Navigate on Autopilot fails, Autopilot continues

[ElectricHoo]

Yesterday I experienced something I thought I'd share. When I began a road trip in the morning after a heavy rain, Navigate on Autopilot (set ON by default) frequently would drop out with a message to the effect (not a quote) that it was unavailable, and if the problem persisted, I should contact a service center. "Regular" Autopilot continued to work. After a few seconds to minutes, Navigate on Autopilot would resume, and the process would repeat intermittently. I stopped and examined the sensors, and found that the glass over the cameras on the "B" pillar had spots of condensation. I had AC turned off, so I turned on defog and as the sun began to warm things up more, the problem ceased.

I presume that the problem was related to the condensation over the cameras, but I found it interesting that it only affected Navigate on Autopilot, not Autopilot itself. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

[boaterva]

I’ve and others have seen warnings about NoA unavailable when it was raining; error message clearly stated it was because of weather and didn’t mention contacting service center (probably because autowipers were running).

We assume NoA needs the side cameras clear for auto lane changing and normal AP doesn’t care as much about them. Normal AP also has its cameras cleared by the wipers. Not sure what the long range plan is for NoA if there is no way to keep the four side cameras cleaned automatically. I believe the B pillar ones have heaters, do the repeater ones? And nothing will keep water drops off the small lenses of the repeaters when it’s raining.

 

[bishoppeak]

I've had similar notifications on sunny days, I think some areas don't have enough data to support NOA, so it defaults to regular autopilot.