Autopilot in New Zealand

[Kiwiadventure]

Wouldn't count on the sneak preview being available for NZ, we still haven't got NoA

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.

 

[Kiwiadventure]

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.

 

[Matt_NZ]

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

 

[Renaissance]

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).

 

[Kiwiadventure]

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.

 

[Neilhnz]

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.

 

[Ecoli]

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

 

[Neilhnz]

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

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.

 

[Matt_NZ]

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.

 

[Neilhnz]

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.

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.

 

[Ecoli]

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

 

[Ecoli]

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

 

[AkAkl]

As soon as I make it back to NZ (participating in weekly miq lucky draws) hoping to buy either base model 3 or base ioniq5. Thinking m3 because autopilot. Is it of any use for driving outside the cities? Would it help say between auckland and Coro? Or auckland to Tauranga thru kaimais? I guess I'm pushing it asking if Hyundai lane assist is worthwhile for nz out of town roads?

A bit ashamed to say it ..I suck at driving on winding roads particularly at night.

 

[RobDickinson]

It works well on highways, it doesnt always slow down for slower tighter curves not sure I would trust it that much on a windy nz back road thats posted 100kph, its fine at 50.

Ioniq5 looks nice but the (just sub)80k one is lacking in a lot of toys and obviously smaller pack etc but comparable to the SR+ , it a bigger car tho

 

[m3lol]

I’ve driven Wellington to Taupo, Rotorua and Auckland a number of times and only really use AP in limited places - wider straight roads, gentle bends etc.

 

[Audietron]

As soon as I make it back to NZ (participating in weekly miq lucky draws) hoping to buy either base model 3 or base ioniq5. Thinking m3 because autopilot. Is it of any use for driving outside the cities? Would it help say between auckland and Coro? Or auckland to Tauranga thru kaimais? I guess I'm pushing it asking if Hyundai lane assist is worthwhile for nz out of town roads?

A bit ashamed to say it ..I suck at driving on winding roads particularly at night.

My first FSD experience was at winding roads going to maratei beach in south Auckland outside city yet not so outside city... semi rural winding roads... not so amazing and I wouldn't trust in daytime, never at nights. but my car only did 351 KMs as of today.

I found the major issue with Tesla FSD is using vision instead of traditional radars... means if road is not properly marked, case for many country roads, car gets confused.

On contrary, on neatly marked city roads it handles nicely, suggests faster lanes, changes lane on signal effortlessly, and slowly started giving warnings before approaching hazards.... I was relaying on ACC for some 16 years now so happy to be continue driving lazy when I am not on circuit

Today went to pickup a lunch on full self drive... from home to destination across Waterview tunnel and back... only 10-15% of way I was driving, rest of the time I was on high alert but letting car do what it should do.... car was able to change speed based on speed limits, stop at signals, start at signals, go thru green signals if I used accelerator, suggest land change and on confirmation change lanes... not bad with only few places I had to take over...

 

[Ecoli]

AP sure takes the stress out of driving, much less tiring

I'd also say AP is a bit of a moving target
You also have to bear in mind AP may be dodgy at xyz today
next week/next month it could be handling xyz with ease.

AP is still a WIP, with software getting better with regular updates
There is not a lot of manufacturers out there who can say the same

Model Y can't be to far away if your looking for something larger
I think it was approved not to long ago for Au

 

[AkAkl]

My first FSD experience was at winding roads going to maratei beach in south Auckland outside city yet not so outside city... semi rural winding roads... not so amazing and I wouldn't trust in daytime, never at nights. but my car only did 351 KMs as of today.

I found the major issue with Tesla FSD is using vision instead of traditional radars... means if road is not properly marked, case for many country roads, car gets confused.

On contrary, on neatly marked city roads it handles nicely, suggests faster lanes, changes lane on signal effortlessly, and slowly started giving warnings before approaching hazards.... I was relaying on ACC for some 16 years now so happy to be continue driving lazy when I am not on circuit

Today went to pickup a lunch on full self drive... from home to destination across Waterview tunnel and back... only 10-15% of way I was driving, rest of the time I was on high alert but letting car do what it should do.... car was able to change speed based on speed limits, stop at signals, start at signals, go thru green signals if I used accelerator, suggest land change and on confirmation change lanes... not bad with only few places I had to take over...

Hey congrats on your new m3. Thanks for feedback because the road to Maratei is a good example. I wasn't thinking of fsd but the photo looks very interesting. I know that intersection well.

I don't mind city driving. But your point about not having radar is a good one that might limit capability even if software improves. Although I would have thought cameras would be more useful for lane markings than radar. Whereas radar would be better for tracking vehicles in front for overtaking.

I probably prefer a model Y but it's probably another 25k

 

[AkAkl]

AP sure takes the stress out of driving, much less tiring

I'd also say AP is a bit of a moving target
You also have to bear in mind AP may be dodgy at xyz today
next week/next month it could be handling xyz with ease.

AP is still a WIP, with software getting better with regular updates
There is not a lot of manufacturers out there who can say the same

Model Y can't be to far away if your looking for something larger
I think it was approved not to long ago for Au

I love the fact that software gets updated regularly. Thanks for your feedback. One more question pls. Can you currently get AP to follow the car ahead and match it speed on those hilly winding roads that I dislike.

 

[Ecoli]

I love the fact that software gets updated regularly. Thanks for your feedback. One more question pls. Can you currently get AP to follow the car ahead and match it speed on those hilly winding roads that I dislike.

No, AP is somewhat intelligent and at the same time can be incredibly thick
it knows the speed limit from map data and reading road signs, slows down for bendy roads
it won't blindly match the car in front speed if starts accelerating faster than the speed AP has been engaged at
it will slow down and maintain following distance you've set if the car in front slows
Currently it wont slow down if it starts raining, you have to manually reduce the speed
If your on the motorway and the speed limit drops from 100kmph to 80kmph the detected speed limit will change but AP wont slow down until you instruct it to do so. This hasn't been enabled for NZ yet, not sure why
If lane markings disappear AP has a tendency to want to take the middle of the lane
AP wont change lanes if you want to overtake a slower car you have to disengage change lanes and engage AP again

Once you start using it you soon learn what situations AP can handle and those it can't, when to disengage preferably before your crew decides to mutiny
and never get in the car again. Driving with foot poised over the accelerator ready to counter phantom braking becomes second nature

Both Audietron and myself have FSD which has a few bells and whistles AP doesn't have
Currently off the motorway FSD won't turn left or right at traffic lights or stop signs etc, it will only follow the road it's on
That's currently in beta testing in the US

Radar was dropped as that was deemed to be the cause of phantom braking
As is with so many relationships Tesla was unable to reconcile the two so it's divorce and onward with vision getting full custody
and Radar band from seeing either FSD or AP....
I guess time will tell if FSD and AP are going to be ok with Radar not around
NHTSA is not helping by getting involved and demanding a blow by blow breakdown of what went on
when things must still be a bit raw, Radar hasn't been gone all that long