Auto park FAIL

[ShotgunF15E]

View attachment 173892
As shown in the above crudely-drawn diagram, I experienced total auto park FAIL yesterday. I was trying to park
in the second -- and only open -- spot in a row of perpendicular stalls. Being unable to sense the car just past the
first (occupied) stall, the car backed up until I applied the brake. I then let it continue to see what it would do and it
continued backward until the tires hit the curb, I think just grazing the underside of the back bumper on the top of
the curb. The car seemed totally flummoxed by its then inability to continue backward and it "gave up in frustration".
It doesn't even say anything explicit like "auto park failed" -- it just quietly gives up.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Tesla must add front and rear sensors that can detect curbs to prevent
an ever-growing number of auto park and summon-related encounters with curbs and other low obstacles (I've
also encountered someone marking the edge of pavement with a row of rocks ).

Interesting depiction. I've done this successfully about 100 times and it's never backed past the spot to maneuver itself in. Once I've gotten the P and engaged auto park, it's been 100% successful at backing into the spot. My problem is getting the P to show up in the first place...

 

[newtman]

Well, rude to quote myself: "I then let it continue to see what it would do". I.e., wanted to better understand what it was
trying to do.


Curious. Mine pauses.

Sure it was in auto park and not just reverse?

 

[RogerHScott]

The car can't make an immediate 90.

No, but it is well capable of pulling forward a car length if that's what it requires. Are you arguing that
it is reasonable for it to attempt to park in a space that it "knows" it can't reach due to your position
relative to where it "saw" the space?

 

[RogerHScott]

Was it attempting to parallel park? Is the indication different if parallel or stall parking is detected?

The display shows you where/how it is trying to park (quite handy at times), and it was perpendicular parking.

 

[Edmond]

No, but it is well capable of pulling forward a car length if that's what it requires. Are you arguing that
it is reasonable for it to attempt to park in a space that it "knows" it can't reach due to your position
relative to where it "saw" the space?

It just doesn't, man.

I'm not arguing. I'm saying that you'd positioned it so it missed your target and it thought it found what you wanted.

'Nuff said.

 

[chipmunk]

I'd like to re-state what Edmond said. If you initially tried to engage Autopark at the spot you drew your car, you had not moved far enough forward for the car to know that you wanted to park in the open space. Instead, it thought there was a space further back and was trying for that. You do have to fully pass the spot before it will attempt to park in it...that's how it's programmed. However, I don't think it's an issue of being too close to the cars since, as you noted, the car will take multiple forward/back steps to get in the spot.

It would be nice if there was a way for the car to better communicate to you which spot it will try to park in, but I'm not sure what that would be.

 

[RogerHScott]

Instead, it thought there was a space further back and was trying for that.

See Auto park FAIL

You do have to fully pass the spot before it will attempt to park in it

This is clearly not the case, because it did attempt to park in it. I'm willing to accept that I was not positioned correctly, but,
since that fact should have been obvious to the car, I feel it should not have attempted something it couldn't do.

It would be nice if there was a way for the car to better communicate to you which spot it will try to park in,

Well, it does show the configuration it is trying to park in, and that configuration clearly showed cars on either side of the stall
(as required and explained in the above citation from the manual). That still leaves open the possibility that it misinterpreted
something in the surroundings as another car, but that seems unlikely given the absence of any trees, walls, etc., that might
have fooled it.
I'll have to see if I can post an actual photograph of where this happened so we have more actual data to go on.

 

[aesculus]

I'll have to see if I can post an actual photograph of where this happened so we have more actual data to go on.

Any chance you can, or have, tried again? You could take two of your friends with you and have them recreate the scene with other cars in the same slots.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

Phantom "P" indications do show up from time-to-time, when a parking spot is mis-identified. My take is that when the "P" first displayed, it was locked on to what it thought was a parking space, not your intended space. Had you pulled forward further it would have locked onto the correct space.

I have found that regardless of when the "P" first appears, I pull forward to the same location I would use if I was parking manually. When doing this, the car usually backs into the spot directly without having to go through those annoying back-forward-back cycles.

 

[RogerHScott]

Ok, here're some pictures showing more precisely the configuration of things:

Where the maroon car in the second stall is is where I was trying to park.

Reviewing this, it is possible that the sensors picked up the concrete base of that light pole or the rise of the grassy area
and misinterpreted it as the "other" of the two cars it requires to define a "space" (the first of those cars being the actual
car parked in the first stall).

Another angle.

I wasn't driving the Tesla when I went to take these photos, so I couldn't do any actual experiments yet.

 

[Blueeyedme]

Any chance you can, or have, tried again? You could take two of your friends with you and have them recreate the scene with other cars in the same slots.

Thanks for posting the pics as well. I know I would sure like to see you try to recreate the condition.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

Reviewing this, it is possible that the sensors picked up the concrete base of that light pole or the rise of the grassy area
and misinterpreted it as the "other" of the two cars it requires to define a "space" (the first of those cars being the actual
car parked in the first stall).

That would be my guess.

 

[RogerHScott]

I tried parking under similar but somewhat different circumstances today. First, I was frustrated that the car wouldn't "pick up"
either of two spots that seemed to meet its criteria exactly. I did a U turn at the end of the row to see if it could do better on a second
pass. It picked up the very first spot in the row (which was open), which was immediately odd given that there was only a car on
one side of it (see above). Nevertheless, it parked in that spot, though it took an unreasonable amount of maneuvering and time to
do it. Somewhat similar to the above case, there were a few objects in the curb-surrounded open space at the end of the row that it
might have been interpreting as another car. At one point the tires bumped into a curb, suggesting to me that it still didn't quite
know what it was doing or where it really was within the available space.

If auto-pilot -- which works amazingly well so much of the time -- is "beta", I don't know what label to apply to auto-park...

 

[wcalvin]

If I stay out in the middle of the lane in my underground condo garage and get the "P," the AutpPark has to jockey 3x whereas I can do it in one.

 

[DuplexDianne]

Random question...does the car slow down for speed bumps in auto pilot mode?

 

[RogerHScott]

Random question...does the car slow down for speed bumps in auto pilot mode?

Did you mean auto-pilot or auto-park?
The answer in both cases is no. For the former, that could be a real bummer. I'd say use of auto-pilot on a road likely to have
speed bumps is a mistake. For the latter, it moves so slowly that it doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't be surprised if the
increased resistance from encountering the bump was construed as "something in the way", causing it to stop.

 

[kort677]

Random question...does the car slow down for speed bumps in auto pilot mode?

no

 

[Adm]

Question: Does Tesla show where it see the parking space or does it just say it see a parking space?
I think It would be helpfull if the centre screen would show what the car sees and the parking space in border line it will try to park into.

 

[ecarfan]

The answer in both cases is no. For the former, that could be a real bummer. I'd say use of auto-pilot on a road likely to have speed bumps is a mistake.

Good point, I had not thought about that scenario before. Where I live, speed bumps can sometimes be found in residential neighborhoods where the speed limit is 25mph but of course people often drive at 30-35mph. The bumps are designed to be quite jarring even when taking at the speed limit. If you were using AP on such a street and had the speed offset set at +5 or 10 and went over a speed bump you could possibly have the undercarriage (what quaint term) impact the street surface.

Of course, Tesla says NOT to use the current version of AP on surface streets with cross traffic. I recommend following that advice for many reasons, speed bumps being a relatively minor consideration.

 

[thimel]

Question: Does Tesla show where it see the parking space or does it just say it see a parking space?
I think It would be helpfull if the centre screen would show what the car sees and the parking space in border line it will try to park into.

The first indication that it has found a parking space is on the instrument cluster. It does not indicate where it is. When you put it into reverse to initiate parking, it shows the position of the space on the center screen.