Autopilot features temporarily unavailable, AP1 been like this for over a week

[drhombus]

My 2016 AP1 Model S all of a sudden displayed the "Autopilot features temporarily unavailable" telltale mid drive. I could see visualizations of other cars on the drive, and it seems like autopilot was available up until that point. Coincidently, I had washed the car about 30 mins before, but I'm hoping it has nothing to do with that. It's been over a week and it hasn't resolved itself.

When trying to engage cruise control or AP1 anyway, I get a cruise control disabled message and a code DI_w124. The Ultrasonics appear to be working fine, so I'm thinking camera or radars....I have a Service Center appt, but they are trying to diagnose it remotely first and are not sure what's going on. Has anyone had this sort of issue before?

Another thing I noticed is the instrument cluster flickers a little bit and vaguely displays "126" under the speedometer, in front of the vehicle figure. Could be unrelated. This car has MCU2. Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

 

[BQst]

I'm late in responding, but I've had AP1 show that message a couple times. It resolved in less than a week, and I never figured out what fixed it. I did various things, including wiping off the radar, which tends to accumulate crud on pre-facelift cars like ours. I also saw mention that the camera area can get fogged up behind the windshield, but mine looked fine.

How did it turn out?

Ben

 

[drhombus]

Just had it fixed a couple days ago. Somehow the radar became extremely misaligned, and so with a radar alignment, everything returned to normal. Thanks for chiming in Ben

 

[kenpost]

I had this problem with my 2014 S with AP1 and MCU2. It was stuck on for about 8 months. Rebooting did not help. Took it in to recalibrate the radar. Radar was not out of calibration but just the act of recalibrating cleared the problem. All was fine until 5 months later it happened again. No rain or water or anything unusual when it happened. Has been stuck on for a few weeks. Rebooting doesn’t help. This is obviously a firmware bug because nothing was changed other than running the radar calibration and it worked perfectly for 5 more months and I use autopilot a lot.

 

[drhombus]

I had this problem with my 2014 S with AP1 and MCU2. It was stuck on for about 8 months. Rebooting did not help. Took it in to recalibrate the radar. Radar was not out of calibration but just the act of recalibrating cleared the problem. All was fine until 5 months later it happened again. No rain or water or anything unusual when it happened. Has been stuck on for a few weeks. Rebooting doesn’t help. This is obviously a firmware bug because nothing was changed other than running the radar calibration and it worked perfectly for 5 more months and I use autopilot a lot.

Mine also got misaligned a few months after. Perhaps you have the same issue I did. While the service center was recalibrating the radar the second time, they noticed the radar was making contact with the bumper, and so they filed down some of the bumper, and the problem has not reoccurred. This is a 2016.5 car so not sure how much this helps you, but maybe something to look for.

 

[Roxanne00]

Just had it fixed a couple days ago. Somehow the radar became extremely misaligned, and so with a radar alignment, everything returned to normal. Thanks for chiming in Ben

Same problem I am having. Mine seems like a short with no rhyme or reason as to why it comes on or goes out. Used it for almost an hour the other day without issues so trying to figure out how the radar could be out of alignment but still work flawlessly when on.

 

[Roxanne00]

Just had it fixed a couple days ago. Somehow the radar became extremely misaligned, and so with a radar alignment, everything returned to normal. Thanks for chiming in Ben

Where you able to see cars on the dash while not working? Or is that the camera that monitors the cars?

 

[drhombus]

I could not see cars on the dash when this problem was occurring

 

[Roxanne00]

Does anyone know if the radar or camera is the one that sees cars around you?

 

[Tessie62]

A couple of weeks ago, this same error message appeared on my screen, out of the blue. I have a 2018 MS, MCU1 and AP2, on the latest software version. Reviewing the car's log, the error popped up while the car was parked at a local shop. At first, I thought that somebody might have hit the car somehow, but as it was parked with its nose facing a wall, that was virtually impossible. The only other possible cause that I can imagine is that days before the error appeared, I drove over some debris, and a large chunk of Styrofoam insulation got stuck onto the car's nose at the location where the radar sensor is installed. As I couldn't stop safely there, I had to drive for a while with this foam stuck to the nose before I was able to remove it. Did it swamp the radar somehow?
I looked at possible solutions or fixes on this forum, on Youtube and tried them out.
First thing I tried was a normal reboot (push both scrollwheels), no joy.
Then I cleared camera calibration, and let it re-calibrate. No joy.
Next, I changed the tire configuration from 19" to 21", thus forcing a total reboot of all computers (and changing it back to 19" too), but that didn't clear the error either.
I let the car sit for a couple of days, figuring that I would have to book a service appointment anyway, but I decided to wait with that (a couple of very busy weeks ahead, not much time).
Yesterday, I drove the car for the first time since this last reboot, and after some 15 minutes of driving, suddenly I saw detected cars appearing on my driver display again, indicating that the radar was active again. And yes, the error message was gone, and I could engage the cruise control again.
I don't understand what actually happened here, and even if there is any correlation to that last reboot.
So now I will have to wait and see if the problem was really fixed or not.