Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Adaptive Cruise Control (experience post FW v6.1)

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
My experience is completely different, I just got back from a 60 mile drive (fwy though), worked flawlessly. I drove the whole way without touching the gas or brake. (and averaged 300 wH/mile!)

did you notice how fast it reacts when someone suddenly switch in front of you? I had to quickly brake because i did not feel it was reacting (at least fast enough for me to feel comfortable )
 
Today I got the collision alert but car didn't stop.

According to the current release notes, a Model S with the full sensor set and v6.1 will brake to a stop when TACC is active, but not otherwise.

There's a collision warning feature right now, but not a braking/mitigation feature. (I expect the crash mitigation functionality will show up on autopilot cars in future updates, but that's just a guess.)
Walter

thx
 
did you notice how fast it reacts when someone suddenly switch in front of you? I had to quickly brake because i did not feel it was reacting (at least fast enough for me to feel comfortable )

I have NOT had to touch the brakes while on TACC. I've had my foot ready in a few cases, but relied on the tacc to react. It has aggressively braked though.
 
It definitely waits longer than I would to start slowing for things and ends up using the friction brakes at the last moment. It does work, but seems inefficient. Makes me wonder how far ahead it can actually track/see the vehicle in front.
 
It definitely waits longer than I would to start slowing for things and ends up using the friction brakes at the last moment. It does work, but seems inefficient. Makes me wonder how far ahead it can actually track/see the vehicle in front.

From what I've seen, I'd say close to 150-200 yards. It's a long way.
 
I always leave the CC button on, so engaging requires nothing more than a flick of the stalk.

That is what I do as well. It makes using the CC very simple. The little light on the stalk does not bother me. The onscreen icons are clear. I adapted to how it works very quickly, despite the fact that my other cars CC operation was quite different.

Every car manufacturer implements CC differently. There is no standard. And no one implementation will satisfy everyone. I am always amused by the wide range of reactions to the same UI.
 
Last edited:
has anyone else experienced this?
TACC is on, cruise at 40mph, coming to traffic light and almost 3 car length to the cars in front, the speed was not reduced enough - it was slowing down though, still at about 20mph, I had to quickly step on the brake to stop it.

Is it only using regen to slow or brake is also used?
also, right before it was to slow down, I was fiddling with the stalk to adjust the speed - still struggling with adjusting by 1 or 2 miles, as it simply wants to adjust to the 5 mile increment... not sure if it was confused or what...
but definitely be very cautious and be ready to brake at any time!
This is more of a collision avoidance which or can not do fully. So far it is meant more for moving traffic and Highway. Coming up on a car stopped fully will not work well yet. If that car in front is even moving at 5 mph, the Tacc will react. Same as mb distronic plus.

It's the same as driving going behind a parked car. It won't stop.

My guess it disregards fully stopped objects like parked cars.
 
did you notice how fast it reacts when someone suddenly switch in front of you? I had to quickly brake because i did not feel it was reacting (at least fast enough for me to feel comfortable )
It is quite reactive vs mb system. The collision sign will come up. Radio will mute. Be prepared but the car will slow if you let it.

I do not think it will apply maximum Brakes as if your fully slamming the abs pulsating brakes though.
 
Obviously people's frame of reference is part of it, but there is no way to set current speed without disengaging the cruise - that is annoying, because using the gas pedal is often the best way to adjust speed when the speed limit increases. Also, no matter how one thinks about it, it is illogical to have two ways of pushing the lever to set speed/engage the cruise (up or down). I would say these two observations, at least, are not really a matter of taste alone. The rest, of course, depends greatly on what one is used to.

Leaving the cruise always on is an option, of course, but the button is pretty easy to press by mistake (say, confuse it with the washer button) - so if you make a mistake, you won't notice until trying to activate the cruise... Also, that light is pretty annoying when it shines in an otherwise dark area of the car when one turns the wheel. Were it not for the light, I too might leave the cruise control on all the time, but even then, it is annoying if someone or something did turn it off and you didn't notice - you will only notice when the cruise fails to engage.

I guess I've been spoiled by better implementations in this regard. :)

For completeness sake, I was pointed that you can set a new current speed (if you've accelerated), by holding the stalk up or down for a while. I will certainly try if I can get into a rhythm with it. Since the up/down stalk now has three functions, small and large increments, as well as setting current speed, it does seem even more confusing logically speaking - but at least the function seems to be there.

Every day is a learning day on TMC and that's good. Thanks to those who helped me out.

I will let the thread get back to ACC talk.
 
autopilot med.jpg


Here are my summary of notes on TACC so far after 30k miles in a mb distronic plus tacc.

Confirmed Tacc can activate at 17 mph and over.

When stopped without any memory speed in Tacc. Pulling leaver to go forward activates Tacc to default of 17 mph.

There is no normal cruise... TACC is on by default and no way to switch to normal cruise.

Cutting in Lane into slower cars the tesla will warn you of impending collision but continue to stop in time. The mb would warn you. Activate brake assist for max braking but turn off distronic plus so you brake manually. This is better. Not full Collison prevention assist "yet" but close. It is quite reactive vs mb system. The collision sign will come up. Radio will mute so you pay attention. Be prepared but the car will slow if you let it. It will not apply maximum Brakes as if your fully slamming the abs pulsating brakes though "yet".

Coming up on a car stopped fully will not work well yet. If that car in front is even moving at 5 mph, the Tacc will lock on and react. Same as mb distronic plus. It's the same as driving going behind a parked car. It won't stop. My guess it disregards fully stopped objects like parked cars.

My speed up to pass feature works as soon as you put the signal on but only on the left signal. And remember it won't pass the set speed on the cruise. Meaning if you have it set for 70 and are going 50 it will work. 70 and 65 you won't see much effect.

The blue tracking on vs grey no tracking is very useful. The mb I would be guessing if it's locked on. This let's me know.

Lastly. On turns this tacc speeds up based on g force. I don't think my Mb did this as well. So I can set to 70. Take an on ramp circle and it will limit to 50 mph etc till the straight highway road is reached .

I got so used to mb distronic plus. I used it 90% of driving, city and highway in 30k miles. Once you trust and understand the limits, it can do so much of the driving for you.

The bad:

Wish it displayed speed your setting cruise at vs the little triangle tick. Hard to tell 75 from 74 or 73 etc. Should show set number for a brief second.
This TACC has a high failure rate so far. My Mb distronic plus did not work only couple times in over 30k miles and that was in very heavy rain or snow where cruise was dangerous anyways.

My Tesla acc failed to turn on already today for about three segments of 15 on my driving last few days. It says Cruise not available. I tried stopping and turning power off, no fix. Tried to leave car for a few minutes... fixed. Tried soft reset with wheel scroll buttons.. fixed. It randomly does not work. My sensor, windshield, and radar were clean all 3 times.

I am trying to debug this, my first hypothesis is that possibly setting cruise to early when entering vehicle before it sees any speed signs and the speed limit indicator is a dash mark vs solid line cause it to fail. Still working on figuring if that's the reason.

I do not think i am able to turn on TACC to the speed limit setting. It always just goes to the speed I am traveling. In theory you should be able to drive at 40 and the car sees a speed limit of 55, it your threshold is +9mph then the tick mark is at 64 and pulling for 1/2 sec should turn TACC to 64mph, but i seem to always get it setting at my current 40mph speed. Maybe operator error, if anyone has this work properly please report back method used.

The New videogame autopilot display with all the autopilot features on the new website seem "insane". Can't wait!

By autopilot video game display I mean the picture above which is the one on the Tesla Autopilot option on the order page... not that there is some video game out.

 


The New videogame autopilot display with all the autopilot features on the new website seem "insane". Can't wait!

By autopilot video game display I mean the picture above which is the one on the Tesla Autopilot option on the order page... not that there is some video game out.


I think the "video game" display is quite clever and will be really useful in the future. The car is reflecting back to you its understanding of the world around it, which not only gives you things like blindspot warning that you might not see otherwise, but makes it easy to quickly compare the car's grasp of the situation with what you see (cars in front of you, lane lines, etc.) It's a pity the real time energy usage goes away with the AP display, but it's probably a better use of the real estate.

I wonder how Tesla is planning to notify blind spots when autopilot isn't active? It'd be nice if it had "passive" notification like the AP display provides somehow - as in, let you know in real time when you don't have a turn signal on by something on the displays somewhere.
Walter
 
I do not think i am able to turn on TACC to the speed limit setting. It always just goes to the speed I am traveling. In theory you should be able to drive at 40 and the car sees a speed limit of 55, it your threshold is +9mph then the tick mark is at 64 and pulling for 1/2 sec should turn TACC to 64mph, but i seem to always get it setting at my current 40mph speed. Maybe operator error, if anyone has this work properly please report back method used.

Thanks for the analysis, drsaab: good stuff.

I have been been successful in resetting the tacc set speed as the speed limit changes, using the following method. 1) Observe the gray line on the speedo (the one that represents the current speed limit plus your desired offset); when the software detects a change in the speed limit the gray line will move to reflect the change. 2) Pull the cc stalk toward you and hold it until the set point changes to match the gray line; release. There are some subtleties I don't yet understand, but that's the basic idea.

For instance, instead of a solid gray line I will occasionally see a dotted line; I'm not sure what it means.
 
You mean looking up from GPS data?

Somehow I doubt the car does much actual guessing - especially since it can't really see the things drivers use to guess (size of turn lanes, nature of access points, divided status, etc.)
Walter

I'm assuming from GPS, I've read it from the prior release notes (I think). I'll try to find the actual wording.

SpeedLimitAssit.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the analysis, drsaab: good stuff.

I have been been successful in resetting the tacc set speed as the speed limit changes, using the following method. 1) Observe the gray line on the speedo (the one that represents the current speed limit plus your desired offset); when the software detects a change in the speed limit the gray line will move to reflect the change. 2) Pull the cc stalk toward you and hold it until the set point changes to match the gray line; release. There are some subtleties I don't yet understand, but that's the basic idea.

For instance, instead of a solid gray line I will occasionally see a dotted line; I'm not sure what it means.
Yes someone posted same on tm.

The dotted line is guessing speed. It does use GPS or memory. I have seen it set speed limit before any signs were on the road.
 
Coming up on a car stopped fully will not work well yet. If that car in front is even moving at 5 mph, the Tacc will lock on and react. Same as mb distronic plus. It's the same as driving going behind a parked car. It won't stop. My guess it disregards fully stopped objects like parked cars.

This has not been my experience so far. I've come up over a hill and had a car in front of me a bit that was stopped at a light. TACC wasn't locked onto anything initially, but eventually saw this car and braked hard. Later than I would have, admittedly, but I had an out (jumping into another lane) if it didn't react and wanted to test it. I got the beeping and collision warning, but it definitely came to a stop on its own behind a fully stopped vehicle in plenty of time. (Was from ~45 MPH)