My MY was radar, one of the last few with radar. My radar experience was pretty bad, lots of PBs. Once radar was disabled for vision only when I got invited to FSD Beta, things improved for me.
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Vision Only vs Radar - Observations from a 3 year owner
- Thread starter richa65
- Start date
I have an April 21 MY 7 seater, also one of the last with radar. I only have AP. While Radar enabled did have more phantom braking, it was also tremendously more aggressive at keeping distance with traffic aware cruise control and closing the gap when the lead car sped up or moved over a lane.
About 3~5 months ago, it started increasing gaps and being less "sporty" in AP and when TACC was enabled. But it still performed reasonably well in inclement weather without "low visibility" speed limiting warnings.
Seeing as how things are going, I'd rather pay $10k to re-enable radar for inclement weather driving vs trusting FSD Beta to be better than my car was with radar. Maybe then, auto wipers wouldn't be required and I wouldn't have to constantly turn off auto-piss-off-everyone-around-me headlights.
It's important to remember that speed and acceleration profiles change with updates. It used to be very lazy acceleration, then one update had it hauling butt, then another update slowed it back down but gave us a big jump followed by more gentle acceleration. Many people call it nauseating.
It was probably coincidental that you had the new acceleration profile around the time of radar removal.
My GPS is good.
I am surprised you are using 7. I use 3 or 4 most times. In stop and go traffic I use 1 or 2. They took 1 away with radar though. Makes me wonder why.
I use 7 because traffic in SoCal can go from 80MPH to 0MPH really fast for no reason, and I want a little cushion. When traffic is stopped, a distance of 7 only leaves about 1/2 to 2/3 of a car length between me and the other car.
Timeline:
Apr 2021 to May 2022, great acceleration. Some phantom breaking, but not terrible. AP worked in near whiteout conditions until the front bumper had 3" of snow that blocked the radar.
Jun~Sep I noticed an uptick in having to nanny the acceleration to keep a 1 to 2 gap I was used to. 40 mile commute daily both ways, very noticeable.
Late Sep updated to version that disabled radar, but enabled stop light chime. Speed/Gap nannying very similar to previous months.
Current... nannying is constant... steering nags are constant... visibility speed limiting in light Washington rain.
I think the numbers don't translate to space when when stopped. The car always pulls up the same distance at lights and in traffic. It's when moving the distance is different.
I am in NY. The highway speeds thing you are describing is very common here. The car has always handled that well though.
Perhaps.
But that can only be true if every single older radar based owners complain on the latest vision based system. This is not the case.
Also, if most people are really happy with the latest vision based system, either our standard is really low, or just may be, some subpar performing system may require some tuning of some sort, especially if they all use the same hardware and software.
Not an expert here, just stating what appears to be obvious from really high altitude view.
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May be our tolerance level for keeping the exact same distance to the car in front is different? I don't feel I need to nanny the acceleration on highways. Cars behind me don't seem to be annoyed. Perhaps radar based system does slightly better job keeping the distance more consistent. I'm happier with radar-less MY than radar enabled but 6 year old X3. I admit this is probably another apples to oranges.
Steering nags are especially not an issue. This is after driving 3000km within 3 weeks. How do you hold your steering wheel?
We had many near invisible rainy days. It warns that visibility is poor and FSD won't work, but AP is still solid. To this date, I've yet to have AP give up on me on a rainy day nor acting bad due to visibility issues.
My wife is still impressed with AP/FSD (latter, mostly on how it is progressing) and she saw me drive for many many years.
Dickie_L_J_O
Member
As the autumn fog rolls in, I must say Vision is frustrating me.
Before, having radar was a real safety aid, as it could see further through fog than the human eye. Vision seems to see less, but that's not the annoying part;
Whilst I understand that there has to be a limit and Vision will reduce its speed if it feels uncomfortable. What I don't understand is why it only does this for a few seconds, and then decides it can see again and aggressively accelerates up to the set speed. But then only for a few seconds until it decides it can't see, so aggressively regenerates. Few seconds more; aggressive acceleration, few more; aggressive regen.
I'm not one to jump on the 'safety issue' band wagon, however this type of driving in fog on a motorway hardly makes me feel secure from following traffic.
Before, having radar was a real safety aid, as it could see further through fog than the human eye. Vision seems to see less, but that's not the annoying part;
Whilst I understand that there has to be a limit and Vision will reduce its speed if it feels uncomfortable. What I don't understand is why it only does this for a few seconds, and then decides it can see again and aggressively accelerates up to the set speed. But then only for a few seconds until it decides it can't see, so aggressively regenerates. Few seconds more; aggressive acceleration, few more; aggressive regen.
I'm not one to jump on the 'safety issue' band wagon, however this type of driving in fog on a motorway hardly makes me feel secure from following traffic.
I've wondered that as well. Cook has a youtube FSDb video test in a torrential rainstorm and FSDb is passing all other cars on a busy stretch of roadway. It looked unsafe to me. There's more than a few safety issues in FSDb but of course not primarily a radar/vision thing.
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