V8.0 Autopilot prevented a rear-end collision

[Wineborg]

What did you do during the time your car was beeping and as you saw the grand Cherokee ditch into the median, and as your hurtled towards the corolla? I know it happened fast, but surely you had time to respond. I don't ask to be snarky, I'm just curious whether or not you took over, or if you let the car perform on its own.

I've gotten the "beep beep beep" of an imminent collision before when not paying attention in stop and go traffic, and man, I was laying on that brake pedal immediately. I'm curios as to how you responded.

It all happened so fast, I didn't have time to do anything before all came to stop. I set my ATCC to +4 car length with AutoSteer.

 

[Aieukl378]

Why stopped the Tesla 2 car lengths away from the Toyota? (5 meters?)
That space is missing now for the car behind the tesla.
I think it would be safer when the braking ends in just couple of cm from the Toyota, giving the cars behind more room to stop as well in time.

Im happy with the no damage result but i don't know this is the most optimal way for all the traffic around.
As car behind a MX i proppely don't have the same braking performance, so it would be nice if they have also space to break, that actually can be created by tesla in the same time.

Making the traffic for everybody a safer place and not only for tesla. but for everybody .

"Rear End Force Field" coming out in 8.1. You heard it here first!

 

[FlatSix911]

I believe this outcome is completely due to v.8.0 upgrade, which analyses the radar response to "see" under and beyond the vehicle directly in front. So that would be why AEBS could be applied before the driver could even see the braking Toyota. Eat that, Germany! And call it whatever ...

Agree.

Logically, I would expect AEBS to kick in given the radar update with v8, presumably collision avoidance is applied to every tracked vehicle/object and this scenario seems a (relatively) trivial corollary programatically and computationally. I wonder if the MX stopped far short of the Toyota as it also tried to avoid the Grand Cherokee?

I like the idea of the Tesla stopping earlier than it needs (where applicable). I did this consistently on the M25 around London. The following driver should see the threat earlier because the distance is shorter and if reactions are too late to avoid collision, it provides the opportunity to maneuver appropriately. I really like the inferred idea that a Tesla could set its speed in a pile up situation to balance the impact forces on the front and rear of the car. That would surely reduce fatalities and injuries.

Agree.

AutoPilot = TACC, Autosteer, AEB, BLIS, Autopark etc.
Autosteer = Autosteer keeps the car in the current lane and engages Traffic-Aware Cruise Control so no
If you disable all "Autopilot" functions under drive assistance systems it won't work. If you disable Autosteer it should still work.

Not sure if this is correct ... I thought AEB was always on without AP being engaged

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Not sure if this is correct ... I thought AEB was always on without AP being engaged

I think they meant it would be disabled if they disabled everything within the driver assistance setting. If they disabled AEB/FCW/etc. Disabling AEB is really hard since you have to do it every time before a drive. It doesn't stay off.

This is absolutely the only reason I don't like the Autopilot name. The name for the hardware that's used for AEB/FCW/etc is the same name given to the mode when TACC+lane steering is enabled.

So that inevitably leads confusion when talking about it even if everyone knows what it is.

We already had AEB (part of the autopilot hardware) when Tesla announced "Your autopilot has arrived".

 

[hill]

Why stopped the Tesla 2 car lengths away from the Toyota? (5 meters?)
That space is missing now for the car behind the tesla.
I think it would be safer when the braking ends in just couple of cm from the Toyota, giving the cars behind more room to stop as well in time.....snip.....

no - stop fast - if the tailgater sees you late, you can always move up if he's skidding into you. give up that space and your just asking him to plow into you for sure - which guarantees you plow into the car in front of you
.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Would this work even if autopilot wasn't activated? I hope the media will report this (enough of the autopilot hate stories).

That's a good question.

I was in a similar situation with 7.0/TACC where every other car bolted into the medium because they were all going too fast, and following too closely. I had a similar following distance as the OP, and I took over as soon as I saw the car in front of me bolt over. I nailed the brake and slowed down, and hoped the guy behind me would bolt over. I'm not sure he/she needed to (or if they did) since the room I gave may have stopped the bolting over. I stopped close to the guy in front of me to give maximum room to avoid being rear-ended.

At the time I wished that Tesla would implement a "in one mile there is stopped traffic" warning in case I failed to notice it. I typically glance at waze on the center screen to watch for it, but sometimes I don't.

In 8.0 the behavior would have been different. In my case the TACC would have spotted the car two cars ahead doing rapid braking (I believe it even tags the car white if it detects this), and it would have started braking before the car ahead of me bolted over. Without TACC/AP on it would have likely spit out a FCW which would shave warned me. The AEB doesn't currently activate for a radar only event so that wouldn't have triggered.

Have any of you had a FCW when it seems like the car 2 cars ahead brakes rapidly? I have a feeling Firmware 8.0 does this, but I'd like to confirm this.