I don't understand why AP turns off if you keep hands off the wheel. Wouldn’t it be safer to play persistent tones that get louder until you grab the wheel? If a driver is asleep or unconscious, and AP turns off, that’s a sure-fired way to wreck in 30 seconds. If AP stays on, there’s a much higher chance of coming to slow stop in traffic. No?
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Help me understand this AP feature
- Thread starter syzygy
- Start date
Helmuth
Member
My understanding is if you ignore the warnings AP turns on the hazard lights and brings the car to a smooth, complete stop instead of just turning of.
I would like to have a audible alert after the visual one, too!
I would like to have a audible alert after the visual one, too!
Are there any audible alerts now? I used to see (hear) them in YouTube demos, but on my X, all I get is the white halo alarm. Am I missing beeping before that?
An unconscious or incapacitated driver is a bad and dangerous situation no matter what autopilot does, but I think stopping the car is the best thing. As the previous poster said, it does put on the flashers and stop slowly, so it’s not like it just slams on the brakes. But frankly, the fact that there is a car stopped in the middle of the road is much more likely to get someone noticed and get them the help they might need as soon as possible. If someone is, say, having a heart attack and their car just pulls off to the side of the road or keeps driving then it’s likely that no one would even know that they were in distress.
But even beyond that, autopilot isn’t to the the state where it can just keep driving unsupervised. It doesn’t see stop signs or traffic lights, so if you were on a surface street it’s going to blow through red lights or stop signs and cause an accident. Or it could come to a T intersection and just drive straight off the road. Even if it’s on a highway there is no guarantee of traffic in a lot of places and it could drive for 100 miles or more before the battery died and it would just stop in the middle of the road anyway at that point.
I think stopping the car as soon as possible is the best option.
But even beyond that, autopilot isn’t to the the state where it can just keep driving unsupervised. It doesn’t see stop signs or traffic lights, so if you were on a surface street it’s going to blow through red lights or stop signs and cause an accident. Or it could come to a T intersection and just drive straight off the road. Even if it’s on a highway there is no guarantee of traffic in a lot of places and it could drive for 100 miles or more before the battery died and it would just stop in the middle of the road anyway at that point.
I think stopping the car as soon as possible is the best option.
If you keep ignoring the alerts you first get a note on the instrument cluster, then the white halo, then an audible beep, then very loud beeps while it stops the car.
by the time it "turns off" like you say, the driver failed to observe multiple visual early warnings, if driver does not react to those (because he is not paying attention) he do not really deserve a audible warning.
Audible early warnings would only be a nuisance to the observant driver, that may have excess too little torque on the steering wheel.
Audible early warnings would only be a nuisance to the observant driver, that may have excess too little torque on the steering wheel.
MS_Dream
Member
Not sure but it could be because of regulations or because AP is not yet automated enough. With the warnings on, AP is technically level 2 autonomy but with warnings off it's level 3. Level 2 allows auto steer and speed control for up to 1 minute but level 3 removes this restriction. There's a detailed description of the different levels in the article below.
Autonomous Driving Levels 0–5 + Implications | CleanTechnica
Autonomous Driving Levels 0–5 + Implications | CleanTechnica
It also depends on if you have AP1 or EAP. My MX EAP will do all kind of crazy alert even I have both hands on the wheel all the time. You really need to fight against the wheel to make it stop. I am driving a MS loaner 2013 with AP1... the alert never came unless you really have your hands off the wheel for a very long time like 5 to 10 miles.
sakimano
Active Member
as others noted, I'm not sure the OP understands the process of getting into the autopilot penalty box
It starts with the reminder to put your hands on the wheel, then the white halo flashing around the cluster, then the audible alarms. if you get nagged too many times it will take autopilot away from you.
Beyond that I've heard (but haven't witnessed) that it will then start to get loud and annoying (to wake you up presumably) and will then as someone else noted slow you down and park you. Not sure if it just stops in its lane or exits the roadway but not sure how it would exit the roadway safely since FSD doesn't exist yet.
Would be a neat feature if it notified the emergency services at this point because you're either suffering a medical event, or are so drunk you passed out, and either way you deserve/need a ride in something with sirens on the roof.
It starts with the reminder to put your hands on the wheel, then the white halo flashing around the cluster, then the audible alarms. if you get nagged too many times it will take autopilot away from you.
Beyond that I've heard (but haven't witnessed) that it will then start to get loud and annoying (to wake you up presumably) and will then as someone else noted slow you down and park you. Not sure if it just stops in its lane or exits the roadway but not sure how it would exit the roadway safely since FSD doesn't exist yet.
Would be a neat feature if it notified the emergency services at this point because you're either suffering a medical event, or are so drunk you passed out, and either way you deserve/need a ride in something with sirens on the roof.
A fun thing to do to experience it- go down an empty road on AP and lightly push the accelerator with your foot above cruise speed. The message will appear... of course once it appears let off the pedal and let it do its thing. No it'll never get mad and wreck you into a ditch. You can experience how it will react at you in-person. It's all safe to test out doing it correctly.
If it always gives that audible beep I would be fine with it. But that stupid thing sometimes gives the beep, but sometimes only flashes and then without even beeping will put you in the penalty box.
You might want to have that looked at then. I’ve missed the flashing halo before and gotten the beep, but it has never disabled autopilot or stopped the car when I missed the flashing.
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