Autopilot draws first blood

[Nick77]

The car avatar on screen mimics what your brakes are doing. If you glance across at the screen during strong regen you can see the little brake lights glowing red. For gentle regen they do not come on.

Good spot!

 

[Dilly]

Yep. If you follow some Teslas it looks like they are trying to communicate in morse code.

.... . .-.. .--.    
-- -.--     -.. .-. .. ...- . .-.     .... .- ...     -. --- -     .-.. . .- .-. -. . -..     - ---   
 ..- ... .     .-. . --. . -.     ... -- --- --- - .... .-.. -.--

Translates as “beam me up Scotty”

 

[ssrobinson]

I understand that when regenerative braking is slowing you down quickly, that the brake lights come on, but it seems that they don't when slowing gradually like when you are feathering the juice pedal coming up to a stop light. That means one could go all the way to a complete stop without the brake lights coming on at all. Then you are sitting at a stoplight with no brake lights. Is this why there are a zillion videos on YouTube with Tesla's getting rear ended? I just got my car and I'm not really wanting anyone to do surprise body work to my rear end!

 

[Dilly]

I understand that when regenerative braking is slowing you down quickly, that the brake lights come on, but it seems that they don't when slowing gradually like when you are feathering the juice pedal coming up to a stop light. That means one could go all the way to a complete stop without the brake lights coming on at all. Then you are sitting at a stoplight with no brake lights. Is this why there are a zillion videos on YouTube with Tesla's getting rear ended? I just got my car and I'm not really wanting anyone to do surprise body work to my rear end!

next time you’re at the lights double check. I’m pretty sure that when ‘hold’ comes on, the brake lights are on too

 

[Adopado]

I understand that when regenerative braking is slowing you down quickly, that the brake lights come on, but it seems that they don't when slowing gradually like when you are feathering the juice pedal coming up to a stop light. That means one could go all the way to a complete stop without the brake lights coming on at all. Then you are sitting at a stoplight with no brake lights. Is this why there are a zillion videos on YouTube with Tesla's getting rear ended? I just got my car and I'm not really wanting anyone to do surprise body work to my rear end!

Well, there have been hundreds of threads and thousands of posts over the past 2 years or so on the UK/Ireland forum and I honestly cannot recall a single instance being discussed ... If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will dig one out but it's not a "thing" AFAIK.

 

[Nick77]

I understand that when regenerative braking is slowing you down quickly, that the brake lights come on, but it seems that they don't when slowing gradually like when you are feathering the juice pedal coming up to a stop light. That means one could go all the way to a complete stop without the brake lights coming on at all. Then you are sitting at a stoplight with no brake lights. Is this why there are a zillion videos on YouTube with Tesla's getting rear ended? I just got my car and I'm not really wanting anyone to do surprise body work to my rear end!

No different to an ICE car coasting and changing down gears using engine braking. I've done it plenty in the past.

You should only get rear ended if you stop quickly and/or the person behind isn't paying attention.

 

[Cardo]

next time you’re at the lights double check. I’m pretty sure that when ‘hold’ comes on, the brake lights are on too

They are.

 

[MrBadger]

next time you’re at the lights double check. I’m pretty sure that when ‘hold’ comes on, the brake lights are on too

Once following vehicles have stopped, this is actually a 'should' not in the highway code and a potential 'must not' if it causes dazzle - ie wet weather or brake lights causing glare of vehicle behind.

 

[Neilman]

I found other drivers brake lights painfully bright in traffic light queues and always adopted using the handbrake and releasing my foot brake at lights in my Volvo.
However a loaner Volvo I got with stop-start eco mode would only stop the engine at lights with the foot brake held on!
Putting the handbrake on and releasing the foot brake would restart the engine.
Since there is no handbrake in my model 3 the brake lights are always on in traffic queues unless you go into park 'gear' but then it switches to 'easy entry' and moves my seat.
I can't make out what the tail lights are doing on the on-screen mimic, it's too small for me to see, but at night there is slight light-bleed from the brake hi-light to see it coming on when slowing down and I would prefer to release the brake light in a stationary queue.

 

[Rooster6655]

Well, the autopilot honeymoon is over.

Driving home from work this morning along a pretty straight bit of 40mph A road on autopilot, enjoying the world go by when the car suddenly swerves left. No other cars or anything that I noticed about that could have obviously upset it. Unfortunately, I didn’t react fast enough to stop the car turning into the curb and managed to give the front wheel a nice big scuff. I took control back and the car had the cheek to pop up a message saying it had applied corrective autosteer!

Off to the alloy refurb place I’ll have to go.

I wouldn't bother referring the wheel, they are not worth it, just get some touch up paint.

I'd only use AP on motorways for reliability reasons anyway but rarely would use on a road with a curb

If you had recorded it you could show Tesla. They would sort the wheel out then surely? Your car is not that old either.

Not a chance.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

Since there is no handbrake in my model 3 the brake lights are always on in traffic queues unless you go into park 'gear' but then it switches to 'easy entry' and moves my seat.

It's not supposed to do that unless the seat belt is unfastened, I use park all of the time when letting someone in or out of the car and I've never had a problem.

If yours does it then you may have a fault.

 

[Cardo]

It's not supposed to do that unless the seat belt is unfastened, I use park all of the time when letting someone in or out of the car and I've never had a problem.

If yours does it then you may have a fault.

As above. Easy entry should only kick in when in park AND driver seatbelt is unfastened.

 

[Nick77]

Make sure you have your own driver profile selected and not the Easy one, which is easy entry.

I noticed mine occasionally said Easy instead of my name. Though I didn't have any issues with the seat moving as I switched it before I went into park.

 

[MikeR99]

I understand that when regenerative braking is slowing you down quickly, that the brake lights come on, but it seems that they don't when slowing gradually like when you are feathering the juice pedal coming up to a stop light. That means one could go all the way to a complete stop without the brake lights coming on at all. Then you are sitting at a stoplight with no brake lights. Is this why there are a zillion videos on YouTube with Tesla's getting rear ended? I just got my car and I'm not really wanting anyone to do surprise body work to my rear end!

I was concerned about the same thing. Like, if I was just slowing to match the vehicles speed in front of me, are the brake lights constantly blinking, freaking out other drivers. Turns out the brake lights come on as if it were an ICE vehicle. When you let off the gas, the car coasts, no brake lights, if you hit the brakes, lights on. For the Tesla, when you let off lightly (with regen on) it slows nicely, no lights. If you let off dramatically, lights go on (as it's similar to braking in an ICE).
At a stop sign/light you are slowing progressively maybe 50' from whatever is in front of you and the lights are on. They stay on (at least if you have it set to "hold". I haven't tested it in other modes. But, if you are in another mode, you will be using the brake, so, lights on.