Autosteer too scary for me

[polyphase]

I have been driving my new Model S for a week. (replaces 2013 model S) HW4. There are two particular issues that make me unwilling to trust Autosteer.

First, on highways, driving in right lane, passing an on or off-ramp. When there are no dotted lane lines separating the ramp from the road, the car thinks the lane suddenly got wider and steers to the middle, heading straight for the abutment between the ramp and the road. It would be better off following just the lane line on the left.

Second on curvy roads when the road bends to the right the car doesn't know it's in a turn until it is driving on the centerline, when it makes a sudden correction. Scares me and scares the drivers of oncoming cars. I know there is a disclaimer about curvy roads, thanks to y'all. People not in these fora might not.

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

 

[Tam]

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

That's why it discloses itself as beta. It doesn't claim it doesn't have the beta mark to qualify as a consumer quality grade.

 

[Yelobird]

I have been driving my new Model S for a week. (replaces 2013 model S) HW4. There are two particular issues that make me unwilling to trust Autosteer.

First, on highways, driving in right lane, passing an on or off-ramp. When there are no dotted lane lines separating the ramp from the road, the car thinks the lane suddenly got wider and steers to the middle, heading straight for the abutment between the ramp and the road. It would be better off following just the lane line on the left.

Second on curvy roads when the road bends to the right the car doesn't know it's in a turn until it is driving on the centerline, when it makes a sudden correction. Scares me and scares the drivers of oncoming cars. I know there is a disclaimer about curvy roads, thanks to y'all. People not in these fora might not.

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

May be many variables at play as your car is only a week old. Assume you completed all camera calibrations but would assume you probably have the factory base software on the car. I would give it some time to update and give it another try. I find AP rather comfortable and reliable in most cases.

 

[Acisplat]

I have been driving my new Model S for a week. (replaces 2013 model S) HW4. There are two particular issues that make me unwilling to trust Autosteer.

First, on highways, driving in right lane, passing an on or off-ramp. When there are no dotted lane lines separating the ramp from the road, the car thinks the lane suddenly got wider and steers to the middle, heading straight for the abutment between the ramp and the road. It would be better off following just the lane line on the left.

Second on curvy roads when the road bends to the right the car doesn't know it's in a turn until it is driving on the centerline, when it makes a sudden correction. Scares me and scares the drivers of oncoming cars. I know there is a disclaimer about curvy roads, thanks to y'all. People not in these fora might not.

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

Autopilot on the highway should have been replaced by the FSD stack years ago, but of course by “Elon time” it’s not ready.

If you decide to purchase FSD, the “staying to the left” is MUCH better than old Autopilot

 

[RTPEV]

First, on highways, driving in right lane, passing an on or off-ramp. When there are no dotted lane lines separating the ramp from the road, the car thinks the lane suddenly got wider and steers to the middle, heading straight for the abutment between the ramp and the road. It would be better off following just the lane line on the left.

Long time complaint of mine. Better in some states than others due to differences in how they mark the lanes. Virginia is particularly bad. North Carolina is just fine. Most of the time I wouldn't call this "scary", but it's certainly annoying (there are cases where it is scary like when the on ramp is also on a right hand curve. The move back into the travel lane can be quite aggressive in this case which I'm sure could scare other drivers if there are any to the left of you.

The good news is that this is actually fixed in the FSD stack, so hopefully it will be coming soon to autosteer.

Second on curvy roads when the road bends to the right the car doesn't know it's in a turn until it is driving on the centerline, when it makes a sudden correction. Scares me and scares the drivers of oncoming cars. I know there is a disclaimer about curvy roads, thanks to y'all. People not in these fora might not.

Personally I wouldn't be using autosteer on "curvy" road anyway. It's great on the highway, but better to leave the driving to the human on regular surface streets IMO. That said, even on some highways (in West Virginia) the roads are pretty curvy and my preference would be if the car hugged in the inside of the curve rather than trying to center itself. This too is another thing that's been "fixed" in the FSD stack (along with giving trucks a wider birth). Makes for a more comfortable drive.

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

Very much agree, but where I see this play out is when there is slowing traffic ahead. The car doesn't start to slow down until uncomfortably late. I feel this is because it's not looking very far ahead.

 

[johnnycnote]

I'm on FSDb but I believe that the AP stack is the same. I think the asumption that the vehicle does not think ahead like a human does is correct, but the fact that it's "alert" 100% of the time and has a reaction time many times faster than a human more than makes up for things

I used to take over more often, but I've developed a higher degree of trust in the vehicle and experienced many circumstances where the car quickly and effectively reacted to some very difficult highway situations

The more you use it and learn it's capabilities and limitations, the better tool AP, NOAP, and FSDb becomes

 

[Acisplat]

I'm on FSDb but I believe that the AP stack is the same. I think the asumption that the vehicle does not think ahead like a human does is correct, but the fact that it's "alert" 100% of the time and has a reaction time many times faster than a human more than makes up for things

I used to take over more often, but I've developed a higher degree of trust in the vehicle and experienced many circumstances where the car quickly and effectively reacted to some very difficult highway situations

The more you use it and learn it's capabilities and limitations, the better tool AP, NOAP, and FSDb becomes

Yeah, old AP stack is included if you turned off FSDb or switch to a profile with it disabled

 

[EatsShoots]

I would advise against auto steer on surface streets or back roads: divided highways only. My late model Volvo had decent highway auto steer also but on surface streets liked to attempt to run off the road often.

 

[phxazcraig]

I would advise against auto steer on surface streets or back roads: divided highways only. My late model Volvo had decent highway auto steer also but on surface streets liked to attempt to run off the road often.

My initial impression after one drive (HW4, FSD 11.4.4 beta) is that it is MUCH better suited to freeways than city streets. And it really prefers streets with painted lane markings.

 

[Supcom]

I would advise against auto steer on surface streets or back roads: divided highways only. My late model Volvo had decent highway auto steer also but on surface streets liked to attempt to run off the road often.

Fair warning should Tesla ever decide to buy Autosteer software from Volvo. Otherwise, not relevant.

 

[phxazcraig]

I got good use of FSD beta tonight. 2023MYP, HW4. I used it to come home from a party. It had several disengagements in the first few blocks, but as I got close to the freeway, it started working well. Took us on the freeway, then 25 miles, exited well (if a bit quircky) and got within 2 blocks of my home before it gave up and disengaged again. It gives up on the road into my neighborhootd, I think because there are no lane stripes, but there are tar snakes. It won't FSD that 2 blocks of street in the day or the night. But it did well on the freeways home, if a bit annoying due to going the speed limit. Changed lanes when needed, and was overall surprisingly good - on the freeway.

 

[PianoAl]

I'm always curious as to why my experience is so different. I make this 110-mile roundtrip drive a few times per week:

And the only significant mistake the car makes is going into this right turn lane:

There is a place where the car goes onto the fog line, but I don't consider that a significant error.

This is FSDb 11.4.7.

Before FSD, there was a curve where the car would consistently go onto the yellow line, but that has never happened with FSDb unless the car is giving a cyclist or pedestrian some extra room.

I'm guessing that part of the difference is that one must get used to the car not driving the way you do. For example, if the car takes a curve faster than you would, it's scary. I found FSD scary on the first drive or two.

If someone who doesn't trust FSD were to drive on this trip with me, would they say, "Your car drives better than mine!" or would they say, "That was terrifying!"?

 

[phxazcraig]

I just got FSDb 11.4.4 on my 2023 MYP with HW4. Used it twice so far on some test drives. Last night was the best test yet, taking me home after dark from a friend's house in Scottsdale to my home in Phoenix 25 miles away. Long story short, it works (almost) brilliantly on the freeway (101 and I-17 here) and basically won't work on some city streets. On my four FSD transits to/from my house so far, the road I turn onto to exit my gated community is three blocks long and doesn't have painted lane lines, but does have black tar snakes. FDS simply doesn't want to work here. I turn it on, and it disengages within a couple of seconds. I think because of lack of lane lines, plus tar snakes, plus curves. FDS also wouldn't really work for a few blocks between my friend's house and the freeway on Cactus Road. But close to the freeway (101 and Cactus) it started working and correctly got me to the onramp onto the 101, onto the I-17 later, off I-17 at my exit and nearly home, until I hit the problem road. Really an excellent result. A bit annoying as it stayed on the speed limit (until I gave it 5mph more) and everyone else on the freeway was zooming around on all sides. If it was in the right hand lane, it signaled and moved to the middle lane as I approached onramps with or without vehicles entering the freeway. It seemed to do lane changes maybe a mile ahead of where it was needed. While I typically drive 20mph faster than the car in FSD (with default settings), I have to say that the mileage/efficiency was very good, and in fact was up to 3% better than projected. Basically it drove 65-70 for 20+ miles instead of my normal 85mph. (And most other drivers do 80mph through there.)

It DOES take getting used to in how/when it does things. Exiting the freeway seems last-second and abrupt, on the exits I've tried. There are other times it seems to crowd a lane line before making a move. It's alarming until you expect it. I'm quite pleased at how it did last night. I wonder if I can get it to do the same, but add 15mph? Not sure how much above the speed limit it is advisable to try under FSD.

 

[EatsShoots]

Fair warning should Tesla ever decide to buy Autosteer software from Volvo. Otherwise, not relevant.

Wakey, wakey.

Volvo, Tesla, gm, Toyota. All this tech works better on divided highways.

 

[rlsd]

I have been driving my new Model S for a week. (replaces 2013 model S) HW4. There are two particular issues that make me unwilling to trust Autosteer.

First, on highways, driving in right lane, passing an on or off-ramp. When there are no dotted lane lines separating the ramp from the road, the car thinks the lane suddenly got wider and steers to the middle, heading straight for the abutment between the ramp and the road. It would be better off following just the lane line on the left.

Second on curvy roads when the road bends to the right the car doesn't know it's in a turn until it is driving on the centerline, when it makes a sudden correction. Scares me and scares the drivers of oncoming cars. I know there is a disclaimer about curvy roads, thanks to y'all. People not in these fora might not.

Broadly speaking, AP doesn't look/think nearly as far ahead as a human.

I think you are on basic auto pilot. Basic autopilot and old version FSD (before v11) center the car in the lane. That behavior is corrected by FSD v11.4 .

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

Even on 11.4.7, for me at least, some curves to the right, the car is positioned way to close to the centerline. The had curves figured out waaaay back on 2020.48.5, worked awesome, then gone since then on out. Three years and even on all branches of FSDb going back to 10.3, there are still some issues with some curves to the right at least.