Self driving sees gas station sign as a traffic light!

[deskchair]

I live in the north of England, and on the way to Newcastle on the A1 (freeway) motorway there is some services called Washington services.
The road curves round to the left when going northbound and every time I go on that road with self driving, switched on the Tesla sees the green lights at the petrol station, advertising their prices and thinks it’s a traffic light.

It’s only started to do this in the last few weeks.

I’ve also noticed self driving, seems to not like shadows caused by trees in the road as this evening did some phantom breaking as we were going into a patch of shade.

My 2017 Ford had better awareness of its surroundings than my model Y

 

[ewoodrick]

Your 2017 Ford would stop at red lights?

 

[deskchair]

My model Y stops at anything it thinks is a traffic light, even when green light showing.

The Ford didn’t have traffic signal stopping, but its whole awareness of surroundings, reaction to road traffic changes in speed regulations was better, it would slow down when speed limit reduced and speed up when it increased, it didn’t panic brake when the sun cast shadows ove the road. Its parking sensors and cameras made parking or self parking a dream. The Ford didn’t panic brake when encountering an off-ramp on the motorway.

Not sure we have the same level of self driving as in the USA, but I’m not going to pay £6800 for full self driving on the next Tesla due in December.

 

[randompixel]

My model Y stops at anything it thinks is a traffic light, even when green light showing.

The Ford didn’t have traffic signal stopping, but its whole awareness of surroundings, reaction to road traffic changes in speed regulations was better, it would slow down when speed limit reduced and speed up when it increased, it didn’t panic brake when the sun cast shadows ove the road. Its parking sensors and cameras made parking or self parking a dream. The Ford didn’t panic brake when encountering an off-ramp on the motorway.

Not sure we have the same level of self driving as in the USA, but I’m not going to pay £6800 for full self driving on the next Tesla due in December.

Sounds like you paid for the "Full Self Driving" CAPABILITY package, rather than a car that can drive itself anywhere. In the UK you don't have the beta version that's available in the USA and are limited by UNECE rules regarding self-driving vehicles.

Nobody knows when things will improve outside of the USA. It's a complex web of regulations and Tesla prioritising beta development over regular autopilot enhancements. All we do know is they've hired a bunch of people to test the beta system in the UK and Europe. Some people think next January might see some big news but it could also be years away yet from being road legal. In the interim they might be able to have some sort of "hands-off" system on the motorway like Ford have just launched.

Without FSD beta the traffic light control behaviour is to stop at all lights unless there is a lead car and it is green. However, if autopilots current primary capability is for A and M roads you don't get _that_ many traffic lights on those.

In its current state you can pay £3400 to have the car semi-automatically lane change (after confirmation and within UNECE parameters), and then an extra £3,400 to automatically stop at what it may or may not determine is the correct traffic light.

I'm sure Elon will tell you that's great value for money.

Your only saving grace is the FSD package in the states works out about £12,000, so if the capability does come soon and you plan on keeping the car then you've got yourself a bargain.