AP2/EAP starting to show signs of super human abilities

[pilotSteve]

My only question is hydroplaning in heavy rain - the tires are selected for rolling ability - and traction is the complete opposite of fuel efficiency usually.

How was that during the heavy rain and trucks spraying you?

The car felt stable around 70-75 with nothing unseemly about handling hence very little hydroplaning. I am glad however that I topped up my tires to 45 PSI before the trip. Why?

Short answer: keep the tire pressures at maximum allowed for best for wet driving. Wet hydroplaning speed in mph is about 10.3 times the square root of tire pressure in Psi, so about 70 mph (45 psi is placard tire pressure for S). Don't forget to check and top them up. If your pressure drops to 35 that bring hydroplaning speed down to about 60 mph. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

reference from tire rack

 

[SucreTease]

Wet hydroplaning speed in mph is about 10.3 times the square root of tire pressure in Psi

Do you have a source for this? It was not at the TireRack link you provided.

 

[pilotSteve]

Do you have a source for this? It was not at the TireRack link you provided.

Here is a reference with the formula

 

[buttershrimp]

Are you comparing .44 to .42 or .34? In addition to much less swerving when lanes widen/narrow, .4x compared to .3x's other major improvements I've found are:

(1) Being able to make it through an intersection without diving one way
(2) Recognizes lane lines much more reliably, including recognizing some curbs as lane lines again
(3) TACC reacting to slow or stopped cars from a much longer distance than before — I would say it's nearly doubled. IMO AP1 still reacted further away, but this is a lot closer to AP1 now.

I just got .44 up from .42 from my uncorking appointment, and I still see some minor (not nearly as dramatic) improvements going from .42 to .44.


But at any rate, I think the coolest thing I've seen so far that makes me hopeful was @verygreen's discovery that the neural net can label "construction", and upwards/downwards slopes. This is the first time we've seen any evidence that the neural net was capable of more than just the functionality it was revealing to us (lane / car detection). Hopefully traffic lights / signs are also hidden in there or around the corner.

I've also had some good results going to .44 from .42. Check these videos out today... boring but somewhat helpful for low speed intersections where lots of failures happened previously, also lots of high curbs, no room for error. I see this as a very positive sign.

 

[buttershrimp]

 

[Electroman]

In your 2nd video, at 1:05 you are in the middle lane, where the lane was curving and crossing an Xn. But right after the Xn, you are magically in the left lane. How did that happen ?

 

[buttershrimp]

In your 2nd video, at 1:05 you are in the middle lane, where the lane was curving and crossing an Xn. But right after the Xn, you are magically in the left lane. How did that happen ?

Yes, you are good! This was where it failed. It's a hard intersection where even human drivers commonly switch lanes on accident. The line up of lanes is not working in the middle lane at the intersection, but autopilot now successfully makes it through safely in the far left and far right lane! Progress.

 

[cartwright]

Drove from San Diego to Fresno. I'm on .44. Had some strange phantom braking in traffic, it was as if it was either full throttle or braking. I turned off AP and reengaged, and it seemed to be better. I did get some crazy swerving at one point where the lane got crazy wide.

Overall, though, I felt pretty confident with it.

 

[buttershrimp]

In your 2nd video, at 1:05 you are in the middle lane, where the lane was curving and crossing an Xn. But right after the Xn, you are magically in the left lane. How did that happen ?

One last video showing the same thing with respect to maps and lane keeping... get ready to be bored.... or to be exhilarated at 30 mph...

 

[Cooker]

I have an AP2 MS 75 on .46. Car was in SC and loaner was AP1 MS P90D. Aside from testing the 2.6s 0-60 (words fail me), I tested AP. I have to say, whilst there wasn’t a huge amount in it, AP2 was definitely superior IMHO. E.g. I had issues with AP1 locking on to truck in front (blue) then switching to lanes, then truck..all in split seconds and all with violent lurches side to side. Never experienced this in AP2. Also, just less capable than AP2 I’m dealing with anomalies/curvy roads. Incidentally, AP2 is now working well 80% time on minor roads for me in UK, higher % if well marked roads. These are narrow roads where the biggest challenge I have is understeer on tight turns at too high a speed. That will be corrected with GPS integration I guess. Heck, the car even took a mini roundabout (minor swerve required , possibly 15deg minus then plus) whilst following behind another vehicle the other day. My son laughed when I blurted, “no ***** way, that’s unreal.” I use AP whenever possible - keen to give the nnet some decent data to learn from

 

[Cooker]

Thought I'd show you what I was on about above
Smooth as silk.

 

[nico180]

You know it's pretty crazy to record your own driving. Get a fixed mount or permanent dashcam.

 

[kiwi]

Drove from San Diego to Fresno. I'm on .44. Had some strange phantom braking in traffic, it was as if it was either full throttle or braking. I turned off AP and reengaged, and it seemed to be better. I did get some crazy swerving at one point where the lane got crazy wide.

Overall, though, I felt pretty confident with it.

I upgraded to 44 this week, and have the phantom braking too.
Both on corners where you can almost excuse it because there are cars ahead (but in another lane), but also in straight lines with cars in other lanes. And when it brakes... it brakes pretty hard.

 

[sillydriver]

That's great news about the car being able to see the lines in heavy rain.

I like the lines as an additional point of reference even when I'm not using AP. But, with AP1 the lines disappear with any significant rain. So it's good to see a significant improvement in this area with AP2.

This is just a side anecdote, but in the very early days of AP1 - before any nags were introduced - AP1 actually did a great job of driving in heavy rain. I tested it in downpours during daylight a couple times with both hands lightly on the wheel and the blue lines where there even when I could barely see the lanes. But sometime between then and now AP1's ability to do that was greatly reduced. This was probably good, since it was likely staying engaged even though the risk that it would lose lock in those conditions was high.

 

[The Duke]

On our last country trip we got caught in a downpour that caused us to stop. Nicki still had the car in front and lane markers correct on the dash display even though we could not see past the hood.

 

[Daniellane]

I have been meaning to upload a video of this very tricky curved intersection where there are 3 potential lane choices. Autopilot negotiated it with only a minor hesitation AP2 2017.44 makes the right choice every time. I had a loaner AP1 Model S for a week. I can say that with the exception of graphics of vehicles appearing on screen in adjacent lanes AP2 seems as good as AP1. A statement I was not able to make prior to .42.
I also had an instance where the car appeared to slow down on the Freeway for what seemed to be no apparent reason as a car pulled up along side of me in the left lane then suddenly cut me off. It was like my car was psychic and knew what was going to happen before I did. I even said aloud: “How did it know that was going to happen?” Freaky!

 

[Cooker]

You know it's pretty crazy to record your own driving. Get a fixed mount or permanent dashcam.

Yep - rush of blood to the head.
In fact, wouldn’t it be cool if the car had some cameras built in.

 

[Gt1948]

I received 2017.44 firmware a week ago, just in time for a 1400 mile two-day drive from Phoenix AZ to Portland OR. I've been disappointed with AP2 performance (as many of us have) and the improvements I've seen in the past 11 months have been slow. OK, we've pretty much all covered that. **BUT** on this last drive I verified some almost "super human" abilities that AP2 now has. seriously!

First: lane following in curves with appropriate speed adjustment is now 90% good; occasionally on tight curves like I-5 north of Grants Pass (mountain pass, tight curves). Previous versions would radically slow down, forcing disconnects. This time it was quite good with only 10% of the overrides I previously saw.

Second: keeping pace with traffic is now quite smooth (usually with distance set to 2) at 70-85 mph. During the whole 1400 miles I had only two unexpected slowdowns. Both were from overpasses at the top of a substantial hill that fooled the radar. But it didn't last very long and I just accelerated to avoid screwing up the traffic behind me. Pretty good really.

Third: (this is where the super human senses kick in) driving in heavy rain, dark night, 75 mph along I-5 was PERFECT. I could hardly believe it. This was along I-5 between Eugene and Salem where there is no highway lighting, dark night, low clouds, fog, heavy rain and being splashed severely by trucks in adjacent lanes. I mean - I could BARELY see the adjacent lanes and was quite stressed about the trucks drenching me with water and temporarily blinding me.

However, to my amazement, the TACC and Steering kept on speed and within the lane just like the weather was clear and sunny. Wow! Of course I kept my hands on the wheel and hovering over the brake because it just seemed too good to be true.

I truly felt safer with the EAP driving than I would be driving myself. My night vision is good but not perfect and although the road is pretty straight, the radar seeing thru the splashing and heavy rain did a perfect job of keeping in the lane and adjusting speed to follow the (pretty much invisible) traffic ahead.

It would be cool to have some phone pictures showing the poor visibility outside the car but no way was I going to not be holding the wheel and peering intently around me. You'll have to accept my description of how little visibility I had.

One other thing: earlier in the day after a supercharge where it was raining quite heavily in Grants Pass, getting back on the freeway the TACC would not engage at first, message said something about sensor blocked. I thought crap, no AP until I stop and clean off the front radar. Well..... as I drive along at 75 manually I tried it again in about 5 miles and this time it engaged and stayed engaged. I think that the water build up on the radar cleared itself from wind after those 5 miles at speed even though it was raining. This turned out to be important to me as it gave me confidence (or at least an excuse) that the EAP would keep working during those heavy splashes I encountered. And indeed the system seemed to work very very well with no disconnect, slow downs, lane departure or scary behavior.

So I award AP2/EAP with this version my first **SUPERHUMAN** abilities award!

Arent AP2 and EAP two different things?

 

[pilotSteve]

Arent AP2 and EAP two different things?

Yes technically. AP2 is the hardware platform that all Tesla’s come with while EAP and FSD are the software options we purchase.

 

[buttershrimp]