Known Bug?: Model 3 Autopilot Targets Incorrect Car

[atsai97]

As many of you know, when driving in Autopilot mode, the car will target the car in front of you in the current lane that you are in to stay behind it. You will see this on the visualization - the targeted car will be highlighted in a dark color during the day time and a lighter color during the night time.

I've noticed a VERY annoying bug where my Model 3 will target cars in the RIGHT lane next to me. It will then adjust its speed to stay behind the car to the right of me which, as you can assume, is extremely annoying. I would sometimes leave autopilot on thinking that it will correct itself knowing that the car ISN'T in my lane, but it doesn't. This only happens with cars on the right side and there will be MULTIPLE cars highlighted on the visualization. This doesn't make sense, if anything, it should only be highlighting one car and it should be the car that it THINKS is in front of me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Please let me know, I've been trying to do research to get to the bottom of this and have not found anything helpful. Thanks!

 

[quikshifter]

i have never seen this and I drove for last 10k miles on autopilot - I am thinking there is something wrong with your cameras and needs to be calibrated.

 

[DopeGhoti]

I see this happen occasionally when my route has me soon to enter that lane. Seems the car may be trying to facilitate a lane change.

 

[brkaus]

May be assuming the car is attempting to merge. How it attempts to decide if the lane is ending or its a ramp, I have no idea.

 

[atsai97]

I will add that I do not have navigate on autopilot turned on. I am simply just auto piloting down a highway wanting to stay in a lane. No merging in progress.

 

[mtndrew1]

My car does this on a section of the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles every day (southbound, second lane from the left, just before it crosses the 10 freeway).

The car incorrectly targets the car in the lane to the left and slams on the brakes. It will do this for about a quarter mile section and then it returns to normal.

This happens every day on my commute and I need to manually override it with the accelerator while it freaks out and beeps that I’m going to collide with a car.

This behavior coincided with the last map update 2019.20 so it leads me to believe that the maps have the lane markings wrong and the car thinks that the two lanes are merging and it needs to make space.

Infuriating and potentially dangerous.

 

[SleeperService]

Happens to me regularly in the same places on an interstate that I'm fairly certain is not mapped correctly for the number of lanes (there are three, but the map data seems to think there are only two). I think it may have to do with that discrepancy.

 

[atsai97]

My car does this on a section of the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles every day (southbound, second lane from the left, just before it crosses the 10 freeway).

The car incorrectly targets the car in the lane to the left and slams on the brakes. It will do this for about a quarter mile section and then it returns to normal.

This happens every day on my commute and I need to manually override it with the accelerator while it freaks out and beeps that I’m going to collide with a car.

This behavior coincided with the last map update 2019.20 so it leads me to believe that the maps have the lane markings wrong and the car thinks that the two lanes are merging and it needs to make space.

Infuriating and potentially dangerous.

View attachment 484948

Ah I see this makes sense. I will look at the maps and see if this issue is happening when two lanes are shown as "merging."

 

[mtndrew1]

Ah I see this makes sense. I will look at the maps and see if this issue is happening when two lanes are shown as "merging."

Mine does not display that they’re merging but the behavior is identical to when the car prepares for two lanes to merge. Then once I pass this section of freeway it all goes back to normal.

The fake merge seems to catch the car by surprise and so it hits the brakes hard without much notice. I’m not sure how to even relay this for correction. I could see a less attentive driver being surprised by the behavior and getting rear ended.

 

[SleeperService]

Mine does not display that they’re merging but the behavior is identical to when the car prepares for two lanes to merge. Then once I pass this section of freeway it all goes back to normal.

The fake merge seems to catch the car by surprise and so it hits the brakes hard without much notice. I’m not sure how to even relay this for correction. I could see a less attentive driver being surprised by the behavior and getting rear ended.

Yep, I know that the interstate in that area is mapped wrong for two reasons: heading south bound it does not realize that a lane is ending and will happily change into that lane right before it ends or stay in the lane to the very end and never even try to merge into the center lane. North bound, NOA will merge into the center lane but will not merge into the right lane (automatically) to exit the highway and will fail to exit if I don't tell it (via the turn signal) to merge into the right lane prior to the exit. Annoying, but as it is very consistent, I'm used to it and expect the behavior at this point.

 

[mtndrew1]

Yep, I know that the interstate in that area is mapped wrong for two reasons: heading south bound it does not realize that a lane is ending and will happily change into that lane right before it ends or stay in the lane to the very end and never even try to merge into the center lane. North bound, NOA will merge into the center lane but will not merge into the right lane (automatically) to exit the highway and will fail to exit if I don't tell it (via the turn signal) to merge into the right lane prior to the exit. Annoying, but as it is very consistent, I'm used to it and expect the behavior at this point.

I see many dozens of Teslas on this commute every day and am baffled that there isn’t some sort of feedback going to the mothership as thousands of drivers override autopilot in the same spots every single day.

 

[LACALawyer]

My car does this on a section of the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles every day (southbound, second lane from the left, just before it crosses the 10 freeway).

The car incorrectly targets the car in the lane to the left and slams on the brakes. It will do this for about a quarter mile section and then it returns to normal.

This happens every day on my commute and I need to manually override it with the accelerator while it freaks out and beeps that I’m going to collide with a car.

This behavior coincided with the last map update 2019.20 so it leads me to believe that the maps have the lane markings wrong and the car thinks that the two lanes are merging and it needs to make space.

Infuriating and potentially dangerous.

View attachment 484948

Nowhere near as dangerous as driving south on the 110..

 

[C141medic]

Happened to me many times when I’m in the far left lane and there’s no one immediately front of me. AP will select the vehicle immediately to my right and slow down.

 

[JayNJ]

As many of you know, when driving in Autopilot mode, the car will target the car in front of you in the current lane that you are in to stay behind it. You will see this on the visualization - the targeted car will be highlighted in a dark color during the day time and a lighter color during the night time.

I've noticed a VERY annoying bug where my Model 3 will target cars in the RIGHT lane next to me. It will then adjust its speed to stay behind the car to the right of me which, as you can assume, is extremely annoying. I would sometimes leave autopilot on thinking that it will correct itself knowing that the car ISN'T in my lane, but it doesn't. This only happens with cars on the right side and there will be MULTIPLE cars highlighted on the visualization. This doesn't make sense, if anything, it should only be highlighting one car and it should be the car that it THINKS is in front of me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Please let me know, I've been trying to do research to get to the bottom of this and have not found anything helpful. Thanks!

Yes this happens when it thinks a merge may be occurring. I see it in certain lanes where cars are entering the highway. It is a bug in terms that it triggers too easily an in sometimes the wrong situation, like when in far left lane when merging should only be happening in the middle or right lane.

 

[Paddy3101]

As many of you know, when driving in Autopilot mode, the car will target the car in front of you in the current lane that you are in to stay behind it. You will see this on the visualization - the targeted car will be highlighted in a dark color during the day time and a lighter color during the night time.

I've noticed a VERY annoying bug where my Model 3 will target cars in the RIGHT lane next to me. It will then adjust its speed to stay behind the car to the right of me which, as you can assume, is extremely annoying. I would sometimes leave autopilot on thinking that it will correct itself knowing that the car ISN'T in my lane, but it doesn't. This only happens with cars on the right side and there will be MULTIPLE cars highlighted on the visualization. This doesn't make sense, if anything, it should only be highlighting one car and it should be the car that it THINKS is in front of me.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Please let me know, I've been trying to do research to get to the bottom of this and have not found anything helpful. Thanks!

Yep. happens to me daily at the 'merge' points for HOV lanes, even if the other car isn't in the merge, or i'm not in the lane which it merges into.

e.g. If the main-carriageway is stopped, but the HOV lane is doing 70, it will sometimes brake dramatically for the cars in the main carriageway, EVEN though they aren't in the merge-lane for the HOV.

Guessing, it knows that there is a merge, but can't tell accurately if the cars are in the merge lane, or further over, or that my car isn't in a merge lane.

Probably doesn't help that the HOV lane is variable width with a movable barrier.

 

[mtndrew1]

Yep. happens to me daily at the 'merge' points for HOV lanes, even if the other car isn't in the merge, or i'm not in the lane which it merges into.

e.g. If the main-carriageway is stopped, but the HOV lane is doing 70, it will sometimes brake dramatically for the cars in the main carriageway, EVEN though they aren't in the merge-lane for the HOV.

Guessing, it knows that there is a merge, but can't tell accurately if the cars are in the merge lane, or further over, or that my car isn't in a merge lane.

Probably doesn't help that the HOV lane is variable width with a movable barrier.

My situation doesn’t involve any merging, HOV lanes, onramps or offramps. It’s just four lanes and the car freaks out thinking one lane is merging into the other.

 

[Big Dog]

Yes this happens when it thinks a merge may be occurring. I see it in certain lanes where cars are entering the highway. It is a bug in terms that it triggers too easily an in sometimes the wrong situation, like when in far left lane when merging should only be happening in the middle or right lane.

It's happened to me not with a merge, but just the opposite, cars exiting. I'lll be moving on down the highway at 65 when a lane (or two) to my right exit onto a new highway. If those exiting lanes start to slow for congestion, my car will immediately slow even tho nothing is ahead in my lane.

Not a bug per se, just another example of phantom braking.

 

[SleeperService]

My situation doesn’t involve any merging, HOV lanes, onramps or offramps. It’s just four lanes and the car freaks out thinking one lane is merging into the other.

How long has the road been four lanes right there? Was it recently upgraded and maybe the maps are out of date?

 

[Paddy3101]

My situation doesn’t involve any merging, HOV lanes, onramps or offramps. It’s just four lanes and the car freaks out thinking one lane is merging into the other.

Yes, exactly. The car thinks there is a merge happening, even when there isn't.

Thinks the lanes are merging, but the cars aren't in the lanes that merge, or the lanes actually don't merge.

 

[mtndrew1]

How long has the road been four lanes right there? Was it recently upgraded and maybe the maps are out of date?

About twenty years.

Edit: furthermore the car behaved properly at this location before the 2019.20 map update and whatever vehicle firmware came out at the same time.