Firmware 8.1 - Autopilot HW1

[bmah]

Congratulations on passing the 1,000 posts mark!

Thanks!

I wish I had something useful to say about anything new in the 8.1 for AP1 topic but I haven't had a software update in a couple months and even if I got one right now I'd be reluctant to do that just before a road trip this weekend. Ah well...

Bruce.

 

[Saghost]

I think we're supposed to start getting the real 8.1 features this weekend...

 

[David29]

Just had my first experience of AP1 unexpectedly and incorrectly reacting to an underpass. I had read about this but never before experienced it.
I was driving on a divided road, a parkway with a grass median bordered by prominent granite curbs, two lanes in each direction, with cross streets and traffic signals. The car was approaching a railroad bridge over the road, and the road has a slight curve to the right. There were no vehicles in sight ahead in either of the two lanes. The weather was cloudy, so if the bridge was casting a shadow it was subtle. Posted speed was 30 mph (we were passing a school) and speed was set for about 35. AP1 was engaged. Suddenly the warning sound blared and the car braked sharply. i did not have time (or maybe the presence of mind) to note what was on the instrument cluster as I focused on the road ahead and disabled AP to resume speed and avoid getting rear ended.
I made a bug report shortly after this incident, but Tesla gives you so little time to say anything that I doubt my report was clear enough for action. (And I am a bit skeptical of whether such reports are helpful.)
This incident shook me up, and I sure hope Tesla fixes whatever is causing this type of behavior, and soon! I saw absolutely nothing that a driver would consider dangerous or would slow down for. I have driven thousands of miles with AP, and I guess I have been lucky not to experience this particular glitch. I have had unexpected slowdowns, but not like this with warning horns and so on.
I am glad I had no passengers with me (especially my spouse), It would definitely have undermined anyone's confidence in the car.

 

[bmah]

I made a bug report shortly after this incident, but Tesla gives you so little time to say anything that I doubt my report was clear enough for action. (And I am a bit skeptical of whether such reports are helpful.)

I have never had any sign that the in-car bug reporting was useful in any way, although I always had great difficulty in making it understand me (me and my Central California accent?). If it were me, I'd probably call tech support to report the issue.

Fortunately you maintained situational awareness (otherwise known as "paying attention") and were able to take control again quickly. Good reminder for the rest of us too, thanks for sharing.

Bruce.

 

[HankLloydRight]

When using Summon from the iPhone app, does it connect to the car via cellular/wifi connection or bluetooth? I guess what I'm asking, does it use the Tesla API to issue summon and stop commands?

I like to summon my car out of the garage, but there is a car parked one full car length in front of the garage. I assume it would sense this car and stop, but I don't want to test it either. So I hit the "STOP" button on the app to stop it. But if there's a communication delay with the API and it doesn't get the STOP command (or get it quick enough), and it doesn't sense the parked car... I guess I'd lunge in front of it or something. I wish I was more confident that it would stop before hitting the car in front.

OTOH, if it's using bluetooth, it's a much more immediate connection to receive the STOP signal.

 

[MP3Mike]

When using Summon from the iPhone app, does it connect to the car via cellular/wifi connection or bluetooth? I guess what I'm asking, does it use the Tesla API to issue summon and stop commands?

Yes, it uses the Tesla API, so it is over cellular/WiFi.

It also means that if you don't have Internet connectivity on both the car and phone you can't use summon with anything but the fob.

I like to summon my car out of the garage, but there is a car parked one full car length in front of the garage. I assume it would sense this car and stop, but I don't want to test it either. So I hit the "STOP" button on the app to stop it. But if there's a communication delay with the API and it doesn't get the STOP command (or get it quick enough), and it doesn't sense the parked car... I guess I'd lunge in front of it or something. I wish I was more confident that it would stop before hitting the car in front.

Sounds like you should just use the fob to do the summoning. (You do have to disable the continuous press option in the summon settings for it to work.)

 

[BerTX]

When using Summon from the iPhone app, does it connect to the car via cellular/wifi connection or bluetooth? I guess what I'm asking, does it use the Tesla API to issue summon and stop commands?

I like to summon my car out of the garage, but there is a car parked one full car length in front of the garage. I assume it would sense this car and stop, but I don't want to test it either. So I hit the "STOP" button on the app to stop it. But if there's a communication delay with the API and it doesn't get the STOP command (or get it quick enough), and it doesn't sense the parked car... I guess I'd lunge in front of it or something. I wish I was more confident that it would stop before hitting the car in front.

OTOH, if it's using bluetooth, it's a much more immediate connection to receive the STOP signal.

It does use a signal requiring data service, and goes through a server and back through the Internet to your car. Why not use the key fob to Summon, which is a direct connection to the car? Personally, I have never, nor would I ever, use the app to Summon.

 

[HankLloydRight]

It does use a signal requiring data service, and goes through a server and back through the Internet to your car. Why not use the key fob to Summon, which is a direct connection to the car? Personally, I have never, nor would I ever, use the app to Summon.

It's funny you both mention the key fob. I've tried that, but I have my fob in an Abstract Ocean leather fob holder, and it's really hard to keep the front trunk button held down through the leather to make summon work, which is why I fell back to using the app. I'll have to look for the continuous button option to turn off, maybe that will work better. thanks.

 

[MP3Mike]

It's funny you both mention the key fob. I've tried that, but I have my fob in an Abstract Ocean leather fob holder, and it's really hard to keep the front trunk button held down through the leather to make summon work, which is why I fell back to using the app. I'll have to look for the continuous button option to turn off, maybe that will work better. thanks.

I don't think you ever have to hold the frunk/trunk button down on the fob for summon. But you have to disable the continuous press option before the fob will work at all.

 

[bmah]

But if there's a communication delay with the API and it doesn't get the STOP command (or get it quick enough), and it doesn't sense the parked car... I guess I'd lunge in front of it or something.

This is the second time that I've seen someone write about (potentially anyway) placing themselves directly in front of a moving Tesla being summoned, in hopes of causing it to stop before hitting an inanimate object. Am I the only person who thinks this is not a good idea?

Bruce.

 

[HankLloydRight]

This is the second time that I've seen someone write about (potentially anyway) placing themselves directly in front of a moving Tesla being summoned, in hopes of causing it to stop before hitting an inanimate object. Am I the only person who thinks this is not a good idea?

Bruce.

I kinda meant to jump in front close to the radar or parking sensors to trigger it to stop. I don't think I'd let it actually hit me.

 

[tga]

You can also touch a door handle to cancel summon.

 

[fasteddie7]

I think we're supposed to start getting the real 8.1 features this weekend...

I would honesty be surprised if ap1 received any new features other than small bugfixes and safety improvements from time to time. I don't think even the auto exit and on ramp will make it and get scrapped along with summon being able to do anything more than forward or back.

 

[Saghost]

I would honesty be surprised if ap1 received any new features other than small bugfixes and safety improvements from time to time. I don't think even the auto exit and on ramp will make it and get scrapped along with summon being able to do anything more than forward or back.

8.1 is promised to include the new kernel (which is in 17.18.50 and newer I've read,) and improvements to the Navigation and a new web browser and improved cabin overheat. I expect AP1 cars and Pre-AP cars to get those improvements and others going forward.

Not sure how much improvement AP1 itself will get - but Elon tweeted they were making improvements on it in some recent FW updates today:

Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[fasteddie7]

8.1 is promised to include the new kernel (which is in 17.18.50 and newer I've read,) and improvements to the Navigation and a new web browser and improved cabin overheat. I expect AP1 cars and Pre-AP cars to get those improvements and others going forward.

Not sure how much improvement AP1 itself will get - but Elon tweeted they were making improvements on it in some recent FW updates today:

Elon Musk on Twitter

I definitely expect those kind of updates, including user interface ones. I'm talking from a strictly ap1 hardware perspective. As sad as it makes me, it seems as if this is the end of the road for new features to autopilot.

 

[Saghost]

I definitely expect those kind of updates, including user interface ones. I'm talking from a strictly ap1 hardware perspective. As sad as it makes me, it seems as if this is the end of the road for new features to autopilot.

Those Non-AP features were what I was referring to in the post you quoted - I don't think AP improvement was ever really tied to 8.1 until 8.1 happened, and someone was talking about those features a vouple posts above mine.

There are still some things they can do with AP1, and I expect they will (like choosing the side of a lane split you need from Navigation, as you mentioned above.) Others they probably can do (red light/stop sign detection/warning/monitoring, for instance) but I'm not terribly sure they will.

Elon was asked about AP1 improvements a while back, and said that they would take things they learned on AP2 back to AP1.

Having said that, I don't really think you're going to see many big improvements. AP1 is already pretty complete, and quite effective.

 

[fasteddie7]

Those Non-AP features were what I was referring to in the post you quoted - I don't think AP improvement was ever really tied to 8.1 until 8.1 happened, and someone was talking about those features a vouple posts above mine.

There are still some things they can do with AP1, and I expect they will (like choosing the side of a lane split you need from Navigation, as you mentioned above.) Others they probably can do (red light/stop sign detection/warning/monitoring, for instance) but I'm not terribly sure they will.

Elon was asked about AP1 improvements a while back, and said that they would take things they learned on AP2 back to AP1.

Having said that, I don't really think you're going to see many big improvements. AP1 is already pretty complete, and quite effective.

I agree they can do things like stop sign and red light detection and have a pedal tap to start again since traffic from side to side will be viewed by the driver not the vehicle, nothing would make me happier, I just feel like they wouldn't waste time since ap2 is the future.

 

[Saghost]

I agree they can do things like stop sign and red light detection and have a pedal tap to start again since traffic from side to side will be viewed by the driver not the vehicle, nothing would make me happier, I just feel like they wouldn't waste time since ap2 is the future.

Might not be much time - they have to sort all of that out for FSDC cars on AP2 hardware. If it isn't much effort to backport it to AP1, they'd probably do it. I'm not holding my breathe for it, but it'd be nice.

 

[FlatSix911]

I am driving a AP2 loaner car this week and I am not impressed ... I'll stick with AP1 for now thank you!

 

[WannabeOwner]

Suddenly the warning sound blared and the car braked sharply. ... disabled AP to resume speed and avoid getting rear ended.

Dunno if helpful but as well as keeping my hand on the steering wheel I also have right foot on (or rather "near") accelerator. Probably because our lanes are narrower, over here, its not uncommon for AP1 to brake heavily when e.g. passing a truck - I've never thought the circumstances warranted it, and an identical truck, with apparently similar lane position (to me at least!) two miles down the road (in fact 99% of such trucks) causes no equivalent action ... Ho!Hum!

Anyway, with foot on/near the accelerator I just hit the accelerator when I get sudden braking (assuming no obstacle!) - i.e. no requirement to disable AP etc. - although I could steer as well if I needed to.

I wish there was a right-foot rest (i.e. right hand drive here, so it would be on the inside of the wheel arch), as I have had in other cars with cruise control, as it is tiring (on my ankle) keeping my foot there but not actually resting its weight on the pedal.