# Autopilot going haywire as of Saturday, 3/2...anyone else?



## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Starting another thread as I saw several people in the software thread were complaining about Autopilot reacting badly after the 2019.5.4 update. I’m still running 2028.50.6, but as of this Saturday, Autopilot has taken a HUGE step backwards. I drive with Autopilot at least 60 miles a day so I have a very good feel for how it operates and if it’s not working normally. 

Saturday evening I used it on the highway going to dinner. Traffic was very light and I wasn’t making lane changes, but I noticed that the car was not centered in the lane. It was ping-ponging. I tried activating NOA, but that didn’t change anything. I didn’t really use AP on Sunday. 

Yesterday and today going to and from work have been terrible. It is extremely reluctant to make even the safest lane change. I’m talking like no one coming behind me, and no cars in the lane in front. It will either sit there thinking, or make 3-5 feints into the other lane. Sometimes small, sometimes it goes almost all the way over before jinking back. 

I’m also experiencing phantom braking. I haven’t had real, hard phantom braking since I first got the car. Sometimes slowing, but never the slam-you-into-the-seatbelt kind, which has happened about 3 times over the last two days. 

Finally, following distance is all kinds of long, to the point where I’m set to 75 and the car is slowing down to 60-ish with like 10 car lengths in front of me. 

Today on the way home I submitted several bug reports but forgot to save the dash cams. I will if it keeps up tomorrow. 

This is bad. EAP is almost unusable. Anyone else feel like it took a major hit recently? I checked my router and the car did two big downloads the previous weekend, not this last one. 

Odd.


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## Frully (Aug 30, 2018)

Mine has been 'worse than previous' but it is dead of winter here and there are no lane lines to speak of - the salt used on the roads paints the asphalt the same white as the lines getting rid of visual contrast. I don't blame the car for this behaviour in difficult conditions.

when the lines are good, I'm good.


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## 299792458 (Dec 25, 2017)

I'm still on 2018.50.6, but it seems to me that this version introduced ping ponging for me. I've done quite a bit of interstate autopilot driving recently so it sticks out as slightly annoying.


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## JD-M3 (Aug 16, 2018)

I've noticed that lane changes seem a bit more conservative, but not to the extent that you described.

On thing that I have noticed since the update is that in stop and go traffic sometimes when the car in front of me starts driving, my car will just sit there. I wait and wait and wait but it doesn't move even as the car in front drives away, sometimes to the extent that the car behind me starts honking and I have to manually press the gas to get it to start moving.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Noticed again tonight that when I got home, front parking sensors weren't working. No alerts. Wonder if the two are related?

https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/front-parking-disappeared.11602/


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## Frully (Aug 30, 2018)

JD-M3 said:


> ...to the extent that the car behind me starts honking and I have to manually press the gas to get it to start moving.


Sometimes in stop/go the car will put itself into brake (H)old mode. (not saying this is happening in this case, just an option). You must manually start the car out of hold mode even on autopilot iirc.


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## JD-M3 (Aug 16, 2018)

Frully said:


> Sometimes in stop/go the car will put itself into brake (H)old mode. (not saying this is happening in this case, just an option). You must manually start the car out of hold mode even on autopilot iirc.


Thanks for the input, didn't even think of this. 
Not sure if this is what's happening or not. I don't recall seeing it on hold when this happens but wasn't specifically looking either. I'll have to take a closer look next time this happens. Either way, I would say this is a bug as there's no reason why it should be happening while on autopilot. This also just started with the most recent update.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

JD-M3 said:


> Thanks for the input, didn't even think of this.
> Not sure if this is what's happening or not. I don't recall seeing it on hold when this happens but wasn't specifically looking either. I'll have to take a closer look next time this happens. Either way, I would say this is a bug as there's no reason why it should be happening while on autopilot. This also just started with the most recent update.


This happens often in stopped traffic for various reasons. Here's that section from the manual.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

I don't get it. This morning, Autopilot was perfect, even in heavy traffic. Yet my parking assist was still not working this morning. I submitted a bug report on that and sent a service request to Tesla. Next appointment is a week from Friday but suspect they will redirect to a mobile tech or try to solve online. 

This is bizarre.


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## MJJ (Aug 7, 2016)

I've been following the chatter about the "evolution" of AP over the last few releases, and I want to chime in: I really haven't noticed ANY significant difference. Which, now that I think about it, is something in and of itself to complain about.

I drive 500 miles/week as a commuter, and another 1000 miles a month for other stuff, most of it on the highway, so we get lots of quality time with AP. And traveling the same route day after day I have a good basis for comparison.

I've already complained on the forum about the one spot on Hwy 99 where the car will balk horribly ("Phantom Braking" I believe is the term). This corresponds to a strange and unnecessary message that I need to change lanes to stay on route. I suspect a map issue, and she thinks there's an offramp. No change over releases.

Behavior when passing onramps (in the slow lane) is consistently annoying. She hunts and wanders and just can't seem to decide where in the lane to be. It's so violent that I've had trucks swerve to avoid that crazy erratic driver (me). The really painful part is that there is no such activity when passing an offramp. Smooth sailing there.

This same problem manifests when one lane widens to two. Wild swerving ensues. 

I do think I've noticed a slight improvement in the hunting problem when two lanes converge.

With 5.4, changing lanes has worsened. I think the manual says that when changing lanes, the car will accelerate. Mine has started to DEcelerate briefly when changing lanes. This is extremely hazardous as the driver behind me is generally anticipating my moving over, and has started to close up the distance. That's no time to be brake checking someone.

In general, I think the greatest hazard we face is getting rear ended while on AP. We already bunch people up behind us because the car is so conservative. I notice that the sensors do a very poor job of monitoring overtaking traffic. Lane changes to the faster lane are suggested, just as faster cars are overtaking. Lane changes to the slower lane occur without leaving enough room, not to mention adding the aforementioned brake check moment. I can't see FSD working without much better rear-facing sensors.

When I first got the car, I used AP with my foot covering the brake. Now, I feel like I have to cover the accelerator, and use it when passing or in other cases where the car is not maintaining the flow of traffic.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

I haven't used TACC or EAP sinc last week, but used it for this morning and evening's commute, and boy, does it suck. Something has definitely happened. The follow distance is my main complaint - it can't seem to decide on a distance, but is erring on the way too far away end. In relatively slow stop and go traffic, I would end up some 7-8 car lengths behind the car in front, enough so that I would pull up manually (footally?). And had my first instance of the car going into hold and needing to be kicked to get it going. It used to work tons better - I use TACC all the time, and the difference was really obvious. I filed 3 bug reports during the drive - it was making me crazy!


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## MJJ (Aug 7, 2016)

I do think it would be helpful to get more information... from the update notes, something like “these updates may require a period of readjustment for the AI, please be patient” for example (if true). It’s difficult enough to learn a new way of interacting with the vehicle when it’s new to you, but to have to re-learn at every update is fatiguing.

I would also like more information on the screen, showing the source of concerns the car may be having. If she’s going to balk at 70 mph, and it’s because there’s a big scary truck right there, the display should flash the truck red briefly. Or maybe it’s not the truck, who would know?


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