The never ending road trip

[Signed]

My wife and I are on what I'm calling the never ending road trip. We're exploring the USA and as my dad used to say, following the hood ornament. (except I can't even see the hood from the drivers seat lol) This is our second Tesla road trip and I keep learning new things everyday, so come along and laugh with me at all of my silly mistakes. Our car is a 2022 Model Y long range, without FSD that we got in January after what was the longest 5 month wait of my life. I feel for those of you that will be waiting a lot longer than that.

On our first shake down road trip in February the phantom braking was soo, ssoooooo, sooooooooo terrible that I quit using cruise control and AP altogether. I knew there have been a lot of software updates, but it wasn't until the past couple of days before I dared try AP and cruise control. And, it's better? Maybe? I made a service request with Tesla after the first trip and they said basically "working normally." But, when it happens press the right scroll wheel and say "report bug." I don't know what "report bug" does behind the scenes but from the driver's seat it seems to be better. At first it was like the last trip, some phantom would jump in front of the car and it would panic brake. Now I push the button, say the magic words, report bug. The first day there were 5 or 6 ghosts out there on the Texas roads. The next day 3 or 4, next day 2 or 3, and today only 1.

So with panic braking down to the "I'm mostly harmless to other drivers level" I've been learning how to use AP. Seems simple enough, push down on the lever twice, keep some pressure on the wheel, pay attention, and enjoy not having to keep the car centered in the lane. This is a GREAT feature especially because the wind in Texas always seems to be coming from the side and wants to blow the car all over the road. But for reasons that I don't quite understand I keep getting put into Tesla jail and AP won't work anymore. Three times today BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!! It always seems to happen when passing other traffic and AP has been turned off to change lanes. I tell my wife, as I take an exit in the middle of nowhere Texas, that I have to apologize to the car for being an idiot by stopping and putting it in park.

Tomorrow there's not much driving as we explore San Antonio, the Alamo, River walk, Tea garden? (wife's thing) and I'm sure eating some Texas barbecue.

 

[GtiMart]

Ah, Texas barbecue, you're lucky. Well, any good US barbecue anyway... I live too far away

I don't understand why you would end up in AP jail. If you constantly apply pressure to the steering wheel, there should be no warning. If there is one, as long as you react and touch the wheel at the first notification, you shouldn't end up in jail... Pay attention to the screen showing some blinking blue area before it starts beeping.

 

[Signed]

Ah, Texas barbecue, you're lucky. Well, any good US barbecue anyway... I live too far away

I don't understand why you would end up in AP jail. If you constantly apply pressure to the steering wheel, there should be no warning. If there is one, as long as you react and touch the wheel at the first notification, you shouldn't end up in jail... Pay attention to the screen showing some blinking blue area before it starts beeping.

I don't know why I'm being put in AP jail either, especially since AP is turned off when I change lanes to pass. One of my many criticisms of the Tesla touch screen is error messages are displayed and removed too quickly. When passing my attention is 110% on the cars around me. The touch panel's beeping is just an unwelcome distraction that I have no time to deal with at that moment. An improvement would be to leave the error message up until dismissed, or maybe a log of error messages. That way I could figure out what required an apology to the car to stop it from pouting and allow AP to work again.

Anyway, today was explore San Antonio day. It's a pretty city and I quite like it. It is a bit tourist trappy around the Alamo, just like around every tourist attraction in every city I've ever been to. Parking was $40 And the Tesla's turn by turn directions are pretty awful compared to google or apple maps. I've started to use apple maps more and more for driving directions because they are much more helpful. The Tesla will wait until the last moment before giving directions and I've missed more than one turn because of it. The iPhone is much better with timely lane and turn guidance. Baring better directions from Tesla, my wish was that I could display the iPhone's map on the Tesla's touch screen. I've read people grousing that Tesla doesn't support Apple Car Play, but frankly I don't even know what that is and if that would solve the problem.

Tomorrow we head out to Boca Chica to see the SpaceX Star Base.

 

[swaltner]

Since you mentioned being put into AP jail, even though you didn't have AP active at the time, and that not making sense, have your wife record a video or take a picture with her cell phone of the alert that is shown on the display to see if we can help you determine why you're being put in the "timeout corner".

The only times I have been put in jail were: ignoring the incessant beeps and flashes on the screen to hold the wheel, just to see what it actually does; one time passing a vehicle on the Interstate with autosteer enabled and hitting 90 mph by pressing the accelerator to pass the vehicle faster than my cruise control speed was set to because someone was rapidly approaching from behind at 100+ mph.

Those are the only two reasons I have actually been put in timeout and needed to put the vehicle in park to restore AP functions. Temporary situations like limited visibility (sunrise/sunset sunlight shining directly in either the front camera or repeater cameras and also heavy rain or even light rain with a crosswind) and the most common reason of poor lane markings.

 

[Signed]

OK, so I've figured out why I'm getting put into AP jail. Picture this, driving along with AP and cruise control active and there is a car in the slow lane going 1 mph slower than me. I personally hate people that pass at 1 mph, so I will speed up to get the pass over with as quickly as is safe. What I've been doing is driving the same way as I've always driven. Speed up in the slow lane, signal, change lane, pass, signal again, gradually return to the speed I was going before. The speed up in the slow lane part is what's freaking the car out. I get inside of the following distance from the car in front while accelerating and the cruise control has a panic attack. Meanwhile I'm trying to safely pass and not willing to take my eyes off the road to read the screen. I like to keep the following distance set to the maximum of 7 cars. When I dropped it to 2 car lengths it worked better. The real answer is to change my driving technique to match more closely what the Tesla needs.

Today I found some used rockets for sale. My yard isn't big enough, but for the right house they would make an awesome decoration.

 

[bradtem]

If you are using Autopilot and you press down the accelerator to go more than 80mph, your car will get upset, abort Autopilot and deny you Autopilot for the rest of the trip. This seems to be a thing when your car is using the vision only "upgrade" either because you took FSD, or because your car is recent and does not have the radar in it.

 

[Signed]

If you are using Autopilot and you press down the accelerator to go more than 80mph, your car will get upset, abort Autopilot and deny you Autopilot for the rest of the trip. This seems to be a thing when your car is using the vision only "upgrade" either because you took FSD, or because your car is recent and does not have the radar in it.

That is definitely the problem. The local speed limit is 80 mph. So to pass someone going 79 mph requires me to go more than 80 mph. My car is a 2022 with the vision "upgrade". It also likes to panic brake for phantoms and ghosts. Today there were 3 PANIC! braking episodes in 300 miles of driving. Better than the 40 events in the same distance back in February, but still plenty of room for improvement.

 

[swaltner]

New Tesla increases top speed of Autopilot with ‘Tesla Vision’ to 85 mph article on Electrec is relevant to this discussion. Bumping the speed limit from 80 to 85, which should be helpful.

 

[LoneStarEve]

I never knew you could press the right wheel and “report bug”.
The phantom braking was so bad in our recent trip that I stopped using it unless there was no-one behind me for like a mile…
Not overpasses, shadows, low sun or anything predictable. It would jam on the brakes for seemingly nothing. I noticed heat haze (some way in the distance) might be a cause, sometimes, and it’s inability to see over even small hill/ruse crests maybe another, but it’s not consistent. It also went through a phase of freaking out over small “bridges” over streams in the interstate. And then sometimes not…

 

[Lindenwood]

I never knew you could press the right wheel and “report bug”.
The phantom braking was so bad in our recent trip that I stopped using it unless there was no-one behind me for like a mile…
Not overpasses, shadows, low sun or anything predictable. It would jam on the brakes for seemingly nothing. I noticed heat haze (some way in the distance) might be a cause, sometimes, and it’s inability to see over even small hill/ruse crests maybe another, but it’s not consistent. It also went through a phase of freaking out over small “bridges” over streams in the interstate. And then sometimes not…

I started noticing the same things where it would act like a small crest in the road was me driving straight off a cliff. But, it doesnt seem too bad anymore.

I have been in autopilot jail a few times. Once was accelerating to pass before I clicked off autopilot. Exceeded 80 and the car put me in timeout. The other two times were when I wasn’t maintaining enough pressure on the wheel, and I didn’t realize that wiggling the wheel was not actually what it wanted. So, I’d see the blue flashing light and try wiggling the wheel, and I’d either overpower the autopilot and get banned, or it wouldn’t register my wiggles and think I wasn’t paying attention.

 

[LoneStarEve]

I started noticing the same things where it would act like a small crest in the road was me driving straight off a cliff. But, it doesnt seem too bad anymore.

I have been in autopilot jail a few times. Once was accelerating to pass before I clicked off autopilot. Exceeded 80 and the car put me in timeout. The other two times were when I wasn’t maintaining enough pressure on the wheel, and I didn’t realize that wiggling the wheel was not actually what it wanted. So, I’d see the blue flashing light and try wiggling the wheel, and I’d either overpower the autopilot and get banned, or it wouldn’t register my wiggles and think I wasn’t paying attention.

I got caught out twice by the accelerating past 80mph thing. It freaks out and there is no way to recover from it and avoid jail...