Tesla rolling out new safety features

[diplomat33]

Tesla is rolling out Lane Departure Avoidance and Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance in OTA updates:

Lane Departure Avoidance
Lane Departure Avoidance lets a driver elect to have corrective steering applied in order to keep them in their intended lane. When the feature is in use and a driver is departing a lane without their turn signal on, the car will also check to see whether a driver’s hands are on the wheel. If a driver’s hands are not detected on the wheel, the driver will receive a series of hands-on reminders and alerts, similar to the ones that our cars provide to customers who use Autopilot. If a drivers’ hands are repeatedly not detected on the wheel when Traffic Aware Cruise Control is in use, their car will gradually slow down to 15 miles below the speed limit or below the car’s set speed, and turn its hazard lights on.

This feature can be turned on or off, and works at speeds between 25 and 90 mph. It is an extension of Lane Departure Warning, which already warns drivers through a steering wheel vibration if they begin to drift out of their lane without their turn signal engaged.

Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance
Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance is designed to steer a Tesla vehicle back into the driving lane if our system detects that it is departing its lane and there could be a collision, or if the car is close to the edge of the road. This feature will automatically be enabled at the beginning of every drive, but can be turned off for a single drive by going to the Autopilot Controls menu.
More Advanced Safety for Tesla Owners

 

[akidesir]

Thank you Elon!

 

[Jacobly]

Just got the update notification and installing it now!

 

[PoitNarf]

Impressive, this will definitely end up saving a few lives.

 

[TheLocNar]

Just got the update notification and installing it now!

You're most likely getting 12.1.2 now, like everyone else. This update doesn't have these features. It'll all be in a future firmware.

 

[ecarfan]

If only all cars had these features. Lives would be saved, accidents avoided. Someday...

 

[Eno Deb]

Not sure I like that the second feature cannot be disabled permanently. What happens if I want to drive over the edge of the road e.g. to avoid a worse accident? I sure hope I won't have to fight my own car in an already bad situation ...

 

[ngogas]

I think it only apply when there is a car next to you or a wall. Other then that I’m sure they will allow you to do an emergency maneuver.

 

[ngogas]

Lane departure avoidance, does this mean if you move over to the lane and there is a car there it will alert you and the car will intervene by moving the car back?

 

[ClarkJoeKent]

Not sure I like that the second feature cannot be disabled permanently. What happens if I want to drive over the edge of the road e.g. to avoid a worse accident? I sure hope I won't have to fight my own car in an already bad situation ...

Turn signal and you’re golden.

 

[Eno Deb]

I think it only apply when there is a car next to you or a wall. Other then that I’m sure they will allow you to do an emergency maneuver.

It says it will try to steer you back when it thinks you are "close to the edge of the road" ...

I don't have confidence that the system will always be reliable and know better than me. A few months ago another nanny feature, the "obstacle aware acceleration", almost got me into an accident because the car suddenly didn't want to accelerate anymore even though I was not about to hit anything.

 

[Eno Deb]

Turn signal and you’re golden.

Uhm, when e.g. a kid or a deer pops up in front of you, you'll probably not set the blinker before you swerve over the edge of the road to avoid a crash.

 

[Leafdriver333]

Uhm, when e.g. a kid or a deer pops up in front of you, you'll probably not set the blinker before you swerve over the edge of the road to avoid a crash.

camera and sensors should detect deer...

 

[ngogas]

I’m still confused on emergency lane departure avoidance and lane departure avoidance. They both seem to intervene to correct the steering. Lane departure avoidance only seem to does the chime and visual alert. The wording is confusing.

 

[Eno Deb]

camera and sensors should detect deer...

One would hope so, but so far Tesla's system has been terrible in detecting stationary obstacles.

 

[Leafdriver333]

One would hope so, but so far Tesla's system has been terrible in detecting stationary obstacles.

Oh, that reminds me..
Today, there was a parked pickup truck on the shoulder in a narrow road and my collision warning came on to warn me.
I have it set on "Early" and I was pleasantly surprised..

 

[JFChenger]

 

[Garlan Garner]

I have positive and negative feelings about this.

Positive - I believe the Tesla fleet is getting more and more safe everyday. I love being apart of a family such as this.

Negative - Its amazing how many new features are rolling out for "free" to what looks like something that would be a part of a paid package.

Oh well. I can get over the negative by just focusing on the positive at this point.

Good for Tesla.

 

[Eno Deb]

Oh, that reminds me..
Today, there was a parked pickup truck on the shoulder in a narrow road and my collision warning came on to warn me.
I have it set on "Early" and I was pleasantly surprised..

Good for you, but there are also things like this:

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Love - That Tesla is actively working on safety of manual driving (or with TACC) despite the fact that AP is compared directly to crash statistics of manual driving in a Tesla. So this will reduce the safety margin of AP over manual driving in a Tesla by making manual driving more safe. So that's pretty cool.

Like - That the first feature can be permanently disabled.

Dislike - That the Emergency lane departure avoidance can't be turned off permanently. It's simply not something I wish to have my car do. The human driver should be allowed to do what's necessary to avoid or mitigate an accident. I'll have to test it, but hopefully it gets overridden easily by steering torque.