Autopilot Qs & Observations

[eab6287]

Recently took a 1200 mile road trip, mostly on EAP (v9). It was generally a super impressive first experience with EAP, but curious about a few things:

1) Now that the car is using all cameras and is capable of identifying semi trucks, do we think it will ever give them extra “space” in a future update? I was a bit shocked at how close the car would allow trucks to come / how stubbornly it sticks to the center of the lane even when the ultrasonic indicator arcs on the display were red.

Is it currently safe to assume that the car would actually move to the left or right if another vehicle intruded into the lane? I tried to trust as much as I could / avoid taking over and had some close calls but at no point was I able to observe EAP deviate from the center of the lane despite trucks coming super close more than once.

2) Had 3 phantom braking events but couldn’t detect any pattern or cause; are any known?

3) The situation described in the manual wherein the car will actually aggressively accelerate into a stopped vehicle if a car you’re following moves out of your lane revealing a stopped car in front of it is real and is scary. I paid close attention throughout the drive as required and as such was able to avoid a close call but wow was this unsettling despite being a known limitation. Curious to hear other’s experiences with this.

4) Cars in adjacent lanes close behind you don’t show up in the display’s visualization until they are actually in your blind spot. I understand that the display isn’t necessarily the same data actually used for driving. Has anyone been able to figure out if the auto lane change / blind spot warning will keep you from cutting someone off if they’re somewhat close behind you but not yet on the display (eg is it safe to just not check your blind spot and use the turn signal to trust the car to change lanes - I would never do this, but want to understand the car’s technical abilities and limitations).

 

[ewoodrick]

1) Moving away from a large vehicle is, itself, unsafe. How close is safe? How far is too far? The common issue is that someone moves away from a truck, but starts to block the lane on their other side.

The best solution is that vehicles always stay in the middle of their lanes.

Yes, I believe there is side collision avoidance. And 3 ft may seem like close to you, isn't that close for a computer.

 

[eab6287]

1) Moving away from a large vehicle is, itself, unsafe. How close is safe? How far is too far? The common issue is that someone moves away from a truck, but starts to block the lane on their other side.

The best solution is that vehicles always stay in the middle of their lanes.

Yes, I believe there is side collision avoidance. And 3 ft may seem like close to you, isn't that close for a computer.

I was thinking that might be the logic, but I'm not sure that I necessarily agree for two reasons. First, you can move a car to the side of it's lane a bit, giving more room to the truck in some specific situations, without being at any risk of intruding on the lane on the other side. Certainly there's no concern that the car would intrude on the other lane bc EAP could just not do that, and further it could check the lane on the other side for vehicles as well. There are lots of variables for sure, but there are semis whose trailers tend to swing around in high wind or whose drivers aren't paying attention, and they could actually hit a vehicle in the adjacent lane. I suppose this comes down to whether or not it's a safe assumption that the car would immediately react if that were to happen...

Second reason, though, is that I bet for public adoption / user comfort, any AV is going to need to attempt to behave in certain situations in a way that mimics human driving / provides some degree of comfort. If the cars are programmed to barrel down the highway in the center of their lane with a semi intruding on the lane in a way that a human wouldn't, despite the potential ability to react at the very last minute if necessary, human drivers could become uncomfortable enough to disengage the system.

 

[Knightshade]

I've had side collision move my car on its own once when someone tried to merge into a lane I was in (presumably they never learned to adjust their mirrors correctly to not have a blind spot)- so it does work.

Don't know the exact range/trigger for it to do so though.

 

[FloridaJohn]

Has anyone been able to figure out if the auto lane change / blind spot warning will keep you from cutting someone off if they’re somewhat close behind you but not yet on the display (eg is it safe to just not check your blind spot and use the turn signal to trust the car to change lanes - I would never do this, but want to understand the car’s technical abilities and limitations).

I had a situation on AP yesterday where the car in the left lane was 2-3 car lengths behind me, and the car flashed the dotted line red and would not let me move to the left lane. This car was not on the display and was not moving fast towards me (in fact, I had just passed him on the right because he was so slow). I ended up cancelling AP and moving over myself because I was coming up on a slow moving car in the right lane.

So, anecdote of one instance.

 

[MaryAnning3]

Really great post and discussion. Much appreciated!

 

[MaryAnning3]

1) Moving away from a large vehicle is, itself, unsafe. How close is safe? How far is too far? The common issue is that someone moves away from a truck, but starts to block the lane on their other side.

The best solution is that vehicles always stay in the middle of their lanes.

Yes, I believe there is side collision avoidance. And 3 ft may seem like close to you, isn't that close for a computer.

Interesting.

 

[MaryAnning3]

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with cars merging from onramps on the left side, like on Highway 101 southbound somewhere around San Luis Obispo (California)?

Also, does anyone have thoughts on how well AP deals with a left exit. A good example of a left exit is the Spreckles exit on 101 North just south of Salinas, California.

 

[joelliot]

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with cars merging from onramps on the left side, like on Highway 101 southbound somewhere around San Luis Obispo (California)?

Hmm, right merge seems much better in 42, but not sure about left.

Also, does anyone have thoughts on how well AP deals with a left exit. A good example of a left exit is the Spreckles exit on 101 North just south of Salinas, California.

Had first successful left exit after upgrading to 42.3. Never worked on 39.7. I was using navigate on autopilot, so I think that was the difference. One had one chance to try it since the upgrade, but at a minimum it works better than in 39.7.

 

[MaryAnning3]

Is 42.3 the latest version?

 

[MaryAnning3]

Actually, I was wondering how well autopilot deals a left exit when you are in the left lane and NOT wanting to take the exit. Is the split lane a concern?

 

[chronopc]

I drove though some heavy fog this weekend and EAP did great. I'm really glad I had EAP because I could barely see anything at all.