Cross traffic causing sudden slowdowns

[Lakehood]

Hi folks -

I’m new to Teslas and to this forum. Took delivery of our Model 3 about a week ago. The concern I’m having is that the car overreacts to cross traffic. It slows quite suddenly in situations where most human drivers would expect the crossing vehicle to be well out of the way before a collision was imminent, and simply be prepared to stop. It does seem specifically related to vehicles pulling out from side roads. Not vehicles approached from behind.

I did try searching this forum and elsewhere before posting on what must be a well worn topic, but apparently haven’t hit on the right terms. Doesn’t seem to be the phantom braking thing since it’s not happening in situations with no apparent cause. Collision avoidance doesn’t seem to be quite the right topic either.

Can someone here point me in the right direction? In particular, where in this car’s infinitely deep set of things to adjust is the one that applies here?

Many thanks.

 

[Braumin]

Totally normal. The car errs on the side of safe.

 

[Shelburne]

Trying to point you in the right direction, let me just say that after 18,000 miles of driving my 2020 M3 I've come to the conclusion that Autopilot is rarely worth using on anything other than an Interstate highway. But that's probably for a good reason. Traffic patterns on interstates are much more
predictable and simpler than they are on undivided highways, rural roads and city streets where cars come at you from multiple directions at once, curves are tighter and intersections more frequent. Your car is just erring on the side of caution under these circumstances. I've stopped using autopilot on most roads that are not interstates because of this. That's really the only solution.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Trying to point you in the right direction, let me just say that after 18,000 miles of driving my 2020 M3 I've come to the conclusion that Autopilot is rarely worth using on anything other than an Interstate highway. But that's probably for a good reason. Traffic patterns on interstates are much more
predictable and simpler than they are on undivided highways, rural roads and city streets where cars come at you from multiple directions at once, curves are tighter and intersections more frequent. Your car is just erring on the side of caution under these circumstances. I've stopped using autopilot on most roads that are not interstates because of this. That's really the only solution.

What HE said Ditto.

 

[PianoAl]

I actually use Autopilot almost all the time on surface roads, and it works amazingly well. I always pay strict attention, with my foot over the accelerator in case of too much of a slowdown.

Here's a situation where I let the car do its thing. I knew it would slow down, and I wanted to see by how much. That was ill advised, and you can see the driver behind me got worried.

 

[KenC]

Hi folks -

I’m new to Teslas and to this forum. Took delivery of our Model 3 about a week ago. The concern I’m having is that the car overreacts to cross traffic. It slows quite suddenly in situations where most human drivers would expect the crossing vehicle to be well out of the way before a collision was imminent, and simply be prepared to stop. It does seem specifically related to vehicles pulling out from side roads. Not vehicles approached from behind.

I did try searching this forum and elsewhere before posting on what must be a well worn topic, but apparently haven’t hit on the right terms. Doesn’t seem to be the phantom braking thing since it’s not happening in situations with no apparent cause. Collision avoidance doesn’t seem to be quite the right topic either.

Can someone here point me in the right direction? In particular, where in this car’s infinitely deep set of things to adjust is the one that applies here?

Many thanks.

In general, the car doesn't seem to anticipate as well as a human. However, having seen some of the recent FSD beta videos on youtube, the newer vision approach seems to do better at anticipation, more human-like.

I usually have my foot resting lightly on the pedal, so if it slows, when I don't think it should, I can override by pressing the pedal.

 

[EVRider-FL]

I usually have my foot resting lightly on the pedal, so if it slows, when I don't think it should, I can override by pressing the pedal.

Same here, but I recall when I first started using AP in 2016, I used to keep my foot near the brake in case the car didn’t stop quickly enough. That’s not something I ever worry about anymore.

 

[Lakehood]

Hi folks -

I’m new to Teslas and to this forum. Took delivery of our Model 3 about a week ago. The concern I’m having is that the car overreacts to cross traffic. It slows quite suddenly in situations where most human drivers would expect the crossing vehicle to be well out of the way before a collision was imminent, and simply be prepared to stop. It does seem specifically related to vehicles pulling out from side roads. Not vehicles approached from behind.

I did try searching this forum and elsewhere before posting on what must be a well worn topic, but apparently haven’t hit on the right terms. Doesn’t seem to be the phantom braking thing since it’s not happening in situations with no apparent cause. Collision avoidance doesn’t seem to be quite the right topic either.

Can someone here point me in the right direction? In particular, where in this car’s infinitely deep set of things to adjust is the one that applies here?

Many thanks.

Thanks to all who responded. My takeaway so far is that there really is no software adjustment you can make to delay or tone down the car’s reactions to vehicles crossing its path. I also gather that it only happens on autopilot. Something I hadn’t noticed due to my inexperience with varying settings and situation while driving this car. So …. either avoid using autopilot except on limited access roads where cross traffic is seldom encountered, or be prepared to counteract with the accelerator pedal when the car does an unnecessarily abrupt slowdown. Am I missing anything?

 

[cbdream99]

This type of behavior varies in time, as the software changes/updates, I have seen various level of braking for crossing traffic .. after the fact, harsh like a teenage driver, almost perfect like a seasoned driver, unnecessary tapping, should have braked, there isn’t much you can do about it, as long as they still maintain the label “beta”, it will be like that in the foreseeable future, just be careful and learn to deal with it.

 

[afadeev]

I’m new to Teslas and to this forum. Took delivery of our Model 3 about a week ago. The concern I’m having is that the car overreacts to cross traffic. It slows quite suddenly in situations where most human drivers would expect the crossing vehicle to be well out of the way before a collision was imminent, and simply be prepared to stop. It does seem specifically related to vehicles pulling out from side roads. Not vehicles approached from behind.

Yeah, it does that.
Also false slows down for no reason on gently turning highways.
Also randomly slams on the brakes for shadows and bridges on the highway.
Also randomly does stupid things when lanes merge or diverge, including occasionally attempting to impale the car onto concrete dividers.
Otherwise, it's awesome.
Just be prepared to over-ride AP/FSD inputs at any time, all the time!

AP was that flaky ~4 years ago when I got the car, and hasn't gotten any better since then.
It sad, but it's the best Tesla software can deliver.
Get used to it!

Can someone here point me in the right direction? In particular, where in this car’s infinitely deep set of things to adjust is the one that applies here?

Sorry, you can't adjust out of Tesla's buggy over-hyped software.
AP works well 98% of the time on the highway. Less than that on back roads.

The other 2% will test your vocabulary.
It's far from ideal, and hasn't gotten any better in years.

On the plus side, you didn't waste your money on FSD (to achieve similar results) !

 

[Scubadriver]

What bothers me about this behavior is that it seems like by the time my car brakes the crossing car is already clear if my path. I would have thought that the processing power of this car would have it reacting much sooner than it does.

 

[Heifer03]

The best advice I can give is to just anticipate it. I use autopilot almost all of the time. On my local streets, I've come to know the places where it will slow down unexpectedly. I just put my foot on the accelerator prior to this happening. Same goes for cross traffic. Put some light pressure on the accelerator when you see someone turn in front of you (you don't even have to speed up} and the autopilot won't brake. It takes some getting used to, but is doable. As others have said, future updates may make this better or worse, so you may have to adjust.

 

[nate704]

when you see someone trying to cross in front of you, just disengage the auto pilot, and you are good to go.

 

[PianoAl]

What bothers me about this behavior is that it seems like by the time my car brakes the crossing car is already clear if my path. I would have thought that the processing power of this car would have it reacting much sooner than it does.

Yes, you can see that in my video. I'm surprised that happens.

 

[Yomanjm]

Yo!

Many posts above mention the Autopilot “ON” for this to occur. I do not use the autopilot on suburban roads. Just on major highways.

I get the crossing traffic hard braking while using just the cruise control and it is quite startling. I have owned my Model Y LR for about 2 months now and am learning to anticipate this by tapping on brake or pushing the OFF button on the stalk. However, it is driving me nuts that the car starts breaking hard even after the car that crossed is clear. This is more sensitive than a teen going through puberty. But at least the teen outgrows that!

 

[stopcrazypp]

Yo!

Many posts above mention the Autopilot “ON” for this to occur. I do not use the autopilot on suburban roads. Just on major highways.

I get the crossing traffic hard braking while using just the cruise control and it is quite startling. I have owned my Model Y LR for about 2 months now and am learning to anticipate this by tapping on brake or pushing the OFF button on the stalk. However, it is driving me nuts that the car starts breaking hard even after the car that crossed is clear. This is more sensitive than a teen going through puberty. But at least the teen outgrows that!

If you mean TACC, it's functionally the same as "AP" just with the Autosteer off. This means it's not designed of be used on roads with cross traffic. You don't have dumb CC unless you got a Tesla without AP whatsoever.

 

[rpiotro]

Yo!

Many posts above mention the Autopilot “ON” for this to occur. I do not use the autopilot on suburban roads. Just on major highways.

I get the crossing traffic hard braking while using just the cruise control and it is quite startling. I have owned my Model Y LR for about 2 months now and am learning to anticipate this by tapping on brake or pushing the OFF button on the stalk. However, it is driving me nuts that the car starts breaking hard even after the car that crossed is clear. This is more sensitive than a teen going through puberty. But at least the teen outgrows that!

I cover the torque demand pedal and anticipate when this may happen by watching for potential cross traffic. Just gently push the torque demand pedal to override the braking.

Bottom line is I rarely use CC when those conditions may occur.

 

[jkdman123]

On the plus side, you didn't waste your money on FSD (to achieve similar results) !

Truer words were never spoken. Totally regret buying FSD.