I had this a couple of times before and after AP. One time I was approaching a car stopped at a traffic light and AP was slowing down as it should, but suddenly it simply lost the lock on the car ahead and switched into acceleration mode. I had an ample space to brake (I'm using "6" for my distance setting) so there were no problems.
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WARNING: I rear-ended someone today while using Auto Pilot in my brand new P90D!
- Thread starter sandstruck
- Start date
Perhaps he rested his foot on the brake just enough to disable the autopilot, not realizing it was off as he approached the slowing traffic!
thegruf
Active Member
@OP - you say you recently upgraded from 7.0 -> 7.1
Do you consider that upgrade has altered the behaviour of TACC/AP in a way that could have contributed to this?
I have had a couple of unpleasant instances with 7.1 with it running out of lane on a curve, which it most certainly did not do on the same curves on 7.0.
I am considerably less confident in it as a result.
That said the observations re the emergency braking seem the most valid here.
Do you consider that upgrade has altered the behaviour of TACC/AP in a way that could have contributed to this?
I have had a couple of unpleasant instances with 7.1 with it running out of lane on a curve, which it most certainly did not do on the same curves on 7.0.
I am considerably less confident in it as a result.
That said the observations re the emergency braking seem the most valid here.
Isn't this forum just the place to air a potential problem? The accident was my fault and I'm not looking for any sympathy, and I will be happy to share Tesla's conclusions from my log. If I can help another stupid, irresponsible driver like myself to avoid a collision, I've done a good turn.
Electricfan
Active Member
Thanks so much for posting. Took guts, knowing you would take heat - members tend to lean toward Tesla here, as you might expect.
Elon said recently that the only AP accidents he knew of were where people thought AP was on but it wasn't. I hope this isn't what happened to you. But its easy to touch the stalk and dis-engage AP and not know it. Or double-pull the stalk and not know that AP didn't engage. Lots of posts on that on the forum.
Please keep us up to date concerning what they find in your logs.
My feeling, based on about 100 miles of driving on AP 7.1, is that the car isn't slowing down as soon as 7.0 did when it comes up to slow traffic. But maybe that's my imagination - I haven't driven that much with 7.1 yet.
On 7.0, I never felt comfortable with less than "7" on the following distance. I drive in rush hour Houston traffic daily, although I travel at times when its lighter than maximum (5:30am in, 3:30pm out).
Only he can truly answer that if he would have crashed if certain factors were altered. I'm not arguing legal liability. My interpretation of the wording leads me to believe that there was a reasonable distance. And I disagree. Autopilot (and AEB) does make a difference. It makes a difference because many drivers will have reasonable assumptions with how the car will perform in a certain scenario. The thing being missed is that reasonable assumptions change the way you operate your vehicle. If there weren't reasonable assumptions then you would brake and disable autopilot every time you saw brake lights in the distance. If someone is expecting AP to slow down as it should in an ideal use case then is relevant. Period. The wording of OPs statement paints the picture of an ideal use case with reasonable spacing between the cars. In this case the wording suggests there was an anomaly in the amount of braking force used when a car was slowing down at a "gradual" pace.
This is completely unnecessary. Your cynical comment questioning the driver's competency to operate a vehicle doesn't benefit him.
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DDotJ
Member
Yep, I've only had luck with Forward Collision Warning but oddly enough I haven't had much luck with Side Collision Warning/avoidance. Had a woman veer into my lane from the left side but slightly front of my car (her quarter panel was at my A pillar) without looking at her blind spots. It should have been in view for the forward camera and the side ultrasonics/radar but my car never beeped once. I saw her and quickly swerved to avoid impact, but it was odd that my car didn't do anything.
I don't fully trust AP, and nobody really should either. Just remain vigilant and alert while driving and if you get a bad feeling about something AP is doing, promptly disconnect AP and resume manual control. But in OPs case, it looks like there wasn't much that he could have done. At least it's not major damage, mainly just the relatively cheap plastic nosecone.
I don't fully trust AP, and nobody really should either. Just remain vigilant and alert while driving and if you get a bad feeling about something AP is doing, promptly disconnect AP and resume manual control. But in OPs case, it looks like there wasn't much that he could have done. At least it's not major damage, mainly just the relatively cheap plastic nosecone.
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I am sorry to read your report, and that you did not manually override the AP by placing your foot on the brake.
I have only spent a few hours driving with AP (not in my "classic" S) but I have always set the TACC following distance to 6 or 7 because I prefer to allow a greater amount of distance between my car and those in front of me, I think it's safer. I don't care if other cars cut in front of me and want to tailgate the car in front of them. That is their foolish decision, and I won't allow their poor judgement to dictate how I drive. I drop back. And I have found that with TACC set at 6 or 7 it will drop back when a car cuts in front of me. That makes sense.
Deliberately keeping a two car following distance in front of you when going at highway/freeway speeds is unsafe driving.
Thanks Electrifan. I just spoke with a nice gentleman at Tesla who said it will take about 24 hours for the engineers to analyze the logs and they should be able to tell me exactly what happened.
jeffro01
Active Member
That is entirely your opinion. I run TACC\AP at 2 car lengths all the time unless the pavement is wet then I change it to 4 and to date, I have not had an issue with those distances.
Jeff
Agree with some of the other posts above. A follow setting of 1 or 2 will lead to uncomfortably close calls (or accidents) at this point. Use a follow setting of 3 or 4 and you'll find that autopilot does a pretty good job of responding to suddenly stopped traffic.
Soolim
Member
This is consistent with the driving style I see in California when I visit/vacation.
In WA, OR, ID, UT, AZ, NV, and other states, my setting is 4. In California, when I use 4 the "cutoff rate" goes up dramatically. I can see why you use 2 in your neck of the woods.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
So in OR/WA I also usually drive with '4'. Except in rush hour on Hwy 26. Too many California - style drivers appear to work out at Intel / Nike... you get people push in in front of you every minute on 4...
thegruf
Active Member
setting of 2 or 3 etc is not distance but is time. The faster you are travelling the greater the distance for a set value.
Personally I would like a more adaptive setting that maybe is 2 in towns (to prevent traffic cutting in) and 3-4 on the highway.
Maybe the stalk could go 2 2+ 3 3+ 4 etc
Personally I would like a more adaptive setting that maybe is 2 in towns (to prevent traffic cutting in) and 3-4 on the highway.
Maybe the stalk could go 2 2+ 3 3+ 4 etc
GasKilla
No Gas Know Peace
So a fairly low speed crash? Still driving the car?
I'm sure like everyone else I'd to know what (if anything) Tesla reports about the issue.
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