Autopilot - lane centering

[CrazyRabbit]

Autopilot needs to be adjusted to measure lane width and hold the distance to either the right or left (preference to left) lane stripes when the width changes. When two lanes become one, the car moves to center quickly blocking cars which are overtaking you. Possibly causing a accident.
Also autopilot needs to plot a path the is constant curvature (best fit to road lane using the full lane like a human would do) so it isn’t so jerky in corners.
I thought it used AI, so it would learn how you dive and mimic that, but it don’t.

 

[israndy]

Your car will NEVER learn from you. All learning is done by the car deciding how to drive and if you don't come to the same decision it will upload that info to the cloud. Potentially that info will be then used as part of the training for the next release of the OS that is then download to ALL cars. So it 'mimics' how all of us drive collectively.

I used to agree about the lane merge, but there have been so many times that I am driving and a lane merges with us and a car comes up from that lane and my car splits the difference between the two lanes as they merge and that guy DOESN'T end up trying to pass me during the merge, it seems smarter to have it the way it's designed than letting people dangerously try to zoom in the slow lane.

It is a jarring move however and that could be smoothed out as they have done with the rest of the AutoPilot dynamics over the years.

 

[RTPEV]

I used to agree about the lane merge, but there have been so many times that I am driving and a lane merges with us and a car comes up from that lane and my car splits the difference between the two lanes as they merge and that guy DOESN'T end up trying to pass me during the merge, it seems smarter to have it the way it's designed than letting people dangerously try to zoom in the slow lane.

The severity of the lane merge issue varies by state, depending on how that state marks the merge lanes.

Here in NC, the merge lanes are marked all the way to the very end of the merge lane, so you would not see this behavior (and if what you're saying is accurate, you would be experiencing a lot of people passing you on the right).

Virginia, on the other hand, is really bad. I've had some very dangerous situations, especially when the on-ramp is on a right hand curve, where the excessive lane centering causes the car to move so far to the right, and then violently back to the left that at a minimum it probably concerns other drives around you, and at worst opens up the dangerous possibility that a car behind you decides it's going to attempt a "half pass" and sneak around you just as your car decides to get back into the lane.

You may like how it prevents on-ramp "zoomers" from getting by you, but frankly I consider it's behavior unnatural and potentially dangerous, and in regular traffic I don't typically see zoomers anyway (more often than not the problem is people merging are going too SLOW). In heavy traffic it's a different situation of course.

 

[beatle]

Virginia, on the other hand, is really bad. I've had some very dangerous situations, especially when the on-ramp is on a right hand curve, where the excessive lane centering causes the car to move so far to the right, and then violently back to the left that at a minimum it probably concerns other drives around you, and at worst opens up the dangerous possibility that a car behind you decides it's going to attempt a "half pass" and sneak around you just as your car decides to get back into the lane.

You may like how it prevents on-ramp "zoomers" from getting by you, but frankly I consider it's behavior unnatural and potentially dangerous, and in regular traffic I don't typically see zoomers anyway (more often than not the problem is people merging are going too SLOW). In heavy traffic it's a different situation of course.

Agreed, it's pretty annoying here. AP1 did not have this behavior though and instead would just follow the lane markers that remain. There are occasional times where the road forks and it has to guess which direction to go, but those situations are pretty obvious to spot. I always wonder, "Will the car figure it out?" and intervene if it chooses incorrectly.

 

[TRWhit]

I just picked up my pre-owned M3 last week and this is definitely the most annoying behavior I've seen so far. Fortunately I drive mostly on rural interstates with little merging traffic. I usually try and move to the left lane if anyone at all is coming down the on-ramp. Would love to see a fix for this in the next update.

 

[israndy]

Get Whole Mars to tweet about it, Elon will say it's a good idea and two years later it won't be in the updates, like the frickin' midgate in the CyberTruck

 

[CapsEngineer]

I’ve often wondered if this behavior on merges and forks is because the car doesn’t look far enough ahead. You and I know the merge/fork is happening and pick our part of the lane because we look ahead, not at the lane markings closer to the car.

I also think this is part of the problem with the auto turn signals and turn lanes. In my experience, if the lane has markings on the entrance to the turn lane it behaves correctly. If the markings are at the end of va long enough lane, it won’t.

 

[clydeiii]

Your car will NEVER learn from you. All learning is done by the car deciding how to drive and if you don't come to the same decision it will upload that info to the cloud. Potentially that info will be then used as part of the training for the next release of the OS that is then download to ALL cars. So it 'mimics' how all of us drive collectively.

I used to agree about the lane merge, but there have been so many times that I am driving and a lane merges with us and a car comes up from that lane and my car splits the difference between the two lanes as they merge and that guy DOESN'T end up trying to pass me during the merge, it seems smarter to have it the way it's designed than letting people dangerously try to zoom in the slow lane.

It is a jarring move however and that could be smoothed out as they have done with the rest of the AutoPilot dynamics over the years.

One day, your car might learn from you. But as of the most recent FSDb release, the car does not learn from you.

 

[Twiglett]

I’ve often wondered if this behavior on merges and forks is because the car doesn’t look far enough ahead. You and I know the merge/fork is happening and pick our part of the lane because we look ahead, not at the lane markings closer to the car.

I also think this is part of the problem with the auto turn signals and turn lanes. In my experience, if the lane has markings on the entrance to the turn lane it behaves correctly. If the markings are at the end of va long enough lane, it won’t.

this is definitely the case. The car doesn't seem able to track all the things that human drivers use a cues for what to do next.
It doesn't read very many road signs which is a problem, but as you say, the biggest issue is that the planner is very limited right now.

 

[israndy]

Yeah, I always find it funny that the car in front of me won't show on the Nav Display until I am MUCH closer than I hoped the car's telephoto lens could make out. This causes it to decide to change lanes too late in my opinion, so probably an issue in all sorts of other planning states.

 

[Dewg]

Yeah, I always find it funny that the car in front of me won't show on the Nav Display until I am MUCH closer than I hoped the car's telephoto lens could make out. This causes it to decide to change lanes too late in my opinion, so probably an issue in all sorts of other planning states.

Should be around 800 feet. Are objects not showing at that distance?

 

[israndy]

Not sure, it's many many car lengths, but I see the car SO MUCH farther than the car does. It makes me think that's why it zooms up to stopped traffic, because it doesn't see far enough ahead.

 

[Mr. Michael]

Wondering if the limit is the cameras or the inability to process the exponentially increased data that comes with looking further out. They exceded the limits of the ”redundant” processor quite a while ago and gave up on that. Could be at the limits of using both now.

 

[T061]

Wondering if the limit is the cameras or the inability to process the exponentially increased data that comes with looking further out. They exceded the limits of the ”redundant” processor quite a while ago and gave up on that. Could be at the limits of using both now.

It's also possible that the car does see and process the information but they chose not to display it to save memory or whatever. The map also doesn't show vehicles very far behind you but presumably the car does see them for safe lane changes? Idk

 

[gsmith123]

Jerkiness in merges and splits on highways is pretty much resolved with FSD (based on some limited highway use where my car uses FSD). It's really good actually, as far as pathing decisions go. Some excessive braking in corners and sometimes weird lane change choices still happen for me tho.

I'm very optimistic that V11 single stack will address highway merges and splits in a big way.

 

[israndy]

If you are NOT running Single Stack you are not running FSD on the highway, check for the red border, that's the FSD visualization.

 

[gsmith123]

If you are NOT running Single Stack you are not running FSD on the highway, check for the red border, that's the FSD visualization.

I'm well aware of when the cars uses FSD Beta vs production AP. There's a road here that, for whatever reason, FSD Beta stays engaged on and it's a 55mph speed limit divided highway for sections. I'm guess it's either the speed limit or map data that keeps FSD Beta on. Anyway, with traffic speeds 65-70 it's a good test of what single stack on highway is like.

 

[rlsd]

I wish by Labor Day we can have a version that fixes the following basic things to avoid accidents:

1. Left turns, right turns
2. Early lane changes to prepare for turns and freeway entrance/exit
3. Turn on signals before changing lanes

Other issues can be solved later.

 

[israndy]

Turning on signals before lane changes in California forces the car behind you in that lane to speed up and try to block your lane change. When I am driving I usually do a quick single swoop maneuver, get 90% of the way over and then single blink my turn signal in case a cop is watching.

 

[Dewg]

I wish by Labor Day we can have a version that fixes the following basic things to avoid accidents:

1. Left turns, right turns
2. Early lane changes to prepare for turns and freeway entrance/exit
3. Turn on signals before changing lanes

Other issues can be solved later.

Huh?

It turns left and right just fine for me (OC Cali) - most of the turns that would occasionally be jerky have smoothed out.

To "follow route", my car changes lanes about 0.5 - 1.0 miles from the turn while on city, and about 1.5 - 2 miles on freeway. You can always enable "Minimal Lane Change" and then force lane changes well before, when you're comfortable.

Your car doesn't turn on signals when making a lane change, or turns them on after it's already started to move over? Something is wrong with your software.