symbol and message in the instrument panel. If the system detects pedestrians or cyclists near the vehicle, notification might not be provided.

Another nice thing about the way Pilot Assist operates with it's integration of Passing Assistance.

Passing assistance begins accelerating and shortens the time interval to the vehicle ahead for a short period of time to facilitate passing. If the passing maneuver is not completed, the time interval will revert to the preset value.

It is a nice feature that temporarily disables Pilot Assist's lane keeping feature when the turn signal is used. Once the lane change has been completed it will re-enable the lane keeping feature. It will also speed up or slow down based on the new lane. This allows for you to freely change lanes without the need to manually disable and re-enable Pilot Assist.

I know those with regular Tesla AutoPilot(not Navigate on AutoPilot that is included with FSD) often complain that they need to disable AutoPilot, make their lane change, then re-enable AutoPilot. I can understand how this would be annoying to perform on every lane change.

The way Pilot Assist handles this situation is great in my opinion. That being said, Tesla's auto lane change is fantastic. Since Polestar does not offer this feature, Lane Change Assistance is a nice alternative.

I do not have many complaints about Volvo's Pilot Assist. I did a lot of research going into Polestar and I knew what to expect with Pilot Assist. My only real complaint is there are times that it really likes to favor the right side of the road. This is a little unnerving when in the left lane passing a tractor-trailer and it is hugging the dotted lines. I have come across a few posts on the internet that reflect my experience. Some to worse degrees such as hitting the rumble strips.

According to Polestar if it is not positioning you correctly you should turn it off. Not an ideal solution.

If Pilot Assist does not position the car in an appropriate way in the lane, it is recommended to turn Pilot Assist off or switch to Adaptive cruise control*.

Again, it is not all the time, that this occurs. I would say 95% of the time it's centering is bang on. It is possible that this occurs when road markings are not 100% perfect or something is obstructing the camera's view, however I have had it occur on roads with perfectly good lane markings. So it is possible there is something else at play.

Overall, I'm excited to see what Volvo/Polestar does to improve this system. It will get compared to Tesla's AutoPilot. It will get compared to other lane keeping assistance programs. There are benefits and draw backs from all systems available today. Fortunetly, these systems and newer systems will continue to improve driver's safety.

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