TACC saved me this weekend. Still think it’s better on average...

[David.85D]

Was cruising toward Frederick, MD this weekend in heavy, fast moving traffic. I was in the right lane, just going with the flow of traffic. I was steering. AP1. TACC was on. I noticed the car start to slow down. Looked up and down a couple of times, didn’t see why, then the F350 dualy in front of me suddenly veers to the shoulder, revealing the vehicle in front - an eighteen wheeler with brakes locked up and tires smoking. It was a super close call for the two trucks.

Not even close for me. Never less than two car lengths at any time.

I might still lose the probability game, but think this technology is doing more good than harm...

 

[Mirlen]

For freeway driving I keep my car at 6-7. People say "OMG! People will cut in front of you!" That's not how I see it, this will allow people to change lanes, I'm still going at the speed of the car in front of me or my max speed. The safety is worth the occasional car "getting in".

I had a similar situation on a highway at night where my car slowed for apparently no reason, until I came closer to the vehicle in front of me with their lights off (!!). They were doing about 30-40 in a 55, I would have likely slammed right into them w/o TACC.

 

[Aieukl378]

It's saved me on countless occasions(42k on my car of which 41k are AP or TACC) and yeah I keep it at 7 almost always.

 

[ghostrunner]

I keep mine on 7 all the time, and it has saved my butt numerous times

 

[redy]

Was cruising toward Frederick, MD this weekend in heavy, fast moving traffic. I was in the right lane, just going with the flow of traffic. I was steering. AP1. TACC was on. I noticed the car start to slow down. Looked up and down a couple of times, didn’t see why, then the F350 dualy in front of me suddenly veers to the shoulder, revealing the vehicle in front - an eighteen wheeler with brakes locked up and tires smoking. It was a super close call for the two trucks.

Not even close for me. Never less than two car lengths at any time.

I might still lose the probability game, but think this technology is doing more good than harm...

That sounds like the youtube video where the model S braked because a vehicle 2 cars in front had braked suddenly.

Similar situation? So your Model S slowed down cuz the truck in front of the F150 in front of you had braked suddenly. Am I understanding this right? That's impressive no?

 

[GreenT]

While we're talking TACC, it's not actually the car lengths that counts, rather SECONDS behind the car in front.

How many seconds will it take you to come to complete stop if the car in front does?

Distance wise, anything less than 5 is tailgating.

My guess is that 90% of accidents are caused by tailgating.

 

[copyhacker]

For freeway driving I keep my car at 6-7. People say "OMG! People will cut in front of you!" That's not how I see it, this will allow people to change lanes, I'm still going at the speed of the car in front of me or my max speed.

Some fluid dynamics kind of experiment proved that the best way to break up a traffic jam is for *just one car* to hang back several car lengths to absorb the flow of incoming traffic. Fascinating stuff.

TRAFFIC WAVE EXPERIMENTS

 

[David.85D]

That sounds like the youtube video where the model S braked because a vehicle 2 cars in front had braked suddenly.

Similar situation? So your Model S slowed down cuz the truck in front of the F150 in front of you had braked suddenly. Am I understanding this right? That's impressive no?

That’s what I think. I had the follow distance set to 4. Did not have a clear view of the Semi until the F350 swerved to the shoulder. Not sure when he/she started to brake, but the Tesla reacted before there was any sign the F350 was slowing.

 

[GatorGuy]

Was cruising toward Frederick, MD this weekend in heavy, fast moving traffic. I was in the right lane, just going with the flow of traffic. I was steering. AP1. TACC was on. I noticed the car start to slow down. Looked up and down a couple of times, didn’t see why, then the F350 dualy in front of me suddenly veers to the shoulder, revealing the vehicle in front - an eighteen wheeler with brakes locked up and tires smoking. It was a super close call for the two trucks.

Not even close for me. Never less than two car lengths at any time.

I might still lose the probability game, but think this technology is doing more good than harm...

I've had one instance so far where TACC started breaking hard. I couldn't see because of a lifted pick up in front of me and the next thing I know the truck ran off the road to avoid running into traffic braking hard in front of him. I guess he wasn't paying attention.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

TACC / AP makes me 75% less likely to go on a murderous rampage when the $hit head in-front of me can't keep a constant (cruise) speed...

So... yea... it's saving lives already!

 

[mal_tsla]

For freeway driving I keep my car at 6-7. People say "OMG! People will cut in front of you!" That's not how I see it, this will allow people to change lanes, I'm still going at the speed of the car in front of me or my max speed. The safety is worth the occasional car "getting in".

I try to do this, but what happens around here is cars cut in front of me at 1-2 car lengths (Even though I've left plenty of gap ahead of me, they still cut RIGHT in front of me), causing my car to regen or brake to recreate the gap. This happens over and over, and basically my drive will consist of moving backwards through traffic and constantly accelerating/decelerating.

If I'm driving fully manually (no TACC), I do find it a bit more feasible to leave the gap ahead, because I don't brake when a car cuts in right in front of me, unless necessary. Usually, they speed up and open the gap on their own. But TACC doesn't want to wait those 1-3 seconds for that to happen. So, if I'm using TACC, I tend to use setting 3.