This is a bit of a PSA for people who use Autopilot often. See the dashcam video here (I kept it private until Tesla was able to review the logs and confirm what happened):
From the description:
IMPORTANT: This was user error and NOT an Autopilot malfunction and AEB did activate as intended. However, based on this event, I'm suggesting a usability feature.
As you'll hear, Autopilot engages at the beginning of the video and doesn't disengage. At :45, AEB beeps at the slower traffic and I slam on the brake. I was caught by surprise because Autopilot was active, so I didn't know why AEB would trigger as opposed to simply just slowing down earlier.
After investigating the logs, it turns out my foot was resting on the accelerator just enough to be overriding TACC. (By design, Tesla allows the user to accelerate while Autopilot is active.)
I'm proposing something similar to other vehicles I've owned with "Intelligent Cruise Control" (from Infiniti, for example), where the accelerator pushes back with force feedback if it detects accelerator input and a potential collision.
Again, this is user error, but with "one foot driving" I think it's common to gently rest your foot on the accelerator. Clearly I wasn't gentle enough, but as you can see it the video, I wasn't pushing enough to be significantly increasing my speed in a noticeable way. Most of the time, resting your foot won't do anything, but if you push just enough, it might override the TACC. This incident reminded me to be more aware that it overrides the preset distance from the car in front.
Of course, the video also demonstrates Automatic Emergency Braking worked perfectly. It notified me with plenty of time to prevent a collision. I was caught off-guard because, while I was watching, I was expecting TACC to slow the car on its own.
From the description:
IMPORTANT: This was user error and NOT an Autopilot malfunction and AEB did activate as intended. However, based on this event, I'm suggesting a usability feature.
As you'll hear, Autopilot engages at the beginning of the video and doesn't disengage. At :45, AEB beeps at the slower traffic and I slam on the brake. I was caught by surprise because Autopilot was active, so I didn't know why AEB would trigger as opposed to simply just slowing down earlier.
After investigating the logs, it turns out my foot was resting on the accelerator just enough to be overriding TACC. (By design, Tesla allows the user to accelerate while Autopilot is active.)
I'm proposing something similar to other vehicles I've owned with "Intelligent Cruise Control" (from Infiniti, for example), where the accelerator pushes back with force feedback if it detects accelerator input and a potential collision.
Again, this is user error, but with "one foot driving" I think it's common to gently rest your foot on the accelerator. Clearly I wasn't gentle enough, but as you can see it the video, I wasn't pushing enough to be significantly increasing my speed in a noticeable way. Most of the time, resting your foot won't do anything, but if you push just enough, it might override the TACC. This incident reminded me to be more aware that it overrides the preset distance from the car in front.
Of course, the video also demonstrates Automatic Emergency Braking worked perfectly. It notified me with plenty of time to prevent a collision. I was caught off-guard because, while I was watching, I was expecting TACC to slow the car on its own.
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