Navigate on Autopilot - Odd Behavior

[HeyEph]

Finally got a chance to drive long distance with NOA. Loved it! But, found it behaved oddly.

USUALLY, as I approached a car going more slowly than I was, it properly signaled and changed lanes by itself. However, several times, it would just slow down and stay in the lane behind the slower car, and awaited my manual push of the signal stalk before initiating a lane change. No, there were no cars in the left lane that it was waiting for. It just didn't want to do it without me giving it the OK. I also did not change any settings during this drive.

Why is that?

 

[Jedibryan]

Finally got a chance to drive long distance with NOA. Loved it! But, found it behaved oddly.

USUALLY, as I approached a car going more slowly than I was, it properly signaled and changed lanes by itself. However, several times, it would just slow down and stay in the lane behind the slower car, and awaited my manual push of the signal stalk before initiating a lane change. No, there were no cars in the left lane that it was waiting for. It just didn't want to do it without me giving it the OK. I also did not change any settings during this drive.

Why is that?

There's a setting where you can adjust the aggressiveness of auto passing. Maybe bump that up a notch. I find it doesn't handle passing cars or getting out of the passing lane as well as I'd like, so I turn auto lane change off usually.

 

[HeyEph]

There's a setting where you can adjust the aggressiveness of auto passing. Maybe bump that up a notch. I find it doesn't handle passing cars or getting out of the passing lane as well as I'd like, so I turn auto lane change off usually.

I really don't think it's that. It wouldn't pass at all sometimes.

 

[frankvb]

One possibility would be that in those cases it will activate the lane change as soon as it detects your hands on the wheel. It is more sensitive to that when trying to change lanes (as opposed to just continuing in the same lane in case there's no traffic in front). That's one of the reasons why I disabled auto lane change, this would happen virtually all the time.

Did the screen show that it wanted to do a lane change? If not, I agree with the other posters about the slowdown not being enough to trigger the lane change.

 

[HeyEph]

One possibility would be that in those cases it will activate the lane change as soon as it detects your hands on the wheel. It is more sensitive to that when trying to change lanes (as opposed to just continuing in the same lane in case there's no traffic in front). That's one of the reasons why I disabled auto lane change, this would happen virtually all the time.

Did the screen show that it wanted to do a lane change? If not, I agree with the other posters about the slowdown not being enough to trigger the lane change.

No, it was NOT indicating a lane change at all.

 

[acarney]

I believe it will sit behind the slower car forever if the car isn't going "slow enough" based on your settings, not just how quick it is to change lanes. Try being more aggressive in the settings and it'll probably still get behind the car and hang there for a couple seconds before then trying a lane change.

This is probably to keep the car from constantly trying to make lane changes in heavy traffic if the cars in front of you might only be going 2 or 3 mph slower than you (and likely might speed back up in a few minutes).

 

[Dre78]

I noticed the same behavior on long distance trips (Chicago to Los Angeles, and back). Seemingly similar environment, settings, and circumstances, but NOA wouldn't pass the slower vehicle. Felt like a game of roulette when approaching a truck... Would it pass or not? Most times it would.

I should remember to tap right button to submit bug report to Tesla in the future.

 

[CleverUsername]

(Chicago to Los Angeles, and back)

Whoa, we’re kicking around the idea of doing this same road trip! How was it?

 

[kadify]

I noticed the same behavior on long distance trips (Chicago to Los Angeles, and back). Seemingly similar environment, settings, and circumstances, but NOA wouldn't pass the slower vehicle. Felt like a game of roulette when approaching a truck... Would it pass or not? Most times it would.

I should remember to tap right button to submit bug report to Tesla in the future.

What button do you click to submit bug reports? I have many places where autopilot fails because of weird lane markings and figured if I could send that to them it may be helpful.

 

[DaveORD]

voice command "bug report"

 

[HeyEph]

I noticed the same behavior on long distance trips (Chicago to Los Angeles, and back). Seemingly similar environment, settings, and circumstances, but NOA wouldn't pass the slower vehicle. Felt like a game of roulette when approaching a truck... Would it pass or not? Most times it would.

I should remember to tap right button to submit bug report to Tesla in the future.

Exactly.

 

[Dre78]

Whoa, we’re kicking around the idea of doing this same road trip! How was it?

Would not have done it if not for the pandemic, but now that we have may be doing it more often. In summer we took the scenic route through Colorado. About $130 SC one way. Stopped for two nights on the way; one, returning. In winter we took southern route to avoid possible road closures. With colder temps it was around $180 SC one way. Drove straight through: swapped drivers, slept while charging. Definitely recommend using ABRP, as Tesla nav had us limping on the one leg we trusted it on. Here's the return trip, average temperature was around freezing (Above freezing to start, near or below freezing to end). California to Illinois - Google Drive

 

[HeyEph]

Switched to Mad Max mode and it's much better.

New question: why doesn't it automatically change speed when it detects that the speed limit has changed? Is there a setting for that?

 

[MrTuna]

Mad max is a bit aggressive. The notch below is pretty good. If you are set at 77 and someone is going 76, it will just follow. If they are going 75 or slower it will pass. Seems a good balance of keeping your set speed but not constantly passing the same car.

 

[HeyEph]

Mad max is a bit aggressive. The notch below is pretty good. If you are set at 77 and someone is going 76, it will just follow. If they are going 75 or slower it will pass. Seems a good balance of keeping your set speed but not constantly passing the same car.

I did not experience that. When set to 70, it would slow down to 66 without passing. So, 4mph slower.

 

[MrTuna]

I did not experience that. When set to 70, it would slow down to 66 without passing. So, 4mph slower.

for how long? It will normally let the guy currently passing pass, and then scoot over. Not like gas it and cut someone off.

I only have like 3,000 miles with AP, but it’s been pretty reliable so far. The only times it’s under my set limit is when it’s not a great time to pass or I have an exit in 1 mile.

 

[HeyEph]

for how long? It will normally let the guy currently passing pass, and then scoot over. Not like gas it and cut someone off.

I only have like 3,000 miles with AP, but it’s been pretty reliable so far. The only times it’s under my set limit is when it’s not a great time to pass or I have an exit in 1 mile.

With nobody in the left lane at all. I probably gave it 30secs before manually changing one time.

 

[WADan]

I tried AP the first time yesterday, and I found it pretty annoying to have to keep hand on steering wheel. I think monitoring eyes would be a better design. Hopefully, Tesla will change that.

 

[Koolio46]

With nobody in the left lane at all. I probably gave it 30secs before manually changing one time.

You’d need to give it longer. Mine is set one level below mad max and sometimes it takes a few mins to do the pass.

 

[HeyEph]

You’d need to give it longer. Mine is set one level below mad max and sometimes it takes a few mins to do the pass.

That is not how people drive, though.