Solid AP Improvements on v10 - Initial Impressions

[pdx_m3s]

A few AP things I’ve noticed since having v10 for a couple days (non-EAP, non-FSD HW2.5 SR+ owner here):

- When at a stop and the car in front of me starts moving, my Tesla now accelerates MUCH faster than it used to and no longer creates a large gap between us. I used to “help” AP along by slightly hitting the accelerator, but this is no longer necessary.

- Related to the above, the “rubber banding effect” in stop/go traffic is almost non existent (albeit at the expense of slightly more head movement, which I am completely OK with). This is also helped by the fact that the car now reacts to the car in front of it with less response time (e.g. if the car in front of me speeds up, the Tesla responds quicker and begins accelerating, reducing rubber-banding).

- It handles very wide lanes perfectly now. While it used to seem hesitant (wheel moving left-right-left-right etc... occasionally asking me to apply force) in certain really wide areas, it no longer does this. It’s very confident now.

- It handles areas with no lane markings and no visible forward lane markings (think wide intersection with vehicles blocking forward lane lines) MUCH better. Sometimes it didn’t handle scenarios like this too well, but so far it seems great... as if the lane lines are there.

- It handles sharp road curves better with better path prediction. It’s always been fairly good at this, but it’s better now. I have a couple ”problem corners” I test this with, and the improvement with v10 is night and day. It perfectly saw these corners, slowed down ahead of time, and executed the turns. Previously, it would abruptly take the corner as if it saw it last second and brake during the turn.

Extremely happy with the progress. This car literally just keeps getting better with age. Thanks Tesla.

 

[FunSecured]

I agree - there are a number of drivability improvements.

Smoother on the (unexpected) slowing instances (such as when cars merge into your lane) or on acceleration speed betterment (from dead stop) are amongst the ones I’m daily pleased in their being quite a bit better at.

 

[turnem]

I agree completely. I've also noticed that it appears to be considering the traffic speed in adjacent lanes when it can't see around a corner.

I'll post a video later showing this. This update has some massive AP improvements in it for sure!

 

[insaneoctane]

I've really noticed a significant maturing in how it reacts to someone cutting in front of me. If it's casual and not bumper to bumper, my Tesla now just "eases" off the accelerator. Exactly like I would. No longer new teenage driver who overreacts to the gap change and hits the brakes. Love to see these incremental changes that make it better and happen in months vs years!

 

[bedoig]

The only thing I don't like is the apparent changes in lane centering. Elon had tweeted about v10 containing some changes that would address getting unnaturally close (for a human driver) when a car is in an adjacent lane. It seems to bounce around a little too abruptly for my taste now, especially when you've got cars on both sides of you. Too much lateral movement.

 

[turnem]

I've really noticed a significant maturing in how it reacts to someone cutting in front of me. If it's casual and not bumper to bumper, my Tesla now just "eases" off the accelerator. Exactly like I would. No longer new teenage driver who overreacts to the gap change and hits the brakes. Love to see these incremental changes that make it better and happen in months vs years!

YES!! This is another huge improvement!

 

[turnem]

The only thing I don't like is the apparent changes in lane centering. Elon had tweeted about v10 containing some changes that would address getting unnaturally close (for a human driver) when a car is in an adjacent lane. It seems to bounce around a little too abruptly for my taste now, especially when you've got cars on both sides of you. Too much lateral movement.

I'm guessing folks are going to be split on this one. I personally like the adjustments they made here but I can also see how people feel the other way about it.

 

[pdx_m3s]

- It handles sharp road curves better with better path prediction. It’s always been fairly good at this, but it’s better now. I have a couple ”problem corners” I test this with, and the improvement with v10 is night and day. It perfectly saw these corners, slowed down ahead of time, and executed the turns. Previously, it would abruptly take the corner as if it saw it last second and brake during the turn.

I had the chance to test a couple even more complex "problem corners" and it appears v10 made the issue worse. It was getting steadily better under v9. The corners are sharp 90 degree turns on a narrow undivided street (double yellow left lane lines) with train tracks that run right through the middle of the corners (causing a 20 yard break or so in the lane lines mid-corner). AP sends the car into oncoming traffic. Still room for improvement.

 

[neptunesfinest]

It’s definitely better in stop and go traffic. Still a ways to go though. Still slams on the brakes when a car is making a left turn from the opposite direction.

 

[turnem]

It’s definitely better in stop and go traffic. Still a ways to go though. Still slams on the brakes when a car is making a left turn from the opposite direction.

Have you seen any improvement in this scenario? I've seen improvement. I agree with you that it still slams on the brakes a bit too hard but it is much better than it was in V9... at least in my testing.

 

[pdx_m3s]

My biggest annoyance/request is the way the system handles the car in front of you turning right onto a perpendicular street. The system does not handle these scenarios like a human does (by predicting that the car is turning and continuing at a steady speed, knowing that you won't hit the car because it will have turned by the time you reach that point in space). You can override AP with the accelerator, but sometimes it will give the audible, red vehicle warning as it thinks you're about to rear end the car.

 

[RonaldT]

A few AP things I’ve noticed since having v10 for a couple days (non-EAP, non-FSD HW2.5 SR+ owner here):

- When at a stop and the car in front of me starts moving, my Tesla now accelerates MUCH faster than it used to and no longer creates a large gap between us. I used to “help” AP along by slightly hitting the accelerator, but this is no longer necessary.

- Related to the above, the “rubber banding effect” in stop/go traffic is almost non existent (albeit at the expense of slightly more head movement, which I am completely OK with). This is also helped by the fact that the car now reacts to the car in front of it with less response time (e.g. if the car in front of me speeds up, the Tesla responds quicker and begins accelerating, reducing rubber-banding).

- It handles very wide lanes perfectly now. While it used to seem hesitant (wheel moving left-right-left-right etc... occasionally asking me to apply force) in certain really wide areas, it no longer does this. It’s very confident now.

- It handles areas with no lane markings and no visible forward lane markings (think wide intersection with vehicles blocking forward lane lines) MUCH better. Sometimes it didn’t handle scenarios like this too well, but so far it seems great... as if the lane lines are there.

- It handles sharp road curves better with better path prediction. It’s always been fairly good at this, but it’s better now. I have a couple ”problem corners” I test this with, and the improvement with v10 is night and day. It perfectly saw these corners, slowed down ahead of time, and executed the turns. Previously, it would abruptly take the corner as if it saw it last second and brake during the turn.

Extremely happy with the progress. This car literally just keeps getting better with age. Thanks Tesla.

Yes on all of the above; but the freeway lane guidance, at least when in the far left lane on I 10 and 210 in LA, places the car left of center. There are stretches where there is no shoulder and the car comes dangerously close to the concrete abutments at underpasses. Scary as hell, especially when on a right curve that starts at the abutment. Definitely needs work.

 

[mr965]

I still feel madmax mode needs to be more aggressive. I'd refer to it as Grandpa/Grandma mode.

 

[bijan]

I still feel madmax mode needs to be more aggressive. I'd refer to it as Grandpa/Grandma mode.

MadMax mode just controls how often it switches lanes in Navigate on Autopilot. With it on it seems to always want to switch lanes, but it won't be any more aggressive otherwise (that is it'll do the actual lane switch relatively slowly, and won't accelerate decelerate any faster).

 

[Actaeon]

"It handles sharp road curves better with better path prediction. It’s always been fairly good at this, but it’s better now. I have a couple ”problem corners” I test this with, and the improvement with v10 is night and day. It perfectly saw these corners, slowed down ahead of time, and executed the turns. Previously, it would abruptly take the corner as if it saw it last second and brake during the turn."​

Not my experience! My usual drive is on a well-maintained 4-lane highway posted at 70 mph with MANY curves. V. 9 took these curves with confidence, maintaining 70 mph throughout (as I would).

V. 10 is a disaster. Now every curve seems to be a problem for V. 10. On most curves, the car drops to 60 mph or slower. On one 70mph curve the M3 reduces its speed (unnecessarily) to 52 mph!! This is unacceptable and potentially dangerous-- if someone were behind me. Do you know how frustrating it is to find yourself going 52 on a road designed for 70?

There's the car and there's the tech. I love the "car," but, day by day, I'm losing all patience with the very poorly developing (and very expensive) self-driving technology. Again, one step forward and two steps back.

 

[Mahi-Mahi]

Agree with most above comments, but have people experienced the increased "jerkiness" in AP, esp for acceleration/braking? The car responds faster (good), but more extreme in many cases (bad). It leads to me turning off AP when I have a passenger due to the constant speeding up/braking intensity.

 

[ecarfan]

Last week I did the 1,500km drive from my home in California to Vancouver, Canada, on 2019.32.11.1 and it was clear to me that overall AP functionality is significantly improved on V10. I used AP for over 90% of my trip. Lane centering, freeway merging and exiting, auto lane changes, everything is better. I’ve been driving various versions of AP for years now, on multiple Teslas, so I have some experience. My spouse, who has far less time on AP, drove for part of the trip and she was very impressed with how the car performed.

 

[BMAMM]

Agree with most above comments, but have people experienced the increased "jerkiness" in AP, esp for acceleration/braking? The car responds faster (good), but more extreme in many cases (bad). It leads to me turning off AP when I have a passenger due to the constant speeding up/braking intensity.

Completely agree. Much more "jerkiness" in stop and go traffic. Not as relaxing and now I'm watching the car behind me more to make sure I'm not rear-ended.

 

[SpartyTM3]

Couple negatives changes: I'm getting more AP steering nags than I used to and along with that when coming up a small hill where the car cannot see what's beyond, I now get a sudden red warning telling me to take control of steering when 1) I already have my hand on steering and 2) it didn't used to do that at the exact same spot at any time since I bought the car at the end of March of this year.

Model 3 LR, built in 2018

 

[David L]

I agree with your experiences, although an area where it's regressed compared to the later V9 versions is auto lane change. It's now overly cautious when there's a car in the neighboring lane and takes longer to complete the lane change, because of a smaller angle of departure when changing lanes. The latter has regressed to the less desirable lane change path taken by earlier V9 versions.

I am also getting much more frequent nags. On a straight freeway, in stop and go traffic (<10mph), it nags every 10s, whereas the nag frequency on v9 was as long as 45s in a similar setting. I hope Tesla's just being cautious with a new release and plans to revert the nag frequency to something that's distance/speed-based.