Autopilot lane keeping still not available over 6 months after delivery

[stopcrazypp]

Google has been demoing self-driving cars for many years now. They had a commercial of sorts with a blind individual "driving" to do chores. I don't see the difference in this situation because blind men cannot currently drive Google's car.

Good point. Reminds me of the Google Glass advertisements too. They showed a lot of stuff that wasn't in the version they initially released and probably still isn't in the latest version.

 

[dhanson865]

So we're just taking as a given that the sensor suite is "wrong". Great.

Who Do You Mean We Kemo Sabe?

2 people say it and all the sudden you take it as given?

 

[Stoneymonster]

Who Do You Mean We Kemo Sabe?

2 people say it and all the sudden you take it as given?

I was using the ironic non-royal "we".

 

[Todd Burch]

I think a lot of people should prepare for some disappointment, because my prediction is fairly pessimistic.

How many Model S owners drive with the Lane Departure Warning feature turned on? I do, but I think I'm in the minority. I think most owners turn it off because it issues a lot of false alarms. This morning, I had it shake the wheel for me because it got fooled by a shadow on the road.

I believe the future Lane Keeping feature of the AutoPilot suite is based on the same sensor input as the Lane Departure Warning. If this is the case, then it's well away from being ready. Right now, if you engaged it with the current software processing that's doing Lane Departure Warning, your Model S wouldn't last 15 minutes before it steered into a concrete barrier.

Here are my predictions/speculation:

• I think we'll see self-parking features rolled out well before lane keeping.
• Self-parking might be ready by the end of the summer.
• Model X will be released later this year, and it won't have lane keeping either.
• Lane keeping implementation in existing Model S cars may require hardware retrofit -- either additional sensors, a faster CPU, or possibly both.
• Lane keeping in existing Model S cars won't be deployed until Q2 2016.

The existing sensor suite is the bare minimum required to do lane keeping, and it's going to require extraordinarily sophisticated processing to do it, including camera & sonar input, and even input from the radar tracking things like the lane markers (reflectors/bumps) and side barriers. The on-board CPU for the tech features is already heavily taxed (watch the update rate/frame rate of your kW meter get halved when you engage navigation), and doing this kind of background processing for lane keeping might be more than the existing CPU can deliver.

Sorry to be so pessimistic, but I think there are major obstacles to overcome that haven't yet been solved.

Hmm. 16,000 miles and I can't think of one single instance where lane departure warning went off incorrectly. Either you're a poor driver, your system needs to be looked at, or you're grossly exaggerating. I'll be optimistic and assume the second option.

 

[ohmman]

I don't see the difference in this situation because blind men cannot currently drive Google's car.

Not taking sides, but again I take issue with the declaration. The difference is clear - Google isn't marketing or selling the car.

 

[Spidy]

The engineer in me should have seen that the demo was done in a very controlled environment.

I becomes pretty obvious when you watch this: Mercedes Benz S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE California 2014 - YouTube

I think Teslas way of relying on the Internet hype might really hurt them long term. I mean just looking at the view counts on youtube Tesla has like 1.5 million on one video and 700k on the other. Mercedes maybe has 1/4 of that over several videos oeven though the tech demo actually in traffic. Sure that saves advertising money, but it also means that you have to generate new buzz all the time and are under pressure to deliver.

 

[wk057]

Good point. Reminds me of the Google Glass advertisements too. They showed a lot of stuff that wasn't in the version they initially released and probably still isn't in the latest version.

Google glass was very clearly marketed as a beta product.

Hmm. 16,000 miles and I can't think of one single instance where lane departure warning went off incorrectly. Either you're a poor driver, your system needs to be looked at, or you're grossly exaggerating. I'll be optimistic and assume the second option.

I also have never had lane departure warning go off when it shouldn't, even in construction and such. I have had it *not* go off when I figured it should a few times, but never the other way around.

---


In any case, I'll just bring up a point I made many pages ago.

I personally don't want Tesla to release software that isn't done/ready/tested/etc. That would be silly. I don't even expect them to do anything at all that would incur a monetary cost to them with regard to making this issue right. I personally would be satisfied with a blog post titled "Autopilot Progress Report" or similar describing what the heck has been going on since October, what is currently going on, and what we're to expect as far as delivery of this feature. Is it going to be this summer? Next year? I mean seriously there has been dead air on this topic for basically 9 months now aside from at most a few scattered sentences from Elon.

Beyond that, extending the warranty on the auto-steer hardware (or even the autopilot suite) to take effect upon lane-keeping release could certainly restore some faith and is probably the right thing to do, at a minimum.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I personally would be satisfied with a blog post titled "Autopilot Progress Report" or similar describing what the heck has been going on since October, what is currently going on, and what we're to expect as far as delivery of this feature. Is it going to be this summer? Next year? I mean seriously there has been dead air on this topic for basically 9 months now aside from at most a few scattered sentences from Elon.

I wouldn't say it's completely dead air. In March, talk about a planned release in July was covered by all the major tech blogs and media outlets (including NY Times):
http://my.teslamotors.com/forum/for...driving-autopilot-mode-three-months-july-2015
Here's the latest update talks about beta testing starting soon:
http://time.com/3916045/elon-musk-tesla-autopilot/

Unfortunately we don't know time frame between beta and release from the last 6.2 update. We found it was under beta testing in mid-March with the announcement and update was released 10 days later, but we don't know when it actually started beta.

 

[wk057]

I wouldn't say it's completely dead air. In March, talk about a planned release in July was covered by all the major tech blogs and media outlets (including NY Times):
http://my.teslamotors.com/forum/for...driving-autopilot-mode-three-months-july-2015
Here's the latest update talks about beta testing starting soon:
http://time.com/3916045/elon-musk-tesla-autopilot/

Unfortunately we don't know time frame between beta and release from the last 6.2 update. We found it was under beta testing in mid-March with the announcement and update was released 10 days later, but we don't know when it actually started beta.

As we all are pretty well aware, the press doesn't tend to actually get the details right on this stuff.

From the horse's mouth, so to speak, there has been very little.

 

[kuttakamina]

TSLA, Next earnings announcement is July 29. I bet we will see a new version of firmware right around then.

 

[Alipapa]

Well let's review for those who have forgotten. Tesla designed and built from the ground up an electric vehicle with significant range. That vehicle also was compelling on metrics such as cargo space, performance, and tech. (Yes, I know you've forgotten that nobody else has an information control center like Tesla. Not even close). They've had to somehow figure out how to get a factory going from scratch, hire people, convince suppliers to take a chance on them, raise money (multiple times), expand to other countries and so on. They had to build galleries, stores, and service centers all around the world and all the while fight powerful entities like NADA. Then just for giggles Tesla is also implementing 'world wide' a long distance FAST (not pretend fast) and free charging infrastructure on their own. They are building a battery factory of the size and likes that no one has seen before. They have designed and will be building PowerPacks and Powerwalls. Then just because they love us so much, they are well on the path to providing us with a much more affordable mass market EV so that we can all have a chance to get off fossil fuel vehicles. So, yeah. So sorry they haven't had 50, 60, 70, or 80 years of experience and time to do everything you think they should have already done. I'm sure you could have done better.

You get the point! Unless we can do it better than the vendor, we should never criticize!

We should all stay claim next time we see an NBA player miss a free throw or a dunk, because we are not as good as Micheal Jordan!

I am sure Tesla only hire fresh graduate to build up the factory and design a brand new kind of car.

 

[lolachampcar]

In six months, no one will care.

 

[rlang59]

In six months, no one will care.

Unless it's still not available. :wink:

 

[ecarfan]

That Mercedes demo of their autonomous driving system that is in development was shot in Silicon Valley (primarily in MountainView) in light traffic and edited together in a geographically disjointed manner. But no matter, it is well known that Mercedes is working on autonomous driving. Good for them. I see no point in Tesla releasing a similar video. The company is obviously working on the same product as Mercedes, as are multiple other car companies. Thanks for posting the video.

I becomes pretty obvious when you watch this: Mercedes Benz S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE California 2014 - YouTube
I think Teslas way of relying on the Internet hype might really hurt them long term. I mean just looking at the view counts on youtube Tesla has like 1.5 million on one video and 700k on the other. Mercedes maybe has 1/4 of that over several videos oeven though the tech demo actually in traffic. Sure that saves advertising money, but it also means that you have to generate new buzz all the time and are under pressure to deliver.

 

[Krugerrand]

You get the point! Unless we can do it better than the vendor, we should never criticize!

We should all stay claim next time we see an NBA player miss a free throw or a dunk, because we are not as good as Micheal Jordan!

I am sure Tesla only hire fresh graduate to build up the factory and design a brand new kind of car.

Don't be ridiculous. You made an outlandish and entirely incorrect comment about Tesla focusing on hype and stock price over engineering.

 

[tezzla]

In six months, no one will care.

I don't know, some people can hold a grudge. As George Bush says:
'Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!'

 

[bonnie]

I don't know, some people can hold a grudge. As George Bush says:
'Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!'

People that fall into the category of grudge holding perhaps should move onto something else. Life is too short to be obsessing over real or imagined hurts. And the grudge holder is usually the only one miserable.

 

[Alipapa]

Completly agree, it is sad to see fanboys and haters. I will order my third Tesla (Model X) when I can finally see the car. But that doesn't mean I have to completely agree on their decision or be mad about all their fault. I never claim Tesla for my rear tires because of exceptional wear due to the non adjustable camber links, and never complaint about the missing 3 phase charger that was supposed to came with the car 11 months ago (and still no news) or make a big news here saying the car will limits its output when I drive it over 100 mph for more than 1 min. The reason people here who are unhappy is because of the over promise from Tesla. As Lola said, this will end when Tesla finally release the proper software update.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Hmm. 16,000 miles and I can't think of one single instance where lane departure warning went off incorrectly. Either you're a poor driver, your system needs to be looked at, or you're grossly exaggerating. I'll be optimistic and assume the second option.

Well, I want to believe you. But please believe me when I say that my experience is 180° opposite. It literally falses at least once a day, which for me is typically 30 miles of driving.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll see if I can extract and edit together all of the instances from my dashcam and post it here.

 

[Max*]

There was another thread about lane departure warning and how accurate it is. And it seems for some people it works great (I fall into that category) and for some people it works like crap.