Truck Lust is a real thing...

[TrafficEng]

I can understand your reasoning, but since the instrument display shows the truck as I'm approaching it, I believe it has correctly identified the truck as a truck and I'm skeptical that the software thinks it's a lane line.

I did a 2,000mi road trip last week and have developed three theories about "truck lust".

1) Steering manually, I tend to move to the left side of the lane when passing a truck. Staying in the center of the lane, as auto-steer tries to do, feels like I'm too close to the truck.

2) I believe the truck creates a low pressure area along its side which tends to suck in the car. This is particularly true of trucks with faring under the bed to improve their aerodynamics.

3) I believe #2 is very pronounced if there is a prevailing wind on the opposite side of the truck. For example, if I was driving north, with a wind from the east (BTW, Teslawinds.com is very cool!), and I am passing on the west side, the prevailing crosswind suddenly stops as I am shielded by the truck, causing the steering bias that was correcting for the crosswind to bring the car closer to the truck.

FWIW, autosteer always seems to bring the car back to the middle of the lane, but there is an anxious moment none the less.

When the 'Truck Lust' occurs that we are talking about experiencing, the lane markers disappear in the dash display. The effects that you observe are also real, but are not the effect that we are trying to pin down here. However, by completing a 2,000 mile road trip without the sudden, unmistakable lurch towards the truck, accompanied by the loss of lane lines on the dash display, is good! It means that the event is becoming even more infrequent as the software improves. It seems also that some drivers (like me and a few others on this thread) find it relatively common, and have experienced it multiple times. Others don't experience it at all. This points to perhaps a hardware calibration element as a factor, so different cars have a different propensity for the effect?

 

[Boatguy]

When the 'Truck Lust' occurs that we are talking about experiencing, the lane markers disappear in the dash display. The effects that you observe are also real, but are not the effect that we are trying to pin down here. However, by completing a 2,000 mile road trip without the sudden, unmistakable lurch towards the truck, accompanied by the loss of lane lines on the dash display, is good! It means that the event is becoming even more infrequent as the software improves. It seems also that some drivers (like me and a few others on this thread) find it relatively common, and have experienced it multiple times. Others don't experience it at all. This points to perhaps a hardware calibration element as a factor, so different cars have a different propensity for the effect?

I didn't notice if the line markers disappeared or not, but I have noticed that when in heavy traffic and I am close to a car ahead of me the line markers will disappear, then reappear when there is more distance between my car and the car ahead.

 

[Not1Drop]

Just completed a 6,700km round trip from north of Toronto to Mile 0 in Key West three days ago. We use AP quite a lot as we're just hitting 99,500km in two years (today actually). Have never experienced truck lust prior to this trip though. I had multiple instances of truck lust happen going down 75 and back up 95 and 81, happened during the day and in the night as well. Lane markings didn't seem to make a difference, started to wonder about the colour or reflections from the shininess of the trailers we'd sometimes pass and have it happen but that didn't seem to provide a rhyme or reason either. Also wasn't consistent where suddenly the car lusted after each truck we'd pass, also didn't seem to be any more or less attracted to flat trailers or regular 53' trailers. Did notice it wouldn't happen with shorter 23 - 27 foot style Ryder\Penske trucks though.

 

[TrafficEng]

I have traded in my S90D (AP1) for a S P100D (AP2) a couple of weeks ago. Pretty interesting to see the difference in 'personality' between the two AP systems. Still not sure whether I prefer AP1 or AP2, as there are quite a few things that AP1 does that AP2 still does not do. However, this week I did the same Atlanta -Alabama drive that I reported at the beginning of this thread, and I can report no signs of 'Truck Lust' on the trip at all. I suspect it only occurs with AP1. Has anyone seen this 'Truck Lust' effect on AP2?

 

[mrElbe]

I feel neglected. No "Truck Lust" ever since AP was activated in my car in 2015. 142,000 km with lots of driving on I75, I95, I90.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Experienced truck lust for the first time today! Have had the car for almost one year and have passed thousands of trucks with no fuss. After today's experience I kinda smiled it gave me a "ahhh that's what the hell they are always going on about".

Interestingly it happened on HWY 101 in Oregon. Maybe it only happens in the states? I'm too lazy to read back through this thread to see if its happened in Canada too or elsewhere.

 

[Dax279]

Experienced truck lust for the first time today! Have had the car for almost one year and have passed thousands of trucks with no fuss. After today's experience I kinda smiled it gave me a "ahhh that's what the hell they are always going on about".

Interestingly it happened on HWY 101 in Oregon. Maybe it only happens in the states? I'm too lazy to read back through this thread to see if its happened in Canada too or elsewhere.

Happens in Canada as well!

 

[TrafficEng]

I traded in my S90D AP1 for a new S P100D with AP2. Only 4,000 miles on the new car, and so far, so good. No signs of Truck Lust on AP2 so far, and I have done a number of long trips. So maybe Truck Lust is only an AP1 phenomenon?

By the way, love the new car. AP2 is now finally at parity with AP1 I think, and the braking appropriately for corners (even if a bit nervously) is a step in the right direction.