Featured Tesla Autopilot recall probed by safety regulator following new crashes

Yes, 98 km drive, all regional roads and city driving. From my cottage to my in-laws. No intervention. A few km of a regional road had zero line marking, no cones, nothing. Not sure what was that about, but the car had zero issues staying within its invisible lane. Near their place, there is an intersection with a flashing green light. I wasn't sure how it would handle it as there were no cars in my direction, cars were stopped in the opposite direction and the light was already flashing before we reached the intersection. It took the turn just like if it was a green arrow (as it should), no hesitation, perfect corner.

It's after that ride that I decided to subscribe to FSD.

Next month, we're going to Toronto (500 km away) on 50-50 regional roads and highways with a few cities in between the regional roads. Can't wait to see how it will behave. I usually only drive in TACC on those regional roads since AP is only 10 km/h over and that's too slow for the speed people are going on those roads (80 km/h speed limit). Most drives at 95 to 100 km/h. Police here don't bother at up to 20 over.

 

Yeah, for Ford, a slight curve of the road is enough to require the driver's hand to be on the wheel as Munro found out in his test drive.

Ford rep said "sharp curve" but by looking at the nav and the screen, that's not what I would consider a sharp curve at all, especially on a highway.

 

Followed my son's Y the other day in the rain around 6PM and was struck that his brake light didn't come on while regen'ing and only when he applied the brakes hard. Could that have contributed?

 

That's not normal. They use deceleration force to know when to turn on the brake light. Mine come on similarly to a good downshift in a manual transmission. If I gradually decelerate, as if you're letting the gas go on a manual, it doesn't come on.

 

I don't know as I was focused on the minimart and bathroom.

Bob Wilson

 

What does that mean in this context? When I downshift, I match the engine speed to the RPMs for the gear I'm going to. When I do it right, you can barely tell that I've changed gears.

During the oil embargo back in the 1970s gas was scarce and we were urged to make smooth shifts without engaging the brake pedal. The down side was that it was easy to get rear ended. Come to think of it... my last accident (35 years ago) happened when the guy ahead of me accelerated from a stop sign and then coasted to a stop after clearing the intersection. I accelerated through that same intersection. I had no indication that his car was stopped when I rear-ended him. His bumper wiped out my pop up headlights and the hood. It was my fault that I hit him.

If the model Y is depending on a deceleration sensor to apply the brakes, then I'm glad that my car uses sonar and radar to detect when the in my path changes speed. Sylvaing, does his model Y have sonar, radar and cameras installed to notify nearby cars that they have brake lights activated based on the speed that the car is braking via regeneration?

 

By good downshift, I mean hard one. One that you feel the car decelerate.

Not sure what you meant by the last paragraph. To my knowledge, the deceleration sensor is only used to turn the brake light once a certain deceleration force is reached. It has nothing to do with sonar (I think you mean ultra sonic sensor here, USS?) and cameras.

 

In the third paragraph I was mentioning the array of sensors that the Prius has handy to detect cars that slow down unexpectedly in my path. Mine locates those cars using includes radar and ultrasonic sensors.

Honestly, I have not checked into what tech falls into the range of ultrasonic and what would be considered sonar. Either way, if you slow from a high speed to a normal speed without triggering the brakes, that bodes ill for those who expect to see a brake light.

 

That is probably the biggest red flag to me.
I’d love to see more details, but the original Yahoo article seems biased.

The ‘fix’ as I understand it, was to increase the frequency of alerts.
I have seen no option to change the frequency up or down.
I also see no option to ‘opt in’ to this higher frequency.

I do have to opt in to FSD. I believe I also had to opt in when I turned on Autopilot.

I have yet to see any data from the NHTSA on accident rates with and without Autopilot or FSD.
Tesla has released this, but seeing it from a 3rd party would be welcome.

 

Sure, use the gas pedal to match engine speed during the shift so little is felt, though the increased engine RPM may be very audible.

The hard deceleration isn't felt until you release the gas pedal after the smooth shift is completed.

 

That's why I originally said something is wrong because the brake light should have turned on with Regen braking if the deceleration is more than just the equivalent of a manual transmission letting go of the gas pedal.

Tesla will not just stop for car stopping in front of you. This guy was almost t-boned by a car running a red light but his car applied hard brake to avoid it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModel3/s/wzjtpLovt2

 

To clear up the confusion...I actually tested both my Model 3 and my Chevy Bolt. They both work the same way...some kind of deceleration rate triggers the brake lights to come on. I tested this by driving down an empty street at ~35 mph with a person standing at the side of the road. When I reached the person I quickly took my foot off the pedal and the brake lights were observed to immediately come on. Same for both cars. I then tried at slower speeds (10-15 mph) and no lights came on, thus a much lower rate of deceleration.

Mike

 

Not that this has anything to do with this thread, but I just found out that the roof on a Model 3 is glass, not metal. I found this to be very odd. Anyhow, I just had to say that because it surprised me.

 

that is an odd post, and surprising that you just learned this. it's not really a glass roof though, just a large skylight as many mfg's are doing. nothing really unique or surprising.

 

and of course, this will kick off the 'i love sunroofs, i hate sunroofs' debate

 

My experience was on a rainy night with lights on on both of our cars. I was following well behind the year old Y. I don't have his acceleration. He started to slow for a stop light going down a slight incline. I was back far enough that I could take in the stop light changing and have his car in my vision too. As he lifted his foot, no brake lights come on. He was slowing. Then after perhaps 2 seconds his brake light came on and he slowed more drastically to a stop. I noticed it.

Don't ask me why but I notice brake lights and at least once a week I pull up next to someone and tell them one (sometimes even two) of theirs aren't working. State inspection required one a year and who ever looks at their own car's rear end illumination.

 

... or sometimes even all three not working. (Or 5, for some models?)

We habitually look back at night, while parked or stopped, to make sure we see some illumination reflecting back. It won't reliably catch a single light out, but will catch an all-lights-out condition, both for tail and for brake lights. This works for verifying turn signals too, rear and front.

An actual two-person all-lights check is much less frequent, but still done. Spouse's daily driver is so old that a few lamps have been replaced simply because they darkened too much, as filament evaporation heavily coated the inside of the bulb.

I'm also always very aware of headlight patterns at night, finding any lamp out very jarring to my vision. One carpool partner was not. I had to alert her three times before she asked her partner to get it fixed.

 

And the older version of the Model 3 roof took an orange tint when rained over...

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/587d1a17-b485-4152-b12d-bae2fc19f845-jpeg.329909/?id=2990175

 

I loved that!
It was like a color changing roof wrap for no additional cost

 

They've been using that imbeded film that reflects colors when wet ever since 2016.
.