The auto explore function, especially with multiple ships using it has always been less than stellar. They seem to get in a conga line and then go about the most inefficient way to explore the map, doubling back and forth.
Yes, Exactly, except it seems to work fine with one ship. Also, multiple auto-survey seems to work fine as well. It seems like a glitch. It seems to happen even if I build a ship, set to auto explore, start building another ship, a few turns later setting it to auto explore. The ship will set a different course until they come near each other and then they will conga line and double back.
Perhaps they need to make auto explore function like auto survey. The AI takes the scout, gets the coordinates of the nearest unexplored star system (unseen by the user) and sets a course near that system. The next scout sets a course for a different star system. And so on.
The only other method to improve this function would be to use compass points (N, NE, NW, S, SE, SW, etc) to guide the scouts which way they should go, and then the scout would just move further and further out, until it hits the edge of the maximum range, then it would double back on a similar course, but one that takes it thru unexplored space.