Autopilot failed to notice a bus today

[immolated]

This isn't a bug. Setting the following distance to "4" doesn't change what the car does at a stoplight. It will always pull up to a few feet behind the stopped vehicle. Also that number doesn't represent car lengths, it represents a time based distance (4 seconds). You're not supposed to be sitting 2 vehicle lengths behind a vehicle at a stoplight....

From the manual:

-- The 1 to 7 following distance "corresponds to a time-based distance that represents how long it takes for Model S, from its current location, to reach the location of the rear bumper of the vehicle ahead.

 

[Max*]

I always do the same thing. Engage AP, and go fiddle on my phone. Then I'm not the asshat at the traffic light holding up traffic when it turns green.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Slightly OT, but I've had situations when I'm driving normally at slow speed, no AP, and my left hand accidentally brushes the AP stalk, say during a turn, and I accidentally turn on TACC. The car then shoots forward trying to get up to the set speed.

This might explain some unintended acceleration accidents.

While I like the ease of turning on TACC/AP, it has some downsides...

 

[pdxrajiv]

i would assume that it would recognize the bus because it's supposed to use the radar as the primary recognition and camera as a backup but this does bring up a good point, can you fool the camera with a picture, i wonder if tesla has tested this.

reminds me of fooling face unlock on a phone with a photo

Just FYI.
I have experienced what I believe to be an instance of camera-image-based collision warning and braking.
I was on a side street using TACC going at 45 mph when the car camera locked on some freshly painted orange buried pipe/cable markings on the road and sounded the collision warning and accompanying dash flashing the area where the orange road markings were.
I drive that road frequently and it has not done that ever before or since (the next time I drove through there the markings had faded enough to not show up so brightly.)

 

[somnambule]

This isn't a bug. Setting the following distance to "4" doesn't change what the car does at a stoplight. It will always pull up to a few feet behind the stopped vehicle. Also that number doesn't represent car lengths, it represents a time based distance (4 seconds). You're not supposed to be sitting 2 vehicle lengths behind a vehicle at a stoplight....

From the manual:

I was about to say the same.

I don't know where you live but, where I live, if I left 4 car lengths between me and the vehicle in front of me at a traffic light, 5 cars would squeeze in in front of me.

 

[WannabeOwner]

You can see the "bus" showing up as a car in my screenshot. I don't remember it ever showing up as a truck.

The "bus/car" doesn't appear to be blue? (nor do there appear to be any blue lane markings?)

Please read your owners manual as it appears you are not using Autopilot appropriately, I don't think there is any guarantee that the car will stop for the bus in this particular scenario.

That's the TACC part of the manual, in the Autosteer part the manual (Page 74 in the 7.1 version) says

"To initiate Autosteer, you must be
driving at least 18 mph (30 km/h) on a
roadway with visible lane markings. If a vehicle
is detected ahead of you, you can initiate
Autosteer at any speed, even when stationary."

 

[Zeromus-X]

The "bus/car" doesn't appear to be blue? (nor do there appear to be any blue lane markings?)

That's because the picture was taken after it was disengaged. If I took the time to take a picture before disengaging, I feel that I would have been uncomfortable close (or underneath) the bus.

There were definitely not four car lengths between me and the stopped vehicle when I engaged it. I just wanted to make sure it was set to my standard setting for my own personal confirmation. (I don't know if the stop distance is impacted by that setting at all -- I know it wouldn't be car lengths, but perhaps the vehicle leaves more of a gap at "5" than at "1" -- I've never tested this.)

Having used this on a daily basis, I'm quite familiar with how the car should react when engaged. In this case, the immediate acceleration was enough to make me immediately doubt that it was reacting appropriately/normal. It hasn't done it since then. If I am lucky enough to get behind a similar bus again I'll make sure I'm recording in advance.

 

[CHG-ON]

My experience is that this is normal. When stopped, the car will get much closer to the car in front and then stop. Mine doesn't necessarily jerk or jump up. But it does move up and then stop about maybe 5-10 feet behind the stopped car at a light. It took some getting used to. But I have never had a problem.

 

[WannabeOwner]

There were definitely not four car lengths between me and the stopped vehicle when I engaged it.

I think if you were doing less than 18 MPH that AP should have selected "car in front" mode (or not engaged at all). V. Disconcerting that it leapt forward if all it was doing was closing the gap.

 

[tls]

There is something curious going on with buses in 8.0 -- or at least the display of them. We took a long trip this past weekend and I noticed that buses (there are many on I-87 north through New York State) were consistently rendering as two cars, one slightly in front of the other and offset to the side, rather than one truck as they formerly did.

I can understand why a bus would look like this on radar. Most of the body of a modern bus is fiberglass and will give no, or poor, radar return. Down where the radar's mounted, it is likely seeing below the passenger compartment where, in any case, there are all sorts of waterbags (a.k.a people) that are great at absorbing RF energy in the microwave range where the radar's operating. Up at the front end of the bus there is more metal structure which, indeed, due to the passenger stairs and the cluster of mechanical stuff around the driver's seat, is likely offset to one side.

This is in fact the clearest sign I've seen so far that 8.0 is using the radar more for something. Whether it's just to render stuff on the display or these artifacts have some real effect on autopilot performance, I don't think we're in a position to know.

 

[hybridbear]

I am still running 7.1. I frequently engage TACC when stopped behind another car at a red light. I don't usually engage AS. I like to do this as a way to be able to take my foot off the pedals while stopped. Usually once the car starts moving I will begin pressing the accelerator pedal and then cancel TACC. I've never had any issues with it not recognizing the car in front of me. I always keep my TACC distance at 7. I've found that the distance I am away from the car in front can vary significantly and the car will just stay stopped where it is. I usually stop where I can see the tires on the ground of the car in front of me. I usually am engaging TACC with the car already in "hold" mode with the little (H) symbol on the dash and it doesn't move then. It slightly bumps as it disengages the brake pads and then re-engages them.

@Zeromus-X I would ask Tesla to pull the logs from your car to understand what happened. You have the time stamp from the pic on your phone to pinpoint the exact time this happened.

 

[habanero69]

I always do the same thing. Engage AP, and go fiddle on my phone. Then I'm not the asshat at the traffic light holding up traffic when it turns green.

Shouldn't do that in S FLorida. With all the red light runners in my area, being second off the line at a green light might just end your day badly...

 

[Max*]

Shouldn't do that in S FLorida. With all the red light runners in my area, being second off the line at a green light might just end your day badly...

If my car starts to move, I obviously stop fiddling with my phone and start driving.

But thanks

 

[Max*]

I like to do this as a way to be able to take my foot off the pedals while stopped.

I don't understand why you would do this after you're already in hill-hold mode, unless the main reason isn't just to remove your foot off the pedals (as hill hold mode allows that)...

 

[hybridbear]

I don't understand why you would do this after you're already in hill-hold mode, unless the main reason isn't just to remove your foot off the pedals (as hill hold mode allows that)...

It's so that the car will start moving on its own. It's more just to play with the system than anything else.