Emergency Lane Departure - False Positives

[AlanSubie4Life]

I am on this software release but I can't even find the specific setting called 'Emergency Lane Departure Assist', I see lane departure warning still but that is it.

I don't have this release, so this is all I have to operate on, and I haven't gone to YouTube to look for videos of people in the menus...

Allegedly it is in the Autopilot Controls.

More Advanced Safety for Tesla Owners

"Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance
Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance is designed to steer a Tesla vehicle back into the driving lane if our system detects that it is departing its lane and there could be a collision, or if the car is close to the edge of the road. This feature will automatically be enabled at the beginning of every drive, but can be turned off for a single drive by going to the Autopilot Controls menu."

So supposedly it should only do anything if it ALSO expects a collision (in addition to the lane departure). But based on the FCW behavior at high sensitivity, it might often think that a collision is likely I suppose. That's why I thought maybe they just needed to dial down the sensitivity a bit. It's not the end of the world if some people plow off the road into an obstacle - as long as it prevents SOME people from doing so (and does not increase paradoxical complacency), it would be an improvement.

 

[P100D_Me]

Thanks for the link, I'm now wondering if this didn't actually get enabled in all countries. From that link you posted it says this:
"This feature will automatically be enabled at the beginning of every drive, but can be turned off for a single drive by going to the Autopilot Controls menu."
My Model-S is running 2019.16.2 and these are my options (car was on), nothing specific about Emergency Lane departure.

 

[animorph]

The two new lane departure features are not active for X and S yet.

 

[vangot]

I for one am happy they came out with this feature. Volkswagen has taken it one step further in Europe for unconscious drivers with the system always ready to take over steering and braking, but that won’t cross the pond to the US due to automation regulations (or should I say lack of consensus regarding automation in vehicles).
As you all know, the future of commuting will be full automation, but it won’t show up as simply as flicking on a light switch. It will be piecemeal like this. Call me an early adopter, but I knew what I was getting in to when I ordered my first Tesla years ago - and having to deal with software updates that may be a little buggy is part of that deal. Tesla owners can’t view themselves as driving an automobile that has a computer, but rather having a computer that they can drive. Otherwise I would have continued owning another stale BMW.

 

[Matias]

We’re still long way from FSD. This is also distracting indicator of how little Tesla tests safety critical software before implementing it to general public

 

[hcdavis3]

I reported this to Tesla Support today. Spent almost an hour with them on the phone. I dowloaded 2019.16.2 last night. The car panicked several times on my way to work this morning. A couple were downright scary. All of them, in my opinion, were false positives, but the most distressing thing is that I have no way to disable this feature. Yes, you can scroll through the menu and disable every time you put the car in drive, but it resets itself back to 'enabled' every time you put the car in park. I'm begging them to find some internal control that tech support can set in my car to permanently deactivate Emergency Lane Assist.

To clarify, this is not the "Lane Assist" feature, I have that turned off. This is clearly the Emergency Lane Assist. I was not using any auto steer or cruise control at the time.

1st time: driving on a narrow two way country road at 45mph. I passed some trash bins near the curb on my passenger side. My Model 3 panicked as if the bins were a car, and yanked the wheel to the left, and I slightly crossed over the center line (INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC) (Fortunately the oncoming car was quite a ways back). This was a very unnerving feeling, that my car is going to jump at its own shadow. I immediately remembered the software update, pulled over, and disabled the feature.

2nd time: Driving through a parking lot (well under 45mph), I crossed over some white lines towards the end of a parking row. The car thought I was departing some sort of lane and yanked the wheel left and right, causing my trajectory to move left and right about half a foot in either direction. Mostly I was surprised because I didn't yet realize this feature re-enables itself (which it tells you in a notification message when you turn it off). If I had been cutting close to a parking block, I might have run over it.

3rd time: Narrow country road, two-way traffic. An oncoming car caused my car to panic and yanked the wheel to the right. Again, not the direction I want to go (with there being a steep ravine about 12" beyond the white line to the right). Not a good feeling.

Laurence.
2019 Model 3 Dual Motor Enhanced Autopilot

In its current iteration 16.2 is dangerous because of this one “feature” .

 

[sixela]

Just sent a mail to customer support about some kamikaze attempts that the latets firmware tends to make with road markings typical to Belgium and the Netherlands. Google Map links included.


In the neighbourhood of these road markings:

Google Maps

I'm having a hard time convincing my Tesla Model 3 (firmware 2019.16.2) not to cause an accident, because ofa safety "feature" that is now enabled at the start of each drive.

These road markings are indeed confusing: the bus stop itself has a dashed line (indicating you can drive over the bus stop when it's empty) but there are large markings in front and behind the stop to avoid cars stopping on the areas necessary for the bus to access the stop.

the new Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance "feature" in our firmware is not exactly making things safer. When not using autosteer the car actively jerks to the left (with the emergency warning sound), but since you're actively steering it usually just results in a temporary distraction (although that in itself is a hazard). Before the latest firmware upgrade, it would just gently vibrate the steering wheel.

When using autosteer it's worse since you are usually gripping the wheel less firmly to avoid disengaging AutoSteer; the AutoSteer at first makes no attempt to avoid the bus stop (it would be fine for it to aim left of the bus stop, but it doesn't), and then suddenly "notices" the bus stop, sounding the Emergency warning, jerking the car actively to the left, and because of the jerk disengaging the AutoSteer with the car aimed straight at the median strip. Without forceful user intervention the car is sent colliding with the lamp posts and trees in the median strip!

This behaviour does not happen 100% of the time, but it does happen around 50% of the time (it seems to depend on lighting conditions and the visibility of the markings).

The only way to avoid stressful passages over these strips is to disable Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance, but this has to be done at the start of _each_ trip.

The following roads are also not treated well:

Google Maps

These roads have markings to indicate that you should be driving in the middle of the road to leave room for cyclists (it is not forbidden to cross the dotted line, and indeed at time you have to).

The road is bidirectional, and there is no way to cross a car heading the other way without crossing the dotted lines. When trying to go to the side of the road to cross a vehicle traveling in the other direction, the Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance seems to prefer a head-on collision with a car traveling in the opposite direction to a temporary intrusdion into the bike suggestion lane, and jerks you into a collision course with another car.

Right now I'm feeling I'm driving the car equivalent of a Boeing 737 MAX and its "safety feature" that has caused two crashes. I think Tesla is making a big mistake to make the Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance feature this aggressive in its current state, and without covering a lot more corner cases I would strongly suggest Tesla to allow people to turn off the feature PERMANENTLY, until it's a little less "beta".

 

[sixela]

The first type of markings is very close to home -- I now have to brace myself every time I pass this...

Granted, the markings weren't exactly designed to be machine readable; they're really designed to be read by a human with some common sense, and the optical narrowing of the road is designed to tell people to slow down. But the Model 3 goes crazy...

 

[azred]

Definitely not reliable yet. While playing with it yesterday (with no traffic present!), it reacts well to drifting out of lane markings sometimes — and sometimes it doesn’t. But instead of wetting my pants like some posters, I will probably turn those features off until reports here of future firmware suggest they are reliable. That’s my attitude re NOA as well.

No need to avoid installing new firmware. Just turn off any feature you don’t like. Or buy a BMW.

 

[dww12]

We’re still long way from FSD. This is also distracting indicator of how little Tesla tests safety critical software before implementing it to general public

I think they do a potential lives saved analysis all the time. There are a lot more people this will keep from crashing that it will cause to crash. I tried it out by letting my car drift off the road, well it didn’t, as soon as the tire got to the pait it started beeping and put me back in the lane. I’ve known several people who died falling asleep at the wheel. This couldn’t come soon enough. Hopefully the bugs will be ironed out in the next few updates, and I will be watching out for these edge cases where it freaks out, none so far for me.

 

[Msjulie]

Slightly off topic - a couple folks back said they would not install this version with lane departure features - is there a way to disable or do you need to see it about to do so and then cancel?

 

[Az_Rael]

I will probably turn those features off

I think the issue is you have to turn the feature off every single time you drive. Right now it can’t be turned off permanently.

 

[SammichLover]

It appears I had ELDA activate on a road where there are absolutely zero lane markings. Just raw pavement between grass ditches. While turning left at a 4-way intersection of a private road, no less. "Corrective Steering" error?? New to 2019.16.2?

I'm going through all my profiles now to turn this crap off.

 

[Az_Rael]

I'm going through all my profiles now to turn this crap off.

FYI: You will have to do that every drive, it doesn’t turn off permanently.

 

[SammichLover]

FYI: You will have to do that every drive, it doesn’t turn off permanently.

W.
T.
F.

Yeah, there it is at the bottom of the disable confirm. There is going to be some nastygrams sent, and phoned in on this. This is crap. Straight out crap.

 

[Visionary]

I like the old firmware more too. They should allow users to roll back to older firmwares. Can't wait for a update so that emergency lane change can be turned off permanently.

 

[dloop]

Can't wait for a update so that emergency lane change can be turned off permanently.

And initially default to OFF when the firmware is installed.

 

[SammichLover]

I like the old firmware more too. They should allow users to roll back to older firmwares. Can't wait for a update so that emergency lane change can be turned off permanently.

Other than this item, as big as it is, I’ve found AP working better. And obviously I want the faster charging. Very happy to have the tire pressure “normal” settting.

 

[Eno Deb]

Other than this item, as big as it is, I’ve found AP working better. And obviously I want the faster charging. Very happy to have the tire pressure “normal” settting.

Faster charging and TPMS calibration are already in firmware 2019.12.x. The only thing from 2019.16 that I'd really like to have is the Sentry mode icon (one-tap activation).

 

[Incredulocious]

But instead of wetting my pants like some posters, I will probably turn those features off until reports here of future firmware suggest they are reliable. That’s my attitude re NOA as well.

No need to avoid installing new firmware. Just turn off any feature you don’t like. Or buy a BMW.

Unfortunately you have to turn this feature off every time you go to drive. It apparently resets back to on at the start of every drive. So, to avoid this hassle, I will not be updating until this feature can be kept disabled (or it becomes much more reliable and not a safety threat).