Autopilot Didn't Brake

[thurber]

My Model 3 was driving with Navigate on Autopilot when another car changed into the lane in front of me. I expected it to brake or slow down automatically, but I got so close to the car that I had to manually brake. I have dashcam footage, and I'm wondering what the best way to report this to Tesla is. It seemed like a very typical scenario that could occur, so I imagine they'd be interested. I reported it over a week ago through the support on the Tesla website, but I haven't received any response. Any advice or is Tesla only interested in the early access program drivers?

Here's the full scenario in case anyone is interested. I'm also curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. My car was on NoA and changed 1 lane to the right as I was getting close to the highway exit. I had just gotten fully into the lane when a car in front and 1 lane to my right put on it's left blinker. The car started moving into my lane, but was going slower. It was about halfway into the lane when I got so close that I applied the brakes. I was surprised because in my experience the cruise control and autopilot have always been much more conservative, many times braking early or when it wasn't quite necessary. I'm thinking part of the issue may have been the car wasn't fully in my lane. Or maybe I have a faulty sensor.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I'm thinking part of the issue may have been the car wasn't fully in my lane.

This is very common. People talk about it responding to cut-ins, and perhaps sometimes it does (personally I have not seen it do so), but personally I find your described scenario more common.

You should definitely post a link to the video here too! People love to watch that stuff.

Glad you were able to intervene. Some people have hit cars in this scenario while on AP.

I don’t view it as a defect; it’s just a limitation of the currently-implemented system. It could probably easily be tuned to respond to this sort of situation almost all the time, but then people would be complaining about it “phantom braking” all the time, and being too conservative. Or, maybe eventually they'll figure out how to get it to respond properly to this sort of situation without causing false alarms - it doesn't seem like it would be that hard. Maybe when it's out of beta!

Anyway, even when it's out of beta, Autopilot (Autosteer + TACC) will hit things if you allow it to! It’s not intended to drive the car by itself - that’s why you’re there - to drive the car!

 

[qdeathstar]

my car usually slows down when people merge in.... but if they merge out but not all the way there is an issue...

 

[Puddles]

I’ve always been befuddled that the car will refuse to accelerate itself back up to speed until that car 100 yards ahead fully exits the roadway, but will cheerfully ignore someone merging in 20 feet ahead.

 

[thurber]

You should definitely post a link to the video here too! People love to watch that stuff.

Here's the front camera video: Dropbox - 2019-08-10_12-25-46-front.mp4 - Simplify your life

It actually doesn't look that bad on the video. I didn't have to slam on the brakes, but it was really close (especially for my wife who yelled at me for not warning her!). I was waiting to see if the car would respond on its own so I was concentrating and not worrying about letting everyone know we might hit something

 

[FielderJones]

Not sure how extensive the camera/sensor coverage is, but the Altima may have been in a Tesla autopilot blind spot.

 

[raptor5244]

Anyway, even when it's out of beta, Autopilot (Autosteer + TACC) will hit things if you allow it to! It’s not intended to drive the car by itself - that’s why you’re there - to drive the car!

Isn't crazy how good Tesla marketing is? Cars have had cruise control for many years and but I don't remember people crashing into stuff because they knew the tech just maintained speed as it was not aware of anything else.

Now they market Traffic Aware Cruise Control but to your point just because it is aware does not mean it will avoid.

 

[focher]

It seems to me that the car reacts differently depending on whether the merging car has their signal indicator on. I could swear the car leaves a gap In that situation, but doesn’t necessary leave one if there’s no indicator on.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Example of AP not yielding until vehicle fully in lane

 

[derotam]

My Model 3 was driving with Navigate on Autopilot when another car changed into the lane in front of me. I expected it to brake or slow down automatically, but I got so close to the car that I had to manually brake. I have dashcam footage, and I'm wondering what the best way to report this to Tesla is. It seemed like a very typical scenario that could occur, so I imagine they'd be interested. I reported it over a week ago through the support on the Tesla website, but I haven't received any response. Any advice or is Tesla only interested in the early access program drivers?

Here's the full scenario in case anyone is interested. I'm also curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. My car was on NoA and changed 1 lane to the right as I was getting close to the highway exit. I had just gotten fully into the lane when a car in front and 1 lane to my right put on it's left blinker. The car started moving into my lane, but was going slower. It was about halfway into the lane when I got so close that I applied the brakes. I was surprised because in my experience the cruise control and autopilot have always been much more conservative, many times braking early or when it wasn't quite necessary. I'm thinking part of the issue may have been the car wasn't fully in my lane. Or maybe I have a faulty sensor.

Looks like you were in a more complicated scenario, and your car was still in a lane change protocol when the other car started to come into the lane. Yes I agree the Tesla should have reacted to that car, but I think it was "thinking" about something else and a cut-in protocol was not compatible while still changing lanes. Definitely something that should be "easy" to adjust for.