Autopilot through highway 17 to Santa Cruz!

[Watts_Up]

The typical scenario is when I'm in the left lane on a 3 or more lane road.
A vehicle moves from the second lane over into the lane next to mine, just in front of me.
The AP seems to think that a car has or is about to cut in front of me and suddenly brakes.

Something similar occured to me this past weekend.

Someone was going to miss an exit and cut in front of me.

I was using EAP and I felt the steering wheel vibrating and my car started steering on the right to avoid the collision.

I didn't see coming the car cutting me off. I wouldn't have been able to react fast enough to slam on my brakes.

I felt very secure after that.

 

[Vines]

I drive 17 every day on autopilot, and feel it is quite safe as long as you set it to 5 mph over the limit. One or 2 times per trip it will get a bit too close to a line and sometimes I'll disengage depending on how severe it is. My carpool partner just sleeps right through it.

The morning commute however I am not patient enough to do 55 the whole way, and so usually drive myself. Though one time I got a bit sleepy and drifted toward the center barrier. The car literally took control with a loud beep, drove me back into the middle of the lane, then gave back control to me. Very reassuring to know that even out of AP it was still looking out for mistakes.

 

[Haxster]

[QUOTE="Though one time I got a bit sleepy and drifted toward the center barrier. The car literally took control with a loud beep, drove me back into the middle of the lane, then gave back control to me. Very reassuring to know that even out of AP it was still looking out for mistakes.[/QUOTE]

Yikes!

Good to know...but not to depend on.

I think I'll stick with caffeine.

 

[ranova]

was wondering if anyone used AP to and from Santa Cruz on 17. Thanks!

 

[ulrichw]

Something similar occured to me this past weekend.

Someone was going to miss an exit and cut in front of me.

I was using EAP and I felt the steering wheel vibrating and my car started steering on the right to avoid the collision.

I didn't see coming the car cutting me off. I wouldn't have been able to react fast enough to slam on my brakes.

I felt very secure after that.

Don't.

While EAP does some things a lot better than humans (staying 100% attentive all the time being one very important one), it underperforms humans in many other ways.

As soon as you start feeling complacent ("secure", in your terms), you're going to stop paying the attention you need to to provide the human safety net for the Autopilot that Tesla's design still very much requires.

 

[israndy]

was wondering if anyone used AP to and from Santa Cruz on 17. Thanks!

There are several threads on this, the latest one I have seen is:
Autopilot through highway 17 to Santa Cruz!

I may have posted the first one to the Model 3 section, it was scary back in the day. I really need to try it again, I am SO confident in the car these days.

-Randy

 

[Vines]

I had a scary moment last week when driving over 17 in AP. This was the first time that AP had made a high speed severe change of direction where I was within 1 second of a head on collision with no other warning

I was in the fast lane as traffic was not too heavy. I generally allow AP a 60 mph limit until I get to the very curvy portions then limit it to 55.

As I passes Idylwild there is a break in the highway divider, as well as a merge lane for traffic. As I passed the break in the white line on my left and started to pick it up on the other side the car sharply veered toward the oncoming traffic and gave me the big red take over message.

Damn good thing I had my hand on the wheel, as soon as it veered my hand tightened and AP disengaged.

I also cleaned my windshield off, it did have a few streaks over the camera area. With vision being so critical, I usually stay on top of making sure my glass is clean, but I had let it go for at least a week and it sprinkled as well washing a lot of dirt out of the air.

Keep those hands on the wheel folks!

Elon you owe me a new pair of shorts, I had to cleanse those ones with fire. Pretty sure this is not the short burn that you otherwise endorse.

 

[Vines]

Veer into oncoming front
Video of above incident

 

[Bet TSLA]

Nice to see such progress. When I got my Model S in September, 2014 the first drive I took was over 17 and then down 1 through Big Sur. Awesome! But no autopilot yet. It turned out that my car was one of the first to get the AP1 hardware, although it wasn't until a year later that we got autosteer. When I did, the first thing I did was try it on 17 to Santa Cruz -- at no point was I willing to not intervene within six seconds or so. Barely functional, not at all useful.

The last time I tried was a few months ago, with only a couple of interventions required so long as I stayed in the right lane. In the left lane it would consistently drive too close to the concrete barrier for my comfort. I'll have to give it another try soon, likely in my 3 as it's not as wide as my S.

 

[israndy]

There are several threads on this, the latest one I have seen is:
Autopilot through highway 17 to Santa Cruz!

I may have posted the first one to the Model 3 section, it was scary back in the day. I really need to try it again, I am SO confident in the car these days.

-Randy

Funny, I think I was trying to link to my post when I first got the car
Riding too far to the left

That will teach me to not proofread my work until I revisit months later.

I got the HW3 upgrade to my TM3 and went to visit the new Santa Cruz Supercharger this morning. The repaving they were doing the last time I was there is finished and it's a dream. Additionally, the new computer drives like a human. Sure there was one curve where I THOUGHT I was gonna have to take control, but I didn't and all was well. Still not willing to climb in the back and sleep, but this is some amazing progress in the little over two years I have driven a Tesla.

 

[Bet TSLA]

Yeah, I recently drove over 17 to Santa Cruz and back. Only one disengagement on the way there, although it pretty much stayed in the right lane. Coming back didn't work very well at all though -- still very rough. Both drives were during the day. Model 3. 2020.24.6.4.

 

[RayK]

You guys have more balls than I do to let Autopilot drive that road...

 

[Vines]

I let it drive pretty much every afternoon and its only had one issue per week or so for the last several months (southbound drives)

Everyone speeds on that road, its among the toughest roads around. At 55 mph the TM3 handles it like a champ, especially now with HW3 installed. Its not fast but its quite safe, even when the lines are less than awesome. I was regularly pleasantly surprised how well it registered even just the temporary botts dots, and the cones before they painted the lines. Now that the lines are well painted its pretty amazing.

Only issues I see are at holy city it wants to be way too far inside of the slow lane, so that when the exit comes up the car is half over the white line. Also, at certain times of day, entering a corner and suddenly the sun suddenly strobes across the windshield can throw the car off. Also, at certain times of day, entering a corner and suddenly the sun suddenly strobes across the windshield can throw the car off.

Really really amazing progress for the sensor suite that is installed. In another 2 years of learning after the re-write is finished it should be pretty reliable.

 

[RayK]

Everyone speeds on that road, its among the toughest roads around. At 55 mph the TM3 handles it like a champ, especially now with HW3 installed. ...<snip>... Only issues I see are at holy city it wants to be way too far inside of the slow lane, so that when the exit comes up the car is half over the white line.

Anybody who has driven this road as a commute knows:

• the average speed is about 65; wintertime may be the only exception when there's water/ice on the road
  
• you NEVER drive in the slow (rightmost) lane; this is the hangout for slow trucks and Valley flatlanders that hardly ever drive 17

 

[Lanzer]

Funny the second day I got my 3 in May, 2017, I took the car out at 11pm and decided to try autopilot on Hwy 17 southbound to Santa Cruz. That experiment was aborted in minutes.

Throughout the years autopilot had improved by a ton, and today I just returned from Monterey, and I used AP all the way through 17. Parts were definitely exciting as the car will come pretty close to the divider. But it's just amazing follow the progress of Tesla software. Computer on wheels!

 

[AxlxA]

Anybody who has driven this road as a commute knows:

• the average speed is about 65; wintertime may be the only exception when there's water/ice on the road
  
• you NEVER drive in the slow (rightmost) lane; this is the hangout for slow trucks and Valley flatlanders that hardly ever drive 17

True. Right lane is a death trap!!!

 

[steve in socal]

Went down to the 17 to Santa Cruz yesterday and I agree that EAP on r that stretch of road has generally improved over the last 18 months. One bug is that the car mistakenly recognizes the flashing crossing lights as stoplights and that sometimes causes the need for manual interventions. Have others experienced this?

 

[RayK]

Have others experienced this?

#32, above.

 

[Bet TSLA]

Went to Santa Cruz on 17 today with no interventions at all from 85S to 17S to exiting from 1S! Mostly stayed in the right lane on 17. The only thing I did was up the max speed to 70 after Scotts Valley. There was moderate traffic and autopilot handled it perfectly.

Coming back my wife drove and she intervened twice when the car got closer to the barriers than she was comfortable with.

Overall this is quite impressive.

The transition from 17N to 85N is rather complex and it doesn't handle it yet.

 

[stevesark]

We drove that road two weeks back from San Jose to Santa Cruz. I’m sure AP would work fine, but it was beyond my comfort level as trucks on the right seem to stray from their lanes pretty often.