Autopilot lane centering on highway is dangerous and annoying

[BlueBird]

I am on a 1200 miles road trip across few states and am finding that many highways do not have continuous lines on exit and entrance ramps causing the car to make dangerous shifting to center within this almost double width. One one highway, I had to disengage autopilot at almost all ramps. The result is even more dramatic when you let the car center when you reach the end of an exit ramp as the car would either jump to the left or aim to the highway’s shoulder. Can somebody give me one reason why on highway speeds, the software is not using the left lane as a guide (or the GPS information) to prevent those dangerous shifting. Also, if you want to take the ramp, you will likely disengage the autopilot as the blinker would not work.

 

[P85_DA]

Which FW version and what AP version u have ?

 

[jelloslug]

I think you are trying to override the system too much. Just let it do it's job.

 

[McManX]

Why don’t you just go into the second lane?

 

[Derek Kessler]

Why don’t you just go into the second lane?

If I had to guess, this "road trip across a few states" consists of a lot of 2-lane interstates, so sitting in the left lane is at a minimum a dick move and at worst a ticketable offense (depending on the state).

 

[BlueBird]

ap 2.5 and version 2018.24.1. Yes mainly two lane interstates. I especially had problem in Pennsylvania. I tried to let the system do his shifting but it is very unconfortable and as mentionned can be very dangerous for some longer ramps. Also, since I always follow speed limits + 5, just forget the left lane as people are typically way over speed limit.

 

[tpham07]

Im sorry I thought it was the goal to stay in the center of a lane, providing maximum space between your car and any adjacent car (or wall) next to you.

Did I miss the memo?

 

[Sonic_78]

I have experienced the same and so has everyone who’s found their car in the same situation. It may be more rules of the road correct, regarding staying centered in your lane even on a merge, but it’s not now I drive in a non AP car. And cars around are not expecting me to deviate off to the right to center myself in a temporary double wide lane just to get pushed back when it comes single again.

 

[BlueBird]

Im sorry I thought it was the goal to stay in the center of a lane, providing maximum space between your car and any adjacent car (or wall) next to you.

Did I miss the memo?

Do we agree that centering on a wider road is very different from centering at 65 mph on a ramp that will double the width for 3 seconds. At the minimum, the car should allow a tolerance on the extra width or have a delay before starting to center. This would have minimal impact on a wider road but a major improvement for ramps.

 

[Az_Rael]

It will really get you in a multiple lane freeway where your lane opens up to become two lanes. Sometimes the car picks a lane and sticks to it through the merge. But sometimes, it centers up on the wide area, then ends up straddling between the two lanes and decides to make a quick jerk one way or the other. Not what other folks around you are expecting. Around here AP in the right lane is OK for exits, but I could see in different states the markings driving the car to the same behavior I see when a lane is added.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Right lane for merging on and off the freeway.
Center lanes for medium speed cruising.
Far left lane for the highest speed cruising.

 

[ai4px]

I wish for the ability to set the position in the lane. Some potholes in our roads are consistently exactly where she wants to run.

Also we have ap1 and there is a two lane road near here with a sudden hill. The visual change in the convergence of the road lines on that hill cause the autopilot to jerk the wheel on way or the other every single time. Entry to a hilly section of road sure seems to confuse her.

 

[animorph]

I first noticed this when I updated from 2018.21.9 to 2018.24.1, though I don't have a lot of locations where it's a problem. It caught me by surprise when it jogged to the right when the dividing line on a freeway entrance merge I was passing ended. Previous versions have usually been better than this, though diving for the exit has been a thing. It's easy to believe this is how the Mountain View Model X gore barrier crash happened. The left lane line fades out, the car recenters to the line on the opposite side of the gore, and there you are heading into the crash barrier.

My immediate concern is with a normal lane merge if there is a car to the right of me merging into my lane and suddenly the lane line separating us disappears. Is AP going to dive to the right? Will the ultrasonic sensors catch it before it hits the car next to me? AP has never been great at merging when some level of guessing what the other drivers will do is required. And until the side cameras are used, it's pretty clueless about traffic to the sides and rear. So that may reduce my Autosteer usage where this might happen repeatedly.

I'd much prefer that it just follow the straightest path, or with GPS info it follows the main lane. Hopefully soon, like the big August update.

 

[Mrcook4590]

I first noticed this when I updated from 2018.21.9 to 2018.24.1, though I don't have a lot of locations where it's a problem. It caught me by surprise when it jogged to the right when the dividing line on a freeway entrance merge I was passing ended. Previous versions have usually been better than this, though diving for the exit has been a thing. It's easy to believe this is how the Mountain View Model X gore barrier crash happened. The left lane line fades out, the car recenters to the line on the opposite side of the gore, and there you are heading into the crash barrier.

My immediate concern is with a normal lane merge if there is a car to the right of me merging into my lane and suddenly the lane line separating us disappears. Is AP going to dive to the right? Will the ultrasonic sensors catch it before it hits the car next to me? AP has never been great at merging when some level of guessing what the other drivers will do is required. And until the side cameras are used, it's pretty clueless about traffic to the sides and rear. So that may reduce my Autosteer usage where this might happen repeatedly.

I'd much prefer that it just follow the straightest path, or with GPS info it follows the main lane. Hopefully soon, like the big August update.

I'm curious how tightly you all hold onto the steering wheel. It seems to me that when it jerks, if you are holding onto the steering wheel as you are supposed to, it will be in the lane you want it to be in. No? My husband doesn't hold as firmly as I do, so it waggles more when he drives and the warnings flash for him to hold on to the wheel. It is extremely rare for the warning to flash when I drive. We have AP1. Maybe that's the difference? Again, curious, not accusatory in tone here...

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I am on a 1200 miles road trip across few states and am finding that many highways do not have continuous lines on exit and entrance ramps causing the car to make dangerous shifting to center within this almost double width. One one highway, I had to disengage autopilot at almost all ramps. The result is even more dramatic when you let the car center when you reach the end of an exit ramp as the car would either jump to the left or aim to the highway’s shoulder. Can somebody give me one reason why on highway speeds, the software is not using the left lane as a guide (or the GPS information) to prevent those dangerous shifting. Also, if you want to take the ramp, you will likely disengage the autopilot as the blinker would not work.

Stick to TACC, or correct the car when it drifts right around an exit.

 

[mxnym]

I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before and pointed out that it was normal in AP1 vehicles last year (based on a road trip in a 2016 MX P90D that I rented on Turo last year before buying) but only started happening in AP2 vehicles with the "silky smooth" update (based on my DD, a 2017 MX 100D), but this thread seems to have gotten a lot more attention, so I wanted to point this out again.

Another thing worth pointing out is that ramps are sometimes on the left side of the road, so "just follow the left line" isn't a good solution. "Just follow the dashed line" or "just follow the straighter line" might be good solutions, but this is definitely something that needs work.

I'm curious how tightly you all hold onto the steering wheel. It seems to me that when it jerks, if you are holding onto the steering wheel as you are supposed to, it will be in the lane you want it to be in. No? My husband doesn't hold as firmly as I do, so it waggles more when he drives and the warnings flash for him to hold on to the wheel. It is extremely rare for the warning to flash when I drive. We have AP1. Maybe that's the difference? Again, curious, not accusatory in tone here...

When the ramps are wide enough for this to be a real issue, holding the steering wheel in order to try to keep your position close to where it should be will disengage autosteer even in my Model X which takes a lot of force to disengage.

 

[David29]

When the ramps are wide enough for this to be a real issue, holding the steering wheel in order to try to keep your position close to where it should be will disengage autosteer even in my Model X which takes a lot of force to disengage.

My car is AP1, so maybe my experience is different, but I have found that the recent updates allow much more corrective force to be applied to the steering, so you can force the car to chose one lane over another at a fork when a lane splits or a ramp occurs, without disengaging AP. I agree that it did used to disengage fairly easily but recently it seems to take more effort. Could be AP1 vs. AP2, or maybe I have just been lucky the few times I have experienced this.

 

[mxnym]

My car is AP1, so maybe my experience is different, but I have found that the recent updates allow much more corrective force to be applied to the steering, so you can force the car to chose one lane over another at a fork when a lane splits or a ramp occurs, without disengaging AP. I agree that it did used to disengage fairly easily but recently it seems to take more effort. Could be AP1 vs. AP2, or maybe I have just been lucky the few times I have experienced this.

My AP2.5 definitely disengaged this morning when I held the wheel straight for this scenario on 2018.26.

 

[d21mike]

I am on a 1200 miles road trip across few states and am finding that many highways do not have continuous lines on exit and entrance ramps causing the car to make dangerous shifting to center within this almost double width. One one highway, I had to disengage autopilot at almost all ramps. The result is even more dramatic when you let the car center when you reach the end of an exit ramp as the car would either jump to the left or aim to the highway’s shoulder. Can somebody give me one reason why on highway speeds, the software is not using the left lane as a guide (or the GPS information) to prevent those dangerous shifting. Also, if you want to take the ramp, you will likely disengage the autopilot as the blinker would not work.

I believe the lane centering changed somewhere around 2018.10.4. I do not believe it was always that way.

My daughter is in town and we had to take a 45 mile trip up the freeways (with multiple freeway changes) and I showed her exactly what you are describing. I said that I wish when the lane gets much larger it would use the left lane (which is clear) and use the "normal" width of the lane and use the left lane maker plus the "normal" width to do the center logic.

Until Tesla decides to change this there is nothing you can do about it. I normally never drive (unless required) in the right lane (US) for this and other reasons. If I was on a two lane road I would normally drive in the left lane all things considered and if faster cars came up I would drive the flow of traffic or switch back to the right lane to allow cars to pass.

 

[Peteybabes]

ap 2.5 and version 2018.24.1. Yes mainly two lane interstates. I especially had problem in Pennsylvania. I tried to let the system do his shifting but it is very unconfortable and as mentionned can be very dangerous for some longer ramps. Also, since I always follow speed limits + 5, just forget the left lane as people are typically way over speed limit.

PA's roads suck if you aren't on the toll road. super narrow lanes and poor markings with a lot of construction. i just did 1500 mile trip to and from NY and ran into the same stuff.