New AutoPilot is horrible after update

[Tezla1]

I have been using Tesla Basic AP since 2018.

Updated the car yesterday.

First drive was my usual 40 mile drive I’ve made with AP for 6 years.

Immediately I notice the AP nag is more often and turns red way faster.

I drive 70-80 mph , 90% highway.

After getting way more bags than I’ve ever seen since 2018, AP finally shutdown and said no more AP available for rest of drive.

I find this absolutely ridiculous.

I drive in FastTrack HOV lanes 90% of time on highway.


Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

And I would bet that 90% of Tesla AP drivers do the above , so it’s not out of the ordinary.

Several times, when I saw the flashing blue nag, I reached for steering wheel, but twice I was 1-2 seconds too late, causing RED flashing - which is VERY rare for me prior to update. I never let it go in the RED flashing state 99% of my drives.

2 times, I was going around a curve at 80 mph and I got the nag - I applied gentle torque bc I was in the apex of a turn, not wanting to crash, I was slow and gentle with my hands on the wheel —- result? I got AP flashing red and it disengaged for rest of drive

Wtf ? AP is the reason I purchased a Tesla.

 

[jjrandorin]

Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

And I would bet that 90% of Tesla AP drivers do the above , so it’s not out of the ordinary.

This is a perfect description of the problem that is causing this to need fixing.

 

[Tam]

I have been using Tesla Basic AP since 2018.

Updated the car yesterday.

First drive was my usual 40 mile drive I’ve made with AP for 6 years.

Immediately I notice the AP nag is more often and turns red way faster.

I drive 70-80 mph , 90% highway.

After getting way more bags than I’ve ever seen since 2018, AP finally shutdown and said no more AP available for rest of drive.

I find this absolutely ridiculous.

I drive in FastTrack HOV lanes 90% of time on highway.


Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

And I would bet that 90% of Tesla AP drivers do the above , so it’s not out of the ordinary.

Several times, when I saw the flashing blue nag, I reached for steering wheel, but twice I was 1-2 seconds too late, causing RED flashing - which is VERY rare for me prior to update. I never let it go in the RED flashing state 99% of my drives.

2 times, I was going around a curve at 80 mph and I got the nag - I applied gentle torque bc I was in the apex of a turn, not wanting to crash, I was slow and gentle with my hands on the wheel —- result? I got AP flashing red and it disengaged for rest of drive

Wtf ? AP is the reason I purchased a Tesla.

After 2016 AP1 fatal collision, NTSB advised Tesla to solve the problem of driver's inattention.

At last, it now has arrived after 7 years.

That's how Tesla is designed: hands-on system but too many drivers don't honor that for the past 7 years.

If you want hands-off system, you need to switch brands that designed that in the first place.

Since you drive mostly on highways, hands-off system like 2017 GM SuperCruise, recent Ford BlueCruise... that should suit your needs.

 

[JonDarian]

Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

And I would bet that 90% of Tesla AP drivers do the above , so it’s not out of the ordinary.

I applaud your bravery in admitting how very inattentive you were being. Taking your eyes of the road to send a text is very dangerous.

At 80mph, you travel nearly 1200 feet (about 350 metres for metric users) in 10 seconds. That is a very long distance to travel blind. At that speed, most authorities would say you need to leave at least 3 seconds between your car and the vehicle in front. How does that work when you take your eyes off the road for longer than that?

Count me into the apparently 10% of drivers who keep their hands on the wheel and pay attention even when using AP. Hopefully that percentage will increase by a lot very soon.

 

[cwerdna]

Might help to indicate the version number.

 

[69KWH]

This is **EXACTLY** why I removed my Tesla from wifi and blocked the MAC address on my router. They're gonna pry 2023.44.1 from my cold dead hands.

 

[jjrandorin]

This is **EXACTLY** why I removed my Tesla from wifi and blocked the MAC address on my router. They're gonna pry 2023.44.1 from my cold dead hands.

I wouldnt expect that to do much, since as you know Teslas can download updates just fine over a cellular connection, as long as Tesla has it marked that way.

We just dont know if or when it will be marked mandatory, but preventing your car from getting on your wifi isnt doing much.

 

[cwerdna]

I wouldnt expect that to do much, since as you know Teslas can download updates just fine over a cellular connection, as long as Tesla has it marked that way.

We just dont know if or when it will be marked mandatory, but preventing your car from getting on your wifi isnt doing much.

It probably will eventually be marked mandatory because if it's a NHTSA safety recall, the automaker is required to track and report quarterly completion numbers.

Example at 2016 TESLA MODEL X 75D SUV AWD | NHTSA. Look under 23V085000 associated documents. Here are the two quarterly completion reports available:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLQRT-23V085-2089.PDF

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLQRT-23V085-2465.PDF

Automakers even go out of their way eventually to get the completion numbers up (e.g. Car companies reach out to customers to fix recalls).

Also, I believe automakers need to report VINs and recall status to NHTSA so that Recalls | NHTSA is accurate. For kicks, I put in the VIN of my former '19 Bolt that was recalled for the battery and bought back by GM at the 3 year mark (I requested the buyback). It doesn't show any battery recall at all so presumably, it was fixed long ago. But, it shows 1 open (incomplete) item which I know about and was issued almost a year after the buyback:
"Dec 15,2022

Manufacturer Recall Number N222383791
NHTSA Recall Number 22V930
Recall Status Recall Incomplete

Summary General Motors has decided that a defect which relates to motor vehicle safety exists in certain 2017 – 2023 model year Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. In certain crashes that cause the front seatbelt pretensioners to deploy, the exhaust from the deployed pretensioner may ignite fibers in the floor carpet near the B-pillar.

Safety Risk Following a crash that causes the seatbelt pretensioner to deploy, a fire may develop in the area near the B-pillar, which may increase the risk of injury.

Remedy Dealers will install a pretensioner cover and metal foil at the carpet near the pretensioner exhaust."

And yes, prior this recall, I do remember seeing at least one report of a Bolt catching on fire after a not major crash possibly coming from the cabin, not the battery.

 

[Huskyf]

This is **EXACTLY** why I removed my Tesla from wifi and blocked the MAC address on my router. They're gonna pry 2023.44.1 from my cold dead hands.

And if you crash or going to repair your car you lose your warranty it's explain in bold in your manual

 

[gsmith123]

This is a perfect description of the problem that is causing this to need fixing.

It's a perfect description, and actually gives me some confidence NHTSA was right that some adjustments to driver monitoring was a good idea.

If you want hands-off system, you need to switch brands that designed that in the first place.

Since you drive mostly on highways, hands-off system like 2017 GM SuperCruise, recent Ford BlueCruise... that should suit your needs.

These hands-off systems are not attention off. Sure, they don't monitor driver attention via contact or torque with the steering wheel (I think they use a camera or some form of eye tracking?), but they're still L2 systems.

The level of attentiveness the driver is supposed to maintain is exactly the same as with a Tesla.

If your objective is to text and use a phone they definitely don't suit your needs. Even if they don't detect phone usage today very well, NHTSA has made it clear what their expectations are via these recall required changes for Tesla. Other automakers are likely to see this as a baseline expectation to meet, or see pressure from NHTSA. Tesla isn't the only one that can do OTA updates and has the sensors in-car for detecting phone usage.

(I actually don't think it's inappropriate that Tesla was the subject of this investigation either. Teslas represent a disproportionately huge portion of the miles driven on driver assistance (many billions of miles) and they have fairly rich telemetry, including the cabin camera. From a utilitarian perspective they're clearly the right place to start!)

 

[beatle]

BlueCruise tags you relatively quickly if you're staring at a screen and not the road - whether that screen is a phone, the center screen, or the gauge cluster. I was surprised at its ability to distinguish staring at the gauge cluster for 5 seconds (this is actually a long time to look away from the road). It had no problem with me taking a long swig of coffee from my thermos though, and I wear sunglasses 100% of the time. It sounds like Tesla is playing catch up.

The real annoyances will be any false positives. For me, Ford had zero over dozens of hours using BlueCruise (granted not a lot, but I was still impressed). Ford uses two IR cameras in the gauge cluster to monitor you, so it stands to reason that they'll have better driver eye tracking data than the single camera mounted on the mirror that Tesla uses. But hey, if Tesla can actually make that work without false positives, that's what counts.

I am anxiously waiting to see what the AP behavior will be for those without a cabin camera.

 

[Handsome Jack]

> This is a perfect description of the problem that is causing this to need fixing.

No it's not, people are doing the same with old cars that has no system - they just check their phones or text while driving.
We, the normal drivers, know when it's safe to do so - like wide road with no pedestrians and cars in sight, no intersections etc.

Don't tell us to go for Cadilac supercruse etc. - virtually ANY other brand will allow us to do that, it just some media campaign against a tesla, if someone in BMW with engaged adaptive cruise control and a lane assist causes a crash - it's just an accident.

If in tesla with enabled (basic)autopilot - it's a news heard around the globe and 10 government agencies running with zoom lenses

I was afraid that they make tesla to force drivers to jiggle wheel non stop to satisfy crazy government regulations, and it seems it's exactly what they did.

Thanks Tezla1 for sharing your experience! I feel your pain and I hope Tesla will listen to their customers and issue an update to reduce the nag. Meanwhile people will know to suspend update until it's fixed.

 

[aronth5]

Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

Texting while driving is just dumb and unsafe so no sympathies. At least use voice commands since that is available.

 

[Todd Burch]

Is this thread a joke?

Do you also get mad at Tesla for those pesky seat belt alarms too? Hell, I paid for a car that doesn’t sound alarms while I drive!

Texting while driving is illegal in 48 states—all except Missouri and Montana. And it will likely be illegal there too soon.

If you want to be able to text while driving, you can start by writing letters to NHTSA and congress, while also providing evidence that it doesn’t cause any safety issues. I suspect it won’t get you very far.

Pro tip: if you need to text while driving, disable AP first. Then, if you kill someone it will be on you instead of the world blaming Tesla.

 

[beatle]

> This is a perfect description of the problem that is causing this to need fixing.

No it's not, people are doing the same with old cars that has no system - they just check their phones or text while driving.
We, the normal drivers, know when it's safe to do so - like wide road with no pedestrians and cars in sight, no intersections etc.

Don't tell us to go for Cadilac supercruse etc. - virtually ANY other brand will allow us to do that, it just some media campaign against a tesla, if someone in BMW with engaged adaptive cruise control and a lane assist causes a crash - it's just an accident.

Except other systems already prohibit you from doing that. The good systems are already monitoring your eyes, and if you're texting or not paying attention, they will nag you. Tesla is just playing catchup. The annoying thing is that Tesla also forces you to hold the wheel in addition to watching the road. Ford and GM (and maybe Mercedes?) let you drive hands free on the highway if you're paying attention.

And someone who is going to text and drive doesn't care about being on a wide road with no pedestrians or cars. They're going to do it whenever a text comes in that they feel they need to reply to immediately. If someone is actually resposible, they're not going to text in the first place, or they'll pull over.

 

[mikez10288]

No it's not, people are doing the same with old cars that has no system - they just check their phones or text while driving.
We, the normal drivers, know when it's safe to do so - like wide road with no pedestrians and cars in sight, no intersections etc.

It doesn't matter that other people are doing it; it's still dangerous and stupid. There is never a safe time to text and drive.

 

[Krakatoa]

Were my hands off the steering wheel for more than 5-15 seconds ? Yes

Was I looking down at my phone occasionally sending a text? Yes a few times.

So, it's working as intended.

 

[Robotpedlr]

No it's not, people are doing the same with old cars that has no system - they just check their phones or text while driving.
We, the normal drivers, know when it's safe to do so - like wide road with no pedestrians and cars in sight, no intersections etc.

Yeah and they crash and kill people.

 

[zoomer0056]

And I would bet that 90% of Tesla AP drivers do the above , so it’s not out of the ordinary.

This is where I quit reading and stared shaking my head .... tsk, tsk tsk. I'm surprised the word "annoying" wasn't used in the text. This is perfect example of why the recall is needed.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I really wasn't sure if this was ironic.