Anyone else having trouble with Traffic-Aware Cruise Control?

[Frizzle Fry]

I'm currently driving across Canada in light winter conditions and have had to fight with cruise control a lot more than I'd like.

When you activate cruise control you are also engaging Autopilot even if you don't have the Full Self Driving package. And because Autopilot depends on the car's cameras, the wipers are necessarily under the car's control. So what happens if your windshield is smeared with gunk from other vehicles? What happens is your wipers go hyperactive and cannot be stopped or slowed unless you disengage cruise control (Autopilot). You can blast wiper fluid, sure, but that only goes so far when there's a stream of oncoming trucks and the smears are sticky. At every stop I've wiped down the forward cameras but it isn't long before the windshield is smeared again and the wipers invoke Apeshit Mode.

Secondly, there's the well documented phantom braking issue. In my case I'm not comfortable using cruise control if there's anyone behind me because the car may suddenly panic brake. So this is a second instance where I often feel compelled to disengage cruise control/Autopilot.

I love my Model Y, don't be me wrong, but driving 4400 km would be a lot less painful with properly functional (and safe!) cruise control. It's a little shameful that a car costing $80,000 CAD can't handle basic cruise control when other, cheaper vehicles do it without skipping a beat. A simple solution would be to offer old-fashioned dumb cruise control where you set an adjustable speed and the system doesn't depend on camera visibility and a capricious neural net to get the job done. Or, perhaps — just maybe — removing radar has had some predictable consequences?

Bottom line: If the car can't handle basic cruise control, how can anyone expect the vehicle to drive itself safely anytime soon?

 

[vapor trail]

Really irks me how Tesla insists on cameras for all scenarios and how the perfectly functional radar in my car isn’t being put to use.

Nice username, btw, which I can only assume is a Primus reference.

 

[Frizzle Fry]

Haha, yep, Primus — don’t tell anyone how old I am

I should add that I’ve never once used Autosteer (marked as beta, to be fair) because of my experience with phantom braking. I worry about a scenario where for example I’m threading the needle between two trucks when the car decides it’s the perfect moment to crank the wheel left or right.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Haha, yep, Primus — don’t tell anyone how old I am

I should add that I’ve never once used Autosteer (marked as beta, to be fair) because of my experience with phantom braking. I worry about a scenario where for example I’m threading the needle between two trucks when the car decides it’s the perfect moment to crank the wheel left or right.

Autosteer actually works pretty well in my experience, and if you encounter a situation that makes you nervous, you can always disable it. Never using it because you might get into a bad situation seems overly cautious.

 

[Frizzle Fry]

Thanks for the input — you might be right about being overly cautious. Do you find Autosteer provides relief for the arms similar to cruise control for the legs?

 

[buyleonard]

What happens is your wipers go hyperactive

Select the stalk button to do one wipe, which brings up the menu for the wipers, then set it to slow. You can change it, it just gets set to Auto when you engage Autopilot

 

[Frizzle Fry]

Hey, you’re right! Okay, so you can tame the wiper speed but just can’t turn them off while Autopilot is engaged. That’s definitely less bad. Thank you!

 

[OxBrew]

Autosteer can be great when its working. Right now, on software 36.6 in my 9/21 build Y LR, it's working really well. It was not always, up until recently, it was almost unusable on the highways I drive (Spokane to Seattle, I90, mostly).

I love it especially in strong crosswinds. Makes a white knuckle high cognitive load situation into a relaxed, normal, paying attention to everything else kind of drive.

We just drove Spokane to Vancouver BC and back, via Seattle, 2000mi/3200km (with extra drives around Howe Sound) a couple weeks ago, and had one single PB event, at a really weird mix of 4 kinds of patch on the road surface, with shadows. I was curious about it too, took a bit to figure it out. Not a fail, IMO.

I would gradually test out Auto Steer in increasingly challenging conditions, starting with clear day open road, and assess for yourself. You might be surprised.

It seems to really depend on the individual car, so I can't really say it's awesome, but it is for me. (even works really well on dark roads at night in a deluge).

 

[EVRider-FL]

Thanks for the input — you might be right about being overly cautious. Do you find Autosteer provides relief for the arms similar to cruise control for the legs?

I use Autosteer whenever I'm on the highway, but it's great for road trips. After having it, I would probably not do a long road trip without it.

 

[hugh_jassol]

I use Autosteer whenever I'm on the highway, but it's great for road trips. After having it, I would probably not do a long road trip without it.

Same. It's basically habit at this point. Get on the highway, follow Rule #2: Double Tap.

 

[Frizzle Fry]

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I’ve driven across Canada three times so far — this time it’s early winter. Our 2021 MY LR doesn’t have radar hardware, though I know we’re all using Tesla Vision now. Unfortunately, in my case, I’ve experienced a lot of phantom braking, though it hasn’t been evenly distributed. I don’t want to spark another thread about Phantom but my input is the worst of it has been along the Prairies when it was hot and you get those mirages on the road ahead from the heat that look like puddles. On bad days the car would hit the brakes very hard and this could happen several times an hour. Other days, there were only a few events for the whole day. Some days we just gave up and accepted having numb right cheeks on arrival

It was for this reason that I didn’t want to try Autosteer (let alone Full Self Driving) — what if it steers like it panic brakes? — but it seems reasonable to at least try it out.

Cruise control is a huge relief when you’re doing long hauls across the country, so my hope is we’ll eventually see the end of phantom and other issues like my wipers going bananas when the windshield is smeared. In the meantime, I wish we had dumb cruise control as an option.

 

[hugh_jassol]

It was for this reason that I didn’t want to try Autosteer (let alone Full Self Driving) — what if it steers like it panic brakes? — but it seems reasonable to at least try it out.

if you were ever following a Tesla that "OMG it SLAMMED on the brakes!!!1" it's unlikely you would notice much if you didn't see the brake lights. It just FEELS dramatic because it's unexpected at an unexpected time.

In any case, there's no reason to not give it a try. It does not "phantom steer" - the TACC/autosteer is 50% of the reason to have a Tesla

 

[OxBrew]

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I’ve driven across Canada three times so far — this time it’s early winter. Our 2021 MY LR doesn’t have radar hardware, though I know we’re all using Tesla Vision now. Unfortunately, in my case, I’ve experienced a lot of phantom braking, though it hasn’t been evenly distributed. I don’t want to spark another thread about Phantom but my input is the worst of it has been along the Prairies when it was hot and you get those mirages on the road ahead from the heat that look like puddles. On bad days the car would hit the brakes very hard and this could happen several times an hour. Other days, there were only a few events for the whole day. Some days we just gave up and accepted having numb right cheeks on arrival

It was for this reason that I didn’t want to try Autosteer (let alone Full Self Driving) — what if it steers like it panic brakes? — but it seems reasonable to at least try it out.

Cruise control is a huge relief when you’re doing long hauls across the country, so my hope is we’ll eventually see the end of phantom and other issues like my wipers going bananas when the windshield is smeared. In the meantime, I wish we had dumb cruise control as an option.

We had horrible PB with mirages up until 36.6. After that, it's been perfect, at least for us.

 

[jsmay311]

Forced wipers during winter was one of my reasons for opting out of FSD Beta last winter. Having my radar reactivated was a godsend.

Of course, then Tesla disabled radar on ALL cars a few months later.

I’m not looking forward to this winter. Or, for that matter, Elon remaining as CEO and continuing to make my car worse each year.

 

[Frizzle Fry]

I’d feel better if it was phantom donuts instead of braking we were discussing. Every morning I’d wake up to find the cabin overflowing with honey crullers and Boston creams, and I’d scold the car for going to the Tim Hortons drive-thru again. Bad Tesla!

But good to hear phantom steering is not a thing. And I’ll be interested to see if the mirage detection has been improved for our car — might have to wait till summer but I’ll watch for it.

 

[3inthehand]

The lack of basic cruise control is honestly the biggest flaw I have found with the car. The unpredictability of TACC requires far more alertness than basic CC where you can monitor your surroundings for when you might need to react.

 

[3inthehand]

Applying rain x to the windshield has helped a lot to keep the camera clean and make the wipers more effective though!

 

[Philliplowe]

I'm currently driving across Canada in light winter conditions and have had to fight with cruise control a lot more than I'd like.

When you activate cruise control you are also engaging Autopilot even if you don't have the Full Self Driving package. And because Autopilot depends on the car's cameras, the wipers are necessarily under the car's control. So what happens if your windshield is smeared with gunk from other vehicles? What happens is your wipers go hyperactive and cannot be stopped or slowed unless you disengage cruise control (Autopilot). You can blast wiper fluid, sure, but that only goes so far when there's a stream of oncoming trucks and the smears are sticky. At every stop I've wiped down the forward cameras but it isn't long before the windshield is smeared again and the wipers invoke Apeshit Mode.

Secondly, there's the well documented phantom braking issue. In my case I'm not comfortable using cruise control if there's anyone behind me because the car may suddenly panic brake. So this is a second instance where I often feel compelled to disengage cruise control/Autopilot.

I love my Model Y, don't be me wrong, but driving 4400 km would be a lot less painful with properly functional (and safe!) cruise control. It's a little shameful that a car costing $80,000 CAD can't handle basic cruise control when other, cheaper vehicles do it without skipping a beat. A simple solution would be to offer old-fashioned dumb cruise control where you set an adjustable speed and the system doesn't depend on camera visibility and a capricious neural net to get the job done. Or, perhaps — just maybe — removing radar has had some predictable consequences?

Bottom line: If the car can't handle basic cruise control, how can anyone expect the vehicle to drive itself safely anytime soon?

After v11 update, I am getting a lot of phantom breaking, emergency alert of taking control, and now cruise control is no longer available.

I am very frustrated, no matter what I did, soft reboot, disable/reenable sentry , nothing brings back cruise control.

A frustrated M3 owner

 

[Philliplowe]

After v11 update, I am getting a lot of phantom breaking, emergency alert of taking control, and now cruise control is no longer available.

I am very frustrated, no matter what I did, soft reboot, disable/reenable sentry , nothing brings back cruise control.

A frustrated M3 owner

Another new problem: passenger window failed to retract after open, it damaged the windows frame!!

 

[Mikecm1]

Really irks me how Tesla insists on cameras for all scenarios and how the perfectly functional radar in my car isn’t being put to use.

Nice username, btw, which I can only assume is a Primus reference.

I’ve yet to update to the version that disables radar, for that reason. How has your experience been with more recent updates? I’m fighting the urge to update and I’d be extremely unhappy if my cars functionality regresses. I’m confident tesla will figure out vision only for the AP stack, I just don’t think it’s on par yet.