Would AP/FSD have prevented this crash??

[buckyswider]

Hi all! New user. I've had my sights set on a Model Y for a loooong time now! Just waiting for pandemic related financials to play out, and I still have some life left on my Mariner Hybrid.

But the wife has, shall we say, not been a proponent of the idea. But I may be able to make a solid case for it due to today's event, and may be able to talk her into getting a 3!

Now I know every situation is unique, and resolution not guaranteed, so I use my first post to ask:

"Might Autopilot / FSD have prevented this crash??"

The wife was driving along in her 2012 Lexus IS 250. A sudden violent sneeze knocked her glasses off. As she either grappled to try to catch them, or reached to retrieve them, the car veered off the road and struck a utility pole. (To be fair, the pole was less than a foot off the curb, so probably within 3 or 4 feet of the running lane).

So, if one of the autonomy features in Tesla technology would've prevented this, would it have required FSD or would the stock autopilot have sufficed?

thanks!

 

[diplomat33]

Hi all! New user. I've had my sights set on a Model Y for a loooong time now! Just waiting for pandemic related financials to play out, and I still have some life left on my Mariner Hybrid.

But the wife has, shall we say, not been a proponent of the idea. But I may be able to make a solid case for it due to today's event, and may be able to talk her into getting a 3!

Now I know every situation is unique, and resolution not guaranteed, so I use my first post to ask:

"Might Autopilot / FSD have prevented this crash??"

The wife was driving along in her 2012 Lexus IS 250. A sudden violent sneeze knocked her glasses off. As she either grappled to try to catch them, or reached to retrieve them, the car veered off the road and struck a utility pole. (To be fair, the pole was less than a foot off the curb, so probably within 3 or 4 feet of the running lane).

So, if one of the autonomy features in Tesla technology would've prevented this, would it have required FSD or would the stock autopilot have sufficed?

thanks!

I think basic AP would have prevented this accident. Basic AP has automatic lane keeping where the car will stay in the center of the lane on its own. So in a Tesla with basic AP, if your wife had turned on AP, the car would have stayed in the lane automatically and would not have veered off the road when she tried to catch her glasses.

EDIT: Basic AP lane keeping works best on roads with clear lane markings. Not sure what type of road it was. If it was a city street with no lane markings, then basic AP might not work well. But the upcoming FSD beta is designed to work well on city streets.

 

[DanCar]

Stock autopilot sometimes work on city streets, sometimes not. FSD would have helped.

 

[TresLA]

All Teslas now also have "Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance" and "Lane Departure Avoidance" (More Advanced Safety for Tesla Owners). They aren't exactly the same, but I believe the former could have prevented what you described, and doesn't even require AP enabled/turned on. Again, depends on other variables, disclaimer disclaimer yadda yadda

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

The wife was driving along in her 2012 Lexus IS 250. A sudden violent sneeze knocked her glasses off. As she either grappled to try to catch them, or reached to retrieve them, the car veered off the road and struck a utility pole. (To be fair, the pole was less than a foot off the curb, so probably within 3 or 4 feet of the running lane).

I hope your wife was ok!

I think it depends on what happened. If your wife inadvertently disturbed the steering wheel significantly in her efforts to catch or retrieve her glasses, LDA would not have prevented the accident. It is intended to let you crash into curbs if you so choose (meaning, if you willfully steer into them, it will let you, and it won't warn you).

ELDA also probably would have been overridden by such an input (harder to test!). It's possible it would have provided a warning and a correction even after a firm steering input, but it's hard to know.

AP, if enabled, would have been overridden by the steering input and it would have departed the lane just fine.

On the other hand:

If the car simply drifted off the road without steering input, the LDA feature, if it were turned on, would likely have prevented the departure. ELDA might also have prevented it (depends). AP of course would have (usually) kept her in her lane, without steering input.

All of the features would have been likely helpful in that specific case.

 

[buckyswider]

Thanks all! yeah, I'm not really sure if she yanked the wheel or just let it drift. I'm not sure she knows, but it's not yet the time to ask!

She is mostly OK, with a sore hand, and now she's getting a stiff back and neck. I guess that's to be expected.

 

[EVNow]

I've written about this earlier - but I think cars should not hit anything. They should automatically stop (as much as physics allows). This basic safety change will save a lot of trouble.

 

[Tam]

... The wife was driving along in her 2012 Lexus IS 250. A sudden violent sneeze knocked her glasses off. As she either grappled to try to catch them, or reached to retrieve them, the car veered off the road and struck a utility pole. (To be fair, the pole was less than a foot off the curb, so probably within 3 or 4 feet of the running lane)...

This scenario of taking off two hands from the steering wheel to catch the glasses should not result in an accident if either no-extra-charge plain regular included Autopilot or optional expensive FSD was on.

Notice that the accident could have been avoided only IF either Autopilot or FSD was activated. If either was not activated, then it's no help.

 

[Mardak]

Tesla's corrective steering can happen even without Autopilot active and even when the driver is steering. I've had some false positives when the car thinks I'm insufficiently steering for a roundabout, but Autopilot actually incorrectly predicted where the lines were heading.

Unclear if it would have helped in this case as it happens only if Autopilot is confident enough, but even off the highway, Autopilot is pretty good at detecting road edges, e.g., asphalt vs dirt without curbs.

Blog: More Advanced Safety for Tesla Owners
Support: Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability

• Lane Departure Avoidance: Applies corrective steering to keep your car in the intended lane
  
• Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance: Steers your car back into the driving lane when it detects that your car is departing its lane and there could be a collision

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Tesla's corrective steering can happen even without Autopilot active and even when the driver is steering.

Yes, it can. But it's tricky. If you make a decisive move with the steering wheel, the corrective steering usually takes a backseat. I don't know how ELDA, etc, would behave if it felt a collision were inevitable, in the presence of that decisive steering input (obviously that's difficult to test). But, Teslas still seem to run into things by the side of the road on occasion, so I suspect there are some gaps in the system.

I run all the lane keeping and collision avoidance options (LDA, ELDA, etc.) with HW3, and I certainly don't get the impression that the car will clean up all of my mistakes.

 

[MXLRplus]

Hi all! New user. I've had my sights set on a Model Y for a loooong time now! Just waiting for pandemic related financials to play out, and I still have some life left on my Mariner Hybrid.

But the wife has, shall we say, not been a proponent of the idea. But I may be able to make a solid case for it due to today's event, and may be able to talk her into getting a 3!

Now I know every situation is unique, and resolution not guaranteed, so I use my first post to ask:

"Might Autopilot / FSD have prevented this crash??"

The wife was driving along in her 2012 Lexus IS 250. A sudden violent sneeze knocked her glasses off. As she either grappled to try to catch them, or reached to retrieve them, the car veered off the road and struck a utility pole. (To be fair, the pole was less than a foot off the curb, so probably within 3 or 4 feet of the running lane).

So, if one of the autonomy features in Tesla technology would've prevented this, would it have required FSD or would the stock autopilot have sufficed?

thanks!

The Tesla system would have had a much better chance of avoiding the lane departure. Even with AutoPilot inactive, there are two systems that would mitigate the risk:

1. Lane Departure Avoidance set to Assist.
2. Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance set to ON.

Go to page 132: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_x_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf