Cruise Control unavailable, with a twist (loss of all driver assistance features too)

[Andyw2100]

I am glad that it worked out for you. Tesla had called me and tried to set up a service appointment before my car cleared itself. So far I have not had any additional issues. Thanks for the update.

My wife drove in some snow again today. She wanted to see if cruise control was available, and it was not. The radar unit had become partially blocked again. This time she did not lose the driver assistance features, however. I cleared the ice from the radar unit this evening, but we have not yet driven the car again, so I don't know what the status of the cruise control will be when we do drive the car.

I am really beginning to wonder about the design and placement of the radar unit. We've driven with the car in snow twice, and wound up with the radar unit obstructed twice, and one of those times the obstruction caused much more significant and long-lasting problems. I'm surprised more people aren't experiencing this.

 

[mrElbe]

My first long distance drive in snow yesterday and I got the "Cruise Control not available" message. Sure enough there was a hunk of ice in the radar cavity. Clearing it out brought cruise back. A convex cone in front of the radar would prevent this icing problem in my opinion.

 

[stevezzzz]

I've also experienced 'cruise control unavailable' due to an accumulation of snow and ice on the radar sensor. I stopped twice to clear the sensor and both times the system worked perfectly again afterwards, but only for a few minutes. The sensor's physical configuration almost guarantees it'll happen whenever there is snow in the air and/or on the road surface. I do wish that standard cruise control were available when TACC is not, though. I'm a big boy: tell me the radar's out and that adaptive cruise isn't available, and let me decide for myself if cruise control is still warranted under the conditions.

That aside, the P85D is a fabulous snow car. We ended up having to complete a road trip in pretty miserable winter driving conditions yesterday, and the car's performance and handling were superb (19" wheels, Hakka R2 snow tires). We were prepared for the loss of range due to conditions, drove at very conservative speeds and arrived having used about half our theoretical buffer.

 

[Andyw2100]

I have started a thread for everyone to post pictures whenever their radar units are obstructed. The details are in the first post in the thread here:

Pictures of radar unit obstructed: please post yours

I think if we gather a lot of pictures, it will be apparent to Tesla that they need to do something to improve the situation, and they'll come up with a fix.

 

[ArtInCT]

My first long distance drive in snow yesterday and I got the "Cruise Control not available" message. Sure enough there was a hunk of ice in the radar cavity. Clearing it out brought cruise back. A convex cone in front of the radar would prevent this icing problem in my opinion.

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner... The convex cone with a heated element and windshield spray nozzle would be a step in the right direction, IMHO.
Perhaps this gear a part of the Cold Weather Package.

Suggest that logic be employed... if Temps are < 34 F, and operator has turned on the windshield wipers or used the windshleld washers, then turn heating element on in the forward radar dome and spritz the dome with windshield sprayer, perhaps every other time that operator uses the washers. This is in fact how my Volvo XC60 works with their implementation of ACC.

 

[yobigd20]

Is all cruise control functionality disabled or just the adaptive cruise control part? I would be shocked if the basic cruise control doesn't work anymore either. That'd seem like a huge screw up (design defect) by Tesla.

 

[simonog]

Here is mine yesterday. Clearing it restored cruise control availability.

@mrElbe: lovely car! Normal red or Sig Red?

 

[Jaff]

It's a "normal" red...Mr Elbe just got his P85D...Sig red not available on the D models...

 

[Andyw2100]

Is all cruise control functionality disabled or just the adaptive cruise control part? I would be shocked if the basic cruise control doesn't work anymore either. That'd seem like a huge screw up (design defect) by Tesla.

There has been plenty of discussion of this in other threads. All cruise control functionality is lost. There is no cruise control without TACC cruise control. We believe the Tesla thinking is that people would be confused if there was any cruise available without TACC, and might expect the car to slow them down when it wouldn't, causing dangerous situations and possibly accidents.

That being said, could we please limit this thread to the posting of pictures? We can discuss the issues surrounding this in the thread I linked to in the original post.

Mods--Would it be possible for you to move this post, and the others not relevant elsewhere, please? I think if we can keep this a really clean thread, with pictures only, we really may be able to effect some change, and help Tesla. I'm going to edit my original post now to stress the need to keep this thread focused.

Thanks!

Edit: A few posts before and after this one originally were posted in the thread that I started for pictures only, and am hoping to keep that way. The mods helped out by moving some posts, which is why they are here now. I'm explaining where the posts had been so people will understand the comments being made about the appropriateness of the posts, etc. All the posts are, of course, appropriate in this thread. It was my feeling that they were not appropriate in the thread designated for pictures only.

 

[yobigd20]

There has been plenty of discussion of this in other threads. All cruise control functionality is lost. There is no cruise control without TACC cruise control. We believe the Tesla thinking is that people would be confused if there was any cruise available without TACC, and might expect the car to slow them down when it wouldn't, causing dangerous situations and possibly accidents.

That being said, could we please limit this thread to the posting of pictures? We can discuss the issues surrounding this in the thread I linked to in the original post.

Mods--Would it be possible for you to move this post, and the others not relevant elsewhere, please? I think if we can keep this a really clean thread, with pictures only, we really maybe able to effect some change, and help Tesla. I'm going to edit my original post now to stress the need to keep this thread focused.

Thanks!

It was just a simple question. No need to get all nasty about it. Asking mods to delete posts that aren't yours isn't appropriate either.

 

[Andyw2100]

It was just a simple question. No need to get all nasty about it. Asking mods to delete posts that aren't yours isn't appropriate either.

I didn't get nasty, and I answered your question. I also didn't ask the mods to delete anything. I asked them to move the post to an appropriate thread because I feel it's not appropriate here. I started this thread for a very specific reason--to be a repository for pictures. The discussion can take place elsewhere.

 

[AT3]

I've had the front radar unit blocked by both ice and snow, disabling the cruise functions. When I next stopped, clearing the area off fixed the issue. I did pour some water on it one time when there was a good amount of road salt residue. It is annoying that it disables regular cruise though!

 

[Todd Burch]

Today I was using TACC and twice, the system shut off abruptly with no warning, and for no reason, giving me a "Cruise Not Available" message. In both instances, I was driving through a long tunnel. In neither case did anything odd happen...nobody cut into my lane, no obstructions crossed my path, etc. In fact, I was probably 150 feet behind the next car in front of me (although the display indicated I was tracking the car).

I reported the issue through the car's bug reporting system.

 

[dhanson865]

My wife called a little while ago, on her way home from work, to say the car had somehow, like yours, healed itself. It must have taken something like 80-100 miles after we had cleared the obstruction.

The radar unit is going to get obstructed with some frequency. There's just no avoiding that with the current design, driving in winter conditions. Where Tesla needs to improve things is in having the car be able to recognize that the obstruction has been cleared and being able to go back to normal operation in a timely fashion. I'm very happy the car was able to do this, recalibrate, etc., whatever on its own, without the trip to the service center that engineering actually wanted to schedule. But I would have been happier if it had happened immediately after the obstruction was cleared, as opposed to 24 hours, several restarts, and 80-100 miles later. I imagine Tesla will improve upon this, as they improve everything else. And of course next time this happens I'll know to be patient, and if anyone in engineering tries to schedule a service visit I'll know to give it a little time before going ahead with it.

+1 on the heated radar unit, they need an hardware engineering fix for this one not just a software engineering fix.

 

[Andyw2100]

I've had the front radar unit blocked by both ice and snow, disabling the cruise functions. When I next stopped, clearing the area off fixed the issue. I did pour some water on it one time when there was a good amount of road salt residue. It is annoying that it disables regular cruise though!

If and when it happens again, please take a picture and post it in the picture thread.

Thanks!

 

[jkirkebo]

Why would a blocked radar affect lane departure, speed assist or highbeam assist? None of those features use the radar, only the camera is used. Bad programming?

There should be a setting somewhere on the 17" screen to toggle between TACC and CC, with a warning about what goes away if you choose CC.

 

[jerry33]

Why would a blocked radar affect lane departure, speed assist or highbeam assist? None of those features use the radar, only the camera is used. Bad programming?

I suspect that for the first rollout in order to be uber-careful they did an "everything works or nothing works". It's simpler to implement and has fewer potential problems. As more real-world experience is gained they will very likely make the systems more independent. This is similar to their rocket launch software: any problem aborts the launch.

 

[richardfallows]

Cruise control no longer available

So I'm driving home from Barrie ont suddenly the brakes go on and it wants to stop me in the middle of the highway so I touch the brakes disengage the Cruise control and a error comes up comes up cruise control no longer available anyone else have this problem

 

[scottm]

What were road conditions?

What was weather conditions?

Were you using TACC or plain cruise?

Cruise should not be used when road conditions and weather don't permit.
If the car detected slippery road when you didn't, it should disengage cruise.
If car can't rely on sensors, detected bad reads, it should disengage TACC.

Thank your car if it took these actions, or even suspected faulty cruise.

 

[Liz G]

You need to actually pull off the road turn the car off then power back on. I had this happen to me on my trip back from Denver the first summer I had my car.

Though my car didn't apply the break, just lost CC.