Autopilot blinded, disengaged by sun on interstate

[ladysbff]

Wondering if anyone else has experienced autopilot disengaging itself more often than usual due to the sun.

Was driving on a pretty flat, straight portion of southbound I5 from Northern WA to Seattle on Saturday afternoon. It was a sunny blue sky and dry day with a steady stream of traffic, 70-75 mph. Autopilot was blinded by the sun and disengaged itself 4-5 times in ~30 miles (take over immediately). Never experienced that before, this is my third winter in a Tesla. I have noticed issues with sunlight and AP getting worse this past year (bridge shadows and phantom breaking on Seattle area highways have been bad). Have not followed any of the AP threads.

Is anyone else is experiencing this? Do you think I need to make a service appointment? Does anyone here clean cameras before every long distance drive? 2018 3 LR AWD EAP.

 

[derekmw]

Mine has always done this. When the sun hits a camera at a certain angle it seems to cause this. But I haven't seen it increase in frequency. It's been about the same since my MR purchase a few years back.

Thankfully you live in Seattle so you rarely see the sun.

 

[grmdl3]

I get this pretty frequently, and at times I think are odd. Make sure your cameras are clean, and don't have condensation.

 

[Knightshade]

I've never had basic AP disengage from the sun... I've occasionally gotten a specific camera is blinded message, where it maybe lost NoA features- but AP (TACC and lane keep) kept working.

Only time I've ever in over 20k miles seen the car drop out of basic AP from sensor blinding was in VERY HEAVY rain probably approaching where a human shouldn't be driving either.

 

[rhumbliner]

Yep, happens to me occasionally. Ironically, the last time was on I5 in central California. Maybe its the freeway.

 

[travis1906]

Yes has happened to me maybe a total of 2-3 times over the past 6 months.

 

[ladysbff]

I've never had basic AP disengage from the sun... I've occasionally gotten a specific camera is blinded message, where it maybe lost NoA features- but AP (TACC and lane keep) kept working.

Only time I've ever in over 20k miles seen the car drop out of basic AP from sensor blinding was in VERY HEAVY rain probably approaching where a human shouldn't be driving either.

I have had AP disengage a couple times due to heavy rain. When I still used NoA it would disengage more easily due to weather though AP would usually stay active.

I guess it's possible I just encountered the perfect combo of time of day/year, geographic location, and direction to utterly blind AP for that long. But the phantom breaking has gotten worse, too, which is why I posted.

 

[AKinDC]

Yup...when the sun is low in the sky I lose AP pretty often.

 

[Needsdecaf]

Yes, happens when driving straight into the sun. Not often, but not rare either.

 

[KenC]

Wondering if anyone else has experienced autopilot disengaging itself more often than usual due to the sun.

Was driving on a pretty flat, straight portion of southbound I5 from Northern WA to Seattle on Saturday afternoon. It was a sunny blue sky and dry day with a steady stream of traffic, 70-75 mph. Autopilot was blinded by the sun and disengaged itself 4-5 times in ~30 miles (take over immediately). Never experienced that before, this is my third winter in a Tesla. I have noticed issues with sunlight and AP getting worse this past year (bridge shadows and phantom breaking on Seattle area highways have been bad). Have not followed any of the AP threads.

Is anyone else is experiencing this? Do you think I need to make a service appointment? Does anyone here clean cameras before every long distance drive? 2018 3 LR AWD EAP.

Did you have any sunny days in the previous Winters, or only this one?

 

[ladysbff]

Did you have any sunny days in the previous Winters, or only this one?

Haha, yes I have driven sunny days in previous winters. We do get regular sun in Seattle... Beautiful crisp blue sky days October-December are not unusual. The corridor I drove averages 18 days of precipitation in December.

 

[BrakeDome]

Mine has always done this. When the sun hits a camera at a certain angle it seems to cause this. But I haven't seen it increase in frequency. It's been about the same since my MR purchase a few years back.

Thankfully you live in Seattle so you rarely see the sun.

Yep, no sun here in Seattle, nothing but rain, not a good place to live, please don’t move here..

 

[dgo3]

I used to live in Seattle. At that time, the average number of sunny days in January was 3. That means “there was a brief sighting of the sun somewhere in the Seattle area.” Now I live where it’s the opposite. But I digress...yes, I regularly see low angle sun interference that knocks out cameras, but only see it knock out AP if it’s the front cameras.

 

[ladysbff]

Burlington, WA Supercharger on Saturday, shortly before the drive. The sun does come out here, promise.

 

[ucmndd]

Low sun angle in winter, particularly at your latitude, makes this a common occurrence.

There’s nothing to fix. It’s a limitation of the hardware.

 

[KenC]

Yep, no sun here in Seattle, nothing but rain, not a good place to live, please don’t move here..

I already live in Maine. I kinda feel it's alot like Washington, but with less rain. Otoh, I'm a Seahawks fan! Go Hawks!

 

[derekmw]

Yep, no sun here in Seattle, nothing but rain, not a good place to live, please don’t move here..

I already lived there for 12 years. Never going back. lol. The weather and traffic got to me. So I moved to about as opposite weather as I could find. Until October, the last time it rained here was in January. I love it, I don't ever need to see another day of rain in my life

 

[ladysbff]

and traffic

Traffic has been great since March 2020

I don't ever need to see another day of rain in my life

Fighting words! The rain is required for the clean air and incredible forests. Also WA is the #1 producer of renewable energy in the US due to hydro.

Washington - State Energy Profile Analysis - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

 

[Mboysen]

I expected something similar where I was driving east with bright sunlight hitting the passenger door. The notification said something to the effect of cleaning the right pillar door camera to enable autopilot. I checked after I arrived, and nothing was impeding the camera; it had to the sun.

 

[stonelance]

For the first time in the 2+ years I've owned the car I saw the "camera blinded" message, which appeared to be due to the low winter sun. But also possibly because I haven't washed the car in a while... I wasn't on AP at the time though. It seems to also make the auto wipers think it is raining, so I often have to force those off.

Yeah the combo of winter, plus the higher latitude definitely makes even the mid day sun angle pretty darn low.