My first HW2 TACC experience

[RRM998]

I received the HW2 EAP update last night (and installed this morning). When I "started" the car I got a "driver assist features not available" message so I did a 68 mile freeway drive to give it some calibration time. First thoughts:

• TACC was immediately available.
• A vehicle in front of me was tracked and I slowed accordingly
• Vehicles pulling into and out of my 6 car gap was handled well.
• When a large pickup trucked passed me on the left, the TACC reacted and hit the brakes. The truck was never in my lane.
• On the return trip, the sun was in front of me. TACC was slowing down for the shadow of overhead road signs. Once doing so hard enough that I got a collision warning. When I had vehicles too close behind me I disabled TACC as having the car brake for no reason would not be safe.
• If the right side safety wall on a bridge was too close the lane, TACC would slow for a second.

EAP:

• I couldn't test EAP as I was never in a situation where I could safely do 45 on a 65mph road. I tried on a freeway frontage road but it told me that AP wasn't available on that road.
• Looking at the lane lines on my dashboard, they were really dancing around. If that's an indication of how lane keeping would perform, it doesn't seem safe in this release.

 

[RoyBot]

Upgrade received early this morning (5:20am EST notification). The install said 1hr 45mins if I recall correctly, but it only took about 15 minutes or so (5:42am EST completed). I actually received the "shadow" update last week so perhaps this was just the kicker...

And ahhhh, yes... I went out in my PJs to initiate. ;-)

Just got back from a spin around lunch time to try it out. It worked great though I only really exercised TACC (Traffic-Aware Cruise Control). It's great to see the display showing it's perception of lane boundaries and for the vast majority of roads I was on, it did a great job with tracking and recognition.

I set cruise control on a few roads around town and it was flawless. Trusting that it would slow down or stop with cars before us was a little nerve-wracking at first, but then it seemed very natural and quite a bit surreal. Perhaps folks with prior AP1 Telsa experience can chime in, but as this is my first drive using TACC I was quite amazed! My prior car was a 2000 Honda Accord, with very conventional RPM-based cruise control that I would only (and could only) ever use on full-fledged highways.

I found a short restricted highway to test Autosteer. The only thing local was a 70mph-rated area with a bit of traffic, so I did what any beta tester might do; wait until there's no one around, put on the hazard lights, take it down to 45, and engage. Seemed to be working just fine for the very short test! I'll try to report back once I can find a better area for extended lower-speed driving. Truly, once the Tesla crew brings this up to 70mph+, it's going to be amazing.

 

[MP3Mike]

Vehicles pulling into and out of my 6 car gap was handled well.

The TACC setting is not car lengths, it is a time based setting. So the distance for a given setting increases as you go faster.

 

[RRM998]

The TACC setting is not car lengths, it is a time based setting. So the distance for a given setting increases as you go faster.

I'll keep this is mind. thanks!

 

[RRM998]

I set cruise control on a few roads around town and it was flawless.
.

I'm glad you had a good experience. Having the car brake hard unexpectedly was a bit unsettling for me.

Oddly, I'm now looking forward to my next stop-and-go traffic situation.

 

[pilotSteve]

My experience very similar to the previous two people. A few observations to add:

1-HW2 is not reading speed signs, probably just using gps database. Several times that would have caused TACC to go 55 in a 35 signed area so I frantically beeped the cruise speed down to limit+10

2-same as reported by others, it is impossible to (safely) test AP2 steering because no divided freeway in AZ on a weekend travels at less than 75 mph. Wish they would loosen their definition of "freeway" which appears to be database defined so Bell Road in Scottsdale for example (3 lanes each way with divider and excellent road markings and 45MPH speed limit) could be used for steering testing.

3-indeed the lane images on instrument screen wobble a lot, so the camera is not tuned yet to have good lane vision. Needs new glasse or a double espresso or something to get its confidence back!

Excited to see progress! I imagine huge improvements will happen in the next few updates.

 

[MP3Mike]

1-HW2 is not reading speed signs, probably just using gps database.

That is what the release notes said about Speed Assist.

 

[pilotSteve]

That is what the release notes said about Speed Assist.

Yes indeed, and the database speed limits often were 50 or 55 when the posted speed is 35. Hence my warning to testers.

 

[aesculus]

The TACC setting is not car lengths, it is a time based setting. So the distance for a given setting increases as you go faster.

I wish they would tell us what the number actually means. I suspect it is the number of seconds of closing time (like the video attached), but I am not certain.

So a setting of 3 would be normal with 4,5, or 6 giving you a fair amount of extra margin for poor weather or other factors.

 

[wesley888]

Oddly, I'm now looking forward to my next stop-and-go traffic situation.

LOL. I drove almost an hour to get a town that I know there are always traffic to test the Auto-Steer out.

 

[pilotSteve]

yeah.... I found some slow traffic in the right hand lane and pulled behind them just to see my TACC slow down and stop as they did. All worked great, even when the traffic light turned green and the car in front of me drove thru the intersection, my car started up and followed it dutifully at a proper speed and following distance. Getting excited here to have the limits (speed, freeways) removed!

 

[RRM998]

I got a "driver assist features not available" again this evening. I'm still not sure what this message is telling me.

I did find a brief stretch on a nearby 5 lane freeway and slowed down to 45mph. Auto Steer became available and it successfully kept the car in the lane for a short time before traffic approached and I needed to speed up.

In the 60 total seconds I had it on over two tries, it seemed much less stable than the HW1 AP I experienced during my test drive.

 

[MP3Mike]

I wish they would tell us what the number actually means.

The would be great. Someone could test it to be sure but I think it is something like .25-.5 seconds per number. (Maybe it is .33 seconds.)

 

[mamunoz]

Yeah this is certainly not ready for prime time at all. I had cruise set for 75 going down the highway somebody left the lane we were sharing, and it was clear and straight middle of the freeway so no shadows, and suddenly it showed a phantom red car and started emergency braking(I thought that was disabled in this release).

Then got off the highway had cruise set to 40 downtown. It came to a stop at a light just perfect. The car in front of me decided to move into the right turn lane and got mostly out of the lane, but the rear quarter was still in the cars path when it decided that it wasn't there anymore and started to accelerate toward the back end of the car. Needless to say my wife was a little freaked.

I'm anxious for the next updates. On the bright side after about 60 miles today it is no longer telling me auto steer is disabled but as most are noticing it's essentially impossible to use at this point at this speed.

 

[number12]

Yeah this is certainly not ready for prime time at all. I had cruise set for 75 going down the highway somebody left the lane we were sharing, and it was clear and straight middle of the freeway so no shadows, and suddenly it showed a phantom red car and started emergency braking(I thought that was disabled in this release).

Then got off the highway had cruise set to 40 downtown. It came to a stop at a light just perfect. The car in front of me decided to move into the right turn lane and got mostly out of the lane, but the rear quarter was still in the cars path when it decided that it wasn't there anymore and started to accelerate toward the back end of the car. Needless to say my wife was a little freaked.

I'm anxious for the next updates. On the bright side after about 60 miles today it is no longer telling me auto steer is disabled but as most are noticing it's essentially impossible to use at this point at this speed.

So it stopped at a red light or it stopped because there was a stopped car ahead of you?

 

[mamunoz]

So it stopped at a red light or it stopped because there was a stopped car ahead of you?

There were two cars stopped ahead of me so I was third. The second car moved into right turn lane but not fully and it then must have picked up the first car stopped and said to itself it was too far and the other car is no longer an obstacle. Unfortunately had I not slammed on the breaks my car would be in the body shop.

 

[number12]

There were two cars stopped ahead of me so I was third. The second car moved into right turn lane but not fully and it then must have picked up the first car stopped and said to itself it was too far and the other car is no longer an obstacle. Unfortunately had I not slammed on the breaks my car would be in the body shop.

Eventually ap2 will be able to stop at stop signs and red lights. Ap1 can only stop if there is a car ahead of it stopped (in tacc and auto steer) like you described. Just curious thanks.

 

[Deans]

I tested TACC today and it worked very poorly on a 4 lane, divided non-highway at about 35mph - 40mph.
Several times the car hit the brakes fairly hard for no apparent reason.
Once it hit the brakes due to a bus in the next lane. The bus was fully in its own lane.
Once it made a very hard stop for a jay walker who had already went fully across my lane. It didn't start braking until the pedestrian was all the way clear of traffic. [For the record, I was watching the pedestrian and ready to brake - but he was out of the way far in advance]

I've been using ACC in Audi for years now and I've never had one incident like this. It should have taken Tesla all of 5 minutes to realize this software is no where ready to be used or even Beta tested on public roads.

I would not recommend testing TACC at highway speeds. Be especially careful if you have some riding to close too your bumper or you WILL get rear ended.

 

[RRM998]

I tested TACC today and it worked very poorly on a 4 lane, divided non-highway at about 35mph - 40mph.
Several times the car hit the brakes fairly hard for no apparent reason.
Once it hit the brakes due to a bus in the next lane. The bus was fully in its own lane.
Once it made a very hard stop for a jay walker who had already went fully across my lane. It didn't start braking until the pedestrian was all the way clear of traffic. [For the record, I was watching the pedestrian and ready to brake - but he was out of the way far in advance]

I've been using ACC in Audi for years now and I've never had one incident like this. It should have taken Tesla all of 5 minutes to realize this software is no where ready to be used or even Beta tested on public roads.

I would not recommend testing TACC at highway speeds. Be especially careful if you have some riding to close too your bumper or you WILL get rear ended.

TACC definitely seems to work better when surrounded by traffic than out on the open road. I had issues with sudden braking due to overhead signs when traveling by myself at high speed. In traffic, almost no issues for me.

 

[Deans]

Yes, all my issues occurred when I had no lead vehicle.