Autopilot left a clearly marked freeway lane last night - dashcam advice please

[calisnow]

Please give me some advice, if possible, on how to set up a dashcam rig where I can show TMC'ers a clear view of the road, as well as a simultaneous view of the autopilot screen. A two camera set-up, perhaps, where I can sync the feed?

Last night something so strange happened that if you told me it happened on your car I wouldn't believe it unless I saw the footage myself. On the 10 freeway going east in the right hand lane my car began drifting to the right toward the shoulder. It crossed over the very clearly marked right hand lane marker (solid white) and did not seem to know how to find its way back. I would have preferred to keep letting it do its thing except for the fact that there were cars behind me and I didn't want to get pulled over if one was a cop.

So I don't know if the car would have gone all the way toward the concrete barrier before sonar told it to move left again, or what.

I have no explanation for this behavior - the lane markings were as clear as one could hope for. There was no traffic on either side - the car simply began drifting to the right. I glanced at the screen while it was doing it and saw that it had lost the right marker on the screen also - it went from a blue line to gray.

But I don't even have a hypothesis as to why.

Earlier on the same drive, about 20 miles west of that point it did begin ping-ponging quite aggressively and I cancelled autopilot, then turned it on again and the behavior was fixed. Again for no reason I could surmise - the lane markings were extremely clear at that point also. And night time is usually when the system shines because the contrast between markings and pavements is so great.

FWIW I have the latest firmware - rainbow road. And I have several hundred miles of driving on this firmware.

 

[mrElbe]

Were you heading into the sun by chance?

 

[roblab]

....

I have no explanation for this behavior - the lane markings were as clear as one could hope for. There was no traffic on either side - the car simply began drifting to the right. I glanced at the screen while it was doing it and saw that it had lost the right marker on the screen also - it went from a blue line to gray....

FWIW I have the latest firmware - rainbow road. And I have several hundred miles of driving on this firmware.

Since AP detects lines with the camera above the mirror, could I suggest you picked up a juicy bug in front of the lens? It sounds like a one time event (for 20 miles, while the bug juice ran up the window). Since you knew the car was having trouble and drive alert with hands on the wheel, there was never any problem, as I see it. Only the car was having trouble. It told you it couldn't see the right line. This is why it's still beta.

It would be cool if the front camera could be fed to the center screen. And a dash cam would not tell you anything. But slowly losing its eyesight on one side of the screen seems like it got hit. I'd be interested to know if it still does it.

 

[RDoc]

I've seen things like this, although generally much more dramatic where I've had to grab the wheel and force AP off. I don't buy the bug on the windshield theory since once I get the car back under control, I can put it back on AP and it works fine.

 

[calisnow]

Were you heading into the sun by chance?

No this was around midnight.

Since AP detects lines with the camera above the mirror, could I suggest you picked up a juicy bug in front of the lens? It sounds like a one time event (for 20 miles, while the bug juice ran up the window). Since you knew the car was having trouble and drive alert with hands on the wheel, there was never any problem, as I see it.

I suppose anything is possible - that sounds unlikely but I don't have a better explanation myself.

 

[calisnow]

Anyway please let me know if anyone has experience setting up a dual camera dash cam rig.

Compiling "autopilot anomalies" for later analysis and attempt to duplicate them on the same stretch of road would be more fun if I can have footage of what autopilot's screen was showing when the anomaly occurred.

 

[CHG-ON]

could I suggest you picked up a juicy bug in front of the lens?

It's LA! There are no bugs. They can't survive. Only humans.

Sorry couldn't resist. Having lived there for 13 years, I'm allowed.

And really. There are NO BUGS! At least biting ones. It's great.

I do have a question about @calisnow's experience: Did you still have a right lane showing as blue? My understanding and experience has been that when I lose one side, the car tracks to the other side. It happens every morning on my drive to work. I can understand how if there is no car in front of you and it lost both lines that it would have a problem tracking. Though it should have alerted you immediately.

Re: dash cams, I have the Blackvue 650 dual cam set up. Very popular. A lot of people here have them. You can show both feeds simultaneously in playback. Hidef front and back, based on how you config the settings. Great picture, IMO. Somewhere between 325-350, I think. I got it more for security than anything else after reading how it has saved people by having the evidence of an accident, etc.

 

[calisnow]

Did you still have a right lane showing as blue? My understanding and experience has been that when I lose one side, the car tracks to the other side.

In my recollection (which could be flawed) I had the left lane marker showing blue but the right one went gray - which is really strange because both lane markers were clear as crystal and it was the middle of the night. I was in the right hand lane. And yes in my experience also the normal routine when autopilot loses one lane marker is that it hugs the other side - the one it still shows as blue.

Perhaps I am recalling incorrectly what happened - which is why I need to get a dashcam installed asap.

 

[CHG-ON]

In my recollection (which could be flawed) I had the left lane marker showing blue but the right one went gray - which is really strange because both lane markers were clear as crystal and it was the middle of the night. I was in the right hand lane. And yes in my experience also the normal routine when autopilot loses one lane marker is that it hugs the other side - the one it still shows as blue.

Perhaps I am recalling incorrectly what happened - which is why I need to get a dashcam installed asap.

Sorry. I got my R/L backwards!

Maybe she was tired and needed to go to bed...

Seriously though. It underscores the importance of always being diligent. I am glad that you are. There is simply no way that we can trust this tech at this early stage. We have years to go. I do hope that we all realize this or somebody is going to get hurt.

 

[murphyS85]

A Blackvue 650 with dual cameras would do what you want. The main camera looking out of the windshield and the rear view camera pointed at the dash display. The Windows BlackvueHD C app plays the video back in time sync with the rear camera in the upper left corner of the screen The views can easily be switched. I don't know what the minimum focus distance is for the rear camera.

 

[bonnie]

Please give me some advice, if possible, on how to set up a dashcam rig where I can show TMC'ers a clear view of the road, as well as a simultaneous view of the autopilot screen. A two camera set-up, perhaps, where I can sync the feed?

Last night something so strange happened that if you told me it happened on your car I wouldn't believe it unless I saw the footage myself. On the 10 freeway going east in the right hand lane my car began drifting to the right toward the shoulder. It crossed over the very clearly marked right hand lane marker (solid white) and did not seem to know how to find its way back. I would have preferred to keep letting it do its thing except for the fact that there were cars behind me and I didn't want to get pulled over if one was a cop.

So I don't know if the car would have gone all the way toward the concrete barrier before sonar told it to move left again, or what.

I have no explanation for this behavior - the lane markings were as clear as one could hope for. There was no traffic on either side - the car simply began drifting to the right. I glanced at the screen while it was doing it and saw that it had lost the right marker on the screen also - it went from a blue line to gray.

But I don't even have a hypothesis as to why.

Earlier on the same drive, about 20 miles west of that point it did begin ping-ponging quite aggressively and I cancelled autopilot, then turned it on again and the behavior was fixed. Again for no reason I could surmise - the lane markings were extremely clear at that point also. And night time is usually when the system shines because the contrast between markings and pavements is so great.

FWIW I have the latest firmware - rainbow road. And I have several hundred miles of driving on this firmware.

Cali, I'm sure the autopilot engineering team would like to look at your logs and figure out what happened. Please report this, helps everyone.