Consumer Reports: Latest Autopilot “far less competent than a human”

[diplomat33]

I want to report a positive experience I just had with NOA that relates to CR's claim that NOA cuts other cars off.

NOA informed me of a left lane change to pass a slow truck in front of me. It put the blinker on and started to move over but there was a car in the left lane coming up pretty fast into my blind spot. NOA indicated on the screen with a red line that the lane change was blocked and automatically aborted the lane change and moved back into the center of the right lane. The other car seeing that I wanted to do a lane change, slowed down to let me in and NOA automatically resumed the auto lane change and completed the lane change smoothly. At no point did I feel unsafe. And the car did everything with no input from me other than the hold the wheel nag.

I can't speak for all scenarios, but certainly in this one instance, NOA did not cut the other car off. In fact, it aborted the lane change in order not to cut them off and then resumed the lane change only when the other car slowed down to make room.

 

[Bill Price]

I'm assuming this was on I-70?

 

[diplomat33]

I'm assuming this was on I-70?

Yes.

 

[diplomat33]

In my personal opinion, I find that setting NOA lane changes to "mild" or "average" gives the best experience. If you set it to "mad max", NOA will make lane changes much more frequently. Depending on traffic, especially if you set your speed pretty high, NOA may constantly be try to pass cars in front of you, then move over back into the right lane, then pass the next car, then move back into the right lane, then pass the next car, over and over again. Of course, that is what "mad max" is designed to do. However, if CR was testing "mad max", I could see how maybe they felt like they needed to monitor NOA a lot and that it was less relaxing.

But if you pick the "mild" setting, NOA will be much more relaxing because it will stick to the right lane for much longer, only passing cars when it is really necessary. You will get less frequent lane changes and you can simply let the car drive in the lane. And it does not cut off drivers. Personally, when set to "mild" and on the "open highway" part between cities, I find NOA to be relaxing, and very close to a full self-driving experience.

 

[EVNow]

I want to report a positive experience I just had with NOA that relates to CR's claim that NOA cuts other cars off.

NOA informed me of a left lane change to pass a slow truck in front of me. It put the blinker on and started to move over but there was a car in the left lane coming up pretty fast into my blind spot. NOA indicated on the screen with a red line that the lane change was blocked and automatically aborted the lane change and moved back into the center of the right lane. The other car seeing that I wanted to do a lane change, slowed down to let me in and NOA automatically resumed the auto lane change and completed the lane change smoothly. At no point did I feel unsafe. And the car did everything with no input from me other than the hold the wheel nag.

I can't speak for all scenarios, but certainly in this one instance, NOA did not cut the other car off. In fact, it aborted the lane change in order not to cut them off and then resumed the lane change only when the other car slowed down to make room.

This is my experience as well. I don't use NOA often because it tends to change lane too late at backed up interchanges. But I've found lane change quite solid.

 

[banned-66611]

NOA informed me of a left lane change to pass a slow truck in front of me. It put the blinker on and started to move over but there was a car in the left lane coming up pretty fast into my blind spot. NOA indicated on the screen with a red line that the lane change was blocked and automatically aborted the lane change and moved back into the center of the right lane.

Is that the correct procedure? In the UK it's "mirror, signal, manoeuvre", as in you look to see that it is safe and you can perform the lane change before indicating, not after.

I suppose if the other car was coming up fast enough it would be impossible to see them before indicating, but there would need to be a pretty significant speed difference for that to be the case.

 

[diplomat33]

Is that the correct procedure? In the UK it's "mirror, signal, manoeuvre", as in you look to see that it is safe and you can perform the lane change before indicating, not after.

That is how a good human driver does it. NOA probably does a "mirror" check continuously throughout the entire process since the driver can see on the screen if a lane change is "ok" or not in real time. In my case, the lane change was ok when NOA first wanted to do the lane change and when NOA started signaling. The lane change only became "unsafe" after NOA started to perform the lane change, hence the abort.

 

[EVNow]

That is how a good human driver does it. NOA probably does a "mirror" check continuously throughout the entire process since the driver can see on the screen if a lane change is "ok" or not in real time. In my case, the lane change was ok when NOA first wanted to do the lane change and when NOA started signaling. The lane change only became "unsafe" after NOA started to perform the lane change, hence the abort.

Great thing about it is that - the car does it almost like we do. It goes in a bit and comes back. This signals the car at the back to either hurry up or slow down.

 

[banned-66611]

Great thing about it is that - the car does it almost like we do. It goes in a bit and comes back. This signals the car at the back to either hurry up or slow down.

Problem is if there was a collision you would be liable for not ensuring that it was safe to manoeuvre.

 

[EVNow]

Problem is if there was a collision you would be liable for not ensuring that it was safe to manoeuvre.

It won't go in if there is a high probability of collision (when it shows in Red). It goes in if it is green - but comes back if it turns red.

 

[diplomat33]

Problem is if there was a collision you would be liable for not ensuring that it was safe to manoeuvre.

You are liable for a collision either way, whether you are driving manually or driving with AP/NOA on. The difference is that AP/NOA makes a collision much less likely to occur.

 

[acoste]

Great thing about it is that - the car does it almost like we do. It goes in a bit and comes back. This signals the car at the back to either hurry up or slow down.

Great thing? I simply look around before changing lanes. Don't ever recall that I had to abort my own lane change. Not sure from who Tesla NN is learning from.

 

[EVNow]

Great thing? I simply look around before changing lanes. Don't ever recall that I had to abort my own lane change. Not sure from who Tesla NN is learning from.

I see it happen all the time. Depends on how cautious you are - I drive quite conservatively, so if I feel the other car is not slowing down or giving me the space, I'll abort.

Also may be you are thinking of it differently. My experience is the car goes only a little to the side after putting blinkers - like may be one tire just over the line. The other car is usually quite behind.