Any way to eliminate the "Traffic Aware" part of cruise control?

[Wingsy]

Teslas Adaptive Cruise dead last? I don't think there is another system on the market that I would even trust to slow for other cars appropriately. Is this thread for real? I don't think I understand the issue? Do you all have some TACC system from some parallel universe? 6 months ago everyone was bitching about having only regular cruise control available unless they paid for autopilot.

I guess I have never used Cruise Control anywhere except on the freeway. Is this a thing lots of people do?

There certainly IS another system on the market that you can trust with its adaptive cruise. I drove one of those for 7 years, on the freeway, on rural roads, and (where it really earned its keep) on some very curvy mountain roads of NC. In all that time it never applied braking except when it needed to (except approaching curves, stoplights, signs, etc). Its forward collision alarm never went off except when hard braking was needed (like Tesla, it couldn't/wouldn't apply very hard braking - that was up to the driver). If I had to complain about it, it would be its slow acceleration after a slowdown. So, it CAN be done. In 3 other adaptive cruise systems I tested recently, none of them except Chrysler could track a car on a mountain road. I know this because they couldn't track on moderate curves. That Charger I had would go through mountain roads behind another car like it was being towed by it, even when all I could see was1/4 of its rear end. When I bought my Tesla I just knew it would be better than that. I just knew it. Tesla!

But the real issue here is that TACC will often brake pretty hard (0.15Gs to be exact) when there is nothing ahead to warrant a slow down at all. And for me at least, it does it fairly often. I'd say once every 10-20 miles when I'm in traffic, and occasionally when I'm alone on the road. Most of my driving is on rural roads. I don't use it on city streets. On the open freeway with not many cars around it does OK. Just OK, because on occasion it's done it there too.

What I'm hoping for is people with your experience to chime in and say it never or very very seldom occurs. That would tell me that my car needs a sensor adjustment or something. Anything fixable.

 

[North75]

I’ve experienced a few brake checks here and there, but in my mind they are few and far between. I’m thinking maybe once a month or so. They also seem to occur less and less with each software update.
I’d really like to see what it looks like from a following car. Even though they can feel abrupt, I’m not sure my speed is changing much because the duration is usually very short.
Who knows maybe some cars behave differently?

 

[TLej]

It does seem silly that Tesla could not offer regular curse to those who request it. I can kinda understand that if you have AP they want to keep the behavior consistent. If you have AP (the lower level one that comes included now) you essentially have two levels (TACC or TACC+lane keeping). Might be unwise to have dumb cruse or TACC+lane keeping as your options in the car. Correct me if I am wrong though, I have a 2018 with no AP so have never used it.

Glad I got my car last year when dumb cruse was an option, because it suits my needs better. Out of curiosity, has any recent buyer who would have preferred dumb cruse and no AP actually ask Tesla if they could get switched over by service? I realize not many would want to give that up, but a few probably do.

It's just software. Volvo's system has regular cruise, adaptive cruise, and adaptive with lane-keeping. From a software standpoint, regular cruise means keep the users's set speed without using input from radar or cameras. Adaptive says keep user's setpoint and use radar to measure distance to vehicle ahead, allow radar signal to override user setpoint. Adaptive plus lane keep uses adaptive logic and adds camera data to help keep the vehicle centered. Seems like it would be pretty easy for Tesla to do.

 

[Saghost]

It's just software. Volvo's system has regular cruise, adaptive cruise, and adaptive with lane-keeping. From a software standpoint, regular cruise means keep the users's set speed without using input from radar or cameras. Adaptive says keep user's setpoint and use radar to measure distance to vehicle ahead, allow radar signal to override user setpoint. Adaptive plus lane keep uses adaptive logic and adds camera data to help keep the vehicle centered. Seems like it would be pretty easy for Tesla to do.

Easy - and dangerous.

There are some cars that put blind cruise and adaptive cruise buttons on the wheel just a couple inches apart. I can't imagine what those companies are thinking.

Tesla already gets so much bad press over "Autopilot" accidents - half of which turn out to happen while AP wasn't engaged.

Can you imagine how much worse it'd be if Tesla allowed blind cruise to be engaged in a way that's at all similar to TACC?

"The car didn't slow down. Isn't TACC supposed to stop and go? I can't believe it just plowed right into the van. I can't believe it waited to the last second and then slammed on the brakes."

Maybe if someone like the OP wants to permanently disable TACC for all profiles in the car Tesla should allow something by calling the service center, but having both options easily accessible to the driver is begging for an accident caused by mode confusion.

 

[Msjulie]

Maybe if someone like the OP wants to permanently disable TACC for all profiles in the car Tesla should allow something by calling the service center, but having both options easily accessible to the driver is begging for an accident caused by mode confusion.

I don't agree here though I see your point - to a point. Our Audi has blind spot warnings lights in the mirror, you can't miss them. Subtle but effective. If cruise, or the driver, is not slowing down 'enough' when coming upon another car, that is the place for the collision avoidance warnings to show up and make sounds to get your attention

Perhaps I overestimate the attention span of drivers, I've seen enough to be skeptical, but I still believe the user should have control over their own car. Engage cruise, let it be TACC (which btw older non AP Model 3s like my original LR RWD do not have) and then let the driver change the setting. I believe it can work..

 

[enrico63]

I waited for AP to be enabled for so long (like 2 months) and I am now so disappointed with it.
TACC is useless to my way of driving and very annoying to me and my passengers, when it suddenly brakes for no reason.
I beg Tesla to give an option for re-enabling std cruise control and allow the normal user to disable this TACC nonsense.
It must be very easy to do so at software level and also to indicate it very clearly on panel, so please, Tesla, please give us std CC back (which could cruise up to 180 kmh while TACC can only do 150)

 

[67King]

Easy - and dangerous.

There are some cars that put blind cruise and adaptive cruise buttons on the wheel just a couple inches apart. I can't imagine what those companies are thinking.

Tesla already gets so much bad press over "Autopilot" accidents - half of which turn out to happen while AP wasn't engaged.

Can you imagine how much worse it'd be if Tesla allowed blind cruise to be engaged in a way that's at all similar to TACC?

"The car didn't slow down. Isn't TACC supposed to stop and go? I can't believe it just plowed right into the van. I can't believe it waited to the last second and then slammed on the brakes."

Maybe if someone like the OP wants to permanently disable TACC for all profiles in the car Tesla should allow something by calling the service center, but having both options easily accessible to the driver is begging for an accident caused by mode confusion.

Many OEM's offer this, and it doesnt seem to cause confusion.

For that matter, TACC and AP are co trolled by the same stalk, and it doesnt seem to cause confusion.

But certainly none of it would be as confusing, or dangerous, as these brake checks are to the drivers beside and behind the car when it does it. Reference the video posted where the brake check causes a following truck to nearly jack knife

 

[TLej]

Easy - and dangerous.

There are some cars that put blind cruise and adaptive cruise buttons on the wheel just a couple inches apart. I can't imagine what those companies are thinking.

Tesla already gets so much bad press over "Autopilot" accidents - half of which turn out to happen while AP wasn't engaged.

Can you imagine how much worse it'd be if Tesla allowed blind cruise to be engaged in a way that's at all similar to TACC?

"The car didn't slow down. Isn't TACC supposed to stop and go? I can't believe it just plowed right into the van. I can't believe it waited to the last second and then slammed on the brakes."

Maybe if someone like the OP wants to permanently disable TACC for all profiles in the car Tesla should allow something by calling the service center, but having both options easily accessible to the driver is begging for an accident caused by mode confusion.

I personally don't like Volvo's implementation; it remembers the last setting, so if my wife was on adaptive and then I drive, it catches me off-guard. As well it uses little steering-wheel buttons to scroll between the three modes. Since I rarely drive her car, there's a learning curve each time but she's quite familiar with it and doesn't bother her. Lastly, the little icon in the dash that tells you what mode it's in I find to be too small and not in an obvious location - but at least they give you the choice of how you want the car to control speed.

I think you could easily change access to switch between which type of cruise you're using through the menus on the IC (in an S or X) just like changing the data you're showing on the dash. The industry already has standard icons for the various types of cruise control, so just use the icon and make it appear where the Autopilot icon appears - use a different colour than the blue and white, the icons are quite different so should not be confusing. Have a setting in the main menu, maybe on the Autopilot page, that makes it easy to choose the default behaviour. Heck, default it to TACC or FSD if you want, just give an option to change it.

Not saying I expect it to be done, just that it could be done, probably relatively easily. It goes against Tesla's march towards autonomy, but it gives back some of the flexibility for personal preferences that so many other menus in the car already give. Don't want it? Don't use it, but leave the option there for those that might want it.

 

[Msjulie]

Just curious, are folks sending email to Tesla to request these feature tweaks? According to customer service, they prioritize based on customer feedback.. supposedly...

 

[enrico63]

Just curious, are folks sending email to Tesla to request these feature tweaks? According to customer service, they prioritize based on customer feedback.. supposedly...

how would you do that?

 

[Msjulie]

@enrico63 [email protected]

Also a link on your car support page