Sorry for this newb post, I finally got access to FSD beta (11.3.6) today in my model 3. Been driving all over town with it today and am quite impressed with it. It does have some areas for improvement and some weird behaviors I noticed.
Was curious if others with more experience and or newer versions could answer these questions:
1. Why does it seem to turn on turn signals randomly for a few seconds when no lane change coming up?
It "sees" a lane or thinks it's in a different lane that it actually is (sometimes because it DOESN'T see a lane). Annoying for sure, and probably confusing to surrounding drivers. Yet another reason I avoid using it on some local roads, at least when there are other drivers nearby.
2. Is there a way to manually have it change lanes without disengaging? I’ve found it will get in the left to pass on highways and such and then just stay there and cause a headache for those behind me.
Yes, just put your blinker on. However, I don't think this is the real question you are asking. On the highway, if FSD has changed lanes by itself into the passing lane, and a car comes up from behind, it should get back into the slow lane on its own. If there is no car behind you, yes, it tends to stay in the left lane (I hate this behavior). Also, on 3 or more lane highways, it tends to stick to a middle lane regardless.
It can also be fairly slow to move back into the slow lane, which can be a problem if the car behind is coming up fast and/or is impatient and swerves to pass you on the right. I wish FSD was a lot faster in getting out of the passing lane.
On the other hand, if you manually request a lane change (using the blinker), it seems to assume you really want to be in the lane you put it in so it will just stay there. After several minutes it will start changing lanes on its own again.
This can get pretty annoying. Here's a problematic scenario:
The car moves into the passing lane to pass a slower car. Then it stays in the passing lane. You see a car coming up from behind fairly fast, and you know that if you don't move back to the right, they will, and pass you on the right. So you initiate a lane change (indicate with your blinker) and the car compiles, but now it thinks you want to stay in the slow lane, so you come up on the next slow car and the thing refuses to pass. So you again indicate to pass, which the car does, but now it thinks you really want to be in the passing lane. So it stays there, even after you pass and there is a car behind you. So you have to again request a lane change. This gets annoying pretty fast. For this reason I usually just give up and do all the lane change requests myself.
3. Does the “creeping for visibility” get better over time or in newer builds?
Hard to say, but I think this is a pure limitation of the camera angles. I would not expect much improvement here, but you never know.
4. Lastly, is there a good way to end it without it calling it a disengagement? I’ve found when I get to the parking lot or such of my destination I need to stop it since it just stops in random areas but when I cancel it it calls it a disengagement and ask why.
Yeah, it asks you why, but just ignore it. That prompt is really only for cases where you had to disengage for a safety or other serious reason and you want to give that feedback to the training team. If you just ignore that prompt, nothing gets sent and no harm done. Just disengage however you want (brake pedal push or push the stalk up) and don't worry about the prompt.
