2.16.17+ Autosteer Problems - Is It Just Me?

[SomeJoe7777]

Ever since firmware 2.16.17 (and in the 2 other firmware versions I've had on the car since then, 2.17.37 and 2.17.95) I have had major issues with autosteer. I'm kind of worried that maybe something is wrong with my vehicle specifically because if everyone was having the same issues I am due to firmware, this forum would be lit up by now.

The last version of firmware where I had autosteer working very well and consistent with how it has always behaved was 2.14.77. My next update after that was 2.16.17.

Here is what I'm experiencing:

• Frequent loss of the lane markers in the instrument cluster. The blue lines will randomly disappear and then reappear even when the lane stripe is plainly visible. This behavior is worst when using autosteer in the left lane of a freeway, where the left lane marker is yellow vice white. I drove today on Houston's Westpark Tollway (as I do almost every day) for around 15 minutes, and the car was unable to acquire the left-hand lane stripe for about 50-75% of that time. The right-hand lane stripe will get lost sometimes too, but not nearly as often.
• Inordinately long times to initially acquire lane stripes to even enable the autosteer function. Previously, after entering the freeway via the entrance ramp, the right-hand lane stripe usually takes a second or two to show up because the entrance ramp has to end and the line has to become straight. It's taking my autosteer sometimes 5-8 seconds after the line becomes straight for it to appear in the instrument cluster.
• The lane markers in the instrument cluster will frequently shift positions, going from straight to angled to curved and back when the actual lane stripes are remaining straight.
• The detected lane width frequently changes. The lane will be a certain width on the instrument cluster, then all of a sudden get wider or narrower. If the width change occurs only on one side, the car believes it is no longer centered within the lane and will rather abruptly move to one side to where it thinks the lane center is (which is almost always incorrect). A few seconds later the lane width will change back to what it was before, with an opposite-direction abrupt move.
• Over the past 2 weeks, I've had 4 separate incidents of red-hands "take over immediately" alerts. I haven't seen these in months. I think the most recent one I got before this would have to be back in a 7.0 version of firmware.
  
• I have had the car physically drive out of the lane on a few occasions, which I have never seen before (activating the lane departure warning).
  
• Autosteer has previously navigated freeway sections with Botts Dots very successfully under 7.1 (I have a video of that from my own car at the end of this post). With 2.16.17+, I have not been able to navigate a Botts Dots section of the freeway, including the exact same section seen in the video. The car will drive out of the lane and I have to take over.
• I have no idea if this is related or not, but it started about the same time as the autosteer problems: I'm frequently losing Internet access. Randomly, map tiles will stop loading, Slacker stops streaming, and web browser won't work. The LTE signal shows good (usually at least 3 bars), but no connectivity. Every once in a while, connectivity will come back on its own if I wait 3-5 minutes, but more often I have to reboot the CID to get it back. I'm now having to reboot about once a day (sometimes twice a day) for this.

All this time, the car has not shown a single error, alert, or warning. It thinks everything is peachy.

I have heavily used autosteer since it was released last year, including a 3000+ mile trip with the very first version of 7.0. In every firmware release since that time, in my experience there have been gradual/incremental/slight improvements in autosteer functionality. In this release, the functionality has gone backwards to the point where I have to say it's the worst version released so far, including the very initial 7.0 version. I no longer can really trust it. At a minimum, 7.0 would keep itself in the lane or alert me to take over. In this version, it might drive out of the lane on its own with no warning.

Is anyone else having any of these experiences with 2.16.17+ ?

My vehicle is an 85D, April 2015 delivery.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

I can't say I have noticed all of the issues you mention, but I have to agree that autosteer appears to degraded in the last couple of updates, or at least not improved. I have had it depart the lane a few times. Admittedly, these were on fairly sharp curves (i.e., exit ramp jughandles) at low speed so it wasn't a safety issue. But this is not behavior I observed previously. Also, the tendency to dart back-and-forth when cresting a hill with no traffic to follow hasn't gotten any better either.

Regarding the "take over now" message, I have only seen this a handful of times since 7.0 (and 10000+ miles), and not at all in recent builds. So you may have an issue. Perhaps you have a camera issues as this would be consistent with losing the lane markers.

 

[thimel]

I'm not having such problems. Sounds like you should take your car into the service center.

 

[GoTslaGo]

You should also report your problems to [email protected]

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Perhaps you have a camera issues as this would be consistent with losing the lane markers.

This is exactly what the symptoms feel like -- that the camera can only barely see the lane markers and is guessing where they are a lot of the time.

I have a service appointment scheduled for tomorrow for annual maintenance and a few other minor unrelated issues. I called the service center last night and added this troubleshooting to their list, so we will see what they find.

 

[davidc18]

Ever since firmware 2.16.17 (and in the 2 other firmware versions I've had on the car since then, 2.17.37 and 2.17.95) I have had major issues with autosteer. I'm kind of worried that maybe something is wrong with my vehicle specifically because if everyone was having the same issues I am due to firmware, this forum would be lit up by now.

The last version of firmware where I had autosteer working very well and consistent with how it has always behaved was 2.14.77. My next update after that was 2.16.17.

Here is what I'm experiencing:

• Frequent loss of the lane markers in the instrument cluster. The blue lines will randomly disappear and then reappear even when the lane stripe is plainly visible. This behavior is worst when using autosteer in the left lane of a freeway, where the left lane marker is yellow vice white. I drove today on Houston's Westpark Tollway (as I do almost every day) for around 15 minutes, and the car was unable to acquire the left-hand lane stripe for about 50-75% of that time. The right-hand lane stripe will get lost sometimes too, but not nearly as often.
• Inordinately long times to initially acquire lane stripes to even enable the autosteer function. Previously, after entering the freeway via the entrance ramp, the right-hand lane stripe usually takes a second or two to show up because the entrance ramp has to end and the line has to become straight. It's taking my autosteer sometimes 5-8 seconds after the line becomes straight for it to appear in the instrument cluster.
• The lane markers in the instrument cluster will frequently shift positions, going from straight to angled to curved and back when the actual lane stripes are remaining straight.
• The detected lane width frequently changes. The lane will be a certain width on the instrument cluster, then all of a sudden get wider or narrower. If the width change occurs only on one side, the car believes it is no longer centered within the lane and will rather abruptly move to one side to where it thinks the lane center is (which is almost always incorrect). A few seconds later the lane width will change back to what it was before, with an opposite-direction abrupt move.
• Over the past 2 weeks, I've had 4 separate incidents of red-hands "take over immediately" alerts. I haven't seen these in months. I think the most recent one I got before this would have to be back in a 7.0 version of firmware.
  
• I have had the car physically drive out of the lane on a few occasions, which I have never seen before (activating the lane departure warning).
  
• Autosteer has previously navigated freeway sections with Botts Dots very successfully under 7.1 (I have a video of that from my own car at the end of this post). With 2.16.17+, I have not been able to navigate a Botts Dots section of the freeway, including the exact same section seen in the video. The car will drive out of the lane and I have to take over.
• I have no idea if this is related or not, but it started about the same time as the autosteer problems: I'm frequently losing Internet access. Randomly, map tiles will stop loading, Slacker stops streaming, and web browser won't work. The LTE signal shows good (usually at least 3 bars), but no connectivity. Every once in a while, connectivity will come back on its own if I wait 3-5 minutes, but more often I have to reboot the CID to get it back. I'm now having to reboot about once a day (sometimes twice a day) for this.

All this time, the car has not shown a single error, alert, or warning. It thinks everything is peachy.

I have heavily used autosteer since it was released last year, including a 3000+ mile trip with the very first version of 7.0. In every firmware release since that time, in my experience there have been gradual/incremental/slight improvements in autosteer functionality. In this release, the functionality has gone backwards to the point where I have to say it's the worst version released so far, including the very initial 7.0 version. I no longer can really trust it. At a minimum, 7.0 would keep itself in the lane or alert me to take over. In this version, it might drive out of the lane on its own with no warning.

Is anyone else having any of these experiences with 2.16.17+ ?

My vehicle is an 85D, April 2015 delivery.


Have had many of the same issues. I've sent several emails to servicena@.... Hope that the next update fixes the 'fixes'

 

[sorka]

My MS lost the lane markers last night on the way home on a stretch of road with clear unfaded high contrast stripes. It started with losing one side, and then the other several times which cause the car to zig zag. Then it lost both lane markers for about 10 seconds. Again, these were clear, white and nearly black asphalt at about 11:00 PM at night. No oncoming headlights. In fact, there were no cars in front or behind for at least 500 feet in either direction.

What's worse is that it didn't signal me to take over or put my hands on the steering wheel.

 

[davidc18]

My MS lost the lane markers last night on the way home on a stretch of road with clear unfaded high contrast stripes. It started with losing one side, and then the other several times which cause the car to zig zag. Then it lost both lane markers for about 10 seconds. Again, these were clear, white and nearly black asphalt at about 11:00 PM at night. No oncoming headlights. In fact, there were no cars in front or behind for at least 500 feet in either direction.

What's worse is that it didn't signal me to take over or put my hands on the steering wheel.

Had this happen and sent in email to serviceNA.... - service center called less than an hour later. they are going over the logs and wanted some additional details. Will be interested if they find anything.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I got the car back today, they say they did not find anything wrong with the hardware. They did upgrade to the latest firmware (2.18.18) and they did a camera calibration. Between those two items I will test my autosteer in the coming days and see if I notice an improvement.

 

[Edmond]

Yes if the camera is too high it loses the lane markers. Radar is adjustable too.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I've been driving with 2.18.18 for 8 days now and did a 500 mile trip today.

Autosteer may be slightly better than I first reported in this thread, but not much. There were times today when it was driving out of the lane every 2 minutes as soon as one of the lines wasn't present (due to an exit, turn lane, etc.). The system is so unreliable now it's hardly worth it to use.

I'll send an e-mail to service NA and see what they say, but I guarantee this is a firmware issue. Whatever they were trying to do in 2.16.17+ to improve it in some areas drastically broke it in others.

Seriously, no one else is seeing this? I find this difficult to believe.

 

[kort677]

I don't think mine is as bad as you say yours is however AP seems to have regressed a bit, my car is diving for exits again

 

[davidc18]

I've been driving with 2.18.18 for 8 days now and did a 500 mile trip today.

Autosteer may be slightly better than I first reported in this thread, but not much. There were times today when it was driving out of the lane every 2 minutes as soon as one of the lines wasn't present (due to an exit, turn lane, etc.). The system is so unreliable now it's hardly worth it to use.

I'll send an e-mail to service NA and see what they say, but I guarantee this is a firmware issue. Whatever they were trying to do in 2.16.17+ to improve it in some areas drastically broke it in others.

Seriously, no one else is seeing this? I find this difficult to believe.

I have had issues lately that I also reported via serviceNA... - my SC is involved in reviewing the logs. Nothing to report from them but from my point of view, autosteer is less reliably finding the edges of the lanes and wandering more often between the lane edges. All of this driving is between Weston and Miami on I75, I27, 826 & 836. All roads that earlier version had no trouble with.

 

[DDotJ]

My AP kind of went haywire on the 5 fwy last night, I've gone this route countless times over the past year with AP. For some reason, last night my car decided to swerve inside its own lane multiple times and it also lost the right side lane markings in a carpool lane and tried to run into the right side concrete barrier. Had to take over multiple times.

 

[DoubleE]

It's interesting to read the issues being described above.

I took delivery of a refreshed Model S this week, and the Autopilot seems to be working flawlessly. *Granted, I don't have anything to compare it to, however I have never had to intervene (yet).