Autopilot during rush hour traffic .... a parting of the seas occurs .....

[LostInSpace]

Okay, I'm driving in bumper to bumper traffic with autopilot activated. We are moving at 25 to 35mph and the autopilot max is 70mph (hwy speed limit). All is good. Cars are all packed in. Then, for some reason, cars in front of me move to different lanes and there is a huge open passage for me. I'm talking 200 to 300 feet completely clear for me with cars stopped on both sides. My car pretty much just wants to accelerate to the max speed. Holy buckets. This is not safe. Every car on either side is eyeing this newly cleared lane and wants to jump in. Not only that, but these cars don't realize how fast I'm moving down that newly freed up lane. Well, I disabled autopilot for that little stint and slowly moved up to allow those on either side to jump in if so desired.

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

 

[kavyboy]

It's always done this for me on AP1. It's one of the most common reasons you have to stay alert. Any time you see that car in front of you change lanes, you have to be very careful. I almost always just reflexively disengage AP nowadays when I see it happening.

 

[MacGreiner]

Happened to me a few times. Chill seems to help a little - but not much.

 

[nogajim]

I crank down the max speed in heavy traffic so that I can control the acceleration when it opens up.

 

[Az_Rael]

Okay, I'm driving in bumper to bumper traffic with autopilot activated. We are moving at 25 to 35mph and the autopilot max is 70mph (hwy speed limit). All is good. Cars are all packed in. Then, for some reason, cars in front of me move to different lanes and there is a huge open passage for me. I'm talking 200 to 300 feet completely clear for me with cars stopped on both sides. My car pretty much just wants to accelerate to the max speed. Holy buckets. This is not safe. Every car on either side is eyeing this newly cleared lane and wants to jump in. Not only that, but these cars don't realize how fast I'm moving down that newly freed up lane. Well, I disabled autopilot for that little stint and slowly moved up to allow those on either side to jump in if so desired.

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

I always lower the max cruise speed to something reasonable in stop and go just for this reason. It is a common AP issue. Then when traffic picks back up, I just increase max cruise as needed.

I also do this to make approaching a pile of slow/stopped cars at speed more comfortable. Instead of waiting/hoping the car will brake (and hoping I don’t get rear ended), I start lowering the max cruise set speed to slow myself down like I would manually driving. Then once the car picks up the traffic on radar, it doesn’t slam on the brakes.

 

[Krugerrand]

I crank down the max speed in heavy traffic so that I can control the acceleration when it opens up.

This x 1000.

AP works exactly how it’s supposed to and how you (OP) have it set. Simply turn down max speed in this type of situation until traffic clears.

 

[realvvk]

That is why you are behind the wheel. Responsible for the safety of your driving.

 

[BozieBeMe2]

Okay, I'm driving in bumper to bumper traffic with autopilot activated. We are moving at 25 to 35mph and the autopilot max is 70mph (hwy speed limit). All is good. Cars are all packed in. Then, for some reason, cars in front of me move to different lanes and there is a huge open passage for me. I'm talking 200 to 300 feet completely clear for me with cars stopped on both sides. My car pretty much just wants to accelerate to the max speed. Holy buckets. This is not safe. Every car on either side is eyeing this newly cleared lane and wants to jump in. Not only that, but these cars don't realize how fast I'm moving down that newly freed up lane. Well, I disabled autopilot for that little stint and slowly moved up to allow those on either side to jump in if so desired.

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

(18.219 75bdbc11), AP-1. We have noticed this behaviour before, even in the last firmware.(18.14.2 a88808e), AP-1
I sometimes wonder if that isn't what helped to contributed to his crash. The lead car he was following suddenly noticed that the lane they were in, had become a dead end and swerved to the right and continued on, whereas, the model X who was following, suddenly, seeing the 'open' space accelerated up to his chosen freeway speed with nowhere to go.
(In reference to the crash in California where the rive struck a retaining wall)
All the more reason to ever be so vigalate!

 

[nvx1977]

I think the acceleration rate in general for EAP needs to be reduced a bit. Even if I'm already at cruise speed, when I increase the set point by 1mph, I feel the car surge and then regen slightly. Which means it overshot the set point and had to compensate. This is wasteful. Traditional CC in other cars I've driven is not this jerky.

 

[sperkin]

Okay, I'm driving in bumper to bumper traffic with autopilot activated. We are moving at 25 to 35mph and the autopilot max is 70mph (hwy speed limit). All is good. Cars are all packed in. Then, for some reason, cars in front of me move to different lanes and there is a huge open passage for me. I'm talking 200 to 300 feet completely clear for me with cars stopped on both sides. My car pretty much just wants to accelerate to the max speed. Holy buckets. This is not safe. Every car on either side is eyeing this newly cleared lane and wants to jump in. Not only that, but these cars don't realize how fast I'm moving down that newly freed up lane. Well, I disabled autopilot for that little stint and slowly moved up to allow those on either side to jump in if so desired.

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

My car does this when I first got it so I think each car still needs to learn it on it's own. It may share codes and references from the cloud but your car will learn it and in the future it won't accelerate that fast. I'm not sure how I fixed my issue. Maybe driving it on manual trained it or it just learned on it's own when it's on AP. My AP gets better each day on it's own even when there isn't any firmware updates. There is only 1 issue left that will need firmware update but after that I'm confident the car can do FSD once that's fixed.

 

[Krugerrand]

I think the acceleration rate in general for EAP needs to be reduced a bit. Even if I'm already at cruise speed, when I increase the set point by 1mph, I feel the car surge and then regen slightly. Which means it overshot the set point and had to compensate. This is wasteful. Traditional CC in other cars I've driven is not this jerky.

That would be because fossil fuel car and it simply can’t respond any faster.

All of this goes away when everyone is driving connected EVs with FSD.

Since Tesla AP users are clearly aware of the situation, it simply behooves us to adjust and work with it until everyone else on the roads see the fallacy of their ICE ways.

 

[nvx1977]

That would be because fossil fuel car and it simply can’t respond any faster.

All of this goes away when everyone is driving connected EVs with FSD.

Since Tesla AP users are clearly aware of the situation, it simply behooves us to adjust and work with it until everyone else on the roads see the fallacy of their ICE ways.

accelerating and then having to immediately regen is a process control failure. Nothing to do with a single automated car in a sea or manual cars. EVs are perfectly capable of accelerating gently, and there's no need for a process controller to have to put on the brakes because of overshooting the set point.

 

[JeffK]

This scenario is exactly how I totaled my Prius... but accelerating at Prius speeds.

 

[Alketi]

Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

I noticed 3 things immediately on my first AP1 test drive (AP2 behavior appears similar).

1. When I first engaged it there was slowed traffic in the distance, yet it accelerated toward the stopped cars. (I presume it would have kept accelerating until it immediately switched to braking, but I didn't give it the chance)

2. When being passed by a large vehicle in an adjacent lane that was riding my lane line, it kept my car centered, or very close to the the other vehicle. I would have moved my car slightly away for safety.

3. It had no regard for a slow lane of traffic on either side, and would pass that at high speeds, as you describe.

All three of these things are how a computer with no common sense drives, not a human.

None of these are particularly safe, the last being the least safe.

Aside from users keeping a vigilant watch over AP, Tesla will need to address these types of issues on it's path of continued improvements. They won't get to level 3, let alone level 5 with some of the current behaviors, including #3 above.

 

[Esme Es Mejor]

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

It’s just accelerating to the speed you set. If bumper to bumper traffic is going 25-35 mph, why set your max speed to 70mph?

 

[T34ME]

I'm curious if others have seen this behavior? Slow car in front moves out of the way and M3 just jams on that accelerator to get to speed. Seems like it should eventually take into account the traffic on either side to decide how fast to ramp up. It's just not safe to go so fast relative to cars on either side.

This is exactly the way TACC works on my Prius. That is the nature of all TACC. Consequently, I NEVER activate TACC in rush hour, stop and go traffic unless it is set for something like 25 mph, that is just begging for a serious accident!

 

[RangerRick]

It’s just accelerating to the speed you set. If bumper to bumper traffic is going 25-35 mph, why set your max speed to 70mph?

...because it's already set based on the speed limit of the road you're on?

 

[jtpassat]

This is EXACTLY how the last two infamous Tesla crashes into the median and the fire truck happened since the car ignores stationary objects. The phenomenon is being called “slight of hand”

 

[Mobsidian]

accelerating and then having to immediately regen is a process control failure. Nothing to do with a single automated car in a sea or manual cars. EVs are perfectly capable of accelerating gently, and there's no need for a process controller to have to put on the brakes because of overshooting the set point.

This. I don't get how its efficient to slam on the accelerator to get up to the set speed from stop & go traffic. It should accelerate gently and conserve battery. Also, Mr. Musk is always saying how AP is much safer, this is not safe driving behavior. So its unsafe and inefficient in my mind.

 

[Esme Es Mejor]

...because it's already set based on the speed limit of the road you're on?

The driver sets the max speed. AP doesn’t autonomously choose its top speed.