Autosteer would not disengage

[l1steven1l]

While on the freeway today, I tried to disengage the autosteer but it would not let me. Pressing up on the right lever did not work. Forcefully turning the wheel did not work. Stepping on the brake only slowed the car down but was still stuck in autosteer. The car allowed me to change lanes only when I used on the turn signal but the wheel was pretty stiff to turn. I had to pull over on the side of the freeway and physically get out to allow the car to reset itself back to normal.

This was a first for me after 2 years of ownership. Is there anything else I can do besides pulling over if it happens again?

 

[Wnuk]

Very odd story. Not doubting you just what you've provided doesn't make any sense at all.

Using a blinker allowed you to move the wheel enough to get the car to the shoulder but trying to do that without a blinker wouldn't?

 

[l1steven1l]

Here’s my guess. Sometimes when I disengage AP via a drastic turning of the steering wheel, the wheel becomes stiffer to turn, until I re-engage.

Suppose this happened to the OP, except the Tesla made steering extra, extra stiff. If he didn’t actually check the display, this might make it seem that AP did not turn off and was still guiding the car. Now, suppose he has Lane Departure Avoidance set to Assist. If he tried to change lanes to pull off, but forgot to use the blinkers, his attempt to steer would be resisted by Assist and the extra stiffness. He says he was able to pull off once he used the turn signal. So, that part is explained.

I tried to it turn on thinking that AP was already off but it stayed stuck in AP. I received an auto steer error when I tried to turn it back on.

 

[l1steven1l]

Very odd story. Not doubting you just what you've provided doesn't make any sense at all.

Using a blinker allowed you to move the wheel enough to get the car to the shoulder but trying to do that without a blinker wouldn't?

Yes, I know it's very strange. I had the car for 2 years and drive over 100 miles/day with AP on. It's the first time this has happened.

 

[Dewg]

I know it's hard in emergency situations like this, but it's also important to capture what's happening on the car. Once you have safe control of the vehicle, press the voice command button and say "Bug Report". Note the date/time of the incident. That way when you open a service ticket, you can reference the bug report so the techs will have all the telemetry from the car to help diagnose what happened.

 

[Daniel in SD]

I have a model Y and up to date on software.

I have an appointment scheduled with tesla service so we'll see what they say.

I still think it's a power steering failure. Looks like power steering failures are not unheard of with the Model Y:

Model Y - Power steering issue

I have a brand new 2021 Long Range Model Y (rental as my model s is in the shop). The power steering on it has stopped working 2 times now. Once when it was parked and I was able to notice it right away, dropped it off at Tesla and they “updated” something and “fixed it”. Not sure exactly what...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I still think it's a power steering failure. Looks like power steering failures are not unheard of with the Model Y:

Model Y - Power steering issue

I have a brand new 2021 Long Range Model Y (rental as my model s is in the shop). The power steering on it has stopped working 2 times now. Once when it was parked and I was able to notice it right away, dropped it off at Tesla and they “updated” something and “fixed it”. Not sure exactly what...

teslamotorsclub.com

It wasn't clear from that thread whether the failure came with a warning message. I wonder if it can fail silently? Seems unlikely.

But anyway it would be good if the OP could indicate whether any warnings came up during this incident.

 

[Daniel in SD]

But anyway it would be good if the OP could indicate whether any warnings came up during this incident.

And whether he looked to see if there were any notifications in the service menu notification log!

 

[spacecoin]

Report it to NHTSA please.

 

[spacecoin]

Please report to NHTSA as well, this is a real safety issue.

 

[joelliot]

Very odd story. Not doubting you just what you've provided doesn't make any sense at all.

Using a blinker allowed you to move the wheel enough to get the car to the shoulder but trying to do that without a blinker wouldn't?

Sounds like lane departure assist.

 

[DrDabbles]

Unrelated, and not all of the same symptoms, but I just had an experience today where FSD did not disengage with steering torque. It did disengage with brake and stalk. The car also was giving me the take over immediately red hands on red steering wheel alert. There is obviously a software component that is responsible for disengaging AP, and there are several reports now from several very pro-tesla youtubers of this behavior. Something's wrong, and while OP might be remembering things incorrectly because they panicked, this is pretty concerning.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Unrelated, and not all of the same symptoms, but I just had an experience today where FSD did not disengage with steering torque. It did disengage with brake and stalk. The car also was giving me the take over immediately red hands on red steering wheel alert. There is obviously a software component that is responsible for disengaging AP, and there are several reports now from several very pro-tesla youtubers of this behavior. Something's wrong, and while OP might be remembering things incorrectly because they panicked, this is pretty concerning.

What do mean "did not disengage"? Do you mean it did not let you steer manually even with substantial torque on the wheel? Or maybe it felt like more torque than usual to disengage and it seemed safer to hit the stalk instead of applying even more torque?
I would hope this would all be implemented at a low level in the power steering rack firmware (code that never changes) but who knows.

 

[DrDabbles]

What do mean "did not disengage"? Do you mean it did not let you steer manually even with substantial torque on the wheel? Or maybe it felt like more torque than usual to disengage and it seemed safer to hit the stalk instead of applying even more torque?
I would hope this would all be implemented at a low level in the power steering rack firmware (code that never changes) but who knows.

Did not disengage as in FSD kept torque on the wheel, TACC was still active, and the alert continued sounding. Not only did I apply torque, but I twisted the wheel a significant amount- easily 15 degrees both left and right. Well beyond what would ever be necessary on AP or FSD in any condition I've ever experienced. It didn't take more force for me, I was just able to move the wheel so much farther than ever that it was blatantly obvious the system was no longer monitoring for my input on the wheel.

When I saw previous mentions of this under FSD engagement, I presumed it was overblown until I saw video of it. Then I presumed it was rare. But the fact it happened on my car suggests that it's not rare at all, and there's some condition causing FSD to not function but allow you to initially engage it, and whatever that condition is involves no longer monitoring wheel input torque for disengagement.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I presumed it was overblown until I saw video of it.

Haven’t seen any video. Saw a stupid one with someone jerking the wheel back and forth with the red steering wheel on the screen and a lot of beeping but that is normal. Can you link it?

 

[Daniel in SD]

Did not disengage as in FSD kept torque on the wheel, TACC was still active, and the alert continued sounding. Not only did I apply torque, but I twisted the wheel a significant amount- easily 15 degrees both left and right. Well beyond what would ever be necessary on AP or FSD in any condition I've ever experienced. It didn't take more force for me, I was just able to move the wheel so much farther than ever that it was blatantly obvious the system was no longer monitoring for my input on the wheel.

When I saw previous mentions of this under FSD engagement, I presumed it was overblown until I saw video of it. Then I presumed it was rare. But the fact it happened on my car suggests that it's not rare at all, and there's some condition causing FSD to not function but allow you to initially engage it, and whatever that condition is involves no longer monitoring wheel input torque for disengagement.

Interesting. So, it allowed you turn the wheel but autosteer remained enabled. Strangely this is actually the way I'd like it to work, they should make it mode.

 

[DrDabbles]

Interesting. So, it allowed you turn the wheel but autosteer remained enabled. Strangely this is actually the way I'd like it to work, they should make it mode.

That is correct. I've got a hunch how this happened software wise, and it could explain not responding to other events that should disable AP/FSD. But it's all speculation right now. Either way, having experienced it, I'm not at all sure this is how you'd want this behaving at all times. Releasing the wheel made it snap back to whatever position it was previously in rather than the normal smooth unwind we expect from a steering system. That's putting aside the fact that disengaging is safety related. I'd actually prefer that when I put take over torque on the wheel, it disengages autosteer as well as TACC.

Haven’t seen any video. Saw a stupid one with someone jerking the wheel back and forth with the red steering wheel on the screen and a lot of beeping but that is normal. Can you link it?

That's not normal when AP/FSD is engaged. Jerking the wheel is supposed to disengage the system.

 

[Daniel in SD]

That is correct. I've got a hunch how this happened software wise, and it could explain not responding to other events that should disable AP/FSD. But it's all speculation right now. Either way, having experienced it, I'm not at all sure this is how you'd want this behaving at all times. Releasing the wheel made it snap back to whatever position it was previously in rather than the normal smooth unwind we expect from a steering system. That's putting aside the fact that disengaging is safety related. I'd actually prefer that when I put take over torque on the wheel, it disengages autosteer as well as TACC.

Yeah, I'd want it to gently snap back to whatever lane I'm in. Sometimes I want to do lane changes manually or shift lane position slightly without disengaging.
Anyway, as you said, any unpredictable behavior in steering or disengaging Autopilot is a dangerous bug.