Steering Wheel Weights on ebay. Legal now?

[2101Guy]

Thought these were illegal to sell in the USA? Or something like that?

TESLA Model 3 Y S X Counterweight Ring | Autopilot FSD Automatic Assisted AP | eBay

For Tesla Model 3 S X Y Counterweight Ring Autopilot FSD Automatic Assisted AP | eBay

 

[drtimhill]

Not illegal just dangerous snd stupid

 

[Cheburashka]

Oh wow that listing is hilarious:

"Are you still using these dangerous methods to control?"

Apparently water bottle, apple, and hands on steering are equally dangerous!

 

[robnicam]

Not illegal just dangerous snd stupid

well ,why would you want a car with autopilot if you think is stupid?
I drove autopilot (with hands off device) NYC TO vancouver canada round trip 9,456 miles total mostly autopilot, no accidents, no hassle, ....it is actually more dangerous to "Summon" the car in the parking lot than driving hands OFF in autopilot.
Ive seen lots of "summon" accidents and it is actually a feature designed to be used this way.
autopilot hands off doesnt mean you sleep in the car, you are actively surveilling the vehicle like an airline pilot.
you pay attention to everything, don't do stupid things, be mature and responsible and you r actually ok in hands off.

 

[drtimhill]

well ,why would you want a car with autopilot if you think is stupid?
I drove autopilot (with hands off device) NYC TO vancouver canada round trip 9,456 miles total mostly autopilot, no accidents, no hassle, ....it is actually more dangerous to "Summon" the car in the parking lot than driving hands OFF in autopilot.
Ive seen lots of "summon" accidents and it is actually a feature designed to be used this way.
autopilot hands off doesnt mean you sleep in the car, you are actively surveilling the vehicle like an airline pilot.
you pay attention to everything, don't do stupid things, be mature and responsible and you r actually ok in hands off.

I think driving with a hands-off device is stupid, not autopilot. Are you seriously suggesting that summon, at like 5 mph tops, is more dangerous than the car moving at 60-70 mph with no driver attention???

And of course if you are "actively surveilling .. like an airline pilot ... pay attention to everything ... " then that's fine. But how many people can claim to REALLY be doing that? And if you are being so attentive, what's the big deal with keeping a hand on the steering wheel as well?

 

[jayely1]

LOL, poor argument Robincam...

 

[95gator]

Before I post this and get flamed by then steering wheel police, I want to make one thing understood.

I am a new owner of a Tesla 3 and find the autopilot/FSD steering wheel (making sure you’re there functionality laughably bad and more dangerous than if I had a tight grip on the wheel at 10/2 o’clock.

In don’t have a clue why Tesla doesn’t just install a sensor to show you have your hands on the wheel. After the SC told me I should “wiggle the wheel” to let it know I was there, I’ll bets were off. Wiggling the wheel at 65-70mph is a laughably dangerous and stupid suggestion and counterintuitive to anything safe.

Love this car more than any I’ve ever owned but it does some weird stuff and not having your hands on the wheel tightly being unrecognized tops the list so this is not a way for me to not keep my hands on the wheel, it’s a method to keep me from having to do functions that are either annoying as hell (hitting the volume every 26 seconds) or slightly turning pressure on the wheel. Any this is not seen as comically goofy by all is beyond me.

So I am going to get the magnet anti nag counter weight and in the near time I’m going to use the ankle bracelet weight which keeps me safer from accidentally disengaging or wanting to jump out of the car every 6 seconds.

I am using a bracelet weight that is small and weighs 1.2lbs and it works perfectly. I do always have my hands on the wheel but that’s because I want to. It’s not necessary. This weight convinces the Tesla that my hands are on the wheel or not, I’ve checked both in the city and on the highway.

I do not advise touch-less driving until Tesla achieves autonomy 5 and even then you unfortunately can’t count on others.

It has made driving my Tesla more fun than any one accessory and it was $12. PM me if you want to know what I got and wrapping it around any part of the wheel works.

I am not hiding that I sit back while it drives. In always have my hands on it for real but no more soft fake turns or shaking wheel or most importantly accidentally disengaging.

I don’t understand the current method by Tesla to make sure you’re there. I find it more dangerous than this method although it does require the honed system but that’s because of its own issues. (The car’s).

GM will just activate to make sure you’re there by a camera making sure you’re just looking forward. I now have erased the one thing that I didn’t like about the car. Only other thing is to get me the beta that my SA told me should definitely be available by then end of January.

Can someone please tell me what I paid 10k for? I could have paid a limo driver for that much for a year. I don’t get how it’s even legal.

All that said, I do love this car more than any one car I’ve ever owned and I’ve owned some dandies.

What am I actually getting for my FSD 10k package when the AP from my understanding would work the same on the highway as it does now which is perfect nearly. Ans what am I getting in the city with it? Thanks and sorry for the mini rant about the wheel security but it’s just so horrible and I know resting your hand sometimes works but it’s sometimes and it’s uncomfortable.

Cheers.

 

[MXLRplus]

My left hand is on my left thigh. My thumb and index finger put a little resistance on the wheel. My eyes are in a scan pattern, front - L - Rr - R - dash - front.

The biggest software AP/FSD problem is with phantom braking and indecisiveness at 1:2 splits. Sometimes the car goes nuts on NOA. Biggest physical problem is road debris and the AP's lack of long distance vision.
After 15k miles of all kinds of driving out west including light snow, if somebody claims AP in safe enough to be 100% hands free, I will call them a liar to their face.

Sadly, bad drivers kill strangers instead of just themselves. So driving like a boob is like firing a gun into the air. You might get away with it for years, but your luck will run out, and it's not the bad driver who gets punished, it's their victims.

 

[95gator]

My left hand is on my left thigh. My thumb and index finger put a little resistance on the wheel. My eyes are in a scan pattern, front - L - Rr - R - dash - front.

The biggest software AP/FSD problem is with phantom braking and indecisiveness at 1:2 splits. Sometimes the car goes nuts on NOA. Biggest physical problem is road debris and the AP's lack of long distance vision.
After 15k miles of all kinds of driving out west including light snow, if somebody claims AP in safe enough to be 100% hands free, I will call them a liar to their face.

Sadly, bad drivers kill strangers instead of just themselves. So driving like a boob is like firing a gun into the air. You might get away with it for years, but your luck will run out, and it's not the bad driver who gets punished, it's their victims.

I agree in all but....

Read my post brother.. my hands are always on the wheel, just now it doesn’t disengage when it is. I don’t trust this car at all to drive itself without me and moreover, I live in LA, the magnet to bad drivers. I need to be ready to avoid someone turning into me at all times. The problem is you can disengage the warning with a volume test or slowly acting like you want to turn by rolling your hands around the wheel (my formerly preferred method), and the putting torque on it by resting your hands is almost inarguably more dangerous than not having your hands gripped around the wheel.

When everyone else has a computer alerting them to my presence and driving on the streets is privilege only going to people who have such protection (15-20 years from now).

What I am talking about us using the weight to be able to put my hands around the wheel like a normal driver and let the car do it’s thing which it does well, and stop having to turn the volume around (might as well just have a deducted •I’m here button” or pretend I want to turn every 26 seconds. It’s mind bitingly stupid for such a smart car so now I’m free to drive normally while I eat my food on my Tesla tray and pillow for light naps. Obviously I’m kidding.

This is about safe driving by way of giving me back full control rather than fixing the goofy I’m here methods. If they only want you to touch the volume, which is also goofy, than they might as well use the cabin camera like the GM Cruise technology which apparently just wants you to know you’re looking at the road.

If you don’t have your hands on the wheel then you’re not driving safely which is why I asked people that want to know what I have to PM me so I can decide if this method that works beautifully should be given. I do plan on getting the magnet one from a company that will be putting on my clear wrap.

Speaking of which, what clear wrap should I get for the 2021 M3 MSM refresh?

cheers

 

[drtimhill]

In don’t have a clue why Tesla doesn’t just install a sensor to show you have your hands on the wheel. After the SC told me I should “wiggle the wheel” to let it know I was there, I’ll bets were off. Wiggling the wheel at 65-70mph is a laughably dangerous and stupid suggestion and counterintuitive to anything safe.

You dont "wiggle" the wheel to the point where any steering input occurs, you just apply a slight torque (easy to do with one hand) to tell the car that "you are there", so there is no danger whatever speed you are going. And certainly no danger compared to a defeat device, which is very dangerous indeed.

 

[95gator]

You dont "wiggle" the wheel to the point where any steering input occurs, you just apply a slight torque (easy to do with one hand) to tell the car that "you are there", so there is no danger whatever speed you are going. And certainly no danger compared to a defeat device, which is very dangerous indeed.

It’s only dangerous if I don’t have my hands on the wheel. I gave it a month to make it so I could ease in the feeling before having to make sure it stay more engaged by having to hit a button on the wheel literally every 26 seconds. To me, just keeping my hands on the wheel without doing that is safer. Ya know, like every other car I’ve ever driven.

If you use a “defeat mechanism” a wholly disingenuous term since it assumes I am doing it to defeat having to keep my hands on the wheel when I’m personally doing it for my own safety. I would never take it for a 5 hour road trip if I had to take my hands off the wheel and hit a volume button every 26 seconds and I feel zero shame in saying so. I drive defensively, with my hands on the wheel (and I often have the ‘defense mechanism) to allow me to do so while the car drives itself but with my hands literally on the wheel at 10-2 and not needing to take it off for absolutely no reason. I am not trying to play Monopoly to pass the time. My way is safer. Period.

 

[drtimhill]

It’s only dangerous if I don’t have my hands on the wheel. I gave it a month to make it so I could ease in the feeling before having to make sure it stay more engaged by having to hit a button on the wheel literally every 26 seconds. To me, just keeping my hands on the wheel without doing that is safer. Ya know, like every other car I’ve ever driven.

If you use a “defeat mechanism” a wholly disingenuous term since it assumes I am doing it to defeat having to keep my hands on the wheel when I’m personally doing it for my own safety. I would never take it for a 5 hour road trip if I had to take my hands off the wheel and hit a volume button every 26 seconds and I feel zero shame in saying so. I drive defensively, with my hands on the wheel (and I often have the ‘defense mechanism) to allow me to do so while the car drives itself but with my hands literally on the wheel at 10-2 and not needing to take it off for absolutely no reason. I am not trying to play Monopoly to pass the time. My way is safer. Period.

I fail to understand this logic. You want to keep your hands on the wheel to be safe. Agreed. But you have to take your hand OFF the wheel to click the volume button. um ..ok. And you have to do that because you dont want to wiggle the wheel. er .. what?

 

[95gator]

I fail to understand this logic. You want to keep your hands on the wheel to be safe. Agreed. But you have to take your hand OFF the wheel to click the volume button. um ..ok. And you have to do that because you dont want to wiggle the wheel. er .. what?

What part don’t you understand. It’s not really that difficult.

I do in fact always keep my hands on the wheel, mainly because I don’t trust the car. The best that I can come with to make it do the proper torque is to sort of slide my hands across the wheel without actually putting any real torque on the wheel.

Using the wiggle technique which has been offered to me by Tesla SC employees (quite unbelievably) will often disengage the AP which to me is more dangerous than doing that move.

Taking my hands off the wheel to tune the volume or click the AP button, or to change the max speed which all will turn off the “nag” are all just forms of getting around the nag by ironically taking my hands off the wheel to do an unnecessary move like pretend I’m needing torque on the wheel or changing the volume (a calculated distraction which is unnecessary).

Tesla really can’t figure out a way to just say figure out that “his hands are on the wheel and ready to take over if need be” without the much more distractions methods then just keeping my friggen hands on the wheel and keeping my eyes on the road.

Tell me what part you are lacking to understand and I’ll try and draw a picture or something. This isn’t rocked science that I am explaining so I must be saying it wrong. I don’t know how people can disagree as 2 have.

That like disagreeing with what I think. You can disagree that you don’t think the same but you can’t disagree with what I think because I think it.

It’s like if you’re said “I don’t like this movie” and someone else saying “I disagree, you like that movie” which is a wholly disagree with “I disagree, I like that movie”.

If you think it makes more sense to have to roll the volume on one of the knobs, or do that perfect amount of torque, or figure out how to keep your hand and elbow rested just the right amount to keep it “fooled” why am I supposed to agree with you. I strongly disagree than just keeping your damn hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road like every other car we’ve had and I’ve had two Volts, and one hydrogen clarity (which by the way, is a million times better than any battery and wish there was more of a push towards hydrogen fuel cell technology, but I digress) and also, paying $10k for AWFUL self parking (and I’ve had self parking for a decade) and I do like the changing lanes and the driving has no match that I’ve owned but the “fooling the system” for the “nag” is not determined to be right or wrong to me because of what Tesla allows doesn’t make one right over the other. I understand that there are people that want to defeat the “nag” so they don’t have to keep their hands on the wheel but I can’t be less that person. I don’t trust this car to drive me without my hands placed dead on the wheel is just wrong.

So this time I overexplained so I hope you understand and if you don’t, I am not sure how else to explain.

Summary: I want to keep my hands on the wheel without doing redic extra moves that make no sense like pretending to turn, or changing the volume. These are just distractions. Hands on wheel looking forward is how you drive. I thought this was common knowledge.

 

[95gator]

You dont "wiggle" the wheel to the point where any steering input occurs, you just apply a slight torque (easy to do with one hand) to tell the car that "you are there", so there is no danger whatever speed you are going. And certainly no danger compared to a defeat device, which is very dangerous indeed.

Explain to me why a “defeat device” is dangerous if you have your hands on the wheel? You can’t because it doesn’t. The defeat device used by people who have nefarious intentions are a different thing and it’s goofy to say otherwise and they will anyway what matters anyway. I am not trying to defeat the car, I am trying to drive safely and being disrupted every 26 seconds is just goofy.

 

[Needsdecaf]

Gator, I think the defeat device is stupid, and could interfere with your ability to control the car when you are driving with the system off. It also encourages you to stop paying attention, despite your statements that you are. It encourages complacency.

Having said that, I agree that Tesla's torque sensor is absolutely abysmal. SO many times I will literally have one or both hands on the wheel, for some time, only to have the car ask me to put my hands on the wheel. And as you said, sometimes it takes a good yank on the wheel to get it to acknowledge the fact that my hands are there. I can feel the car move at times when I'm trying to pull the wheel to get it to acknowledge me. I've stopped doing that and just flick one of the roller switches up and down, either volume or set speed. You can do it fast enough that the car, or you, won't notice. But it will acknowledge you have hands on.

Capacitive sensor or eye tracking much more effective solutions.

 

[pkitch]

I don't know why there is so much tribulation with the 'apply slight torque' approach. I don't think I have ever unintentionally disengaged it. I generally put my left hand on the bottom of the wheel at around 7 o'clock position and the weight of my hand generates enough resistance to the small adjustments the wheel is making I don't get the pop up reminder. If I do, I apply a little torque/movement as suggested and that's it.

Now, I would not say I like this approach, but understand why currently the need for a reminder exists.

 

[Needsdecaf]

I don't know why there is so much tribulation with the 'apply slight torque' approach. I don't think I have ever unintentionally disengaged it. I generally put my left hand on the bottom of the wheel at around 7 o'clock position and the weight of my hand generates enough resistance to the small adjustments the wheel is making I don't get the pop up reminder. If I do, I apply a little torque/movement as suggested and that's it.

Now, I would not say I like this approach, but understand why currently the need for a reminder exists.

Perhaps there is a variance between cars at how sensitive the system is? I'm not a small guy, you'd think me hanging my hand at about 7:30 on the wheel would be enough to make sure the car knows I have control. But it doesn't.

 

[drtimhill]

Explain to me why a “defeat device” is dangerous if you have your hands on the wheel? You can’t because it doesn’t. The defeat device used by people who have nefarious intentions are a different thing and it’s goofy to say otherwise and they will anyway what matters anyway. I am not trying to defeat the car, I am trying to drive safely and being disrupted every 26 seconds is just goofy.

Im wondering if you may have a torque sensor issue or you have been taught the wrong thing for my car there are three bands if torque and they are quite distinct. The usual slight give in the wheel, then the pull needed to tell the car you are there, then a much harder pull to take control. A wiggle isnt needed its just one single tug with enough to let the car know you are there. I’ve never had it accidentally disengage cause i tug too hard, which makes me wonder if it needs adjusting on your car?

 

[pkitch]

Perhaps there is a variance between cars at how sensitive the system is? I'm not a small guy, you'd think me hanging my hand at about 7:30 on the wheel would be enough to make sure the car knows I have control. But it doesn't.

Definitely could be. Might be worth a test drive in another vehicle to see. Good luck hope you get resolved.

 

[95gator]

Perhaps there is a variance between cars at how sensitive the system is? I'm not a small guy, you'd think me hanging my hand at about 7:30 on the wheel would be enough to make sure the car knows I have control. But it doesn't.

Was going to suggest the same. The resting hand technique doesn’t seem to work for me neither but I didn’t want to say it to continue to be flamed.

I have resorted to doing exactly what I say. The car could call itself autonomy 4 and I still wouldn’t trust it for over a year before removing my hands so complacency is not an issue. I am sure there is a level of torque they can control through software and a level they can’t and if that’s true I’m pretty sure the level would go up not down on torque.

Resting my hand a) and probably most importantly is not how I want to drive and b) doesn’t work.

The only method I find works are 2 methods 1) sort of sliding my hands around the wheel pretending to turn but without enough pressure to do so (goofy and dangerous), or 2) change volume when told (goofy and dangerous). Orrrrr I can just drive the car. I’ll go with the 3rd.