Ever Pulled Over for Erratic Driving?

[PianoAl]

Using FSDb and even Autopilot, I've had instance in which the car weaves or otherwise drives erratically. I always check the rearview mirror, hoping there isn't a cop behind me.

For example,there's a place where two lanes go to one lane, and Nick hugs the fog line then turns rapidly at the last minute. Although safe, it's the same thing a drunk person might do.

1. Has anyone ever been pulled over for suspicious driving when on FSD or autopilot?
2. How do you think an officer might react to, "I wasn't driving. It was the car that did that!" (serious question)

 

[jjrandorin]

2. How do you think an officer might react to, "I wasn't driving. It was the car that did that!" (serious question)

They should give you a ticket anyay, because YOU are in charge of the car, and you are driving, regardless of whether it was "the car that did that" or "you that did that". Both are "you did that".

They should react by being annoyed at someone trying to duck their own responsibility, and if they were thinking about just giving you a warning, skip that and give you a ticket for giving them a BS excuse.

 

[ArchHamster]

This is my biggest pet peeve with the fsd beta youtubers. They wait for their car to disengage itself or blatant traffick violations to disengage fsd. Imo they should be much more strict with fsd, not waiting for failures to disengage fsd but disengage the moment fsd begins to perform suboptimally. It's not a toy, it's a 2 plus ton vehicle moving at speeds which can cause serious injury or death. We aren't close to level 5. Drive responsibly.

 

[240vPlug]

I haven't heard of anyone being ticketed. I think most other drivers and police see it's a Tesla and assume it's in self driving mode.

With that said your responsibility to ensure safe operation. If you know it has a problem in a certain interchange you should disengage FSD to avoid a possible unsafe situation. Yes, it should work better but despite what Elon says this is still early days.

 

[EVNow]

FSDb drives a lot less erratically than many drivers on the road. Just see recordings of FSD - how many people cross the white or even yellow lines ...

 

[UncleCreepy]

They should give you a ticket anyay, because YOU are in charge of the car, and you are driving, regardless of whether it was "the car that did that" or "you that did that". Both are "you did that".

They should react by being annoyed at someone trying to duck their own responsibility, and if they were thinking about just giving you a warning, skip that and give you a ticket for giving them a BS excuse.

I respectfully disagree with this assessment. I agree with the second part that it never looks good to shift the blame, but in the example that the OP mentioned we're talking about a not well executed lane merge. That in itself is not necessarily illegal. If anything, the poor execution of the move might raise suspicions that the driver may be distracted or impaired. If I was a cop I'd probably pull them over to see if they were distracted or impaired. If not and they tell me that they were on AP and they were unable to take over before things started looking bad I'd just let them go. Maybe I'd suggest they disengage AP in situations like that to avoid trouble but since no laws have been broken I wouldn't even issue a warning.

Of course that only works with a reasonable officer who ideally knows a thing or two about Teslas. Looking at recent news it might generally be a better strategy to avoid traffic stops altogether whenever possible.

 

[legendsk]

Thankfully, no. Even in its worst moments, trying to run red lights, weaving back and forth when a lane divides in two lanes, etc., haven't been stopped.

Right after I got my RED Kia Stinger, a city cop stopped me 10 miles out of town for "not staying in my lane", and gave me a warning ticket. Later I reviewed my dash cam footage and verified that I had not drifted out of my lane. Grumbled to a friend about it and he laughed and made fun of me and suggested the cop was just curious about old guy in sports car. The next day, same cop stopped my friend driving his red Cadillac sports car for the same thing at the same spot on the road. He didn't think that was nearly as funny. . . . .

The last update has my Y screwing up so badly, I had to give up using any ADAS functions and just stay from FSD, NOA, etc. I can't afford the insurance cost when I have to slam on the brakes because it tried to do something stupid. The last trip I used FSDß, every time I had to intervene or disengage, I immediately re-engaged and Safety Score(?) dinged me for following too closely 60% of the trip and hiked the insurance premium accordingly. Actually, if I still had my Kia I would drive it and leave this thing parked until either FSD becomes real and I can use it - or it becomes obvious that FSD isn't going to happen and it's time to sell it. Jury is still out, I think.

 

[thewishmaster]

No, but I tend to disengage and drive manually in these situations. Don’t want to risk FSDb doing something erratic at the worst time.

 

[beatle]

They should give you a ticket anyay, because YOU are in charge of the car, and you are driving, regardless of whether it was "the car that did that" or "you that did that". Both are "you did that".

They should react by being annoyed at someone trying to duck their own responsibility, and if they were thinking about just giving you a warning, skip that and give you a ticket for giving them a BS excuse.

It's one thing to disable AP in situations where you anticipate it will be challenged and it could make a mistake, such as taking the wrong path in a fork in the road, or disabling it when lane markers overlap in a construction zone. It's another thing to react to the car doing something incorrectly for no reason: phantom braking, not properly holding a lane, not properly completing a lane change, etc. The latter may warrant you being pulled over, but you shouldn't get a ticket for using the system as intended. The safety warning says you must be "ready to take over at any time," not "you must anticipate the systems' shortcomings/flaws and disable in advance."

When I had my Lightning, the truck would often weave and "ping pong" in its lane between the markers. I was always concerned that I'd be pulled over for drunk driving when using it. Fortunately AP doesn't have this problem.

 

[srs5694]

I've never been ticketed, or even pulled over, for the stupid stuff that FSD does; however, I have been honked at because of it. (Other drivers almost never honk at me when I'm driving without the "help" of FSD.) If you think of degrees of erratic driving and the consequences as falling on a continuum, then being honked at would be one symptom of bad driving behavior; being pulled over by a police officer and issued a warning would be a more extreme symptom; being ticketed would be another notch up; and getting into a collision would be at the top (although you could do some further differentiation based on the severity of the collision). Of course, the consequence level has as much to do with circumstances as with how bad the driving was; for instance, if there's no police officer around, you might just get honked at, or even suffer no consequences if there are no other drivers nearby. My point is that being honked at more frequently, as I've experienced, indicates that FSD is doing things badly, and this would likely indicate an increased probability of those more serious consequences, too. This analysis is one of the reasons why, although I've had the FSD beta for over a year, I rarely use it; I simply don't trust it as much as I trust my own driving. By activating it, I'm increasing the risk of getting a ticket or, worse, wrecking my car; and the upside benefits accrue to Tesla, not to me.

 

[240vPlug]

The police have to have a reason to make a stop. Stopping someone for no reason is an unlawful stop IIRC. Now that's not to say they don't gently massage the truth. I was pulled over 12 years ago in Dinwiddy co VA. He said I was doing 83 in a 70. I know by GPS I was doing 79. 80 and above us wreckless driving in VA. Anyway, I had to hire an attorney. He was there for one reason...it was I 85 and he was writing wreckless driving citations for everyone he pulled over. Up to $2,500 fine at the time.

As far as FSD the driver is 100% responsible and one has to agree to same before enabling the beta. Now I disengage at complex scenario when there is a lot of traffic around. If traffic is very light I will let FSDb try on it's own.

FSDb has gotten a lot better but there are still certain intersections and forks in the areas I frequent that it has trouble with. The other issue is that it doesn't respond the same way every time so it's not predictable.

I have a couple of those "rookie driver" car magnets. My daughter just turned 16. Anyway I may drive around with it all the time. Maybe other drivers will be a little more understanding?

 

[sleepydoc]

They should give you a ticket anyay, because YOU are in charge of the car, and you are driving, regardless of whether it was "the car that did that" or "you that did that". Both are "you did that".

They should react by being annoyed at someone trying to duck their own responsibility, and if they were thinking about just giving you a warning, skip that and give you a ticket for giving them a BS excuse.

Agree but disagree - there are behaviors of FSD that could be interpreted as erratic but are impossible to predict if prevent, even for the most vigilant driver. Random turn signals come to mind - they turn on, flash once or twice, then turn off. Many times I’ve made it worse by trying to cancel them, only to inadvertently turn them on because FSDb cancelled them right before I did.

Other times it will start a maneuver and I’ll take over, causing the car to jerk and making it appear worse.

In these cases it’s hard to blame the driver because they are limited by human reaction time. If you are going to blame the driver then you are in fact arguing that FSDb shouldn’t be allowed.

 

[jjrandorin]

In these cases it’s hard to blame the driver because they are limited by human reaction time. If you are going to blame the driver then you are in fact arguing that FSDb shouldn’t be allowed.

Yes, correct.

 

[PianoAl]

 

[Yippydog]

Agree but disagree - there are behaviors of FSD that could be interpreted as erratic but are impossible to predict if prevent, even for the most vigilant driver. Random turn signals come to mind - they turn on, flash once or twice, then turn off. Many times I’ve made it worse by trying to cancel them, only to inadvertently turn them on because FSDb cancelled them right before I did.

Other times it will start a maneuver and I’ll take over, causing the car to jerk and making it appear worse.

In these cases it’s hard to blame the driver because they are limited by human reaction time. If you are going to blame the driver then you are in fact arguing that FSDb shouldn’t be allowed.

The turn signals to me is particularly annoying and dangerous. Every have a driver pull out in front of you from a parking lot on the right when you going left on a bend in the road in the same direction? Wish there was a way to desensitize to over usage of turn signals.
On another note, driver cues are important to the other drivers on the road aside of turn signals. Your head position or looking in the direction that you are going. Or watching the other cars front wheels in a roundabout to see if they are going to exit. I use these cues from other cars while I monitor engaged FSDb at the ready. Do others?