Can TACC handle this situation I faced?

[diplomat33]

So I was driving today around 60mph on a 55 mph divided road (2 lanes going one way and 2 lanes going to the other way with a guard rail between the two) I had just TACC engaged. I was coming up to an intersection and the traffic light was red. There was a pick up truck in front of me and a huge semi truck in front of the pick up, already stopped at the red light. As I was approaching the red light, the pick up truck turns his right blinker on signaling that he was going to move over to the right turning lane to turn right at the intersection. This would suddenly leave just the stopped semi truck in front of me. I did not want to take the chance of TACC not stopping for the stopped semi so I cancelled TACC and slowed down manually. I know situations like this where a vehicle suddenly moves out of the lane to reveal a stopped vehicle in front of you can be tricky for TACC. Furthermore, I did not know if the underride guard on the semi would confuse the radar. I manually cancelled TACC because I feel it is better to be safe than sorry. It is important to remain vigilant when using TACC or AP. What do people think of this situation? Have you encountered the same situation and what does TACC do?

 

[Saghost]

If the Semi was still moving slowly, I'm pretty confident TACC would have picked up on it under the pickup and handled the situation well.

With the Semi stopped, I don't think the car will break it out of the clutter until the pickup moves aside and the camera recognizes it - which might lead to a collision or at least a panic stop.

I'm not really sure there's much more that could be done to prevent it, either with new software or more sensors on the car - things hidden until the last moment are a fundamental driving problem/risk for humans as well, and the truck being stopped makes the problem much harder.

Maybe they can do something with the turn signal warning.

 

[ebmcs03]

I have. It stopped. But i knew about this and I was very prepared if it wasn’t going to stop. I felt the car slow down when it got close but during that it was scary!!!! LoL. I had my foot on the brake ready to slam on it. But it actually did stop.

So I think the fire truck and white semi crashes are literally “the wrong place at the wrong time” situations. But since you already saw the situation ahead i would rather just manually stop myself. Rather than sweat and panic as it prepares to stop on its own

 

[diplomat33]

If the Semi was still moving slowly, I'm pretty confident TACC would have picked up on it under the pickup and handled the situation well.

With the Semi stopped, I don't think the car will break it out of the clutter until the pickup moves aside and the camera recognizes it - which might lead to a collision or at least a panic stop.

I'm not really sure there's much more that could be done to prevent it, either with new software or more sensors on the car - things hidden until the last moment are a fundamental driving problem/risk for humans as well, and the truck being stopped makes the problem much harder.

Maybe they can do something with the turn signal warning.

Yeah, if Tesla does implement the turn signal detection, that could really help TACC and AP to prepare for a vehicle is going to move out of your lane.

I do think that good enough camera vision would solve it. After all, that is what I did. I saw with my eyes that there were 2 vehicles in front of me. I ID'd a pick up and a semi. I also saw that one of them was going to move out of my lane. Presumably, good vision would see the semi truck and be able to stop before hitting it even if it was stopped. So vision should solve the "stopped vehicle" problem with TACC. But it would require a camera vision that can distinguish between a pick up and a semi in front of it.

 

[Saghost]

Yeah, if Tesla does implement the turn signal detection, that could really help TACC and AP to prepare for a vehicle is going to move out of your lane.

I do think that good enough camera vision would solve it. After all, that is what I did. I saw with my eyes that there were 2 vehicles in front of me. I ID'd a pick up and a semi. I also saw that one of them was going to move out of my lane. Presumably, good vision would see the semi truck and be able to stop before hitting it even if it was stopped. So vision should solve the "stopped vehicle" problem with TACC. But it would require a camera vision that can distinguish between a pick up and a semi in front of it.

But the vehicle in front isn't always larger than the one behind...

 

[diplomat33]

But the vehicle in front isn't always larger than the one behind...

True but that situation of a bigger vehicle in front of a smaller vehicle could be challenging for camera vision since it would be seeing 2 different vehicles superimposed on each other and have to be able to separate them.

 

[intjester]

It will hopefully get less hairy once the car can accurately recognize stop lights and stop signs.

 

[swaltner]

I’ve had it do a stop like this (from highway speed approaching a stopped vehicle). However, I don’t think it recognizes the parked vehicle early enough (for my taste), which ends up and requires more aggressive braking than I care for. Because of that, while it could handle the situation, I disengage TACC early and control the stop myself.

Sometimes as I’m stopping in a situation like this and below 10 mph with the parked vehicle displayed on my dash, I’ll re-engage TACC and let it control the final stopping. The reason for this is that TACC is now engaged and will start moving when the traffic starts flowing again.

 

[Saghost]

True but that situation of a bigger vehicle in front of a smaller vehicle could be challenging for camera vision since it would be seeing 2 different vehicles superimposed on each other and have to be able to separate them.

Yes. But the situation with a bigger vehicle moving out of the way and revealing a stopped smaller vehicle is much more problematic, since there might not be any sign of the stopped vehicle until the other car moves, except the stopped bounced return from under the moving car.

 

[ebmcs03]

I’ve had it do a stop like this (from highway speed approaching a stopped vehicle). However, I don’t think it recognizes the parked vehicle early enough (for my taste), which ends up and requires more aggressive braking than I care for. Because of that, while it could handle the situation, I disengage TACC early and control the stop myself.

Ya it doesn’t. I rather disengage early and use regen than let it burn my brakes.

 

[Twiglett]

I always disengage for stop lights anyway, just to make sure I'm in the habit of doing it every time.
I'd hate to forget when there isn't a car in front to trigger the stop

 

[Need]

It is the same as you are following a bigger car on the freeway. The car in front saw that there is a car stopped in the middle of the lane, and decided to change lane at the last moment. You will then probably crash into the stopped car if you just let TACC do the braking.

 

[miimura]

I’ve had it do a stop like this (from highway speed approaching a stopped vehicle). However, I don’t think it recognizes the parked vehicle early enough (for my taste), which ends up and requires more aggressive braking than I care for. Because of that, while it could handle the situation, I disengage TACC early and control the stop myself.

Sometimes as I’m stopping in a situation like this and below 10 mph with the parked vehicle displayed on my dash, I’ll re-engage TACC and let it control the final stopping. The reason for this is that TACC is now engaged and will start moving when the traffic starts flowing again.

The key point in this quote is that the vehicle ahead is displayed on the screen. If the vehicle is shown, then you know the system recognizes its presence and will stop appropriately. In this case, I would do as indicated above - cancel TACC and slow down gradually as I normally would when driving manually. Then, either on final approach, or when the light turns green, activate TACC again.