Lane change terminates mid way and feels dangerous

[X7x7X7x7]

I have new MYLR and love if except for this one rather big issue with auto lane change. To start, I drive with both hands on steering wheel yet it feels like it is constantly requesting me to put more pressure on steering (blue shadow on speed display). It requests this even when I signal for an automatic lane change (feauture of enhanced autopilot in Europe that I paid for) (yes the blue shadow even appears mid way through changing the lanes with the signal on). Then it cancels the lane change mid procedure, slows down hard, drives straight with the car driving in both lanes and gives that loud warning beeping sound telling me to immediately take control. There is otherwise no problem on the road and I would have continued with the lane change if I wasn’t using the feature. While asking me to take over it then “fights” me for control of the steering (I guess this is normal). But the “fight“ causes the car to veer a bit on my way back to the original lane and is off putting to say the least. Anyone else have this. This situation has happened quite a few times in the first weeks of getting the car. Anyone have any ideas what it is doing. the problem is something is triggering the canceling of lane changing. But the instruction manual even says the blue shadow should not appear if the turn signal is on I.E. that I am paying attention.

 

[gx9901]

I have new MYLR and love if except for this one rather big issue with auto lane change. To start, I drive with both hands on steering wheel yet it feels like it is constantly requesting me to put more pressure on steering (blue shadow on speed display). It requests this even when I signal for an automatic lane change (feauture of enhanced autopilot in Europe that I paid for) (yes the blue shadow even appears mid way through changing the lanes with the signal on). Then it cancels the lane change mid procedure, slows down hard, drives straight with the car driving in both lanes and gives that loud warning beeping sound telling me to immediately take control. There is otherwise no problem on the road and I would have continued with the lane change if I wasn’t using the feature. While asking me to take over it then “fights” me for control of the steering (I guess this is normal). But the “fight“ causes the car to veer a bit on my way back to the original lane and is off putting to say the least. Anyone else have this. This situation has happened quite a few times in the first weeks of getting the car. Anyone have any ideas what it is doing. the problem is something is triggering the canceling of lane changing. But the instruction manual even says the blue shadow should not appear if the turn signal is on I.E. that I am paying attention.

Just to be sure, are you aware that the steering wheel is not capacitive and instead uses a torque sensor to "know" you're holding the wheel? I ask because if you are holding the steering wheel with both hands, you're likely not putting any torque on it in either direction and the car would think that your hands are not on the steering wheel.

I don't have FSD, but when I use autopilot, I typically hold the wheel with one hand while the elbow rests on the armrest. This creates a natural torque on the steering wheel while my hand is hanging onto it. I never get the autopilot nag that way.

 

[johnnycnote]

My guess is that by coincidence, it's asking for driver input (steering wheel torque) just before the lane change. Since not enough was offered, it might be triggering the alarm, asking you to take over, and cancelling the lane change

I haven't run into this yet, but I clear nags by increasing/decreasing the speed with the right hand scroll wheel (1MPH is enough), or by increasing/decreasing the volume with the left hand scroll wheel

 

[X7x7X7x7]

Just to be sure, are you aware that the steering wheel is not capacitive and instead uses a torque sensor to "know" you're holding the wheel? I ask because if you are holding the steering wheel with both hands, you're likely not putting any torque on it in either direction and the car would think that your hands are not on the steering wheel.

I don't have FSD, but when I use autopilot, I typically hold the wheel with one hand while the elbow rests on the armrest. This creates a natural torque on the steering wheel while my hand is hanging onto it. I never get the autopilot nag that way.

Thanks for the tip. My concern is that by continuously applying torque with the weight of my arm that at some point I will inadvertently apply too much torque and cancel auto pilot and veer into other lane. Maybe I just need to get a little more comfortable with it and see how much torque from one hand is actually necessary to disengage auto steer. Have you ever inadvertently disengaged auto steer by resting your arm as you describe? Additionally, I think that one is legally required to drive with both hands on the wheel except when momentarily adjusting something in the cabin, so it’s strange that Tesla would incentivize one handed driving rather than two handed. Perhaps the internal camera would be a better assessor of me paying attention e.g. looking forward and both hands on wheel. Anyway thanks, I’ll give that a try.
BTW on a related note, I noticed when I apply torque, but not enough to disengage, the car moves in the lane slightly and then autopilot centers me again. Is this really the input that auto steer is asking from me all the time... It feels like I need to apply more torque to keep auto steer engaged than I would need to keep the car in my lane if driving the car myself. I.E. that in one way it is more work to use auto steer than driving myself. You can see I am still getting used to this new way of driving a car. Maybe I need to spend some more time really seeing how little or much torque is needed to keep it engaged and to disengage it.

 

[X7x7X7x7]

My guess is that by coincidence, it's asking for driver input (steering wheel torque) just before the lane change. Since not enough was offered, it might be triggering the alarm, asking you to take over, and cancelling the lane change

I haven't run into this yet, but I clear nags by increasing/decreasing the speed with the right hand scroll wheel (1MPH is enough), or by increasing/decreasing the volume with the left hand scroll wheel

Interesting… will try this as well. I am however surprised that auto steer disengages midway even though I turned the turn signal on (i.e. being attentive). So my non-torque yet attentive input (turn signal) is ignored and still disengages auto steer. It therefore seems likely that it will also ignore if I adjust the speed volume. But I suppose adjusting the speed or volume occasionally will reduce the likelihood of the blue shadow in general and thus may reduce disengaging mid way through the lane change. Thanks for this tip, will try.

 

[TwelveVoltMan]

I haven't run into this yet, but I clear nags by increasing/decreasing the speed with the right hand scroll wheel (1MPH is enough), or by increasing/decreasing the volume with the left hand scroll wheel

This works in the US, but not in certain other countries. I'm not sure about Canada.

 

[gx9901]

Thanks for the tip. My concern is that by continuously applying torque with the weight of my arm that at some point I will inadvertently apply too much torque and cancel auto pilot and veer into other lane. Maybe I just need to get a little more comfortable with it and see how much torque from one hand is actually necessary to disengage auto steer. Have you ever inadvertently disengaged auto steer by resting your arm as you describe? Additionally, I think that one is legally required to drive with both hands on the wheel except when momentarily adjusting something in the cabin, so it’s strange that Tesla would incentivize one handed driving rather than two handed. Perhaps the internal camera would be a better assessor of me paying attention e.g. looking forward and both hands on wheel. Anyway thanks, I’ll give that a try.
BTW on a related note, I noticed when I apply torque, but not enough to disengage, the car moves in the lane slightly and then autopilot centers me again. Is this really the input that auto steer is asking from me all the time... It feels like I need to apply more torque to keep auto steer engaged than I would need to keep the car in my lane if driving the car myself. I.E. that in one way it is more work to use auto steer than driving myself. You can see I am still getting used to this new way of driving a car. Maybe I need to spend some more time really seeing how little or much torque is needed to keep it engaged and to disengage it.

I've found that it takes a fairly firm turn of the steering wheel to disengage autopilot, and I have never inadvertently disengaged it while holding the steering wheel while autopilot is active. The way I hold the steering wheel with one hand during autopilot doesn't put too much torque on the steering wheel, and the car always feel like it's on rails, so perhaps you can experiment on what is the optimum torque you put on the wheel with one hand so the car doesn't move laterally.

As for driving with both hands, I'm in the USA so I don't think there's law that requires it, but I don't know for sure. Hopefully I have not been breaking laws while using autopilot!

 

[dtdtdt]

I signal for an automatic lane change Then it cancels the lane change mid procedure, slows down hard, drives straight with the car driving in both lanes and gives that loud warning beeping sound telling me to immediately take control.

I had a problem with auto lane change until I learned that you have to push the turn stalk all the way to the second detent and release. Previously, I was just holding it down at the first detent. If I let it go too soon, the car would get confused, cancel the lane change, and ask for help. Pretty scary!

 

[X7x7X7x7]

I learned this one by hands on experience as well. A lane change indicator on a regular car does not apply to a Tesla auto lane change. But the result is identical as you describe, It cancels the lane change, beeps a loud warning, breaks hard, and tells me to take over. In my case, the early termination of lane change is after having pushed the stalk fully to the second click where it continues blinking on its own until it just stops halfway in the lane change.

 

[drtimhill]

Thanks for the tip. My concern is that by continuously applying torque with the weight of my arm that at some point I will inadvertently apply too much torque and cancel auto pilot and veer into other lane. Maybe I just need to get a little more comfortable with it and see how much torque from one hand is actually necessary to disengage auto steer. Have you ever inadvertently disengaged auto steer by resting your arm as you describe? Additionally, I think that one is legally required to drive with both hands on the wheel except when momentarily adjusting something in the cabin, so it’s strange that Tesla would incentivize one handed driving rather than two handed. Perhaps the internal camera would be a better assessor of me paying attention e.g. looking forward and both hands on wheel. Anyway thanks, I’ll give that a try.
BTW on a related note, I noticed when I apply torque, but not enough to disengage, the car moves in the lane slightly and then autopilot centers me again. Is this really the input that auto steer is asking from me all the time... It feels like I need to apply more torque to keep auto steer engaged than I would need to keep the car in my lane if driving the car myself. I.E. that in one way it is more work to use auto steer than driving myself. You can see I am still getting used to this new way of driving a car. Maybe I need to spend some more time really seeing how little or much torque is needed to keep it engaged and to disengage it.

The best way for me is (as suggested) to rest one arm on an arm rest, gently holding the wheel, and then give it a slight “tug” every 15 seconds or so. It’s pretty easy to gauge the tug since the wheel resists the tug just enough to avoid any disengagement. After a while the tugs get so automatic I hardly notice I’m doing it.

 

[X7x7X7x7]

Got it! Thanks.

 

[LouValencia]

Thanks for the tip. My concern is that by continuously applying torque with the weight of my arm that at some point I will inadvertently apply too much torque and cancel auto pilot and veer into other lane. Maybe I just need to get a little more comfortable with it and see how much torque from one hand is actually necessary to disengage auto steer. Have you ever inadvertently disengaged auto steer by resting your arm as you describe? Additionally, I think that one is legally required to drive with both hands on the wheel except when momentarily adjusting something in the cabin, so it’s strange that Tesla would incentivize one handed driving rather than two handed. Perhaps the internal camera would be a better assessor of me paying attention e.g. looking forward and both hands on wheel. Anyway thanks, I’ll give that a try.
BTW on a related note, I noticed when I apply torque, but not enough to disengage, the car moves in the lane slightly and then autopilot centers me again. Is this really the input that auto steer is asking from me all the time... It feels like I need to apply more torque to keep auto steer engaged than I would need to keep the car in my lane if driving the car myself. I.E. that in one way it is more work to use auto steer than driving myself. You can see I am still getting used to this new way of driving a car. Maybe I need to spend some more time really seeing how little or much torque is needed to keep it engaged and to disengage it.

I have a 2021 Model S with a yoke, so my experience my differ slightly, but should be similar enough. I've found that there tends to be a difference in torque applied akin to the "weight" of your arm vs. "pulling" the wheel. Pulling the wheel (or preventing it to turn on sharper turns such as on exit ramps) will disengage, but it's difficult to do accidentally. Resting your arm and using the armrest as drtimhill mentioned is pretty effective, but I found it does need a little bump occasionally, as he mentioned. What I've found that is more reliable is to rest one hand on the wheel with your elbow hanging by your side. That way, instead of splitting the weight between the wheel and the armrest, the full weight of your arm is on the wheel. I've found that is enough to keep it engaged.

I have Enhanced Autopilot (recently re-released in US) and, for what it's worth, I have noticed that during lane changes, particularly with Navigate on Autopilot, it tends to want a little more love when initiating. The aforementioned method of hanging your full weight makes it bugging you more rare.

In regards to the two-handed driving, again I'm in the US so take that with a grain of salt, but that seems like driving a manual very difficult. I've driven manual transmissions all my life and am quite used to driving one-handed. I think the reason people say to use one hand vs. two (and I would agree with this) is that any torque (weight) applied with one hand is "cancelled out" by the other hand since it is in the opposite direction. Think of it as too balanced. You need imbalance so the wheel knows you're there.

 

[mtbwalt]

Of my MS refresh with yoke, the weight of my hand on one side keeps the nag away very effectively. I usually have my elbow on the door support or the center padded support. It takes a real tug to disengage using steering.

When I first got my vehicle I used both hands and got frequent nags as the wheel did not register the equal forces as being torque.