FSD and AutoPilot Lane Centering

[NMCasey]

I have FSD and use AutoPilot occasionally but find my personal driving preference in two way streets is to drive on the right side of the lane or close to the line on the right, giving me more space between my car and on coming traffic. The software for AutoPilot or FSD should allow setting where in the lane the car drives. I noticed many, if not all, the cars ahead of me do the same and drive almost on the line to the right of their lane and even over the line to avoid traffic or reduce the risk of a sudden encroachment from on coming traffic.

The adjustment in a hypothetical menu to adjust vehicle lane adjustment to the right should be default middle of lane when autopilot or FSD senses traffic risk(s) or cars in another lane to the right or just complicated situations.

 

[momoz74]

yeah, I kinda agree with options to select preference. Also for City autopilot/autosteer it will require some work or this feature as there are some areas with much larger width roads and it should go more center vs. hugging the left of the lane.

 

[Fairchild]

Many may have noticed that in lane center mode, it is a bit uncomfortable to be so close to large semi trailers on the highway. I usually disengage AUTOPILOT when passing a semi. We brought it to TESLAs attention and they said "adjustments" are "not gonna happen".

Basically is would require too many other adjusted calculations and leave TESLA responsible for operator input error, ie adjusted too far to the right and took off someone's mirror or stopping to avoid parked cars. More of a TESLA liability issue. Their point if you like to drive in a different manner than TESLA has prescribed, you can take it off of AUTOPILOT. Sorry.

 

[SVMike]

I think that everyone drives a little bit to one side of center depending on the situation.
I was recently on 101 south of the bay area. There are a couple of spots where the entire freeway is dug up and they have paved a few feet to the right of the shoulder and put a concrete barrier on the left. The car drove in the center but it would have been much more comfortable to be driving a bit to the right, rather than so close to the barrier (the lane marking is about an inch away).
However when passing a semi on a multi lane road I think most people will want to drive a little left of center.
And there are probably a dozen other scenarios where you might want to be a bit left or right.
So how do you devise settings for this that are understandable?

 

[ewoodrick]

Driving to the side of the road is a bad habit that many people have, in my book. If you drive toward the right and drift a little to the right, then you are off the road. The car's in in the middle because it is the safest place to be.

I see so many people on a 4 lane road in the left lane that pull to the right, which only imposes on the drivers in the right lane. Once you get into the habit, you may not realize it, but you do it in all lanes.

 

[NMCasey]

I agree with the multiple lane argument and specified: "The adjustment in a hypothetical menu to adjust vehicle lane adjustment to the right should be default middle of lane when autopilot or FSD senses traffic risk(s) or cars in another lane to the right or just complicated situations." So, cars in ANOTHER LANE to the right activates FSD or autopilot to center the car in the default position or middle of the lane.

The issue is road specific: two lane traffic - two ways - with the other lane coming in the opposite direction. Any intrusion into your lane leaves little time to react and having a little more space increases a sense of reaction time, whether there actually is or not depends on the other driver's speed and angle of advancement out of the oncoming lane.

In fact, you are correct in your "habbit" idea and THANKS to the autopilot tonal warning when I do drift, typically right, I center the car on the freeway. I do enough lane changing in town freeway driving that I do not use autopilot on the freeway. Maybe I should, since it helps all the time whether it is on or not.

Driving to the side of the road is a bad habit that many people have, in my book. If you drive toward the right and drift a little to the right, then you are off the road. The car's in in the middle because it is the safest place to be.

Thank you for your insightful comments.

 

[joelliot]

FSD will have to develop a better sense of road side hazards such as US mailboxes, walls, barriers and the like to evaluate if the oncoming truck is more dangerous than the hazard off the side of the road. It seems like the system is mainly concerned with things that might appear on the road like vehicles and pedestrians.

 

[NMCasey]

Yes, the whole virtualization of the scene and all objects moving and not moving will have to mapped in real time, and then programmed to move the car strategically in real time. Tesla is in the beginnings of doing that, but actually being able to navigate basic streets safely sounds so easy, until you imagine the complexity of how many decisions we take for granted when we drive. Priorities are dependent upon identification of objects, environment, as well as high risk moving objects or pedestrians and past actions taken with a given object. I bet this gets better with large memory storage of experiences and correct choices. Wrong choices would be very valuable part of the repertoire in the stored memory of things "not to do," combined with alarm tones to engage the human driver. It will be a long time before AI is superior to the human driver, but now the car's AI is helping me drive better. I hope a feature called "accident avoidance" wherein the car just avoids a collision or contact with anything is active soon. The warnings are great, but active braking and steering (that the car is currently starting to do), to not be in the wrong place at the wrong time would seem to be the essence of FSD.

FSD will have to develop a better sense of road side hazards such as US mailboxes, walls, barriers and the like to evaluate if the oncoming truck is more dangerous than the hazard off the side of the road. It seems like the system is mainly concerned with things that might appear on the road like vehicles and pedestrians.