Is my expectation of offset distance from curbs, curbed "traffic islands," roadside brush and other obstacles unreasonable?

[DCEV]

I probably fall under the more cautious category of FSD Beta users and I'm wondering if my expectation of offset distance from curbs, curbed "traffic islands," roadside brush and other obstacles is unreasonable.

By this what I mean is that when I supervise FSD Beta, I essentially want to have zero risk of the wheels clipping a curb, traffic islands in the middle of the road with curbs, and roadside brush that may scratch the side of the car.

When I drive the car manually, I don't just drive within 3 inches of a curb, traffic island or roadside brush but I give anything that can damage the car a healthy margin of space. I notice that FSD beta sometimes gets too close o curbs and road brush than what I'm comfortable and I disengage but I was wondering if there was any consensus on what FSD Beta should do?

Personally I wish FSD Beta would avoid coming too close to a curbs, traffic islands in the middle of the road, or roadside brush like a normal human driver would. When I see a curbed traffic island, I don't drive 4 inches away from it but give more space. Same goes for curbs, especially when turning, and roadside brush.

The other reason I want FSD Beta to offset a bit more and give more space, especially when road conditions allow the use of additional space, is that in case if the car gets too close to something I at least have some time to react. If the car is driving 4 inches away from a curb or traffic island, there's really no time to intervene and prevent damage to the car. I'm really not comfortable with the car driving 4 inches from a traffic island with a curb that can mangle and destroy both wheels and tires. I personally offset away from anything that can damage the car and most human drivers probably do the same.

I guess as vision is perfected more, I'll have more confidence that the car will not damage itself by driving over a curb but I'm not at that level of confidence yet.

I wish there was a setting to "Allow extra offset" from obstacles that would include curbs, traffic, island, and roadside brush.

The more I use FSD Beta, the more I wish there was more granular configuration options for individual parameters. This would be my ideal custom FSD Beta parameter configuration:

[Enabled] Extra offset space for curbs, traffic islands, and roadside brush.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when merging.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when traffic resumes.
[Disabled] Lane change without confirmation.
[Enable] Rolling stops (Reduce speed to 5mph or less before continuing, like all humans do)
[Enabled] Extra speed reduction when driving on narrow neighborhood roads
[Enabled] Stop short at traffic lights (I usually stop a bit short from traffic lights so that if a bus or large vehicle turns in front of me from the intersecting street, they have more space)

For most of these settings, there's really no right or wrong way per se but might be more determined by local driving culture and road layouts. Around where I live, Stopping short from a traffic lights I know really helps out large vehicles turning from the intersecting road and that's my preferred way to drive and be safe.

As they refine FSD Beta, I really wish they would allow us a bit more granular control over some of the parameters.

 

[EVRider-FL]

It's more important for Tesla to make these settings unnecessary than to let users customize how FSD works. You're never going to see settings like that.

 

[DCEV]

It's more important for Tesla to make these settings unnecessary than to let users customize how FSD works. You're never going to see settings like that.

Then why have custom settings for Autopilot?

Your post also misses the point that they are ALREADY allowing customization of a bunch of those attributes but as one of 3 different levels of behavior. My suggestion separates out the options they are already allowing as a broader options group.

I wish people would focus a bit more on the here and now and the present rather than why have something when the FSD utopia super duper vision perfection nirvana at some TBD time in the future would make that moot.

Most of my FSD disengagements now are for the "Extra offset space for curbs, traffic islands, and roadside brush" situations. Especially when there are piles of leaves I don't want to risk tire and wheel damage. When there is a traffic island with curbs, I wish FSD would purposefully offset away from it like a human would as it also instills confidence that the car has seen the traffic island with curbs and will not hit it.

 

[EVNow]

The more I use FSD Beta, the more I wish there was more granular configuration options for individual parameters. This would be my ideal custom FSD Beta parameter configuration:

[Enabled] Extra offset space for curbs, traffic islands, and roadside brush.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when merging.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when traffic resumes.
[Disabled] Lane change without confirmation.
[Enable] Rolling stops (Reduce speed to 5mph or less before continuing, like all humans do)
[Enabled] Extra speed reduction when driving on narrow neighborhood roads
[Enabled] Stop short at traffic lights (I usually stop a bit short from traffic lights so that if a bus or large vehicle turns in front of me from the intersecting street, they have more space)

They have a lot of such options - but only in the "dev" mode i.e. all those are set when they compile the code. I guess some of those will be coming over to end users at some point ...

Yes, I feel the car goes too close to curb etc - but most importantly parked cars, joggers, bikes ...

 

[DCEV]

They have a lot of such options - but only in the "dev" mode i.e. all those are set when they compile the code. I guess some of those will be coming over to end users at some point ...

Yes, I feel the car goes too close to curb etc - but most importantly parked cars, joggers, bikes ...

Yeah I'm really paranoid of curb damage because I've seen a few YouTube videos where that has already happened.

I too am even more careful with parked cars, joggers, and cyclists. Especially for joggers and cyclists, I want the car to give them half a lane of clearance not just for safety but because it's also the respectful and polite thing to do.

Also agree about parked cars. On neighborhood streets if there are no parked cars, I'm all for going at a normal speed but when there are parked cars and the streets are narrow, I slow down a LOT just to make sure of a child or dog darts in front of a parked car I have time to react.

Most of all if the car purposefully offsets away from a curb or traffic island in the middle of the road, it gives me confidence that oh yes, the car sees it and will not hit it. But if the car just sticks to the dead center of the lane and gets too close to road brush, I feel it's only a matter of time until there's a real possibility of damage to the car.

I feel silly for disengaging due to the curb situation but I need the car to maintain some space around anything that can damage the car so I at least have a chance to intervene if needed. When turning to streets with curbs, the car gets a bit too close to the curbs for my comfort and the fall leaf situation has made things more iffy. It might costs about $1,000 per wheel and tire plus possibly alignment work if the car is driven over a sharp/high curb so this is a nontrivial issue.

My number 1 request for FSD Beta improvement, other than make turns smoother, is to always offset away from curbs, traffic islands, and road brush as the majority of my disengagements are due to the car getting too close to something that could damage or scratch the car. I just need there to be some clearance so I have time and space to react.

I really hope they start "unbundling" the FSD options/parameters so you can set them individually.

For example, I want the car to be more assertive when traffic resumes and when getting to the speed of traffic after a turn but I don't want the car to be as assertive with lane changes.

 

[Bouba]

Does FSD take notice of cars and motorcycles that want to overtake you, and will FSD move closer to the curb to give them room?

 

[EVNow]

Does FSD take notice of cars and motorcycles that want to overtake you, and will FSD move closer to the curb to give them room?

I don't think I've every seen that in any video ... (or when driving).

BTW, in general we won't get those situations here. People usually don't overtake in unmarked or one lane per direction roads.

 

[Bouba]

I don't think I've every seen that in any video ... (or when driving).

BTW, in general we won't get those situations here. People usually don't overtake in unmarked or one lane per direction roads.

Motorcycles expect you to ease over to let them pass, either in a one lane road, or they expect that in a two lane road, both rows of cars move out to create a motorcycle lane in between.
In theory you don’t need to move towards the curb in a two lane road to allow a car to overtake you. In practice, some overtaking cars hardly even bother to use the outside lane, while others fall back into your lane much too soon and without evasive action they would collide with you (and the nature of the resulting damage makes it look like you hit him).
Of course this is Europe where the roads are narrow and bad habits are taught in driving school

 

[EVNow]

Motorcycles expect you to ease over to let them pass, either in a one lane road, or they expect that in a two lane road, both rows of cars move out to create a motorcycle lane in between.
In theory you don’t need to move towards the curb in a two lane road to allow a car to overtake you. In practice, some overtaking cars hardly even bother to use the outside lane, while others fall back into your lane much too soon and without evasive action they would collide with you (and the nature of the resulting damage makes it look like you hit him).
Of course this is Europe where the roads are narrow and bad habits are taught in driving school

Interesting - not something that is common here.

Only place where you move out of the way here is to let emergency vehicles pass through.

For cars, wanting to come back into the lane or merging, you could slow down - and in some places they would accelerate to make sure you can't come into the lane

 

[AutoGuyY]

I probably fall under the more cautious category of FSD Beta users and I'm wondering if my expectation of offset distance from curbs, curbed "traffic islands," roadside brush and other obstacles is unreasonable.

By this what I mean is that when I supervise FSD Beta, I essentially want to have zero risk of the wheels clipping a curb, traffic islands in the middle of the road with curbs, and roadside brush that may scratch the side of the car.

When I drive the car manually, I don't just drive within 3 inches of a curb, traffic island or roadside brush but I give anything that can damage the car a healthy margin of space. I notice that FSD beta sometimes gets too close o curbs and road brush than what I'm comfortable and I disengage but I was wondering if there was any consensus on what FSD Beta should do?

Personally I wish FSD Beta would avoid coming too close to a curbs, traffic islands in the middle of the road, or roadside brush like a normal human driver would. When I see a curbed traffic island, I don't drive 4 inches away from it but give more space. Same goes for curbs, especially when turning, and roadside brush.

The other reason I want FSD Beta to offset a bit more and give more space, especially when road conditions allow the use of additional space, is that in case if the car gets too close to something I at least have some time to react. If the car is driving 4 inches away from a curb or traffic island, there's really no time to intervene and prevent damage to the car. I'm really not comfortable with the car driving 4 inches from a traffic island with a curb that can mangle and destroy both wheels and tires. I personally offset away from anything that can damage the car and most human drivers probably do the same.

I guess as vision is perfected more, I'll have more confidence that the car will not damage itself by driving over a curb but I'm not at that level of confidence yet.

I wish there was a setting to "Allow extra offset" from obstacles that would include curbs, traffic, island, and roadside brush.

The more I use FSD Beta, the more I wish there was more granular configuration options for individual parameters. This would be my ideal custom FSD Beta parameter configuration:

[Enabled] Extra offset space for curbs, traffic islands, and roadside brush.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when merging.
[Enabled] Extra speed boost when traffic resumes.
[Disabled] Lane change without confirmation.
[Enable] Rolling stops (Reduce speed to 5mph or less before continuing, like all humans do)
[Enabled] Extra speed reduction when driving on narrow neighborhood roads
[Enabled] Stop short at traffic lights (I usually stop a bit short from traffic lights so that if a bus or large vehicle turns in front of me from the intersecting street, they have more space)

For most of these settings, there's really no right or wrong way per se but might be more determined by local driving culture and road layouts. Around where I live, Stopping short from a traffic lights I know really helps out large vehicles turning from the intersecting road and that's my preferred way to drive and be safe.

As they refine FSD Beta, I really wish they would allow us a bit more granular control over some of the parameters.

I have the same issue. I try not to abort FSD because I want to provide as much FSD experience that I can. But curbs are awful. I let it go once in a parking lot as I was exiting. Everything seemed fine but it clipped a curb and burst a tire. Now I am extra cautious. It seems to get too close to guard rails as well. Maybe FSD is looking at the edge of the road? Maybe because there are no lines? But I’m not letting it go to find out. I get that it should error on the side of not engaging oncoming traffic but in those instances, moving a little toward the curb would be ok. There is also something else that makes this annoying. When there is approaching traffic I’m naturally more alert to actions from other cars that might require me to take over. The curb issue happens when I don’t expect it. Making a normal turn with no traffic. I’m invariably surprised and when I take action it is abrupt. Maybe a solution would be to allow us to steer away from the curb with gentle pressure to not disengage FSD. Much like you would do if teaching a new driver. I’m sure Tesla will figure this out but in the meantime we either have more abrupt disengagements or more flats and damaged wheels.

 

[EVNow]

I let it go once in a parking lot as I was exiting.

I don't use FSD Beta in parking lots.

 

[wwu123]

We have an ever-increasing number of curbed traffic islands, divider signs (signpost between the opposing lanes of traffic, bumpouts and other things at intersections in the interest of pedestrian and bicycle safety, So a "standard" squared-off intersection is getting pretty rare. I wasn't sure if FSD Beta even was designed to recognize curbed islands or divider signs, so initially I disengaged; but lately I've let it go and it always seems to just avoid the obstacles.

One divider sign for a left turn (no stop signs) near a school, it showed a traffic cone, so I know it recognized it. But a curbed island on the other side of the school, that separates the right turn lane from the straight lane, I'm not 100% it sees it. However, it always just manages to move to the right that it hasn't hit the island.

But there is another location at a freeway off ramp, where at the stop sign they curbed off an entire right turn lane for pedestrian safety, probably because folks weren't stopping completely and were treating it as a free right turn (cops often hung out here to catch violators). But they didn't raise the whole area, just an eight-inch-wide raised asphalt curb to block cars from entering what used to be the right turn lane, and faded lane markings are also still visible in the curbed off area. My wife says FSD Beta tried to enter this curbed-off area, so she had to disengage.

Although it cuts it closer to curbs and signs that I would manually, I do feel if it sees the obstacle, it is judging the separation and will avoid it just enough. If it can't see the obstacle, then no amount of adjustable setting is going to help. The benefit of such a setting is thus to give a bit more time and distance to manually take control, the extra distance probably won't make a difference in FSD itself hitting something or not. Just my conjecture

 

[DCEV]

I have the same issue. I try not to abort FSD because I want to provide as much FSD experience that I can. But curbs are awful. I let it go once in a parking lot as I was exiting. Everything seemed fine but it clipped a curb and burst a tire. Now I am extra cautious. It seems to get too close to guard rails as well. Maybe FSD is looking at the edge of the road? Maybe because there are no lines? But I’m not letting it go to find out. I get that it should error on the side of not engaging oncoming traffic but in those instances, moving a little toward the curb would be ok. There is also something else that makes this annoying. When there is approaching traffic I’m naturally more alert to actions from other cars that might require me to take over. The curb issue happens when I don’t expect it. Making a normal turn with no traffic. I’m invariably surprised and when I take action it is abrupt. Maybe a solution would be to allow us to steer away from the curb with gentle pressure to not disengage FSD. Much like you would do if teaching a new driver. I’m sure Tesla will figure this out but in the meantime we either have more abrupt disengagements or more flats and damaged wheels.

I really think the solution is what a cautious/responsible human driver would do.

Most human drivers offset well away from road brush, traffic islands and curbs. Hardly anyone drives with the mindset let's see how close I can get

I think FSD should offset well away from curbs, traffic islands, and road debris/brush (like a human would) or at least have an option to do so.

 

[brkaus]

I wish my 15 yo daughter had these driving options too.

 

[jakimo]

but only in the "dev" mode i.e. all those are set when they compile the code

Just hold the command key before going into settings.. =)