Autopilot getting worse

[emmz0r]

Does anyone know if these issues are limited to certain HW?

Good question. I suspect with deep rain and the new features, less processing power is left to the lane detection.

The car is weaving back and forth because the lanes are wobbling. Pay attention to the lines in the visualization. They are much less stable now.

 

[Astro_P3D+]

Since the latest update, my car has been phantom braking a lot. I understand they added a new feature to slow down the car when adjacent lanes are going a lot slower, but this happens to me with no cars to my adjacent lanes.

Even when the right lane is going slower than my own and the car slows down as this new feature instructs, it slows quickly and beyond what a normal driver would do. Why would I want my car to slow down to 35 mph abruptly from 70 on a freeway? I've almost been rear-ended because of this, and it's quite embarrassing. Slowing a bit makes sense, but this much is adding more danger than safety in my experience.

Also, since this update and for the first time, I had to intervene on an auto-lane change during navigate on autopilot because my car was about to cut someone off. The car was so close that I may have clipped it's front end if I didn't react and yank the wheel. The weird thing is, when my signal came on with the notice it was going to change lanes, the screen showed the lane markers and approaching car as red, so I thought it was going to just wait for that car to pass first. Nope! I recorded the video and reviewed it later to see how close it actually was and it was indeed going to nearly clip the front of the car who's lane I was trying to get into.

 

[St☰v☰]

Since the latest update, my car has been phantom braking a lot. I understand they added a new feature to slow down the car when adjacent lanes are going a lot slower, but this happens to me with no cars to my adjacent lanes.

Even when the right lane is going slower than my own and the car slows down as this new feature instructs, it slows quickly and beyond what a normal driver would do. Why would I want my car to slow down to 35 mph abruptly from 70 on a freeway? I've almost been rear-ended because of this, and it's quite embarrassing. Slowing a bit makes sense, but this much is adding more danger than safety in my experience.

Also, since this update and for the first time, I had to intervene on an auto-lane change during navigate on autopilot because my car was about to cut someone off. The car was so close that I may have clipped it's front end if I didn't react and yank the wheel. The weird thing is, when my signal came on with the notice it was going to change lanes, the screen showed the lane markers and approaching car as red, so I thought it was going to just wait for that car to pass first. Nope! I recorded the video and reviewed it later to see how close it actually was and it was indeed going to nearly clip the front of the car who's lane I was trying to get into.

Ditto on the braking.

 

[Ed Hart]

So I've had autopilot now for about 18 months and it seemed to be getting better and better. But I just downloaded a new update 2019.40.2.1 and it's horrible all of a sudden. It brakes hard for no reason out of nowhere, is seating back and forth in the lanes, and waits until the last second to make corrections. It's to the point I can't even use it without feeling stressed. What the heck happened?

Some of your comments are very familiar. I wrote this to Tesla in hopes of getting some kind of action:

We have a 2014 Model S and a 2018 Model X, both with the FSD package then available. The S continues to perform well, to the limits of the capability available in that early system.

The X is another matter. From the outset, the vehicle’s Autopilot has been jerky. VERY jerky!

1. The vehicle appears to be hypersensitive to speed, causing a near-constant surging, which is easily felt and shows dramatically on the power usage display, jumping to strong use to recovery randomly, but sometimes 30-40 times per minute.

2. The vehicle swings continuously left and right in trying to maintain lane position. It appear to be in a constant 1-1.5 second cycle, and moves between 6-12” total. No setting has been found to reduce this “deadband wandering”.

3. The worst situation is the sudden, unwarranted braking that occurs about every third drive. On the freeway, we no longer use Autopilot if a vehicle is following too closely behind. Our fear is that our vehicle’s violent braking will ultimately result in our being rear-ended. There is no pattern to these “full-on” braking events, and often no vehicle ahead of us for 100 meters or more.

I brought this matter to the attention of Tesla during a one year service visit, but the message was that “Yes, that happens”, with a suggestion that there would soon be a software fix. That has not happened. So, here at the end of 20 months of ownership, Autopilot is still not safe to use in certain situations, and not comfortable to use in any. I am elevating this to you in hopes of getting a solution.

If all Tesla’s performed like our X, I will guarantee you that NHTSA would ask Tesla to take these cars off the road!

 

[Ed Hart]

Mine is also terrible now. Wanders in the lane from side to side. Today on the highway a truck passed me on the left and the AP moved my car to the right side of my lane (still in the lane though).

I believe that is intensional, unless the distance is too great. I believe this began with a request from my wife during our cross-country drive on beta Autopilot in 2015. She recognized that she always moved over about 6-12" when passing trucks. I asked Tesla about it, and two days later they downloaded software that did exactly that!

 

[Evoyager]

Still on 2019.40.2.1 here. I have experienced similar behaviors as reported in this post since update. Vehicle on AP or NOAP moves over for passing trucks, and large SUV's. Consistently the action (6-12') is generally delayed, meaning the truck is 3/4 past when the action occurs. Then the corrective action swings the vehicle back, past the center point, then corrects again to the center point.

Have scheduled SC visit.

Just curious if OP or any previous posters have noticed a correction of this behavior with the latest update?

 

[Atreyu]

Wtf is up with rapid braking into fastrak lanes? I get off of 24 to get onto the bay bridge toll and it brakes from 65mph with flow of traffic to 35mph. Insane!!!

Also, if someone even starts to creep into my lane it slams on the brakes too. I’m gonna get rear ended one of these days.

 

[St☰v☰]

Just curious if OP or any previous posters have noticed a correction of this behavior with the latest update?

Nope, I'm on 50.7 and it's worse than it was with previous versions. I have stopped using AP on the freeway.

 

[Yang_H]

Maybe b/c I have no previous experiences to compare with since I only have the car for three weeks, but to me the AP has been working very well. I got some phantom brakes etc but overall it has been a very satisfying experience on both highways and local roads.

 

[St☰v☰]

Maybe b/c I have no previous experiences to compare with since I only have the car for three weeks, but to me the AP has been working very well. I got some phantom brakes etc but overall it has been a very satisfying experience on both highways and local roads.

Mine started going wacko around 32.11 or 32.12 and has gotten progressively worse.

 

[SheriffMoose]

Maybe b/c I have no previous experiences to compare with since I only have the car for three weeks, but to me the AP has been working very well. I got some phantom brakes etc but overall it has been a very satisfying experience on both highways and local roads.

I've also noticed some phantom braking, it felt like it basically slammed on the brakes out of no one on the highway last time I was driving down I-95. Typically, AP helps make the trip more relaxed, but I tensed up a bit in fear of getting rear ended; definitely the opposite of the intended experience

I will say though, running on 40.50.7, it does seem to do a little better about not shoving you into the lane position it wants when enabling AP, and I think its a little better about ping ponging as well. I'd definitely like to see phantom braking improvements though.

 

[Evoyager]

Is Your MCU1 Model X Still on 2019.40.2.1?

As also posted in link above, several vehicles experiencing the same!

 

[thedm96]

Here is a theory. Perhaps with each update the neural net is getting reset back to a rough baseline, then it takes a few days... weeks.(?) to fine tune itself again to function the way we expect.

i.e new functionality cannot be directly integrated into the existing matrix, but everything must be relearned as a whole.

 

[linux-works]

matrix?

my car is not sure if it should take the red pill or blue pill. hmmm....

 

[mrkisskiss]

Autopilot has been steadily getting worse as it gets smarter; to be expected, but I really wish they also had a sort of 'dumb' mode which just put it back to AP1 functionality. My current peeves are

1) Sudden hard braking. This is a regular occurrence and SUPER dangerous. AP2 has suffered from this for ages, but now with the added 'cut-in detection' which is often just... wrong... oncoming traffic sometimes freaking it out etc etc - it's just more common for me than ever.

2) Swerving out to give trucks more room
-- a very new behaviour; AP will automatically move over to the right in the lane when you're passing a truck, or just anything larger than a car. I'm sure this is fine on large American roads, but not in the UK. It's not a smooth "move over" though - it's more like a wiggle in the lane -- unnerving for anyone on _your_ right.

3) Constant and inane lane-change suggestions on NoA. Constant nags.

4) Aborted lane changes after a 5 second time out. I realise this isn't Tesla's fault.

5) Sometimes just randomly driving very close to the lane line instead of in the middle of it. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this - it'll often favour the left side of the lane (putting you closer to traffic). I think it's because we often have barriers or walls running along the side of the road, which the ultrasonics pick up, and thus the car moves over? I'd much prefer it central

6) Limited steering angle for AP - again, not Tesla's fault, but still...


All of these mean that you kind of have to learn "how to drive AutoPilot", and you're watching for situations that might mess up AP... it's almost an added stress rather than reducing cognitive load during a drive. AP1 was brilliant... we haven't really made much meaningful progress from it yet, and actually regressed a little, at least outside the US.

 

[Battpower]

Yes to all the above.

Model S LR in UK. Driving in France had brakes slam on as I exited a tunnel and a couple of times passing under over head gantry signs.

Ping-Pong seems worst on slightly wider lanes especially as on French autoroutes. The 'useful' behaviour of moving slightly away from trucks turns into a ricochet bouncing.
Lane changes that start but timeout mid way making the change and throw the car back where it started.
And manually set max speed getting changed down and up in excess of temporary speed limit. (see video I posted in other thread. Will post link here is anyone cares to see it.)

Sadly, unlike others, I have seen no evidence of reacting to parked / stationary vehicles next to carriageway. The car would just smash them as far as I can tell. At least the door mirror!

 

[diezel_dave]

Yes to all the above.

Model S LR in UK. Driving in France had brakes slam on as I exited a tunnel and a couple of times passing under over head gantry signs.

Ping-Pong seems worst on slightly wider lanes especially as on French autoroutes. The 'useful' behaviour of moving slightly away from trucks turns into a ricochet bouncing.
Lane changes that start but timeout mid way making the change and throw the car back where it started.
And manually set max speed getting changed down and up in excess of temporary speed limit. (see video I posted in other thread. Will post link here is anyone cares to see it.)

Sadly, unlike others, I have seen no evidence of reacting to parked / stationary vehicles next to carriageway. The car would just smash them as far as I can tell. At least the door mirror!

Yes, my car seems to make no attempt at avoiding parked vehicles. I have even set the speed down to like 5 mph to see what it would do and its clear that it would smash right into cars parked along the side of the road if I let it.

 

[Battpower]

Yes, my car seems to make no attempt at avoiding parked vehicles. I have even set the speed down to like 5 mph to see what it would do and its clear that it would smash right into cars parked along the side of the road if I let it.

So I don't understand how slow traffic could be in slow adjacent lanes before ap treats them as parked (ie ignores them)

However, I suspect that the issue is that ap's 'significant object' horizon may be the lane limits. So the car doesn't go outside carriageway boundaries and therefore doesn't react to such objects.

Although against that view is that I often get random stationary objects illuminate red but usually they are on a driveway or side turn.

 

[diplomat33]

Yes, my car seems to make no attempt at avoiding parked vehicles. I have even set the speed down to like 5 mph to see what it would do and its clear that it would smash right into cars parked along the side of the road if I let it.

I've driven on city streets with AP on and AP has avoided parked cars.

 

[Battpower]

I've driven on city streets with AP on and AP has avoided parked cars.

That's interesting and absolutely not the case with my MS Raven LR hw3 fsd.

If you drive up behind a cyclist the car just slows to a crawl. If there is a parked car mostly on the sidewalk but 2 wheels just on carriageway, I have no doubt so would just slam into the parked car. No hint of slowing or moving away from parked car. In many cases, doing so would mean crossing center line into oncoming carriageway.