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Autopilot in New Zealand

Discussion in 'New Zealand' started by Kiwiadventure, Dec 15, 2019.

  1. Kiwiadventure

    Kiwiadventure Member

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2018
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    Location:
    Auckland New Zealand
    I think we will as overseas companies have had approval already for testing autonomous planes here for the last couple of years. Most countries will not allow autonomous plane testing. I don't think there's a huge difference from autopilot to FSD but what will be required is traffic lights etc recognition.
     
  2. Kiwiadventure

    Kiwiadventure Member

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    Location:
    Auckland New Zealand
    FSD worked from Hobsonville south view tunnel towards airport but wouldn't work going the other way. FSD did work earlier in the week but failed when my 3 entered the tunnel. At his stage its very hit and miss.
     
  3. Matt_NZ

    Matt_NZ Member

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    Location:
    New Zealand
    Did a road trip from Auckland to Dannevirke today, mostly all on autopilot. Was fairly uneventful apart from two instances of phantom breaking. Both instances were at corners (nothing too crazy) where a truck was in the oncoming lane. After the second instance, if I was approaching a corner and a larger vehicle was coming I took over for that moment before giving control back.

    Otherwise, it was great! I did notice it's much more confident if it has another car to follow but it did alright on its own as well. Made the long drive much more bearable
     
  4. Renaissance

    Renaissance Member

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    Location:
    London
    It really doesn't like parked cars where there is no lane marker between the driving lane and the parked cars. Seems to think they're stopped in your lane and will phantom brake - sometimes quite violently! It's similarly skittish about pedestrians and cyclists.

    Similar behaviour whether on full AP or TACC. Keeping your foot on the accelerator will override it (and produces a "will not brake" warning on the screen).
     
  5. Kiwiadventure

    Kiwiadventure Member

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    Location:
    Auckland New Zealand
    Next update may have some changes. Auckland Transport has the crazy idea of painting white lines on the side of the roads but the spaced between the white line and footpath is not wide enough to park a vehicle so vehicles park over the white line and this can confuse AP.
     
  6. Neilhnz

    Neilhnz Member

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2020
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    Location:
    Morven, New Zealand
    Hi all, glad to be part of the Tesla community.

    After owning a Model 3 for two weeks (2,500Km so far) I will not be using Autopilot until it comes out of beta. I find that it acts like a frightened rabbit slamming on the brakes or violently turning the car. It also wants to sit close to the center line rather than in the the left side of the road. It also does not gauge corner speed at all.

    I have had one close call where the car slammed on the brakes and the car behind nearly ran into me. I think our narrow roads, tight bridges, tight bends and undulating roads are a bit much for the poor old computer.

    Cornering is rather jerky not smooth as the car turns late in the corner. Exiting a passing lane is like bumper cars where the car seems to bounce from the left road marking and heads to the center line where it once again bounces off the right road marking making for a rather uncomfortable maneuver. It only seems useful of straight roads or long sweeping bends and you like running down the edge of the center line. A bit too close to on coming trucks.

    It is in Beta and has potential, but for me there is no current advantage so Adaptive Cruse Control will do me until Autopilot comes out of Beta.

    I am looking forward to the ability for the car to read speed signs and hope that it will work on cruise control.

    Apart for the disappointing Autopilot (which will improve over time) the car is an absolute pleasure to drive.
     
  7. Ecoli

    Ecoli Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    New Zealand
    congrats on your 2 weeks!
    camera speed limit sign detecting is out now , local roads only no motorway with 2020.4.3

    I have experienced occasional phantom braking, I have noticed excessive course correction if traveling very slowly with recent software. I haven't had a chance to try 2020.40.3 yet.
    It does tend to loose the plot if single lane widens into multi lane and there is a gap in the lane marking or no lane marking
    I haven't experienced any of the other issues your seeing for, me it sticks unerringly to the center of the lane
    In saying that I have experienced some regression which is normally fixed with a later builds

    I think you'll be missing out not trying AP until officially out of Beta, especially at the rate Tesla is pumping out software updates lately.
    I couldn't imaging facing rush hour traffic without it now
    You've just got to a bit of a boy scout and be prepared, and know when to disengage/reengage it
    and that comes with experience.

    Take for example NoA, on the motorway
    If the traffic lights are on that controlling on ramp merging, and your on the motorway the car will see the on ramp traffic lights and and try to stop.
    You have to be prepared for this and tap the accelerator. This has been happening since traffic light control was enabled
    Does this behavior stop me from using NoA, no I know what its going to do if the on ramp traffic lights are on

    I guess a the end of the day it depends if you enjoy being a bit of a test pilot or not
     
    • Like x 1
  8. Neilhnz

    Neilhnz Member

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    Sep 22, 2020
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    Location:
    Morven, New Zealand
    Thanks Ecoli,

    I certainly enjoying the car. I have a 50Km commute to Timaru most days along state highway one. So far there have been no emergencies but many false positives from autopilot. I find I am more on edge with autopilot, waiting for the next random reaction. Rather than relaxing into the drive.

    One time coming over a rise the car thought that it was coming to the edge of the world and would fall off and so braked to save itself. Who knows what the poor driver following thought. I would have through that a Tesla car would not be a flat earther maybe it needs to have a chat with it cousin Falcon Heavy :p

    It does work however if you carefully choose the road, clear markings straight or gentle bends with no hills or sharp corners. Not many sections of road here offer that however. Down hill left hand corners seem to be the worst. I tried autopilot coming through a small town called Temuka to see what happened and every time the road marking on the opposite side of the road showed a arrow pointing to my left the car would lurch violently to the left. It did this for each of three intersections until I gave up on it.

    I can imagine it working perfectly on an Auckland motor way following the vehicles in front. Gentle hills, long sweeping corners.

    I am looking forward to seeing if the new speed sign recognition will work with cruise control as the current GPS speed recognition only comes in well after the sign and you still have to press the road speed icon. The one great thing is that over time things will be worked out and as more and more cars appear on New Zealand roads autopilot will greatly improve.

    It is a pity though that we cannot teach the car. Correcting its mistakes and getting it to improve on the roads that we frequently use. Teaching it to use the appropriate part of the road and to ignore false positives and learn the road is safe. Also teaching it to turn into a corner smoothly and to gauge the cornering speed appropriately.

    Make no mistake I really love driving this car, it is just a mater of knowing what it can and cannot handle.
     
  9. Matt_NZ

    Matt_NZ Member

    Joined:
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    210
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Neilhnz, what software version is your car running? It's possible since your car is new it's still running an old version - it can take a few weeks for them to start getting updates.

    My daily commute is through rural roads which I generally use autopilot for. It does have some niggles (there is one corner with a turning lane that isn't marked on the road properly and the car tries to follow the turning lane instead) but phantom breaking isn't nearly as bad as it once was.

    The sign reading will work with both Autopilot and TACC.
     
  10. Neilhnz

    Neilhnz Member

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2020
    Messages:
    11
    Location:
    Morven, New Zealand
    Hi Matt_NZ, you could be right. The car is running version 2020.36.11 ccacdb181f16 I am sure that over time it will get better, I do feel though that it is currently more dangerous than safe.
     
  11. Ecoli

    Ecoli Member

    Joined:
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    480
    Location:
    New Zealand
    2020.36.11 isn't all that old
    You can change software updates to advanced
    Which supposedly gets you on the bleeding edge
    Software updates are at the whim of Tesla

    Being a new car you'll prob get updated in a couple of weeks
    You can see here 2020.40.3 is being pushed out to large number of cars
    You can also see the release notes
    TeslaFi.com Firmware Tracker

    AP behavior can be a bit unnerving at times. It can handle a situation perfectly, drive the very same road
    and it looses the plot. whether it's the time of day, position of the sun, the weather, full moon, not getting Elon's new kid name right, or not praising Tesla enough times that day, I'm not sure.

    The more you use it the more you're able to judge when you'll need take the wheel
    AP still does a better job than Jesus :)
     
  12. Ecoli

    Ecoli Member

    Joined:
    Aug 6, 2019
    Messages:
    480
    Location:
    New Zealand
    2020.48.12.1 AP seems improved over 2020.48.10
    Back to smoothly accelerating/decelerating in traffic
    Don't seem to weave all over the show in slow moving traffic now
     

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