Autopilot - Jiggling Steering Wheel

[RBattaglia]

Hello All,

I received an update about a week and a half ago and now the autopilot no longer makes me jiggle the steering wheel every 30 seconds. I noticed that if I keep my hands somewhere on the wheel it never asks me. I have even tried just putting a finger on the wheel and that works too. I remember a friend at Magna telling me that when they were designing the way the wheel would sense that you were moving it he said they lined the wheel with copper to sense if you were touching it. Is it possible this was turned on with the latest update? I am not complaining just want to make sure nothing is broken.

Regards,

Rob

 

[ecarfan]

a friend at Magna telling me that when they were designing the way the wheel would sense that you were moving it he said they lined the wheel with copper to sense if you were touching it.

I think your friend is imagining things.

What is “Magna” and how could your friend know exactly what kind of hardware is in a Tesla steering wheel? When I Google “Magna steering wheel” what I get are results for a Hyundai Magna car.

 

[boaterva]

Yeah; no such thing. It’s always been a torque sensor. They have changed the timing and intensity of what’s needed but that’s about it.

This is back to people that don’t understand moments of inertia thinking ‘the orange was squeezing the wheel’ almost level of imagination.

 

[jboy210]

Hello All,

I received an update about a week and a half ago and now the autopilot no longer makes me jiggle the steering wheel every 30 seconds. I noticed that if I keep my hands somewhere on the wheel it never asks me. I have even tried just putting a finger on the wheel and that works too. I remember a friend at Magna telling me that when they were designing the way the wheel would sense that you were moving it he said they lined the wheel with copper to sense if you were touching it. Is it possible this was turned on with the latest update? I am not complaining just want to make sure nothing is broken.

Regards,

Rob

You should never have the "jiggle the steering wheel". Just apply slight more force to one side of the steering wheel.Even putting one finger and pulling the steering wheel a little off has always worked.

The issue is with two hands on the wheel you can apply even forces to both sides and steering wheel senses no movement. Take one hand off (loosen grip in one hand) and the force is biased to one side and the steering wheel sense this.

 

[DCGOO]

Hello All,

I received an update about a week and a half ago and now the autopilot no longer makes me jiggle the steering wheel every 30 seconds. I noticed that if I keep my hands somewhere on the wheel it never asks me. I have even tried just putting a finger on the wheel and that works too. I remember a friend at Magna telling me that when they were designing the way the wheel would sense that you were moving it he said they lined the wheel with copper to sense if you were touching it. Is it possible this was turned on with the latest update? I am not complaining just want to make sure nothing is broken.
Regards,
Rob

What version was it that you received?

 

[flar]

I've had the thought in the past that they should have an indicator on the dash of "here's how much I sense your interaction with the wheel" with a bar that represents "I need to feel this much torque to acknowledge you". With that gauge and a little bit of experimentation everyone could find a position and type of resistance that creates a good balance between comfort and effectiveness in satisfying the attention requirement.

Perhaps have the blue circle behind the AP steering wheel icon vary in size depending on how much pressure they sense? Or a ring gauge around it that completes a circle from "none" to "enough" to "going to disengage"?

 

[Tdriver]

Why fool with the wheel.....just move the volume on click.

 

[mxnym]

I think your friend is imagining things.

What is “Magna” and how could your friend know exactly what kind of hardware is in a Tesla steering wheel? When I Google “Magna steering wheel” what I get are results for a Hyundai Magna car.

Magna is a large automotive supplier, you don't even have to search, you can just magna.com. They probably make steering wheels, did you think Tesla actually made their own steering wheels?

 

[ecarfan]

Magna is a large automotive supplier, you don't even have to search, you can just magna.com. They probably make steering wheels, did you think Tesla actually made their own steering wheels?

Thank you. I did not think Tesla made their own steering wheels anymore than the brakes, power steering, and other items.

Regardless, Auto Pilot senses torque on the steering wheel, not pressure or touch. It has always been that way. It’s easy to test and determine how it works. Simply touching the wheel without applying any rotational movement does not turn off the nags. But it takes very little rotational movement to turn off the nags.

 

[RBattaglia]

Hello All,

Thanks Mxnym for pointing out that Magna is a very large Tier One automotive supplier. And thank all of you that posted actual information that I can use. The reason I posted was to make sure that the latest update did not turn something off. I used to just keep a few fingers on the steering wheel and it would warn me about every 30 seconds to a minute to do something. I always had to use some force to make it realize that I did something. Now I can just lay my hands on the wheel ever so slightly without even moving and I won't be prompted ever until I remove my hands completely. This was not how it worked before version 2019.8.5 3aaa23d. While I like the fact that I am no longer annoyed with having to wiggle the wheel or do something else like change the volume etc. I want to make sure that this update did not break something. I have a tech coming out next week because after the update my large screen will turn off and reboot every so often - even when I am driving which is very creepy! Also the charging door will not open all the time when I present the charging cord to it - it is a hit or miss.

The only reason that I mentioned Magna was that my friend said he remembers working on the autonomous sensors and cameras years ago when Magna was doing stuff for Tesla and he talked about copper wire being put into the steering wheels to sense contact. He was also talking about what they were doing for Audi and Mercedes so I am not sure if it was the Tesla he was referring to. I thought it might have been that the copper was always there but the software did not have that sensor turned on. I thought that maybe the new update flipped that switch. But either way it seems that my autonomous system is working a bit differently now after the update.

 

[jboy210]

Hello All,

Thanks Mxnym for pointing out that Magna is a very large Tier One automotive supplier. And thank all of you that posted actual information that I can use. The reason I posted was to make sure that the latest update did not turn something off. I used to just keep a few fingers on the steering wheel and it would warn me about every 30 seconds to a minute to do something. I always had to use some force to make it realize that I did something. Now I can just lay my hands on the wheel ever so slightly without even moving and I won't be prompted ever until I remove my hands completely. This was not how it worked before version 2019.8.5 3aaa23d. While I like the fact that I am no longer annoyed with having to wiggle the wheel or do something else like change the volume etc. I want to make sure that this update did not break something. I have a tech coming out next week because after the update my large screen will turn off and reboot every so often - even when I am driving which is very creepy! Also the charging door will not open all the time when I present the charging cord to it - it is a hit or miss.

Make sure you do a full reboot after taking any software update. Hold both wheel buttons down for 5 or more seconds while pressing the brake (obviously you are parked when you do this). Then when the entire display goes dark release buttons and brake. All system will come back up over the next 30 seconds or so.

This often "cures" issues like the screen blanking. But unfortunately does not seem to fix the issues of the charge door being hit of miss with a HPWC or UMC, but working perfectly with a Supercharger. This seems to be a new bug introduced over the last few weeks

There is a long thread on the various levels of reset/reboots available. See Model X Reset Techniques

 

[RBattaglia]

Been there, done that many many times.

 

[ecarfan]

Now I can just lay my hands on the wheel ever so slightly without even moving and I won't be prompted ever until I remove my hands completely. This was not how it worked before version 2019.8.5 3aaa23d.

I think that, while you may not be aware of it, you are in fact applying a slight rotational force to the steering wheel.

My experience with my X on V 2019.8.6 and my 3 on V2019.8.5 is that AP requires frequent, slight, torque to be exerted on the wheel to prevent the alerts from occurring.

 

[RBattaglia]

No. I know the difference between what I used to do and what I do now. Before I literally had to move the steering wheel. There were times where it kept asking me to jiggle it when I thought I was doing it enough. Now I can just rest my hands on the bottom of the wheel and it never asks me anything. I just want to make sure that there is nothing wrong with the software since the last update. I will let the tech know that is coming on Friday and see what he finds.