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Have you ever hit something on autopilot?

Have you ever hit something while on autopilot?

  • Yes (please describe)

    Votes: 2 2.4%
  • Yes, but it wasn’t autopilot’s fault

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 80 97.6%

  • Total voters
    82
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My daily commute includes a zipper lane, which has little-to-no left-sided shoulder, and is right up against mobile concrete dividers (the zipper), which feel like they’re about 2 feet from my driver side. I’m sure they’re probably actually farther away, but at 60-70 mph (prevailing speed of traffic), they make me nervous, and the ultrasonics are red for much of the way. When the road curves, I white knuckle the steering wheel like crazy. I’m pretty sure I’m being paranoid, but it got me wondering if anyone has ever actually hit something while on autopilot?

If you have, please provide a description of what you hit and what the conditions were. I realize some accidents may not have been autopilot’s fault — for example, deer hits, other drivers, etc., but if your car has ever side-swiped something, curbed a wheel, rear-ended another vehicle, etc., that’s the kind of stuff I’m curious about. Thanks!
 
I haven’t hit anything on autopilot but my nervousness comes when autopilot is doing it’s “exactly in the middle of the lane” job and I am next to a semi - I want to be a little to the side of the lane for comfort. But, that tells me autopilot will likely stay in the middle of the zipper lane. If there is an obstruction in the road, it is already watching its surroundings and could be able to auto steer safely around it, given the space to do so.
 
There was a thread about what one thing you would wish for, and my wish was for an adjustable lane position. So, you could move up to 12" in either direction, when on autopilot. You need it, for your example of a jersey barrier next to you, in this case, a zipper barrier. Or, it's Spring, and there's a line of potholes where everyone drives, and by adjusting AP to move 6" over to the right or left, you could miss most of them. Or, traffic is stop-n-go, and motorcycles are lane-splitting, and you want to give room.
 
In my 2017 Model X with AP2, I was going down a stretch of highway (I76E) in Philadelphia I take everyday. I was on the phone with girlfriend, the car jerks itself to the left and into the jersey barrier out of nowhere. This was in Feb 2019.

The jersey barrier worked as designed, popping the car back off and I pulled off at the next exit. No damage, it sure sounded like there was going to be damage. Car was fine, autopilot never did it again and so all good.
 
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In my 2017 Model X with AP2, I was going down a stretch of highway (I76E) in Philadelphia I take everyday. I was on the phone with girlfriend, the car jerks itself to the left and into the jersey barrier out of nowhere. This was in Feb 2019.

The jersey barrier worked as designed, popping the car back off and I pulled off at the next exit. No damage, it sure sounded like there was going to be damage. Car was fine, autopilot never did it again and so all good.
Oh man, this is exactly what I worry about. The car is so close to that barrier, that if it freaked out, even for a split second, it might be hard to manually correct. Glad your car wasn’t damaged by the Jersey barrier. Amazing that it could make contact with anything at speed, and not suffer some visible damage.

Guess this is one data point that tells me my white knuckling may be justified...
 
Oh man, this is exactly what I worry about. The car is so close to that barrier, that if it freaked out, even for a split second, it might be hard to manually correct. Glad your car wasn’t damaged by the Jersey barrier. Amazing that it could make contact with anything at speed, and not suffer some visible damage.

Guess this is one data point that tells me my white knuckling may be justified...
AP2 works differently than what we have in the Model 3. I wouldn’t worry. Never happened on my Model X again and I do the same drive all the time on autopilot. The Jersey barrier catches the tire and throws it back to the surface so I’m sure the bodywork came close but never touched
 
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AP2 works differently than what we have in the Model 3. I wouldn’t worry. Never happened on my Model X again and I do the same drive all the time on autopilot. The Jersey barrier catches the tire and throws it back to the surface so I’m sure the bodywork came close but never touched
Ah, that’s good to know it was on AP2, thanks for the clarification. I googled ‘Jersey barrier’ and see that most of those seem to have a very low flared out base, so I can imagine how that would only contact the tire. Our zipper barrier has a much taller and flatter base, so I’m not sure it would react the same way with a tire. I took this photo this morning:

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You can see how close the barrier gets to the cars in the left lane, and while this is about 3 feet, I’d guess, what makes me nervous is when the road bends to the right.

Anyway, I know that I should never get complacent with autopilot, but I’m relieved to see that there don’t seem to be a lot of people who have experienced the kind of autopilot failure that I fear most. And yes, I can always move over to the slow lane ;)
 
If I have any hesitation about the closeness of the jersey barriers or zipper barriers on the highways I drive, I don't drive in those lanes. In the above image, I'd have no issues with that. Just take a look at the visualization to see what the car is seeing, and how well it's centering you. If it's mostly straight, and the right lane line is clearly visible, then there should be no issues. Otherwise, the right lane looks good, as there's a small breakdown shoulder.
 
my 2 cents. I used to live on Oahu and very well understand the zipper lanes you're referring to. Here in California, we have the far left lane as the car pull and the highway divider is within the same distance as your zipper barriers... its very discomforting to be so close but AP seems to do a good job staying away from the divider despite curves. I white knuckle the curves out of caution but yeah... i understand where you're coming from. No issues from me.
 
I've had numerous instances where Autopilot would have driven me into temporary lane closure cones and/or barrels, if I hadn't taken control.

My EAP see's all the traffic cones and even those that don't exist... why can't it handle a lane closure even without FSD?
 
There are times when there's a zero-shoulder Jersey barrier (often construction areas) where I too get nervous on Autosteer, and take manual control, cheating away from the barrier a bit. It's all about margins of error.
I’m hoping when V11 finally comes, the FSD visualizations will still depict everything the cameras see. I think it would be reassuring to know the car sees the barrier and the upcoming turns ahead of time.
 
@CharleyBC That's the smart way to use Autopilot. It's there to assist us, not to compete. People who want to prove something, either that it always works, or that it ain't worth a damn, should get their heads examined. That should be possible as soon as the hospitals recover from the holiday batch of daredevils.
 
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There was a video of some guys trying out FSD on that curvy San Francisco hill. They pretty much chickened out at every corner and grabbed the wheel. the concrete barriers/walls are about 2 feet high.

I hit something on manual. It was a yield right turn lane. I thought the guy in front of me had pulled into traffic, I was watching behind for oncoming and rear-ended the guy pretty hard (maybe 5mph). No visible damage, except later looked like the driver side bumper pushed back about 1/8". But... about 2 minutes later, get error that Cruise control and safety features not available. Turns out radar unit bracket broke, will cost about $1500. (that's why I pay insurance).

Funny though, once backing up inching toward other car in driveway watching on rear camera, the car jammed on the brake and wouldn't let me back up closer than 1 foot.

I guess the accelerator pedal overrides the safety braking in manual mode going forward.