Anyone else find TACC still not trustworthy?

[hobbes]

What I'm reacting to is the discrepancy between "inevitable collision" and your experience.

I think it is not clear how "inevitable collision" is defined. The Tesla blog says

Automatic Emergency Braking, which will engage in the event of an unavoidable collision in order to reduce risk of impact

That does already not really make sense, because if a collision is unavoidable, risk of impact is 100%.
As you who had the system kick in didn´t crash, the collision was obviously avoidable.
I would say it reacts either in cases when there would be a colllision

A if driver does not brake
or
B even if driver would brake, reaction time would be too slow

I think the system assumes an unexperienced driver to make sure nothing happens, that is somewhere in between A and B. So to an experienced driver that might seem like, "man, why did he emergency break, I could have handled that no problem..."

 

[mmccord]

I think it is not clear how "inevitable collision" is defined. The Tesla blog says


That does already not really make sense, because if a collision is unavoidable, risk of impact is 100%.
As you who had the system kick in didn´t crash, the collision was obviously avoidable.
I would say it reacts either in cases when there would be a colllision

A if driver does not brake
or
B even if driver would brake, reaction time would be too slow

I think the system assumes an unexperienced driver to make sure nothing happens, that is somewhere in between A and B. So to an experienced driver that might seem like, "man, why did he emergency break, I could have handled that no problem..."

I agree. That sentence is not written well. I understood it to say it would lessen the severity of the impact, rather than reducing the chance of impact. As it is written though, it contradicts itself.

 

[ThirdMartini]

I agree. That sentence is not written well. I understood it to say it would lessen the severity of the impact, rather than reducing the chance of impact. As it is written though, it contradicts itself.

My assumption here is that since the car knows distance to target car, it's own speed, the speed differential to the target car and its' own stoping distance based on current speed it can easily calculate the appropriate deceleration rate to stop safely. ( As long as the follow distance is appropriate ). If you are tailgating.. it can slam the brakes but clearly may not stop in time just because of the stoping distance differential or other factors. But when using TAC the car should be following at a safe distance on it's own.. so in this case it should be relatively easy for it to stop safely. ( Though might get rear-ended so still a collision ) My experience seems to favor the later, at least under ideal conditions.

 

[Danal]

It is clear to me that the "inevitable collision" wording is purely liability defense, and has nothing to do with the actual physical operation of the system.


Also... "legal phrasing" not-equal "makes sense when parsed with daily grammar"

 

[brianman]

But note that "Automatic Emergency Braking will re-enable when you next drive."

Yes, and then you have to re-disable it. Just like how Traction Control UI works.

 

[ggenge]

I have had many instances where the cruise is set, and it just does not notice cars stopped ahead, and will continue at full speed until I chicken out and hit the brakes. TACC seems to regularly fail to notice cars stopped in front of it. at 100KM/h it is going WAAAY too fast approaching the stopped cars, even 4 lanes of stopped cars it just does not react at all, and I have to hit the brakes. At 60 KM/h, sometimes it sees the cars stopped, mst of the time it does not. It does seem to be able to follow and stop behind cars that are moving, but ones that are stopped. What have you noticed the car does for you in this situation?

 

[Max*]

I have had many instances where the cruise is set, and it just does not notice cars stopped ahead, and will continue at full speed until I chicken out and hit the brakes. TACC seems to regularly fail to notice cars stopped in front of it. at 100KM/h it is going WAAAY too fast approaching the stopped cars, even 4 lanes of stopped cars it just does not react at all, and I have to hit the brakes. At 60 KM/h, sometimes it sees the cars stopped, mst of the time it does not. It does seem to be able to follow and stop behind cars that are moving, but ones that are stopped. What have you noticed the car does for you in this situation?

Umn... TACC is not supposed to notice STOPPED cars. Did you read the manual?

It has no way to distinguish a stopped car from a parked car from a traffic sign. So it's designed to only locks into MOVING cars, everything else is gravy.

 

[jbcarioca]

I have had many instances where the cruise is set, and it just does not notice cars stopped ahead, and will continue at full speed until I chicken out and hit the brakes. TACC seems to regularly fail to notice cars stopped in front of it. at 100KM/h it is going WAAAY too fast approaching the stopped cars, even 4 lanes of stopped cars it just does not react at all, and I have to hit the brakes. At 60 KM/h, sometimes it sees the cars stopped, most of the time it does not. It does seem to be able to follow and stop behind cars that are moving, but ones that are stopped. What have you noticed the car does for you in this situation?

Setting the time/distance to something greater than 3, say, will give you more distance. I drive with TACC in very dense traffic regularly. It has yet to surprise me. However, if the driver changes lanes, especially near stopped traffic it is very possible to trigger a stop suddenly. I find that the system works just as designed, so I do disconnect it if I know I will switch lanes suddenly near stopped traffic. That avoids the sudden acceleration/deceleration. I personally doubt that any automated system will ever be able to anticipate that situation. If I am too lazy to deal with that, as is frequently the case, I just do not change lanes, which results in seamless following of stop and go traffic, slavishly following the car ahead of me.

 

[joer00]

Umn... TACC is not supposed to notice STOPPED cars. Did you read the manual?

It has no way to distinguish a stopped car from a parked car from a traffic sign. So it's designed to only locks into MOVING cars, everything else is gravy.

Got the latest software update and TACC is FANTASTIC, very close to be 100 % perfect now. The standing car is indeed still a problem, but as stated before, is in the manual therefore no complains against Tesla. From a technical standpoint it looks like the radar only reports distance and not speed which the later in my opinion would fix the problem.

 

[Soolim]

I have had many instances where the cruise is set, and it just does not notice cars stopped ahead, and will continue at full speed until I chicken out and hit the brakes. TACC seems to regularly fail to notice cars stopped in front of it.

It will notice car that stops if your MS is ACTIVELY tracking it and the driver display cruise indicator is blue. If cruise indicator is grey when you approach the stopped car, your car is not tracking it and therefore you need to take control.

Say your car is in cruise control and due to the following distance is beyond the tracking setting, the cruise display is grey, and when you approach the car in front of you it will start tracking it, provided the car in front is still moving. If that car finally stops, while you are actively tracking it (cruise display in blue color), your car will slow down and stop.

Hope this helps.

 

[LetsGoFast]

Umn... TACC is not supposed to notice STOPPED cars. Did you read the manual?

It has no way to distinguish a stopped car from a parked car from a traffic sign. So it's designed to only locks into MOVING cars, everything else is gravy.

I used to think this too, but I have disproved this hypothesis. If you have your TACC set to a slow speed, like 25, it will detect and lock onto stopped cars in time to brake just fine. If your TACC is set to a higher speed, it will not detect them in time to stop in way I'm comfortable with permitting. Maybe it could have detected them and skidded to a panic stop, but my zeal to test things isn't that great.

 

[rclams]

Folks, you're making me nervous with your low TACC Settings on highways.

I use a TACC Setting of 1 for "Stop & Creep" situations, which keeps me a little less than 1 car length from the car in front of me and keeps people from cutting into my lane unless they are signaling and I let them in.

But for any moving traffic situations, I'm using nothing less than 5 on city streets and definitely 7 on the highway. (A setting of 7 still provides drafting benefits behind buses and semi's).

 

[Beryl]

Folks, you're making me nervous with your low TACC Settings on highways.

I use a TACC Setting of 1 for "Stop & Creep" situations, which keeps me a little less than 1 car length from the car in front of me and keeps people from cutting into my lane unless they are signaling and I let them in.

But for any moving traffic situations, I'm using nothing less than 5 on city streets and definitely 7 on the highway. (A setting of 7 still provides drafting benefits behind buses and semi's).

You are responding to posts from August 2015. I'm thinking that most folks are using higher settings these days. Mine is permanently set at 7.

 

[anxman]

I always use 7 except in certain situations like stop and go traffic where I'll use 5.

 

[malcolm]

It will notice car that stops if your MS is ACTIVELY tracking it and the driver display cruise indicator is blue. If cruise indicator is grey when you approach the stopped car, your car is not tracking it and therefore you need to take control.

Should these colors be brighter? Should they flash? Should they be customizable and saved to a "theme" - much like a computer interface?

 

[NikeWings]

Should these colors be brighter? Should they flash? Should they be customizable and saved to a "theme" - much like a computer interface?

It is neon blue, as are the displayed lane markers and is accompanied by on/off chimes. No confusion.
There is also an easter egg, if flashing rainbow colors are your thing.

 

[tnt1971]

Today the TACC malfunctioned for the first time. I was in the left lane with no one within 10 car lengths in front of me and it nailed the brakes and set off the collision alarm. At first I could not figure out why but I remembered a second before it happened there was an aluminum foil small bag blowing around in the lane. It looked like a potato chip bag, but it went by fast. I believe it temporarily covered the radar sensor and triggered the emergency brake. Luckily no one was on my tail.

I used it for over two hours today and it worked flawlessly otherwise.

 

[Stiction]

I have had many instances where the cruise is set, and it just does not notice cars stopped ahead, and will continue at full speed until I chicken out and hit the brakes. TACC seems to regularly fail to notice cars stopped in front of it. at 100KM/h it is going WAAAY too fast approaching the stopped cars, even 4 lanes of stopped cars it just does not react at all, and I have to hit the brakes. At 60 KM/h, sometimes it sees the cars stopped, mst of the time it does not. It does seem to be able to follow and stop behind cars that are moving, but ones that are stopped. What have you noticed the car does for you in this situation?

TACC does NOT see stopped vehicles it wasn't tracking before. The tech reason is that it uses the doppler that is not zero to filter out
all the 'chaff' of trees, overhanging signs etc.. It knows your speed and ignores stuff at 0 relative to you.

AFAIK, if you come around a corner and there is a stopped car, TACC will not stop. AEB will engauge when the radar return is so huge that it's pretty sure you are in trouble..and then slow you down. But it will not be able to stop in time to avoid a crash.

Thats my understanding.

 

[EVie'sDad]

The problem is with the operator, not the technology. Never trust your life or those of your family or loved ones to unproven technology, no matter what you claim they 'told' you. Gen 2.0 of AP is going to have more hardware, more cpu and be able to stop at lights and stop signs and will handle obstacles in the roadway much better than Gen 1.0 of AP.

 

[kort677]

The problem is with the operator, not the technology. Never trust your life or those of your family or loved ones to unproven technology, no matter what you claim they 'told' you. Gen 2.0 of AP is going to have more hardware, more cpu and be able to stop at lights and stop signs and will handle obstacles in the roadway much better than Gen 1.0 of AP.

I use ap and tacc all the times that I can for me it is an interactive system, I am always monitoring it and I turn it on and off as conditions warrant. for example on a highway with stop lights, I'll disengage the system when the light ahead turns red rather than letting the tacc make the stop, or if I'm on a curvy road I'll take over. AP and TACC are great tools to use, if used properly.