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Autosteer - Nervewracking!
- Thread starter HumbleDriver
- Start date
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
timvracer
Member
Tam
Well-Known Member
As a test pilot, I believe it's an excellent virtue to possess
Especially, when you can see the way others were steering like this pickup truck veering toward its right shoulder!
Obviously didn't put me off getting the car but the Tesla guy with me said ("I've never seen it operate that way" and "A software update coming in December will fix that"
One more example of how Tesla stores are no better than dealerships...
johnr
Member
This reminds me - since getting my Tesla, I've started noticing that a fair percentage of other drivers do veer over to the shoulder when I pass by! I drive safely and stay in the middle of my lane, but when I drive the Tesla, everyone tends to give me more space. On multi-lane freeways passing a truck, quite often the truck veers over to the rumble strip! For some reason, the Tesla gets special treatment. I'm really not sure why this is, but I do find it amusing.
I guess this is a thing...BTW, is that Road 245 by Woodlake? It looks familiar.
Tam
Well-Known Member
johnr
Member
That was actually my second guess, but I know there's a church at that curve and I didn't see it in your photo. Turns out the steeple was hiding behind your dash overlay so I thought it was a house.
Back on topic:
As we know in the current implementation of autosteer, it's either in full control of the steering, or fully relinquishes control when you give the wheel a jerk or when it encounters difficulty. For some obvious reasons, though this works for the most part, it's not ideal, and can make a stress-relieving feature, well, stressful.
Here's a different way that autosteer could be implemented, which I would much prefer:
Tesla could program it to function as a sort of smart detent, where the car seeks what it thinks is the middle of the road, and if you give the wheel a nudge in either direction it will turn to the left or right with some resistance but will seek the middle of the lane when let go.
To put it another way: Without autosteer, a car's wheels seek a straight line when you let go of the steering wheel. With autosteer as I envision it should operate, the car's wheels will seek what the car determines to be the center of the lane.
I feel this would be safer and more intuitive - when my car wants to get a bit too cozy with the truck in the next lane over, I'd gently turn the wheel a little to the left to give the poor truck a bit more space. Upon clearing such obstacles, I'd let the wheel slide back to where it wants to be and keep on cruising. With such an implementation, in fact, autosteer could be operating all the time, and just increase or decrease its force feedback depending on how confident the car is of the current road conditions.
Back on topic:
As we know in the current implementation of autosteer, it's either in full control of the steering, or fully relinquishes control when you give the wheel a jerk or when it encounters difficulty. For some obvious reasons, though this works for the most part, it's not ideal, and can make a stress-relieving feature, well, stressful.
Here's a different way that autosteer could be implemented, which I would much prefer:
Tesla could program it to function as a sort of smart detent, where the car seeks what it thinks is the middle of the road, and if you give the wheel a nudge in either direction it will turn to the left or right with some resistance but will seek the middle of the lane when let go.
To put it another way: Without autosteer, a car's wheels seek a straight line when you let go of the steering wheel. With autosteer as I envision it should operate, the car's wheels will seek what the car determines to be the center of the lane.
I feel this would be safer and more intuitive - when my car wants to get a bit too cozy with the truck in the next lane over, I'd gently turn the wheel a little to the left to give the poor truck a bit more space. Upon clearing such obstacles, I'd let the wheel slide back to where it wants to be and keep on cruising. With such an implementation, in fact, autosteer could be operating all the time, and just increase or decrease its force feedback depending on how confident the car is of the current road conditions.
Last edited:
Hans Allis
Member
Hi all -
I got a 2017 MS earlier this month. AP2. Both TACC and autosteer have been mixed for me.
I've only used them in highway commute traffic - generally slow, well-marked. TACC is mostly great for the rush-hour drive home, but: it is really, really bad about noticing cars merging in front of me. At least when they merge in from the right. Looking at the dash display, the MS doesn't even recognize that there's a car there (just shows blank space up to the car that was ahead of me the whole time) until the merging car is like 80% into my lane. But, by then I've taken control anyway as it was about to rear-end them.
I've had this happen 100% of the time I've let it get into this situation.
Autosteer - it hugs the right, as others have noticed. Makes me feel like a jerk to the people in the right lane.
A couple times, when engaging autosteer, it just drifted right all the way onto the lane-separator bumps, at which point I took over.
In general, it corrects too frequently and not very smoothly and makes it feel like someone slightly drunk is driving the car.
I got a 2017 MS earlier this month. AP2. Both TACC and autosteer have been mixed for me.
I've only used them in highway commute traffic - generally slow, well-marked. TACC is mostly great for the rush-hour drive home, but: it is really, really bad about noticing cars merging in front of me. At least when they merge in from the right. Looking at the dash display, the MS doesn't even recognize that there's a car there (just shows blank space up to the car that was ahead of me the whole time) until the merging car is like 80% into my lane. But, by then I've taken control anyway as it was about to rear-end them.
I've had this happen 100% of the time I've let it get into this situation.
Autosteer - it hugs the right, as others have noticed. Makes me feel like a jerk to the people in the right lane.
A couple times, when engaging autosteer, it just drifted right all the way onto the lane-separator bumps, at which point I took over.
In general, it corrects too frequently and not very smoothly and makes it feel like someone slightly drunk is driving the car.
FlyF4
Son of a MX
Well, I guess I come from a world of easily disengaging an auto pilot feature from a plane. When first driving the X and realizing it took a "yank" of the wheel to disengage, I stopped doing that immediately. Too risky at higher speeds. I quickly tap the brake pedal to make it disengage. It gives a signal to someone behind me that something might be happening, yet I don't hit the brake long enough or hard enough to slow the car. It's much easier for me to then take control of the car without yanking the wheel.
I suppose you could also just press the disengage handle forward, but for me, it is not in a location where I can quickly access it when I need to suddenly use it.
FlyF4
Son of a MX
That's exactly what I was gong to say. Beat me to it. The paint quality of the lane markers or the absence of paint lines on the right side of the road make a BIG difference. Without good lines on the right (or they are missing), the Tesla seems to hunt side to side in a lane instead of just staying in the center of the lane. I don't use the AP in areas like the mountain roads in Northern CA / Nevada. Even though it is an interstate, there are areas where no lines exist on the right of the road.
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