Controlling set speed and following distance

[KiddFunkadelic]

I posted this on another thread. I'm really hoping they do something like this:

I keep thinking that the right steering wheel button needs to be leveraged for many things for ease of use, so - they should update the UI to add a little banner section in the lower left (above or below the trip odometer / etc area) that has little easily recognizable icons showing the available contexts and visually highlighting the current context (ie all but one are a grey, the active one is in red or blue) for the right wheel.

Wheel up/down works the selected function, left right changes the context. So you can easily get to speed increase/decrease and follow distance without touching the screen, along with anything else that's worth this elevated level of control. Then you could easily have 5 or 6 contexts that are easy to access (wiper speed? anything else?)

 

[gecko]

I'm not sure if hijacking a thread makes the most sense, or starting a new one, but I can't find this mentioned anywhere (probably my search skills), but if someone can point me to the "how do I fix this" thread, I'd appreciate it.

The speed limits are sh** in my 3, with almost every surface street either not having one, or "60". The freeways are fine.

So I had read about this, but whatevs... until I got the car. So if I'm on my 30 MPH road, and the car thinks it's 60, it defaults my TACC speed to 65 (with my 5 MPH offset). I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to set it to my current speed... so either I don't use TACC (hello, speeding ticket!), or try to use TACC and adjust from 65 to 35, and get up to 45 because of the awesome acceleration of my car and slowness of click/hold for 6 5MPH adjustments. I don't want to adjust the offset to -something, since the minus will vary based on what road I'm on (from -15 to -30), and I hate not being able to use TACC on essentially any road I'm on....

I've tried everything I can think of (push and hold stalk, push fast, push slow, push up, push and hold up, etc). I can't imagine there is no way to set it to current speed, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

Is there a solution, or is this "wait until a software update comes out" situation?

 

[daniel]

I'm not sure if hijacking a thread makes the most sense, or starting a new one, but I can't find this mentioned anywhere (probably my search skills), but if someone can point me to the "how do I fix this" thread, I'd appreciate it.

The speed limits are sh** in my 3, with almost every surface street either not having one, or "60". The freeways are fine.

So I had read about this, but whatevs... until I got the car. So if I'm on my 30 MPH road, and the car thinks it's 60, it defaults my TACC speed to 65 (with my 5 MPH offset). I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to set it to my current speed... so either I don't use TACC (hello, speeding ticket!), or try to use TACC and adjust from 65 to 35, and get up to 45 because of the awesome acceleration of my car and slowness of click/hold for 6 5MPH adjustments. I don't want to adjust the offset to -something, since the minus will vary based on what road I'm on (from -15 to -30), and I hate not being able to use TACC on essentially any road I'm on....

I've tried everything I can think of (push and hold stalk, push fast, push slow, push up, push and hold up, etc). I can't imagine there is no way to set it to current speed, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

Is there a solution, or is this "wait until a software update comes out" situation?

As far as I know, this is a design failure in the car. The only work-around I know is based on the fact that if you engage TACC while going faster than your set speed it will stay at the speed you are going. I.e., that becomes your set speed.

So, go into the screen menu and select "Absolute" instead of "Relative" for your set speed, and then set it to a low number, such as 25 mph. Now it will ignore whatever it thinks the speed limit is, and as long as you're going faster than 25 when you engage TACC, it will stay at that speed, or slow down if there are slower cars ahead.

Or just not use TACC in town, and save it for the highway.

Others have commented on this, and some of us are hoping that Tesla will use the right-hand steering button to allow you to change speed (scroll up or down) and follow distance (click left or tight).

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I 2nd using the wheel in the up/down = speed left/right = follow distance while AP engaged.
or maybe you have to click it first like the S so you get a popup menu or it auto does whatever you last picked.

 

[gecko]

As far as I know, this is a design failure in the car. The only work-around I know is based on the fact that if you engage TACC while going faster than your set speed it will stay at the speed you are going. I.e., that becomes your set speed.

So, go into the screen menu and select "Absolute" instead of "Relative" for your set speed, and then set it to a low number, such as 25 mph. Now it will ignore whatever it thinks the speed limit is, and as long as you're going faster than 25 when you engage TACC, it will stay at that speed, or slow down if there are slower cars ahead.

Or just not use TACC in town, and save it for the highway.

Others have commented on this, and some of us are hoping that Tesla will use the right-hand steering button to allow you to change speed (scroll up or down) and follow distance (click left or tight).

Ah... I hadn't thought of that! Using the set speed as super low (basically ignoring what it thinks it is), then going up... YAYAYAYAY! I think that will work. The hero I don't deserve.

Only place it doesn't solve the ridiculous issue is where the speed limit is 50, but the car doesn't know what it is, so it won't use AP over 45... for that, it means I can only use TACC, but I can live with no AP... WAY better than no TACC!

And I third (or probably 300th) the use of the scroll wheel to change speed/following distance. That would be very, very helpful

 

[daniel]

I'm not sure if hijacking a thread makes the most sense, or starting a new one, but I can't find this mentioned anywhere (probably my search skills), but if someone can point me to the "how do I fix this" thread, I'd appreciate it.

The speed limits are sh** in my 3, with almost every surface street either not having one, or "60". The freeways are fine.

So I had read about this, but whatevs... until I got the car. So if I'm on my 30 MPH road, and the car thinks it's 60, it defaults my TACC speed to 65 (with my 5 MPH offset). I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to set it to my current speed... so either I don't use TACC (hello, speeding ticket!), or try to use TACC and adjust from 65 to 35, and get up to 45 because of the awesome acceleration of my car and slowness of click/hold for 6 5MPH adjustments. I don't want to adjust the offset to -something, since the minus will vary based on what road I'm on (from -15 to -30), and I hate not being able to use TACC on essentially any road I'm on....

I've tried everything I can think of (push and hold stalk, push fast, push slow, push up, push and hold up, etc). I can't imagine there is no way to set it to current speed, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

Is there a solution, or is this "wait until a software update comes out" situation?

I had this happen just today. I was on a 45 mph road using TACC. I came to a full stop at an intersection and turned onto a 35-mph road. I engaged TACC and it promptly took me back up to 47 mph (+2 offset) and I had to hit the brakes to disengage and drive manually until my next turn onto another 35-mph road where the car knew the speed limit.

My solution in situations like this is just to drive manually.

Tesla needs to address this in a future firmware update.

 

[ecarfan]

Is there a way on the Model 3 to change the cruise control set speed, or the TACC following distance, without using the touch screen?

For cruise set speed, there is a work around that doesn't require touching the screen or taking eyes from the road: turn cruise off (press up on right stalk, or press button on right stalk, or press brake), speed up/down to desired set point, turn cruise on again (press down on right stalk).

Nope. Doesn't work: If I have Offset set to 4 mph (my choice on arterial roads in town) and I want to change to Offset 1 mph (for residential streets) engaging TACC at a slower speed causes it to speed back up to the detected speed limit plus the offset.

What @woof described does work and appears to me to be a valid response to your question. Your response to @woof was about a different thing, offset, than what you originally asked.

You can set the offset positive or negative. The problem is that depending on conditions, I want to change it on the fly. That's what you cannot do without using the screen and taking your eyes off the road.

And the S/X is the same way: the offset is set through the center screen interface, not with the dedicated TACC stalk (which the 3 lacks).

I suspect that a future Model 3 firmware update will enable a steering wheel control to change the TACC interval setting. But that is a different setting than the speed offset, which will likely remain in the screen settings. Unless Tesla implements a specific voice command for it, which they should do.

 

[woof]

Alas, there turns out to be no way to have a negative relative speed offset, thus there is no way to set the cruise speed below what the car thinks the current limit is as displayed on the speed limit "sign" (which is often incorrect in that it doesn't match the actual speed limit).

With an offset of 0, one can drive faster than the speed limit sign and set the cruise, and it will match the current speed of the car. But if one drives slower than the speed limit sign, it will set the cruise speed to the speed limit sign. So the only way to set the cruise speed below the speed limit sign is to use the minus sign on the touch screen.

 

[jsmay311]

Alas, there turns out to be no way to have a negative relative speed offset, thus there is no way to set the cruise speed below what the car thinks the current limit is as displayed on the speed limit "sign" (which is often incorrect in that it doesn't match the actual speed limit).

With an offset of 0, one can drive faster than the speed limit sign and set the cruise, and it will match the current speed of the car. But if one drives slower than the speed limit sign, it will set the cruise speed to the speed limit sign. So the only way to set the cruise speed below the speed limit sign is to use the minus sign on the touch screen.

Thanks for clarifying this. I rented a Model 3 a few weeks ago and thought I remembered not being able to set a negative speed offset, but multiple people were stating otherwise, so I was thinking I'd just misremembered.

I already have my bar set pretty low for Tesla UI design decisions, but I'm still having a hard time believing this could be as dumb as it appears.

Is there really no other workaround? What if you set "Speed Limit Warning" to OFF? That does "gray out" the relative and absolute speed limit settings.

(Side note: I've read the relevant sections of the manual multiple times and I'm still not sure exactly how this all works.)

 

[daniel]

Alas, there turns out to be no way to have a negative relative speed offset, ...

I was so certain that the above was incorrect that I went out to the garage and got in the car and tried it. Indeed, the offset will not go below zero.

 

[jsmay311]

The more I think about it, the less it makes sense to tie together the Speed Limit Warning and the TACC/EAP default speeds. I imagine lots of people would prefer to set the two differently if given the chance.

Yet another UI pet peeve.

 

[GrayFox]

I think tying the CC default speed to the 'speed limit' it an attempt to replace a 'resume speed' option - which seems to be missing. More often than not, when I brake for a traffic light the speed I had selected is lost. This is the speed I would like to re-establish after leaving the light - not the posted speed limit. Also, has anyone observed an issue with the model 3 not reading speed limit signs? I live in a gated community with a speed limit of 25 everywhere. On a certain round-a-bout, the car insists that it sees a 60 mph speed limit somewhere??? There are no signs and certainly not a 60 mph sign, and it does it all the time. There are other times when it clearly misses a real speed limit sign. I would be interested fi others are seeing issues with the detection of signs.

 

[swaltner]

Yes, it would be nice if you could resume the previous TACC set speed. This was one thing I specifically asked at delivery. No joy on the Model 3 with the current firmware. There are times that it wil (not “knowing” the speed limit), but it isn’t reliable.

The Model 3 and other vehicles with the 2.x (current) autopilot hardware do not read speed limit signswith a camera. The speed limit is retrieved via GPS location and map data. Currently, I just nag Tesla with bug reports of invalid speed limits. Voice command of “bug report speed limit is XX mph on this road” not pausing between bug report and the rest of what you state. Just today, I was on a road that the 3 thought the speed limit was 55, but it was really 20. Frustrating!

 

[woof]

Alas, there turns out to be no way to have a negative relative speed offset, thus there is no way to set the cruise speed below what the car thinks the current limit is as displayed on the speed limit "sign" (which is often incorrect in that it doesn't match the actual speed limit).

Not sure when it happened, but it IS now possible to have a negative relative offset! I've set mine at -25, which essentially means now it will ignore what the car thinks the speed limit is, and instead use the current speed when I enable cruise. Yay!

 

[swaltner]

Not sure when it happened, but it IS now possible to have a negative relative offset! I've set mine at -25, which essentially means now it will ignore what the car thinks the speed limit is, and instead use the current speed when I enable cruise. Yay!

Interesting idea. I just may have to try that. This is a creative workaround to use until the software is updated.

 

[jsmay311]

Not sure when it happened, but it IS now possible to have a negative relative offset! I've set mine at -25, which essentially means now it will ignore what the car thinks the speed limit is, and instead use the current speed when I enable cruise. Yay!

Good catch!

I just confirmed this in my Model 3 with software version 48.12.1. Although my offset could only be set as low as -20 mph.

This is a very nice, if equally overdue, update.

 

[Needsdecaf]

This is definitely very goofy.

Do you need to set -25? Or can you just set to zero. Not often I’m going below the speed limit and am using cruise control.

Also, is this somehow tied into EAP not going more than 5 over the limit on many non-highways? Or is that just a preset condition based on what road you’re on.

This whole speed assist thing seems very janky to me and pretty useless.

 

[woof]

This is definitely very goofy.

Do you need to set -25? Or can you just set to zero. Not often I’m going below the speed limit and am using cruise control.

Also, is this somehow tied into EAP not going more than 5 over the limit on many non-highways? Or is that just a preset condition based on what road you’re on.

This whole speed assist thing seems very janky to me and pretty useless.

The offset is from the "speed limit sign" the car shows on the display...which is often not the real speed limit of the road. So a "0" offset would set the initial cruise speed of the car to that of the sign. A positive offset adds speed to that, and a negative offset subtracts. However, it will not set the cruise lower than the speed the car is currently traveling. So often I'm in a 25 MPH section of road, traveling at 25 MPH, but for whatever reason, the car thinks the speed limit is "40 MPH". If I enabled cruise then, with an offset of 0, the set speed of the car becomes 40 MPH. With an offset of -20, the set speed would be 40-20 or 20 MPH...however as I'm moving above 20 MPH, then the set speed becomes the current speed, which is what I want to happen when I enable cruise.

This effects both initial cruise and Auto Pilot set speed...but Auto Pilot has additional maximums applied based on the type of road it thinks it's on (which, once again, isn't always correct).

 

[Needsdecaf]

The offset is from the "speed limit sign" the car shows on the display...which is often not the real speed limit of the road. So a "0" offset would set the initial cruise speed of the car to that of the sign. A positive offset adds speed to that, and a negative offset subtracts. However, it will not set the cruise lower than the speed the car is currently traveling. So often I'm in a 25 MPH section of road, traveling at 25 MPH, but for whatever reason, the car thinks the speed limit is "40 MPH". If I enabled cruise then, with an offset of 0, the set speed of the car becomes 40 MPH. With an offset of -20, the set speed would be 40-20 or 20 MPH...however as I'm moving above 20 MPH, then the set speed becomes the current speed, which is what I want to happen when I enable cruise.

This effects both initial cruise and Auto Pilot set speed...but Auto Pilot has additional maximums applied based on the type of road it thinks it's on (which, once again, isn't always correct).

Makes sense. I haven’t had the car long enough to come across a situation where the car thinks the speed limit is higher than actual. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Myrddin]

Don't know about set speed, but clicking the right scroll wheel left or right while in TACC or Auto Pilot adjusts follow distance. As you click, the exact follow distance is displayed on the screen. Play with it, you'll figure it out. I'm still back at 42.2.1:-(