HD's AI

[Connavar]

Well, the way AP has typically been implemented is that it hands control of your ship over to the computer

Agreed.

As in, the exact same way all the AI are controlled. In most of the games, the AI was pretty slow, so AP was pretty slow. In HD, the Elite AI are kind of fast, so the AP should be just as fast. No big surprise.

I disagree here:

1) The AP makes you go faster than the Elite AI does when it doesn't use
the AP itself.

Whenever I use it (or anyone), my ship will go noticeably faster than the
Elite AI and should normally overtake other ships, if not then will get me
much closer to them.

Another way to prove it is to compare the Elite AI vs AP on chenghou long left
curve, Elite AI will never get stuck, while you would, so it's obviously not
the same, in fact it's because the AP is using the same racing line as the AI
but with more speed, which causes some effects such as going higher with the
bumps (and getting stuck) or using more weird airbraking (first curve on
chenghou), just because it'll follow the line perfectly.

I would venture a guess that if you knock the AI down to "easy", the AP will be slow again. And AP will only be "fast" if you're using Elite AI.

Just a theory.

Somebody test it out and let us know maybe? 8 )

2) Speed doesn't vary with the AI difficulty.
The effects you notice on chenghou are the same on any difficulty and even
online, they would be much reduced at a lower speed, and they're not so...
same speed.