Things my wife said about Navigate on Autopilot tonight

[Dr. J]

I’ve had very different experiences, including the other night when I picked up my mom and stepdad from the airport. My stepdad sat up front and had some idea of what was going on, but my mom had no idea until we were almost home that it wasn’t just me driving (because we started talking about the car). She even asked “does yours have that?” at some point, and was amazed to learn it had been doing all the work including lane changes for the 20+ minute trip to that point.

I’ve had similar experiences with co-workers and friends. It’s only in rare cases where it aborts a lane change and abruptly shifts back, or is too aggressive about slowing to let a car merge in, that anyone ever asks “what was that?” or “was that you or the car?”

All of your non-complaining passengers are (probably unconsciously) comparing driving by Autopilot to the driving of the person in the driver's seat (you). See the above discussion. It's not necessarily a compliment (to you or to Autopilot) that they didn't notice any comparatively worse driving by Autopilot.

 

[SammichLover]

All of your non-complaining passengers are (probably unconsciously) comparing driving by Autopilot to the driving of the person in the driver's seat (you). See the above discussion. It's not necessarily a compliment (to you or to Autopilot) that they didn't notice any comparatively worse driving by Autopilot.

AND/OR the different driving environment is producing very different results. AP does not have uniform support across all driving environments. It is very common to see issues clear up for some environments before others. Because of the nature of Software 2.0 development it isn't even always clear exactly why the differences happen. It is just something that the dev team needs to fix over time.

But sure, there is probably some comparative assessment that leads to grading relative to the driver themselves. Obvious solution; Drive crappier** so they appreciate the AP more.

** Where 'crappier' might not actually be crappier, just more aggressively, pulling more Gs more often.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

So you're asking here for references for a good San Diego family law attorney?

Drive crappier** so they appreciate the AP more.

Practical solutions, a @SammichLover specialty!

 

[Dr. J]

But sure, there is probably some comparative assessment that leads to grading relative to the driver themselves. Obvious solution; Drive crappier** so they appreciate the AP more.

** Where 'crappier' might not actually be crappier, just more aggressively, pulling more Gs more often.

Which would quickly lead to divorce, at least in my case.

 

[Fernand]

It really makes you wonder if we're all driving the same car.

I suppose some of us here must be the greatest most optimal (and competitive) drivers that ever were. Personally, I've lost interest. I don't CARE whether NOA grabs a lane a bit early or late, it gets me there just fine and gives other drivers a chance.

My wife said something interesting the other day. She said "just let it do what it wants". Huh, figure that one out. Well, she IS wife #1 - that's a ranking, not a sequence #.

As to lanes, the world-wide standard in lane occupancy is to use the fast lane for passing, and don't just sit there if there are viable alternatives. Also always signal your intentions with your blinkers. A lot of California drivers do neither. I like the way Mad Max NOA does it.

@TeeEmCee "obstacle recognition which is pretty poor compared to a radar/lidar-augmented system." Like the Lidar-augmented auto-pilot in your Golf?

 

[TeeEmCee]

It really makes you wonder if we're all driving the same car.

Same everything except for wildly different perception and expectations.

@TeeEmCee "obstacle recognition which is pretty poor compared to a radar/lidar-augmented system." Like the Lidar-augmented auto-pilot in your Golf?

Yes.

 

[SammichLover]

Practical solutions, a @SammichLover specialty!

“You’ve got problems? I’ve got ideas!” (tm)

 

[SammichLover]

Which would quickly lead to divorce, at least in my case.

That’s covered in idea #1, find a good attorney.

 

[RFernatt]

Same here. Can't hardly use AP with wife in the car - too much unneeded braking, too close to the center line in curves, swerving, etc. In my driving, truck lanes and exit/on ramps start the car swaying back and forth or giving up when a new line appears in front of the car at the start of a truck lane. Some states do not use the dashed lines to create unbroken line features and that makes it worse (I'm looking at you MD). My best use case is two lane back roads with hardly any traffic. I tried NoA, but turned it off and will wait for a better implementation.

 

[shellderp]

maybe I'm just a jerky driver, but my gf finds it noticeably smoother with autopilot on

 

[blevblev]

I get the sensation the computer is acting at its limit. For example, a car will cross the road to go on a side street. It's 100 yards away, by the time my car slows down the other car is completely off the road. In other words, my car did not anticipate the actions of the other car, acted far to soon but didn't clear the other car from its decision making des[ite that car being off the road. That says to me the computer is not able to keep pace with conditions.

Agreed. I've been seeing similar posts, and I'm wondering if all of these reports of "jerkyness" are coming from owners who don't have "hardware 3" yet - my model 3 was made just before they started making new cars with hardware 3 already installed. Can anyone with hardware 3 chime in?

 

[sparkyT]

Wife: "Why is it so jerky?"
Me: "Well, it can decelerate somewhat abruptly while on freeway interchanges..."
Wife: "It's not just around corners, it's all the time on the freeway; why do you use it if it is so bad?"
Me: "Well, I'm trying it out; I think maybe you notice less if you're driving"
Wife: "Well, I notice it. It's ok to try it out if you're the only one in the car, but it isn't cool to do it otherwise"
Me: ...
Wife: If you keep trying to use it, I'm going to stop riding in this car, and we're going to have to take my car*. It's not relaxing.
Me: <disengages Autopilot for remainder of trip>
<a couple minutes pass>
Wife: It's much smoother now. Did you turn it off?
Me: Yes, I did.
Wife: I'm much more relaxed now.
My wife's car is a Chevrolet Spark EV. That tells you something.
You can't make this stuff up!
Here's hoping that Tesla discovers low pass filters soon.

I have had this exact experience. AND I agree with the 'jerky' comparison. I've had AP do some downright stupid things, usually braking when not needed, no cars in sight, nothing at all & the car slams on brakes. Maybe shadows, maybe it was tar lines across the road IDK. I want Tesla to provide a 'classic cruise control' that does not decide when to brake. I've used other vehicles that have the 'radar' option to slow down for traffic and they never did the 'emergency braking' that slings you around. Last week, a car parked on the right side of the road, a bit close but off the road and I got emergency brakes slammed on - the next day the same thing but for a car parked on the left shoulder.

 

[Accentcreate]

Wife: "Why is it so jerky?"

Me: "Well, it can decelerate somewhat abruptly while on freeway interchanges..."

Wife: "It's not just around corners, it's all the time on the freeway; why do you use it if it is so bad?"

Me: "Well, I'm trying it out; I think maybe you notice less if you're driving"

Wife: "Well, I notice it. It's ok to try it out if you're the only one in the car, but it isn't cool to do it otherwise"

Me: ...

Wife: If you keep trying to use it, I'm going to stop riding in this car, and we're going to have to take my car*. It's not relaxing.

Me: <disengages Autopilot for remainder of trip>

<a couple minutes pass>

Wife: It's much smoother now. Did you turn it off?

Me: Yes, I did.

Wife: I'm much more relaxed now.


* My wife's car is a Chevrolet Spark EV. That tells you something.

You can't make this stuff up!

Here's hoping that Tesla discovers low pass filters soon.

Ditto for me and my wife. The car doesn't even need to be in autopilot or on the motorway. It slams on the brakes whenever an oncoming car has its wheels over the centreline, ie 50% of vehicles in France and 100% of large vehicles. Of course this means the guy up your backside 75% of French drivers has to take evasive action to avoid a tail ender. I've come to the conclusion that it is much safer to drive here with all the "safety" systems switched off.

 

[sparkyT]

I use NOA for auto passing feature, but I've never let it try to do a freeway switch. Basically, AP in all forms is just a stay on the same freeway feature for me. For what I'm using it for I have only one complaint and that is that AP is very hesitant about switching lanes in any kind of traffic.

There must be variations in the AP across the fleet. My auto-steer shuts off when I use a turn signal, also, the AP tends to slow itself when I change lanes, and I have no Summon feature but from what I've read it seems it should be there. Weird.

 

[ksb467]

I get the sensation the computer is acting at its limit. For example, a car will cross the road to go on a side street. It's 100 yards away, by the time my car slows down the other car is completely off the road. In other words, my car did not anticipate the actions of the other car, acted far to soon but didn't clear the other car from its decision making des[ite that car being off the road. That says to me the computer is not able to keep pace with conditions.

Agree. Hoping HW3 will allow for improvement on this.

 

[Eastside]

The hardware is currently too slow to process all the information and seems to make abrupt corrections while driving. It also seems to drift inside the lane. The biggest issue it doesn't seem to handle what other drivers do that may not be predictable and how the Tesla reacts. This makes the ride far from smooth. Keep in mind FSD is a work in progress and is a decade ahead of all other cars on the road.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Wife: "Why is it so jerky?"

Me: "Well, it can decelerate somewhat abruptly while on freeway interchanges..."

Wife: "It's not just around corners, it's all the time on the freeway; why do you use it if it is so bad?"

Me: "Well, I'm trying it out; I think maybe you notice less if you're driving"

Wife: "Well, I notice it. It's ok to try it out if you're the only one in the car, but it isn't cool to do it otherwise"

Me: ...

Wife: If you keep trying to use it, I'm going to stop riding in this car, and we're going to have to take my car*. It's not relaxing.

Me: <disengages Autopilot for remainder of trip>

<a couple minutes pass>

Wife: It's much smoother now. Did you turn it off?

Me: Yes, I did.

Wife: I'm much more relaxed now.


* My wife's car is a Chevrolet Spark EV. That tells you something.

You can't make this stuff up!

Here's hoping that Tesla discovers low pass filters soon.

My wife says the same thing. Gets really irritated at the phantom braking. As others have reported, if she's asleep and it wakes her up it's an aggravation multiplier and I usually will disengage it for a little while to pacify her.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

The hardware is currently too slow to process all the information and seems to make abrupt corrections while driving. It also seems to drift inside the lane. The biggest issue it doesn't seem to handle what other drivers do that may not be predictable and how the Tesla reacts. This makes the ride far from smooth. Keep in mind FSD is a work in progress and is a decade ahead of all other cars on the road.

I've noticed the same. On state divided hwys the car will slam on brakes when a car passes in front of the path of my vehicle... but it doesn't slam on brakes while the car is in front, it's usually clear/out of the path of my car by the time AP brakes (way too hard)

 

[Canucken275]

I'm not even sure my wife is complaining about brake application. It's the constant jittering into light regen, etc. It's totally spastic, and yes, I've definitely heard people here complain about it before. Just a teeny bit of filtering...please? And when the car is slowing down for an interchange, it's basically unacceptable to engage regen suddenly...just ease into it...like a normal, good driver! That is definitely a solvable problem, as it has nothing to do with reacting to other vehicles - the latency issue doesn't apply. It's just a question of smoothing commanded, expected speed changes, which the car knows about in advance. So you don't have to worry about causality concerns.

I have to turn it off when it's exiting otherwise I'll get hit from behind. There's an exit on I5 North in Centralia WA that I get off at on my way home to Seattle to SC. I go from 75 to 40 in 2 seconds it seems on this incredibly long exit lane (it's at least 1/4 mile). The deceleration is absurd. I couldn't agree more, why can't it just slow nicely rather than slamming on regen and bascially bringing you to a stop on what is effectively still highway speed. It's outright dangerous and annoying.

 

[hill]

To the OP ...... welcome to the world of many of us.
.