Automatic Lane change in EAP - does it check for other cars before changing?

[vkathuria]

I am a bit conservative in terms of trusting EAP and I only initiate lane change after checking that there is no car present in the lane next to me for a good distance front and behind (and no other car two lanes over is trying to get into that lane).

Do you trust EAP to do safety checks for you (is it even supposed to be able to do it yet?) or are you conservative like me?

 

[outie]

It does check but only when the sensors think there’s something around in close proximity. You can see what it senses in the IC. it doesn’t know there are approaching cars. I wouldn’t trust it at all as it’s proven to be quite unreliable. What you are doing currently is the correct way for lane changes.

However once they enable the full use of the cameras it’s supposed to work better (even changing lane for you automatically).

 

[HenryCH]

I check everything first too and then let it change, it means I dont have to worry about steering so I concentrate on other cars and dangerous scenarios. Plus I think it would do a good job at detecting cars in my blind spot.

 

[muleferg]

"What you are doing currently is the correct way for lane changes"

I agree..

 

[BigMskiman]

Agree with all. It's your 2nd opinion and while lane changing this way, more eyes are on it for added safety.

I've been doing it for 2 years and sometimes engage, carefully, while next to a vehicle just to test it fully, to ensure it passes before moving left.

 

[Need]

I've been doing it for 2 years and sometimes engage, carefully, while next to a vehicle just to test it fully, to ensure it passes before moving left.

Wow you are braver than the Tesla guy who did our test drive. He wanted to show us AP and auto lane change, and we don't feel comfortable doing it so he took over. So while demo'ing the lane change, I asked if he could do it while there is a car right next to us. He said "hmmmm... no I am not going to try that." LOL.

 

[AdamHLG]

One thing I'd like to see tweaked is initiation on the momentary lane change signal, whereby the vehicle will turn on blinker when driver momentarily initiates the signal, keep it on until the lane change, change the lane when able, and then turn off the blinker without additional driver action. I think the full engagement of the signal stalk until the click, and then the auto lane change, and then the user manually turning off the signal, is maybe not as refined a process as it could be. Just an observation.

 

[Wknapp0924]

One thing I'd like to see tweaked is initiation on the momentary lane change signal, whereby the vehicle will turn on blinker when driver momentarily initiates the signal, keep it on until the lane change, change the lane when able, and then turn off the blinker without additional driver action. I think the full engagement of the signal stalk until the click, and then the auto lane change, and then the user manually turning off the signal, is maybe not as refined a process as it could be. Just an observation.

That should be coming soon when they refresh. The Model 3 does that now. The turn signal doesn’t lock in at all. Took a bit to get used to, but now I prefer it to the Model S.

 

[BigMskiman]

Wow you are braver than the Tesla guy who did our test drive. He wanted to show us AP and auto lane change, and we don't feel comfortable doing it so he took over. So while demo'ing the lane change, I asked if he could do it while there is a car right next to us. He said "hmmmm... no I am not going to try that." LOL.

My typo error, I meant moving right after passing a slower vehicle in right lane. It works both ways, but I only use it when passing in left most lane to get back to slow right lane.

 

[Chocomonsters]

Always double check. If you trust AP and gets into accident, Tesla will shift the responsibility to you as AP is in "beta" phase. Currently I use AP mainly as more advanced TACC.

 

[TexasEV]

Always double check. If you trust AP and gets into accident, Tesla will shift the responsibility to you as AP is in "beta" phase. Currently I use AP mainly as more advanced TACC.

It’s your responsibility no matter what “phase” the software is in. You must still pay attention in autopilot and have hands on wheel. It’s not full self driv8ng.

 

[tangent]

I have tried auto lane change in a busy highway, my Model X switched back to its own lane after the other lane's driver sped up to refuse the spot. That being said, I could think of a few edge cases that I could rarely run into to test EAP's capability.

On the other hand, the current state of EAP is Level 2 out of Level 5, so think of it like an elementary school student, our grown ups are supposed to watch and train the "driver", not the other way around. That's the best we could all do responsibly to speed to the autonomous driving future.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Autosteer has been working great with this latest update, but don’t trust auto lane change. Auto lane change works well when no cars are around, but I’ve ran into problems using it when cars are coming up from behind. Please be very cautious when using auto lane change. I have initiated it with a car next to me and it acted like it was going to try to change lanes. Today it changed lanes with a car coming up from behind. It changed lanes but then made a sudden swerve towards the shoulder for no apparent reason. My current policy is the same as OP’s.