Now with a video: Tesla's Autopilot and Autosteer make highway driving a dream

When the driver of a Tesla Model S enables Autopilot and Autosteer, as I did today on Route 17 in northern New Jersey, the car drives itself, slows and accelerates, stays in lane, and follows curves in the road as well as lane shifts.

The speedometer and steering wheel symbols flanking the digital speed display indicate the driver has turned on Autopilot and Autosteer by pulling back twice on the cruise-control stalk.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

No one can claim driving in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area is fun.

But now Tesla Motors has introduced Autopilot and Autosteer, the ultimate cruise control.

Just two quick movements of the cruise-control stalk in a Tesla Model S enables both auto-drive functions.

In stop-and-go traffic on Route 17 south in Paramus today, I took my hands off of the steering wheel and my foot off of the accelerator, and let my Model S drive itself:

The car slowed and accelerated, and followed a lane shift in a construction zone near the Garden State Parkway.

Take a look at a brief video my wife made as we drove past the Tesla Showroom and Service Center on Autopilot and Autosteer:

Self-drive Tesla defeats Route 17

To change lanes, you simply push down or up on the turn-signal stalk.

Relaxing behind the wheel

I have been using cruise control in my Toyota Prius hybrid on the parkway and turnpike for more than a decade as a way of relaxing.

Speed freaks, tailgaters and other aggressive drivers can just go to hell as I maintain a steady speed to the beat of jazz or soothing classical music.

Now, with Autopilot and Autosteer in my Model S, the North Jersey driving experience just got a whole lot calmer.

The software update I received early Friday includes a simplified digital display, above.

At a Tesla Supercharger on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. 

Drivers lining up for gas in New Jersey block access to free Tesla Superchargers

FOUR SUPERCHARGES, NO WAITING: No other Tesla owners were charging their Model S hatchbacks on Sunday afternoon at the Joyce Kilmer Service Area of the New Jersey Turnpike, but drivers of conventional cars were waiting on long gas lines that blocked the entrance to the parking lot, below.

There were more than a half-dozen long lines of cars, SUVs and pickups at the pumps, above, and more arriving by the minute, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I was that "crazy guy in a red car" who was driving through the packed parking lot against traffic on Sunday to reach a free Tesla Supercharger.

Drivers of conventional cars gave me no choice as they backed up at New Jersey Turnpike gas pumps right onto the entrance ramps, blocking the right turn into the parking lot where the four Superchargers are lined up.

I had to drive my Model S clockwise around the gas station plaza, then against traffic past the entrance to the building with the food court and bathrooms.

I had visited the Joyce Kilmer Service Area in East Brunswick once before, but that was on a weekday, when it was far less crowded.

Inside the building on Sunday, the wait at Starbucks Coffee was brief, and I found a dozen empty urinals in the bathroom.

Cheap gas, lead feet

The continuing availability of cheap gas has only aggravated speeding and other aggressive driving on the turnpike, Garden State Parkway and other highways.

I made most of Sunday's round-trip to Willow Grove, Pa., in the middle lane with my cruise control set at 75 mph.

Other vehicles routinely passed on both sides, and I watched in amusement as drivers raced, tailgated and cut each other off or weaved in and out of traffic.

An enormously boxy Chevy Suburban raced past in the fast lane pursued by a Toyota Sequoia, another gas-guzzling SUV.

I didn't see a single state trooper on the New Jersey or Pennsylvania turnpikes.

More than three dozen drivers lined up at the Costco Wholesale gas station in Wayne, N.J., where a gallon of regular was going for $2.09.9 last week. I saw the same price for regular at stations on Essex Street in Lodi, N.J.

SAY 'FRUNK': We took advantage of the storage space in the 'frunk" (truck in front) and in the traditional trunk to move our son to his off-campus college housing in Pennsylvania on Sunday. One man said, "Where's the engine?" Another commented, "I love that."

Saving green at the tollbooth is a big plus for drivers of hybrid and electric cars

Tree trimmed in the shape of a car. (Getty Images)

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Owners of hybrid and all-electric cars know how much they save on gasoline. They're also proud of their role in helping make the air cleaner.

But in New Jersey, New York and other states with toll roads and crossings, green cars also get a break on those dreaded levies. 

The Port Authority, which gouges drivers at the Hudson River crossings, issues a Green Pass, a special E-ZPass that gives discounts to drivers of nine green models, including the Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf.

Those drivers also get toll discounts on one of the most expensive toll roads in the nation, the New Jersey Turnpike (30%), as well as the Garden State Parkway (10%).

But the discounts are given grudgingly -- what the Port Authority euphemistically calls "off peak" -- and many owners aren't aware of the unpublicized Green Pass program.

Cars with a Green Pass pay only $5.50 during off-peak hours, compared to the regular $9 E-ZPass toll.

Still, off-peak hours are restrictive, both on weekdays and weekends: 

On weekdays, off-peak discounts are available between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. On Saturday and Sundays, off-peak deals are in play only before 11 a.m. and after 9 p.m.

New York State has a similar program, Clean Pass.

New Jersey E-ZPass officials look to New York to determine which cars are eligible for the toll discounts:

UPDATE (September 12, 2014):

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has recently added the following vehicle models to the eligibility list:

• 2015 Cadillac ELR (Only models with "L" or "M" in the 5th position of the VIN)
• 2015 Chevrolet Spark
• 2015 Chevrolet Volt (Only models with "C" or "D" in the 5th position of the VIN)
• 2015 Fiat 500e
• 2015 Ford Fusion Energi
• 2015 Kia Soul EV
• 2015 Nissan Leaf
• 2015 Toyota Prius
• 2015 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid

No cross-honoring

Now, it turns out, the Green Pass I have from New Jersey is not honored in New York.

This year and last, I drove to Montreal for the International Jazz Festival in late June, but when I got my E-ZPass statement, I didn't see any discounted tolls on the New York State Thruway.

Today, New York E-ZPass said to get the Green Pass discounts, I would have to open a separate account and pay a $1-a-month administrative fee, like I already do in New Jersey.

The discount in New York is 10% off of tolls, and I'm not sure what I would save on the trip to Montreal would come close to the $12-a-year administrative fees (10/22/14).

Eligibility list

Click on the link below for a list of all eligible vehicles under New York's and New Jersey's Green Pass Discount Plans:

Is your green car eligible?

Let me tell you which cars 'suck' -- and none of them is 'green'

Just when you thought dinosaurs were extinct.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Have you seen a hulking Nissan Armada, an enormous Chevy Suburban or a 5,000-pound Range Rover?

Probably, if you drive the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway or any other highway in America.

Just look into your rear-view mirror and you'll find one of these enormously wasteful vehicles just feet from your rear bumper as the driver brakes hard to avoid punting you off the road.

Despite these big SUVs' thirst for fossil fuel and the hundreds of dollars owners fork over at the pump every week, the ungainly vehicles usually are driven way above the speed limit, tailgating and cutting off drivers of slower cars.

The Armada comes from the same Japanese automaker that produces the all-electric Leaf -- a sure sign Nissan doesn't have its corporate act together on climate change.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across another blog called GAS2, subtitled "GREEN CARS THAT DON'T SUCK."

Really? How can a hybrid, electric or other green car suck? Because you can't burn rubber in one?

The GAS2 site covers racing, and one "sponsored" article reports on a modified Tesla Model S, including a press release that is printed verbatim.

Now, that really sucks.