Dave,
I still consider myself a newbie, as well, but I will share some pointers I have learned that I believe are true.
You have to be sure the nav system has had time to stabilize before you go to Auto. I have had my zero turn mower take off at high speed in the wrong direction when I did not. It can take several minutes for the AHRS to stabilize. I would let the rover sit still in a good location for the gps to settle for at least 5 minutes before you switch to Auto.
The GPS and compass are critical. Until recently, with my large rover, I could not perform a full compass calibration. A new cal procedure (Testers needed for in-flight compass learning) was recently introduced that made it possible to cal and that has improved my Auto performance a good bit.
I’m pretty sure you do not have to leave the Cruise Learning turned on for a period of time. You simply get your rover traveling at your approximate desired cruise speed in manual and momentarily flip on and back off the Cruise Learning. You will see that the speed and throttle position are copied into the tuning screen at that moment.
I’m sure more experienced folks will chime in and help you more.
Good luck!