Disappointed by Autopilot Disengaging

[freeAgent]

I took my 3 out on the freeway for the first time yesterday to make a ~50 mile trip from LA County through Orange County on the 405. I spent nearly the entire trip in the carpool lane, which I figured would be an ideal place to use Autopilot. Unfortunately, the auto-steering functionality disengaged on its own at least three or four times because it became confused.

I was shocked by how poorly it performed, especially since the weather conditions were not particular adverse (partly cloudy?) and there are a TON of Teslas that drive have driven that stretch of road for years on end. I didn't even bother with it on the return trip because it was so bad on the way down. Perhaps AP would've done better had I stayed in the non-carpool lane, but all in all I'm pretty disappointed.

This experience also reinforced my assessment that FSD is nowhere near ready and made me question the value of purchasing EAP if it ever comes up for sale again. I don't trust regular AP to keep a single lane now, so I don't think I'd trust EAP to navigate interchanges. Does anyone else have similar or different experience with AP, particularly on the 405 carpool lanes through the South Bay and Orange County? It's almost hard for me to believe that the system was performing as expected.

 

[bobby g]

Odd, I've done a trickier in the train SB 57 to SB 5 without a problem. Mine seems better but it gets weird at a few places

 

[freeAgent]

Odd, I've done a trickier in the train SB 57 to SB 5 without a problem. Mine seems better but it gets weird at a few places

Yeah, it tended to happen around overpasses where the barrier on the left came very close to the lane. It also happened where the carpool lane split into two lanes (temporarily). It pulled to the right (bad) and then gave up. That's why I'm thinking that perhaps being in the far left/carpool lane was problematic.

 

[Smitty22211]

i drive the 91 tolls and the 55 everyday. AP has disengaged twice on the 55 and just this morning the 91 to 55 split it got confused. I keep it off most of the time.

 

[bobleland]

I do a lot of I40 and I70 driving and have only one problem initiated by my own inattention. After I get 3 warnings for not holding the steering it shuts AP down for the remainder of the trip. Unfortunately when I need it the most is navigating across 3 lanes from I40 through I70 to get to my exit in less than 1 mile. When AP is on at that junction it works great.

 

[JulienW]

I do a lot of I40 and I70 driving and have only one problem initiated by my own inattention. After I get 3 warnings for not holding the steering it shuts AP down for the remainder of the trip. Unfortunately when I need it the most is navigating across 3 lanes from I40 through I70 to get to my exit in less than 1 mile. When AP is on at that junction it works great.

It is called "AP jail". You must switch into Park and then back to Drive to get out of "AP jail".

 

[freeAgent]

To update this thread, I reset my AP/camera calibration on a recent trip up and down the 405 again. It seems like maybe the AP performance has improved after the recalibration finished, but I'm not sure and I'd say it's still not great. I reset the calibration before my return trip (heading north through Orange County in the 405 carpool lane, primarily). Calibration didn't take too long and I tried AP out again. It made it through some areas where I think it previously would have cut out, but 5-10 minutes after enabling it, it yet again disengaged in a somewhat scary manner and my wife made me stop using it for the rest of the trip. That time I believe it disengaged because the line markings on the road were a bit faded (nothing a human couldn't easily handle, but Autopilot freaked out). I'm going on another trip on the same route without my wife tomorrow and will probably try again.

 

[Smitty22211]

I haven't used AP in a couple weeks and gave it a try yesterday. Hit the the 91 toll lane for about 6 miles and braked hard out of nowhere. Scared me more than anything. Had a car about 200 yards behind look at me strange as they passed. Maybe a reset on the calibration will help.

 

[dgatwood]

It is called "AP jail". You must switch into Park and then back to Drive to get out of "AP jail".

The annoying one is the maximum speed jail. It's really easy to momentarily exceed 90 while passing a vehicle on an 85 MPH road in the middle of nowhere, and horribly dangerous for it to force you to drive on full manual at 85 MPH at night for ten miles just to reach the next exit so you can pull off the road to reset the d**n thing.

 

[PhantomX]

I haven't driven the 405 carpool in a while due to telecommuting, but it was nearly unusable last year between 55 and Beach Blvd due to the constant re-striping due to the toll lane construction. There were many instance where it gets ridiculously close to the barrier due to placement of the barrier and the way carpool lane snaking through this area.