Due to matters beyond my control, its been my first time in a moving Model 3 since 2nd April. Last time I was in the car it had updated to 2020.8.3 the day before, the release with traffic lights.
There have been 2 updates since then, so my glimpse of how things have moved on through 2020.8.3, 2020.12.11.2 and 2020.16.2.1 has been interesting. I mention 2020.8.3 as new to me since a brief dash for click and collect and round the block test after changing winter shoes out hardly counted other than, "yay, traffic lights".
Stop lines
Impressed and disapointed at the same time. I must admit I am rather confused as to what it was using to signal as a stop line. On quite a few lines, they were in completely the wrong place. At end of our road we would have ended up in the cross road, on others, they seem to get picked up for pedestrian crossings several yards before the junction. Are there meant to be stop lines for pedestrian crossings? I guess so, but at the time, really not expecting the line to be where it was. At this point in time, I'm not convinced that all, if any stop lines are visually detected - most likely to come from an outdated map.
Speed limits
A topic of much debate. Does the car read speed limits. Well, as I was not driving, we were not on TACC or AP, but as a passenger, I was able to concentrate on the TACC speed limit indicator. As expected, TACC speed limit changed as you went into new limits. But no evidence that this is anything other than GPS, Plenty of other speed signs that it could have updated for, but it didn't nor was it until a distance past the limit change. Would the car have automatically changed for these, no idea.
However, a new behaviour was observed when driving along a windy section of road early on in the journey. Heading East if anyone interested . Normally 45-50 in most conditions in most cars even though there is a 40 advisory. We were following a vehicle doing 35-40, so below the advisory and lo and behold, the TACC speed limit was adjusting itself in front of my eyes in the 36-38mph range. I had never witnessed that before on that stretch of road. We wondered if it was because the car in front was being used as our limit, so we sped up a bit. We don't think so and as we cleared the bends, the TACC speed went back to the 50 limit, even though the car in front kept at the slower speed. So my thought was that it was reading the bends so I kept an eye out at several other places with curves ideally taken below speed limit. But nothing. My current thought is that the car was following 'fleet speed', and fleet speed hints are not particularly wide spread.
Road Markings
I am particularly impressed by these, especially one where we had stopped and it was indicating one on the road immediately behind us. Rear camera view confirmed its presence. However, still some work to go. I noticed a small percentage of speed humps/pin cushions had forward arrows on. And quite a few diamond markings that I have no explanation for. I did however see a number of occurrences of direction arrows being associated to the wrong lane.
Cones, street furniture and joggers with a death wish
The changes are well documented and continue to impress. I think I had seen cones on their side before, but a new one was a couple of blue 'NHS' cones that were picked up, albeit coloured orange. A couple of phone cabinets picked up as bins, but all in all, it shows how much the cameras can see even if they are not currently recognised correctly. Nice to see many poles showing up as poles not cones. And a jogger who crossed in front of us was well defined and moving appropriately.
Other observations
I thought that some of the other car visualisations were smoother. Some changing of vehicle shapes as they passed, but otherwise there seemed to be progress. I was watching one visualised vehicle drift over its line, but when I looked up, it was right on the line, so that subtlety seemed to have been picked up.
Headlights. Possibly something on them staying on for a bit longer as remarked elsewhere, but it was rather overcast and spitting with rain at times. Windscreen wipers didn't wipe though.
Must fly...
There have been 2 updates since then, so my glimpse of how things have moved on through 2020.8.3, 2020.12.11.2 and 2020.16.2.1 has been interesting. I mention 2020.8.3 as new to me since a brief dash for click and collect and round the block test after changing winter shoes out hardly counted other than, "yay, traffic lights".
Stop lines
Impressed and disapointed at the same time. I must admit I am rather confused as to what it was using to signal as a stop line. On quite a few lines, they were in completely the wrong place. At end of our road we would have ended up in the cross road, on others, they seem to get picked up for pedestrian crossings several yards before the junction. Are there meant to be stop lines for pedestrian crossings? I guess so, but at the time, really not expecting the line to be where it was. At this point in time, I'm not convinced that all, if any stop lines are visually detected - most likely to come from an outdated map.
Speed limits
A topic of much debate. Does the car read speed limits. Well, as I was not driving, we were not on TACC or AP, but as a passenger, I was able to concentrate on the TACC speed limit indicator. As expected, TACC speed limit changed as you went into new limits. But no evidence that this is anything other than GPS, Plenty of other speed signs that it could have updated for, but it didn't nor was it until a distance past the limit change. Would the car have automatically changed for these, no idea.
However, a new behaviour was observed when driving along a windy section of road early on in the journey. Heading East if anyone interested . Normally 45-50 in most conditions in most cars even though there is a 40 advisory. We were following a vehicle doing 35-40, so below the advisory and lo and behold, the TACC speed limit was adjusting itself in front of my eyes in the 36-38mph range. I had never witnessed that before on that stretch of road. We wondered if it was because the car in front was being used as our limit, so we sped up a bit. We don't think so and as we cleared the bends, the TACC speed went back to the 50 limit, even though the car in front kept at the slower speed. So my thought was that it was reading the bends so I kept an eye out at several other places with curves ideally taken below speed limit. But nothing. My current thought is that the car was following 'fleet speed', and fleet speed hints are not particularly wide spread.
Road Markings
I am particularly impressed by these, especially one where we had stopped and it was indicating one on the road immediately behind us. Rear camera view confirmed its presence. However, still some work to go. I noticed a small percentage of speed humps/pin cushions had forward arrows on. And quite a few diamond markings that I have no explanation for. I did however see a number of occurrences of direction arrows being associated to the wrong lane.
Cones, street furniture and joggers with a death wish
The changes are well documented and continue to impress. I think I had seen cones on their side before, but a new one was a couple of blue 'NHS' cones that were picked up, albeit coloured orange. A couple of phone cabinets picked up as bins, but all in all, it shows how much the cameras can see even if they are not currently recognised correctly. Nice to see many poles showing up as poles not cones. And a jogger who crossed in front of us was well defined and moving appropriately.
Other observations
I thought that some of the other car visualisations were smoother. Some changing of vehicle shapes as they passed, but otherwise there seemed to be progress. I was watching one visualised vehicle drift over its line, but when I looked up, it was right on the line, so that subtlety seemed to have been picked up.
Headlights. Possibly something on them staying on for a bit longer as remarked elsewhere, but it was rather overcast and spitting with rain at times. Windscreen wipers didn't wipe though.
Must fly...
