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New M3 owner - Autopilot disappointment
- Thread starter robert997
- Start date
FSD is now feature complete.
Or at least Elon said it would be by the end of last year. He does, though, have a habit of talking through his fundamental orifice. Even despite the restrictions due to legislation, the suggestion that FSD is “feature complete” is complete bollocks. It won’t be for many years.
Or at least Elon said it would be by the end of last year. He does, though, have a habit of talking through his fundamental orifice. Even despite the restrictions due to legislation, the suggestion that FSD is “feature complete” is complete bollocks. It won’t be for many years.
I gotta admit, reading this has encouraged me to make more use of autopilot/autosteer. I read so many posts about phantom braking and weirdness that it concerns me, but I think for me it might just be a case of needing to set the follow distance to be closer and put a bit more trust in the technology. I do tend to treat it like it is an inexperienced driver when in fact it has generally better lane placement than me (I'm often closer to the centre line on two way roads.)
Part of it is probably that I worry that it will suddenly get something wrong so I will need to take over and I might panic about that and foul up, but then again it's surely just a case of needing to speed up/slow down/steer so I should probably just have confidence in being able to deal with any erroneous autopilot control.
12Pack
Member
Disappointing to hear about M3 AP. We didn’t use it on our test drive. Have been considering one for the wife. Sounds a lot worse then the AP2 we have on the MS, which in turn is still not as solid as the AP1 in the car it replaced. We did find the NVH a lot worse than the MS - no surprise. But it was also noticeably worse than the Mini Electric we drove on the same day, which we are buying for the offspring. We may end getting one for the wife as well (she doesn’t really need the range).
So am I, depending on on-coming traffic. Just in case sheep, poacher or naked lady bolts out of hedgerow. I'm still waiting for the last one...
From your post, you at least, seem to be doing a good job of not tolerating ...
You got that right!
I started reading this forum long before anyone had taken a delivery of an M3 in this country. The hype was sometimes OTT. This was going to be the best, most technically advanced wonder car in the history of automotive engineering. In many ways reality fell far short of the hype, as people soon began to find out. A £50K car with naff windscreen wipers?
Rustybkts
Member
I have used AP on a long motorway drive and found it pretty relaxing, certainly better than the old basic cruise control previous cars had that were not active regarding keeping a safe distance from the cars in front.
Like others I have noticed that when overtaking, the system often reduces the accelerator pedal (I don't think it brakes) quite violently for a second as you move to overtake.
Not sure what the radar is sensing but I'm sure it will be sorted as it happens so often.
Like others I have noticed that when overtaking, the system often reduces the accelerator pedal (I don't think it brakes) quite violently for a second as you move to overtake.
Not sure what the radar is sensing but I'm sure it will be sorted as it happens so often.
Rustybkts
Member
Nope, cruise still operates, only AP shuts down as it picks up again to the original speed as though nothing happened.
Yes, I think that's the point though .. hype. I suppose I must be long enough in the tooth to always take hype with a massive dose of salt! When I put my money down in 2016 it was to support a company that was aiming high, towards a future that appealed to me. The reality required a shift from ideas and dreams into the hard world of mass manufacturing. I'm sure Elon Musk really meant it when he said that developing the manufacturing was a far harder job than designing the car!
There are loads of issues to resolve and improve but I do sometimes reflect on the great classic cars over the years ... and when you look into the reality, having removed our rose tinted spectacles, they all had very significant flaws. No excuses for Tesla but I would have been amazed if the M3 had turned out to have no failings! The really encouraging thing about the nature of the existing problems is that they are all easy to identify and, ultimately, to resolve. The basic design and drive-train is fantastic and the driving experience (without FSD) is an absolute joy. Better that they "just" have to sort out a bunch of software issues, continue to improve such things as the wipers, quality control and customer service rather than seriously having to go back to the drawing board with the car ... because at heart, in my opinion, the car is an absolute cracker!
Rustybkts
Member
Being a little lazy I tend to just press the indicator stalk a second for the three flashes and might just be confusing the software a bit.
Will try it out as being a bloke, I didn't read that bit in the manual.
Worst for me is this "steering correction" alarm that the latest software has added. Makes me jump and even "Joes Mode" won't mute it.
Yes, I agree that innovation will almost certainly go hand in hand with teething problems, especially for early adopters, and I don’t have a problem with that. My gripe is about the mundane rather than the innovative. Adaptive headlights and automatic wipers are hardly innovative but Tesla’s versions leave so much to be desired. Rather than innovating to the future they are a huge step backwards.
The problems might be easy to identify but they are not, apparently, easy to resolve. Several software updates have improved things to an extent but have certainly not solved the issues. I still have and still drive my A6 and i don’t even notice such things as wipers and headlights - they just work flawlessly. And so they should.
The wipers are now much better than they were last September. But still nowhere near as good as the type you get on other cars. Not sure they can do much more with the camera based system. As for autopilot, it’s a mixed bag. Often, as others have said, it feels like a nervous Nelly learner is driving. And the frequency of steering input prompts is infuriating. But again, it has improved over the past six months, although I never feel entirely comfortable - the weird speed changes are unnerving. The adaptive cruise control is not as smooth as that on our Seat Ibiza. Finally range, I’ve been impressed with it on our SR but I do pre-heat.
I may also be guilty of letting tesla get away with idiosyncrasies and I fully agree with the annoyance of unnecessary speed changes in TACC, but most people develop a habit of hovering their foot over the accelerator to override briefly in these situations. It works OK as a stop-gap.
RE the ping-ponging between lines, lots of folk have had some issues described as this although I haven't experienced it for a while and for me it was limited to I think one software release in late 2019. However even at its worst the software driven bug here was not as bad as I read the OP's description of it, so I'd suggest the OP raise a service request. For me, I expect the car to stay centred in the lane when I'm not attempting any lane change.
Re auto lane change, if you have FSD, you can certainly make use of it but it has clear limitations that mean you have to learn how to make it useful to you. It needs a lot of time to make the move, which isn't great and only really works in very light traffic in my view, but the consensus seems to be we hope and expect it'll improve as regulations relax. Still, I use it quite a lot.
Whilst I've had a couple of instances of phantom braking, I think it was dark to light road surface and a fallen tree very close to the side of the road. AP did save me from what could have been a nasty on Sunday on the A9 driving from Aviemore to Perth I was looking at a complicated roadsign with lots of road closure times and dates, on AP doing 65, when a van pulled out in front of me. I would have tkaen at least a second more to react and I would have had a real job stopping before running into the back of him. But AP sensed the van pulling out whilst my eyes were still on the sign and we had slowed almost before I realised the van was there.
I do find the Autosteer does tend to hunt "ping-pong?" between the lines ever so slightly and because the steering is so instantaneously direct your body notices it more than a gradual change of direction. I don't really trust it yet. I can see how it would work on dual carrigeways and motorways, but as for local roads, I won't be using it.
The wipers were a disapointment on the way back from pickup, but are much better after the latest update.. saying that we haven't had much rain to test them.
The side cameras appear to mist up very easily and a slight condensation is visible on the rear lights after washing. Is this normal.. is there a fix?
I have the distance set to 6.. I tried 5 on Sunday and it was too close for me.. I am learning to either follow the car in front when he overtakes or signal and begin the overtake a long way back i.e. earlier than I would in an ICE car.
I've done 250 miles now but still need some more miles under my belt before I'd say I was comfortable.. looks like I won't get them for a while.
I do find the Autosteer does tend to hunt "ping-pong?" between the lines ever so slightly and because the steering is so instantaneously direct your body notices it more than a gradual change of direction. I don't really trust it yet. I can see how it would work on dual carrigeways and motorways, but as for local roads, I won't be using it.
The wipers were a disapointment on the way back from pickup, but are much better after the latest update.. saying that we haven't had much rain to test them.
The side cameras appear to mist up very easily and a slight condensation is visible on the rear lights after washing. Is this normal.. is there a fix?
I have the distance set to 6.. I tried 5 on Sunday and it was too close for me.. I am learning to either follow the car in front when he overtakes or signal and begin the overtake a long way back i.e. earlier than I would in an ICE car.
I've done 250 miles now but still need some more miles under my belt before I'd say I was comfortable.. looks like I won't get them for a while.
Rustybkts
Member
I see the side cams getting misted up very easily when it's cold. They should have allowed internal air past the area where they are or at least heated the glass like the windscreen cams. Sunlight easily blinds them as well. Hardly surprising I guess.
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