autopilot in the rain/snow

[angelman]

Just to say, it's quite amazing how well autopilot works in heavy rain and snow. Driving from Philly to NYC this weekend in fairly heavy rain. I could barely see any road markings myself and yet autopilot did a great job keeping my in the lane. It got a little twitchy from time to time but stayed pretty well centred. I thought I would do a better job at one point and took over and honestly I think I did little better at keeping my position in the lane than autopilot. I don't know how those cameras work to see the lane markings but they do a great job! How do they see through driving rain, that is some serious image processing AI there.
Also why do the road markings on the East coast not use reflective paint and reflectors like they do in California? I am sure the additional cost would save many many lives.

 

[WallyP]

Just to say, it's quite amazing how well autopilot works in heavy rain and snow. Driving from Philly to NYC this weekend in fairly heavy rain. I could barely see any road markings myself and yet autopilot did a great job keeping my in the lane. It got a little twitchy from time to time but stayed pretty well centred. I thought I would do a better job at one point and took over and honestly I think I did little better at keeping my position in the lane than autopilot. I don't know how those cameras work to see the lane markings but they do a great job! How do they see through driving rain, that is some serious image processing AI there.
Also why do the road markings on the East coast not use reflective paint and reflectors like they do in California? I am sure the additional cost would save many many lives.

Wouldn't snow plows would scrape them off?

 

[rhaekar]

It's even more amazing in the fog. It senses everything as if it was a clear day. Definitely a life saver.

 

[chronopc]

It's even more amazing in the fog. It senses everything as if it was a clear day. Definitely a life saver.

I can 2nd this. I compared the dash cam footage to the one my girlfriend took from her phone and the dash cam footage show the road a lot better. The radar also comes in very handy as well in dense fog.

 

[a.void]

I'll add a +1 to this …

Drove on Saturday in awful rain conditions at night. I would have been white knuckling it and stressed to the max. Autopilot was killing it for me.

That said … it's annoying they can get that right, but the auto-wipers are useless at night

 

[angelman]

I'll add a +1 to this …

Drove on Saturday in awful rain conditions at night. I would have been white knuckling it and stressed to the max. Autopilot was killing it for me.

That said … it's annoying they can get that right, but the auto-wipers are useless at night

I know everyone is upset with the wipers but I have to say they worked flawlessly for me. Despite the heavy rain they weren't wiping like crazy which can be more distracting than the rain, they seemed to sense how to keep the view as unobstructed as possible. They only issue I had was when I started driving after parking it, they started going crazy even with little or no rain, wiping like maniacs until they settled down a bit.

 

[angelman]

Wouldn't snow plows would scrape them off?

Hmm Good point, I hadn't thought of that, I guess we don't get many snow plows in Cali... That said in the UK we have 'cat's eyes' which are the same thing but more or less flush with the road. They now even have solar powered "intelligent" cat's eyes which can do things like change colour depending on traffic conditions, speeds etc. I would think anything that helps drivers in the dark and wet would be beneficial. I am sure reflective paint for the road markings would be a huge help

 

[a.void]

I know everyone is upset with the wipers but I have to say they worked flawlessly for me. Despite the heavy rain they weren't wiping like crazy which can be more distracting than the rain, they seemed to sense how to keep the view as unobstructed as possible. They only issue I had was when I started driving after parking it, they started going crazy even with little or no rain, wiping like maniacs until they settled down a bit.

Were they working at night? Mine are decent during the day, but at night they are useless

 

[chronopc]

Were they working at night? Mine are decent during the day, but at night they are useless

Mine works fine at night.

 

[chronopc]

Also why do the road markings on the East coast not use reflective paint and reflectors like they do in California? I am sure the additional cost would save many many lives.

Never realize that was a CA thing. I think it's genius. I like that the reflective pain is yellow on one side and red on the other side. So if you drive the wrong way down the street you see red.

 

[Rsdavis9]

My friend says rainx for the windshield helps enormously. Also elon tweeted that rainx on the front bumper where the radar is helps. Anybody got a picture exactly where the radar is?

 

[angelman]

Were they working at night? Mine are decent during the day, but at night they are useless

yes they worked fine at night

 

[KiddFunkadelic]

I have to chime in as the dissenting voice. I drove in to work this morning during a light misting rain. I have always been a big rain-x fan and recently applied a coat to the windshield, so I had the wipers off entirely. The mist was light enough that the windshield was mildly obscured because the water wasn't pooling up enough to run off like it does in a more steady rain.. I could still see well enough that I didn't feel the need to engage the wipers, but all that said I had EAP/NoA engaged and had 2 moments that really hit home you have to pay extra attention in inclement weather.

The first was when I was supposed to a high speed exit where the interstate branches into 2 highways. Right at the moment the car should have taken the exit an "inclement weather, autopilot limited" message or something to that affect appeared and the car gave up on taking the exit and instead was happy to keep going past the exit. I had barely enough time to yank the wheel to the right to continue on the right path.

The second incident, and a much scarier one, was a few minutes later when I was in the right most lane and passing an exit that I was NOT taking and the same message appeared and the car started to slowly veer toward the exit lane. This is a sharp curve exit that you need to slow down from 70+ highway speeds to 35-45, so if I didn't immediately intervene the car would have either locked up the brakes or just plowed off the exit and into the grass if I hadn't caught it and pulled the steering wheel to the left to stay on the high way.

In neither case was there a beep or "take over immediately" sound of any kind. Just the casual warning message on the display.

So, the moral of the story is, in bad weather you REALLY need to remain extra vigilant if you're using EAP/NoA...